GIFT OF 
 
 Leslie Van Ness -Denrnan 
 
THE 
 
 YOUNG MALEFACTOR 
 
 A STUDY IN JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 ITS CAUSES AND TREATMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS TRAVIS, PH.D. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 THE HONORABLE BEN B. LINDSEY 
 
 JUDGE OF THE DENVER JUVENILE COURT 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
I<? HJ, d^Wi* 
 
 BY i*ri^iASV*CROWHS,i.<k Co. 
 
 GIFT OP 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 FAGB 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY JUDGE BEN B. LINDSEY . . ix 
 PREFACE xxiii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR IN THE 
 INSTITUTION AND AT HOME. 
 
 A: IN THE INSTITUTION: Definitions Elmira and 
 the physical condition of its inmates Caldwell, 
 Rahway, and the House of Refuge inmates 
 Hrdlicka and New York Juvenile Asylum The 
 physical inferiority of the juvenile The rarity 
 of the natural criminal The Italian theory And 
 American data The ten-year-old mother The 
 intellect of the young malefactor Morality and 
 culture Insane morality Sex immorality in a 
 child Illiteracy The offences of the juvenile 
 Instruction in prostitution Data of prostitution 
 A child murderer Recapitulation ...... 1 
 
 B: AT HOME : Economic status of the home The 
 garbage eater Poverty and prostitution The 
 wages of harlotry The harlot mother The slum 
 and its victims Immoral and cruel parents The 
 school of the malefactor The borderlander's home 
 Summary . 33 
 
 M1G38S4 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHILD BORN CENTURIES TOO 
 LATE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A: THE CLAIM OF THE ITALIAN SCHOOL: History 
 of the stigmata theory, in Buddhism, Confucianism, 
 Arabia, Hebrew literature, Greek sources, Later 
 Greek schools, Socrates to Darwin, Lombroso 
 Summary of the Italian claim The physical appear- 
 ance of the born criminal The test, on old offen- 
 ders, on the juvenile The physical appearance 
 of insanity Particular anomalies Stigmata are 
 not confined to the criminal 53 
 
 B: Is THE CRIMINAL INSANE? Definitions The \ 
 subtlety of the insane taint Example of Like 
 sources of crime and insanity Premeditation and 
 plot Physical and moral insensibility The pro- 
 fessional criminal's view-point The criminal and 
 the savage The stranglers Barbarism and in- 
 fancy Likeness and identity The child born 
 centuries too late 84 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE OCTOPUS WHOSE ARMS REACH 
 EVERYWHERE. 
 
 The complexity of causation Heredity, will, and 
 environment 100 
 
 Physical causes Geography The moonshiner 
 Feuds Climate Temperature 103 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Social causes Social progress Social machinery 
 
 The waste product in men Defective correc- 
 tional institutions The manufacture of criminals 
 
 Police courts Jails breeders of crime Prisons 
 in Russia, Spain, Morocco, France, Italy, Belgium, 
 America Petitioning for a berth in prison In 
 the dungeon Definite terms The poorhouse child 
 
 The beggarman Reformatories Politics 
 The task of the school Immigration Absorption 
 
 or extinction 106 
 
 Economic causes Crises Competition The Chi- 
 cago attempt Trades unions and the beggar 
 Brawn Centralization The crime syndicate 
 Poverty's legacy Child labor Tramps .... 126 
 
 Dispositional causes Lawlessness Idleness 
 The gang Immaturity Abnormal disposition 
 Subtle insanity The born criminal 140 
 
 Physiological causes Puberty, Sex, Youth, Ab- 
 normal physiology, The deformed, Disease, Hypno- 
 tism, Somnambulism, Bad heredity 147 
 
 Individual causes Intoxicants, Tobacco, Sex, Associ- 
 ates, Literature, Theatres, Loafers, and their 
 replies 154 
 
 Family causes The deficient home, The non or semi- 
 functionary home, The borderlander Emphasized 
 idiosyncrasies Too many children The vicious 
 home Conclusions 167 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 
 
 PAGI 
 
 TREATMENT : Historical treatment of the young offen- 
 der Continental conditions Death for five cents 
 worth of paint The Russian girl murderer The 
 modern period The three brothers Upward 
 steps Types of institutions The passing of 
 the institution idea Institutionalization and brand- 
 ing The search for a natural institution The 
 lost The sphere of the institution Making chil- 
 dren over Civic betterment The rise of the 
 foster home Australian methods British plans 
 German solutions The advantages and defects 
 of the foster home The legal evolution The 
 State father The juvenile court What is to be 
 done 184 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 233 
 
 INDEX 237 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 PHOTOS AND SKETCHES AMONG THE INSANE AND UN- 
 DER-DEVELOPED. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY THE HONORABLE BEN B. LINDSEY 
 
 THE growth of the juvenile or children's courts, 
 in the last seven years, not only emphasizes the 
 importance of the subject of juvenile delinquency, 
 but the necessity for a better understanding con- 
 cerning it. The unquestioned increase in crime in 
 this country is also one of the powerful facts com- 
 manding for this subject the attention it deserves. 
 It was therefore with the greatest interest that I 
 read the manuscript for the present book. In it 
 Dr. Travis has shown exceptional qualifications to 
 deal with the subject. 
 
 I have frequently said that there should be some 
 kind of course provided in some of the schools for 
 the training of those who deal with delinquent and 
 dependent children, since an army of such workers 
 is growing up in this country, to keep pace with 
 the probation system which has greatly developed' 
 through the juvenile court. There is nothing more 
 important, therefore, than proper literature dealing 
 with the subject. Heretofore most of this litera- 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ture has been found only in reports, pamphlets, and 
 occasional addresses ; and while there are one or 
 two publications more elaborate, such as that of 
 Morrison, they are now out of date and not well 
 suited to the real, practical needs of present-day 
 problems. 
 
 Juvenile delinquency pertains to all children, 
 for all children are delinquent at some time or 
 other. Indeed, in present day definitions, delin- 
 quency may be better described as a state, condi- 
 tion, or environment into which the child enters, 
 and which if continued may result in such acts or 
 habits in the child as eventually to make of it a 
 criminal. Since at least ninety-five per cent of 
 children who are dealt with as delinquents are no 
 different from the average child but are such 
 because their environment is different, to deal with 
 the subject of delinquency we must necessarily deal 
 with a great many other subjects which pertain to 
 the causes of delinquency. Indeed, in my own 
 experience I can not escape being led into every 
 social, economic, political, and educational condi- 
 tion that concerns the state, which only emphasizes 
 the truth that the child is the state and the state 
 is the child. If the causes of delinquency are ever 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 to be fully explained and understood, then we must 
 add so many other subjects which are responsible 
 for its strength or weakness, that it is easy to see 
 why the domain into which we are led is almost 
 limitless. 
 
 This splendid volume by Dr. Travis shows that 
 its author is keenly alive to this fact. It is a sub- 
 ject easily involved in profusion unless a limit be 
 placed somewhere, and the most important subjects 
 pertaining to delinquency be included in a volume 
 neither too heavy and scientific for the average 
 reader nor so hastily arranged as not to be entitled 
 to the attention or be of value to the specialist. 
 Dr. Travis has succeeded in producing an admir- 
 able work that is of value to all and at once con- 
 cise, scholarly, practical, and instructive. We have 
 been very much in need of an intelligent classifica- 
 tion and arrangement under which we could more 
 readily identify and know how to deal more directly 
 with the individual offender. Indeed, there is a 
 dearth of practical and useful literature upon the 
 subject. For this reason after reading the excellent 
 papers embodied in this volume, I rejoice to wel- 
 come it with enthusiasm. 
 
 We get nowhere at all if our idea of delinquents 
 
xii INTB OD UCTIO N. 
 
 or criminals comes from the mere definition of these 
 terms in statutes, because, if we stop there, we are 
 all delinquents and criminals at some period. If 
 a hundred average school boys could, under the 
 same condition, be subjected to precisely the same 
 temptation faced by the boy who took the pocket- 
 book from his neighbor's kitchen when he believed 
 no one saw his act and that he would not be 
 detected, only God knows how many out of the 
 hundred would not have acted in precisely the same 
 way. It depends largely upon how strong and how 
 weak they were, and this in turn might depend 
 upon such multifarious causes that the same reason 
 would not necessarily account in any two cases for 
 the same act, even though half of these boys suc- 
 cumbed to the temptation. And yet at bottom it 
 was the temptation which put in action the moral 
 weakness, whatever may have been the form of 
 the force thus caused which resulted in the par- 
 ticular act. There are many things in a case like 
 this which need to be understood. 
 
 In one of the first cases I ever tried involving a 
 boy, the district attorney told me it would take 
 only five minutes. He meant, of course, that it 
 would take five minutes to determine whether the 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 boy did a thing that by the definitions of law con- 
 stituted him a thief. I have really been five years 
 in trying that case, and have not finished it yet. 
 But had there been more books like this of Dr. 
 Travis's, at the time the case came up, instead of 
 merely the statutes and books on criminal law sur- 
 rounding me, perhaps I might have completed it by 
 now ; I might at least have begun to understand it. 
 It is a sad thing, for instance, that much more 
 than half the children brought to courts will lie to 
 the judge and the officers under the former methods 
 of trial, unless they are sure they have been found 
 out and the evidence is at hand. Under old 
 methods of misunderstanding, or no understanding, 
 the boy persisted in his lie and only insisted as a 
 rule more emphatically when doubted and ques- 
 tioned. There are many reasons why the boy did 
 this ; and all of the reasons must be removed before 
 it is fair as a rule to expect him to tell the truth. 
 Unusual cases of strong character development in 
 the home will of course prove exceptions, but I 
 refer to the average boy or girl in court. I know 
 the cases of several thousand boys thus lying to 
 officers. They would have lied with equal readi- 
 ness to the judge, had they been, unintentionally, 
 
XIV INTEODUCTION. 
 
 encouraged in it, as they were by every condition 
 that confronted them. But by an entirely different 
 and yet natural method all of these boys were 
 induced to tell the truth. 
 
 I sat in a court recently with a good judge who 
 may have known much about delinquency, but 
 little about the causes thereof. Every one of the 
 six or seven boys tried before him lied. The judge 
 quietly decided the cases against them, apparently 
 taking the lie as a matter of course. Here occurred 
 one complication in the case that made its trial add 
 to it a feature as serious as the charge that had 
 made of it a case. But no one seemed to know 
 or understand. The judge was somewhat amazed 
 to find these boys within an hour afterwards telling 
 the absolute truth. Not as a boast, but merely as 
 illustrating how we have been helped to understand 
 more about delinquency, and as a defence of the so- 
 called delinquent, in pleading merely for justice for 
 him, I think we can say in our court in Denver 
 that not one boy out of five hundred in cases like 
 those referred to has lied, after we have employed 
 the right method of getting the truth. Until we 
 have done this much we have not been just, but 
 instead have helped to make a liar in addition, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 perhaps, to a thief ; we have done harm instead of 
 good when it was of course not intended. 
 
 What is needed in dealing with the so-called 
 juvenile delinquent, and in the problem of so-called 
 crime, is more knowledge, more understanding. 
 This must pertain to human beings and those 
 functions responsible for human beings, rather 
 than the mere things they do. There are absurd- 
 ities enough in the trials of men, but there have 
 been even more in the trials of juveniles. One of 
 the most interesting things about a case I once 
 tried was the fact that the boy hated the policeman 
 and the policeman's actions were those of hate for 
 the boy, but neither knew or understood why. The 
 boy at the head of the gang at the sight of the 
 policeman knew when to yell " jigger the bull." 
 There is absolutely nothing in the statutes or law 
 books about " jigger the bull." The judge was to 
 determine only whether the boy took the grain from 
 the box car. But in time the judge will learn more 
 about the case from perhaps that one question 
 alone : Why the boy said, " jigger the bull." The 
 officer who deals successfully with delinquency (and 
 this includes parents and teachers) must know the 
 whys and wherefores of the conduct of human 
 
XVI IN TROD UCTION. 
 
 beings. This he will not find in laws. These are 
 designed rather to regulate and deal with the 
 effects of this conduct. 
 
 The mistake has been that limitations have been 
 put upon intelligence and therefore justice, by a 
 code designed merely to describe and regulate con- 
 duct, affording no play whatever for the use of 
 that wisdom and discretion which only comes from 
 a knowledge of men and those causes that make 
 or unmake them. The result is, our criminal law 
 system is so stuffed with injustice that it is doubt- 
 ful if its contributions to injustice have not been 
 greater than to justice. I say unhesitatingly that 
 it has been positively so in dealing with the juven- 
 ile offender. 
 
 In the past we have been brutally ignorant upon 
 the subject. But from the hanging of boys in Eng- 
 land for larceny to the treating of the same sort of a 
 delinquent as a person " misdirected, misguided, and 
 needing aid, help, assistance, and encouragement" 
 (as declared in our Colorado juvenile delinquency 
 act), is a long step in advance, even if it measures 
 a hundred years. The boy whose uncontrollable 
 emotions, for which he is often no more responsible 
 than for the instinct to eat or sleep, impelled him 
 
IN TRODUCTION. X Vll 
 
 at the age of twelve to take the first horse and 
 buggy he found unattended on the street and drive 
 it off, was hung for it a hundred years ago ; within 
 a decade he was charged, treated, and convicted as 
 a horse thief ; within five years he was still given 
 into the tender mercies of the jailer; but to-day 
 (except in a few states yet in darkness) he is 
 turned over to the trained teacher in the detention 
 school, and frequently by her in turn to the special- 
 ist or psychologist. He is taken to this moral sani- 
 tarium. Here they differentiate between stealing 
 a ride and stealing a horse, or stealing at all in 
 a word, where they are learning how to fight the 
 bad thing without fighting the boy. 
 
 Thus we have begun to get a glimpse of how 
 much skill is required. That skill is coming. It 
 is needed in the home and the school why not 
 the court ? It has been lacking because we have 
 been so much confused as to the real things we 
 are dealing with, the real things we must know 
 and do, in order to administer what we poor foolish 
 mortals think to be justice. Of course there must 
 be justice. The point is not that there shall not 
 be, but that there shall be justice. And real justice 
 contemplates love, as real love contemplates justice. 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 We put love in the law just so far as we under- 
 stand men just so far as we are really just to men. 
 Certainly the best time to understand a man is 
 when he is a boy. A man is not made all at once. 
 Nature does not do things that way, and certainly 
 what nature cannot do it would be absurd for man 
 to undertake. Mankind in the making offers its 
 most favored opportunities when character is plas- 
 tic, when nature has given us the material to form, 
 as she gives the clay to the potter ; and the potter 
 would be very foolish if he waited until the mate- 
 rial hardened before he began his work. Yet this 
 is what the state did as a rule. The state as well 
 as the home and the school must do its part in the 
 work of formation, and is to be condemned as not 
 only foolish but criminal if it undertakes reforma- 
 tion only after neglecting all of its opportunities 
 for formation. We all suffer for crime because it 
 is a reflection upon all of us, a reflection upon the 
 state. Just as in the average home when its boy 
 is convicted of crime, there is suffering in the 
 home and a wound for the parent, so the thousands 
 of youth in this country drifting into crime every 
 year means suffering for us all and wounds for the 
 state. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 While any child may be and at some period is 
 delinquent, as defined by the statutes, as all men 
 are sometimes criminals, yet society is after all, in 
 dealing with the delinquent and the criminal, deal- 
 ing with the exceptional. This need not be mis- 
 understood. Not that the average delinquent boy 
 in court is exceptional as a boy, for they are no 
 more so than the mischievous boy to whom the 
 school principal must deal with at exceptional 
 times for the occasional mischief. Indeed, the boy 
 who is not delinquent at times, as this term is now 
 defined in statutes, is so exceptional that I can con- 
 ceive of none that would be more abnormal and 
 give us more occasion for concern. What we are 
 struggling to understand is that child whose natural 
 instincts perhaps are so much misdirected and un- 
 controllable as to draw to himself our attention as 
 one in whom we have a right to suspect that weak- 
 ness which in time will classify him as criminal. 
 We have tried to develop a system whereby this 
 individual could be identified as he is gradually 
 ground out from that system which seeks to sepa- 
 rate him for special treatment, even from that 
 great number of so-called delinquents who get into 
 courts and who are there not because they are 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 inherently materially different from other boys, 
 but because their environment and temptations 
 were different and indeed frequently because they 
 represent merely " those caught." 
 
 Delinquency, therefore, may indicate an un- 
 usually healthy and normal condition, rather than 
 the contrary. So that in intelligent classification 
 to point to the real delinquency that requires our 
 especial and expert care and attention is the 
 important object, and it will be found, therefore, 
 that it is only the exceptional that is to be espe- 
 cially dealt with, and it is this exceptional delin- 
 quency, the forerunner of dangerous citizenship, 
 which should concern us most. But to arrive at 
 this we must study delinquency in all its varied 
 forms. What these are, why they exist, what they 
 lead to, how to prevent them, or how to overcome 
 them, to gather useful and reliable facts and 
 theories, to collate and classify them, in order that 
 they may point as unerringly as possible to the 
 truth we seek, that we may strive to save the 
 individual as well as to protect society all this 
 is the great problem involved in the important 
 subject of " The Young Malefactor," or " Juvenile 
 Delinquency, its Causes and Treatment." 
 
IN TR OD UCTION. XXI 
 
 In short, Dr. Travis has covered this field in an 
 admirable manner. In the interest, therefore, of 
 the hundred thousand or more children dealt with 
 in the courts every year, as well as all the children 
 dealt with in the homes, schools, and churches, it 
 is my hope that this volume will be found in the 
 hands not only of probation officers, but especially 
 of parents, teachers, and pastors, for it is these 
 after all rather than courts who deal most 
 with juvenile delinquents. None can be excepted 
 from those who ought to be interested in the most 
 vital subject of this nation this divine image, the 
 child. May this book do the good I believe it is 
 destined to do, and may it have the success it so 
 richly merits ! 
 
 BEN B. LINDSEY. 
 
 DENVER, DECEMBER 10, 1907. 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 of the present day social problems is that 
 of crime, and the Italian School of Criminologists 
 has done much to further its solution. Under the 
 leadership of Ferri and Lombroso, the theory of 
 evolution was applied to the explication of the 
 phenomena of criminality, and the emphasis was 
 placed on the atavistic characteristics of the of- 
 fender. Malefactors were classified and this school 
 claimed to detect, by means of stigmata, both the 
 criminal and the type of crime he would commit. 
 So strong was their emphasis on the " bom " crim- 
 inal that many were led to believe all offenders 
 usually abnormal. The question was asked, Is 
 criminality illness or crime ? (" Krankheit oder 
 "Verbrechen.") 
 
 On the other hand there were those who denied 
 the existence of stigmata of crime or criminality, 
 who did not recognize any relation between phy- 
 sique and crime, and who made no classifications: 
 all offenders were alike to them. Also no essen- 
 (xxiii) 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 tial difference between the child offender and the 
 grown criminal was seen. 
 
 It therefore seemed to the writer that there was 
 a realm between the opposing schools which had 
 not been investigated with sufficient care. Not 
 enough attention had been given to define exactly 
 where and why Lombroso had found his stigmata ; 
 nor why the few anthropologists who had examined 
 the juvenile had found no stigmata of crime or 
 type in the kind of delinquent they examined. 
 
 The author proposed this test. He would begin 
 with the ordinary population and tabulate care- 
 fully how these stigmata mentioned by the Italian 
 school occurred. He would then do the same with 
 the young offender, beginning with the youngest 
 and mildest and advancing to the older and more 
 deeply involved. From here he would begin with 
 the insane ; and then, by carefully comparing the 
 number and manner of occurrence of stigmata, he 
 could determine whether what Lombroso found 
 true of Italian criminals was true of all offenders, 
 young and old, and whether the stigmata which 
 Lombroso said were characteristic only of crime 
 were in reality found also among the insane who 
 were not also criminal. 
 
PREFACE. xxv 
 
 Some six years were spent in theoretic and prac- 
 tical study under Professors Fisher of Wesleyan, 
 Giddings of Columbia, and Johnson of New York 
 Universities. Mr. Mornay Williams, president of 
 New York Juvenile Asylum, and Mr. Samuel Bar- 
 rows, of New York Prison Association, furnished 
 letters of introduction to numerous penal institu- 
 tions both in this country and abroad. These 
 were visited and access to government documents, 
 special libraries, and retreats for the insane was se- 
 cured. Work in settlements, institutional churches 
 with clubs for children as well as connections with 
 juvenile courts, and probation work and institu- 
 tions like schools for backward children brought 
 acquaintance with the details of the life of the 
 child who gets in trouble with the law. 
 
 The method pursued was to read all literature 
 reasonably accessible, to find out what had been 
 done, and then to supplement this by practical 
 examination of hundreds of offenders and insane, 
 as well as normal people. The juvenile was stud- 
 ied also with respect to age, sex, physical, mental, 
 and moral equipment ; economic situation ; and the 
 condition of his home ; with the expectation that 
 thus mapping out the main lines of his life he 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 could be more clearly understood and the tests 
 applied. 
 
 The stigmata of the Italian school were searched 
 for in the insane and in the delinquent. The 
 causes of crime were tabulated, a search made for 
 a principal cause and the literature of treatment 
 arranged to form a brief history which was carried 
 further by the conclusions arrived at in practical 
 work. It remained only to put these results in 
 thesis form. 
 
 The main theses which this paper is intended to 
 maintain are as follows : 
 
 (1.) A study of the delinquent with respect to 
 his physical, mental, and ethical conditions shows 
 that at least 90 % and probably 98 % of first court 
 offenders are normal. 
 
 (2.) A study of the delinquent with respect to 
 his economic condition, the material condition of 
 his home, his condition as to orphanage, etc., the 
 physical, mental, and moral conditions of his parents 
 confirms the above thesis and shows that not only 
 all the normal offences, but some of the morbid or 
 abnormal delinquencies, are the product of his envi- 
 ronment. 
 
 (3.) Of the remaining two to ten per cent, of 
 
PREFACE. XXVll 
 
 first court offenders, some are insane, others morbid, 
 and some few perhaps atavistic and might be called 
 in a rnetaphoric sense " born criminals." 
 
 (4.) The stigmata theory of the Italian School 
 applies only to a more limited realm than they 
 claim. 
 
 (5.) There are no stigmata of either crime or 
 types of crime, but only of abnormality or degen- 
 eracy. 
 
 (6.) The causes of delinquency are many and 
 spring from every department of life, but they focus 
 in such a way that we may name the non or semi- 
 functionary home as the chief cause. 
 
 (7.) The treatment of the normal delinquent 
 should be primarily the influence of strong person- 
 ality exerted in the atmosphere of a home, natural 
 or foster. 
 
 (8.) The abnormal delinquent should be subject 
 to special treatment and isolation until cured, or 
 until he is eliminated. 
 
 Little claim to the discovery of new facts is 
 made, that of the almond nostril being perhaps the 
 only one. Whatever contribution is made is rather 
 the clearer definition of the realm between the 
 opposing schools ; the clearer definition of the area 
 
xx vm PREFACE. 
 
 to which stigmata may be applied ; the gathering of 
 more definite statistics at several points ; the com- 
 parison of the stigmata of insanity with those of 
 crime ; the classification of types of juvenile delin- 
 quents ; the focusing of the causes of delinquency ; 
 the arrangement of scattered literature of treatment 
 in such a way as to show its trend ; and the appli- 
 cation of the science of orthodontology and kindred 
 sciences to the treatment of delinquents having 
 malformed heads. 
 
 T. T. 
 
 MONTCLAIH, N.J., JANUARY 1, 1908. 
 
THE 
 
 YOUNG MALEFAOTOE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR IN THE INSTITUTION 
 AND AT HOME. 
 
 THE term " juvenile delinquent " is applied 
 by law to any person under sixteen who corn- 
 Definition of the mits any offence for which he 
 
 term " juvenile delin- 
 quent." is brought before the courts. 
 
 Legally, it also includes all under sixteen who 
 by reason of destitution or neglect are in grave 
 danger of committing such offence. By loose 
 usage and in an extra legal sense, the term has 
 come to include all court offenders who are not 
 full-grown men and women. The juvenile, 
 therefore, is a criminal in the general sense of 
 the term, but the courts have found out that 
 they cannot consider or treat him as such. 
 
"T&E YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 In tracing the young malefactor through his 
 limited world the present chapter should show 
 not only that at least 90% and probably 98% of 
 first court offenders are normal children, not 
 more than one or two per cent being criminal 
 by nature, but also the nature of the delinquent 
 child and the reason for the courts' attitude. 
 Let us then begin with the older delinquent 
 behind the bars and follow him backwards to 
 his infancy and home. 
 
 Elmira reformatory deals with the oldest and 
 
 most deeply involved offender who can, in the 
 
 broadest sense of the term, be 
 
 The offender in the 
 
 institution. AS we called a juvenile delinquent. 
 
 descend from the older 
 
 and more deeply in- Yet it does not accept those wllO 
 
 volved to the younger . 
 
 and milder offender, are deepest in criminal taint , 
 he insane malefactor is weeded 
 
 tend to decreaise, and out an( J 
 in such a way as to 
 
 prove that at leant <# Concerning the physical condi- 
 
 and probably 98* of 
 
 first court offenders tion of those it KCCpS, it reports 
 are normal, and not * nn -4 t i 
 
 more than 2* are that 68.1% haVC not good 
 criminal by nature. 
 
 health.* How many of these are criminal by 
 
 *"The New York State Reformatory at Elmira," page 30. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 3 
 
 nature? Certainly but a small fraction. For 
 it is an axiom of criminology that the natural 
 criminal cannot be cured by any method which 
 Elmira uses ; yet, out of thousands it handles, 
 this institution claims to cure all except 18%. 
 Now, while the staff recognizes some who may 
 be criminal by nature, it would not claim to cure 
 all except these. It follows therefore that some 
 of the 18% not cured are tainted in some other 
 way than by being "born criminals." In our 
 effort to discover the number of such we can 
 only approximate. But we may assume that 
 morbidity, insanity and the criminal nature are 
 three forms of degeneracy occurring in the 
 offender. We may also assume that the par- 
 ticular form of vicious nature will be found in 
 not more than half of those unreclaimed. 
 
 The conditions at Elmira are probably not 
 exceptional. Caldwell Peniten- 
 
 Conditions at Rah- 
 
 way, caidweii, and tiary for older offenders pub- 
 
 Ihe House of Refuge 
 
 justify this assump. lishes no report and no one has 
 
 tion and show a de- 1 ., 
 
 crease of phynicai ab- made a careiul examination, but 
 
 during many visits the writer 
 
 saw no phenomena which would differ essen- 
 
4 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 tially from those at Elmira. This conclusion was 
 strengthened by visits to Rahway Reformatory 
 and the House of Refuge in New York, both of 
 which institutions take offenders a little less 
 deeply involved than those at Elmira. At Rah- 
 way not more than 15% showed striking mal- 
 development and the heads in the photograph 
 file confirmed this examination. There were 
 outstanding ears, large and prognathous jaws, 
 defective palates and several other peculiarities 
 which we shall see later described by the Italian 
 School as stigmata of crime, but in not more 
 than 15% were these combined in one individual 
 in such numbers as to imply abnormality of 
 nature. Even judging all these abnormal and 
 using the same method of division as with the 
 Elmira statistics, the number who might be 
 natural criminals was not more than 7.5% of the 
 whole. The same is true of the House of 
 Refuge inmates. There was physical mal- 
 development one inmate being a dwarf with 
 a keel-shaped head, and almost an imbecile, but 
 not more than 7.5% could reasonably be suspected 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 5 
 
 of a criminal nature in the accurate sense of 
 that term. 
 
 The New York Juvenile Asylum takes the 
 mildest grade of offenders committed to an in- 
 stitution, about 40% of them be- 
 
 Hrdlicka's report of 
 
 New York juvenile- ing orphans or neglected and 
 
 Asylum children did 
 
 not discover i% of destitute children. Hrdlicka 
 
 natural criminals. . , , 
 
 has made a very accurate and 
 careful examination of a thousand of these, and 
 the gist of his report follows : " A really infe- 
 rior child, an inherently vicious or imbecile 
 child, or one who could not be much improved 
 by better food and better hygienic surroundings 
 is a very rare exception; 14% of the children 
 examined were so sound that there was not a 
 blemish on their bodies." Considering any 
 decided deviation from the typical form in 
 health as an abnormality, and counting those in 
 whom one-half of the parts of the body ex- 
 amined presented one or more abnormalities as 
 exceptional, he found only 8.7% such. That is, 
 91.3% were either in excellent bodily condition 
 or not exceptionally poor.* He reports that there 
 
 * Forty-seventh report of the N.Y. J.A., appendix. 
 
6 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 was no one peculiarity or set of peculiarities 
 which could be considered typical of the asylum 
 children, and there was no abnormal type. The 
 large proportion of abnormalities observed was 
 slight. And he concludes that there is reason 
 for believing these results would not differ 
 materially from those obtained by an examina- 
 tion of children of the same social class not 
 delinquent. Not one child could be called an 
 utter degenerate, and by this he means an 
 imbecile, or a person by nature so unsound 
 or vicious that there could be little hope of 
 recovery. 
 
 Concerning the 8.7% who were in poor physical 
 condition, assuming that] all were abnormal, i.e., 
 morbid, subtly insane, or with a criminal nature, 
 we should even then have no grounds for con- 
 sidering that more than 2.9% of the inmates 
 might be criminal by nature, if we use the same 
 method of division as at Elmira and Rahway. 
 
 Yet Hrdlicka found that these asylum chil- 
 The juvenile deim- dren differed in some respects 
 
 quent is not well 
 
 equipped physically, from ordinary children. There 
 was more temporary mal-development, more 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 7 
 
 illness. They were also smaller in stature and 
 lighter in weight than the ordinary child. 
 Similar conditions have been found to exist in 
 Boston, and also in the British delinquents.* In 
 English institutions, even after many had been 
 rejected on account of poor physique, the death 
 rate was higher than normal. At the Montclair 
 School for Backwards the writer found the 
 members, almost all of whom are troublesome 
 children and almost all delinquents, below the 
 average in physique. They were under-devel- 
 oped and mal-developed, especially in head 
 formation. 
 
 Many of the children in institutions as mild 
 
 as New YorV Juvenile Asylum are, however, 
 
 probably not 2* of more deeply involved than first 
 
 court offenders are CQUrt o ff en( JerS. Wheil a child 
 strikingly abnormal 
 
 in physique. i s brought to court for an iso- 
 
 lated offence or for trivial offences he is usually 
 put on probation. He is not sent to an institu- 
 tion unless there is a certain amount of persist- 
 ence to his delinquency, or unless he is so 
 destitute of guardians that there is no other 
 
 * Morrison, " Juvenile Offenders," page 86. 
 
8 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 place. Therefore all the lightest offenders will 
 escape committal. Consequently, we should ex- 
 pect that, even if there is a percentage of natural 
 criminals in the lighter institutions, that per- 
 centage would be less among court offenders, 
 and this seems to be the case. A judge of the 
 Newark Children's Court, having ten years' ex- 
 perience with delinquents, declared, after a dis- 
 cussion before a society met to consider the 
 delinquent, that not more than two out of a 
 hundred could be classed as criminal by nature. 
 He was probably right. An examination of the 
 children at Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Newark 
 Children's Courts convinced the writer of this. 
 Many of the children are underfed and under- 
 developed, some are mal-developed by reason of 
 neglect or unwholesome work. The dentition 
 is deficient in many ; some have the outstanding 
 ears described by the Italian School, others 
 have abnormal palates, but few have these 
 peculiarities in such numbers or in such sinister 
 combinations as would justify calling them ab- 
 normal. 
 
 It is to be noted, however, that all who are 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOE. 9 
 
 tried in court are not first offenders. A large 
 Fot more than i or proportion of them have been 
 
 2# of first court of- 
 
 fenders are abnormal, there before. So that 6V6U if 
 
 there were two abnormal children in a hundred 
 court offenders there would be less than that 
 in a hundred first court offenders, and not even 
 all these would be criminal by nature. 
 
 To recapitulate : not more than 18% of the 
 
 inmates of Elmira could be declared abnormal 
 
 by nature, and not more than 
 
 Summary. 
 
 9% could be considered naturally 
 criminal. Of the inmates of Caldwell, Rahway, 
 and the House of Refuge, not more than 15% 
 could be considered abnormal by nature, and 
 not more than 7.5% could be called naturally 
 criminal. At New York Juvenile Asylum not 
 more than 8.7% could be suspected of abnormal- 
 ity of nature, and not more than 2.9% could be 
 considered as naturally criminal ; out of a thou- 
 sand examined not one was declared thoroughly 
 criminal by nature. Of court offenders not 
 more than 2% were abnormal in the full sense, 
 and, judging from their physical condition, not 
 1% were criminal by nature ; therefore, of first 
 
10 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 court offenders, which includes children un- 
 doubtedly less tainted than court offenders, not 
 more than 2% could be counted criminal by 
 nature, i.e., atavistic in the sense implied by the 
 Italian School. 
 
 Conclusions which at first seem so contradic- 
 tory to those of Lombroso and Ferri might be 
 
 m y this conclusion doubted if the reason for such 
 is not as opposite to var i ance cou id not be indicated. 
 
 that of the Italian 
 
 school as seems. Xhe process of the courts and 
 penal institutions tends to sift out the more 
 normal delinquent on the one hand, and to 
 develop the abnormal on the other. Many 
 first court offenders never appear in court a 
 second time : these are not included. Of those 
 in juvenile institutions 50% are reclaimed : these 
 are excluded also. Others gravitate to the 
 sterner institutions like Rahway, and of these 
 again some 50% may be supposed to be cured. 
 Since there is no indeterminate sentence for 
 older malefactors, these, at the expiration of 
 sentence, go on in criminality. Those who 
 were once normal may easily become morbid 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 11 
 
 and those who could not, in childhood, be called 
 criminal by nature, now appear so. 
 
 At an institution like Elmira some of the 
 worst cases are sent to prisons for " insane 
 criminals." It is to be expected that in such 
 an institution the number of insane criminals 
 would increase. 
 
 Social classes are not clearly fixed in this 
 country because of a relatively mobile state of 
 society. A criminal may go to the frontiers 
 and in that life, which more nearly approaches 
 the uncivilized, find an environment that does 
 not induce criminality, i.e., a breaking of the 
 law. But in England, for example, social 
 classes are more static. There is a nearer 
 approach to what may be called a dependent 
 and delinquent class, and by that is meant not 
 a number of dependent or delinquent indi- 
 viduals, but a sort of society within society, 
 having traditions, training, parentage, and en- 
 vironments limiting opportunities in a way 
 which tends to delinquency. 
 
 An examination of the street children in the 
 poorer quarters of Liverpool, Manchester, the 
 
12 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 Cheshire County Prison and Almshouse, and 
 the White Chapel region of London proved to 
 the writer that these juveniles more nearly 
 approached a degenerate type than did those in 
 the United States. The children had the ap- 
 pearance of the parents, and the inmates of the 
 almshouse and prison were more abnormal in 
 aspect and more nearly members of a class than 
 any observed here. For example, in the slums 
 of England and France the writer saw little 
 barefooted waifs whose pallid faces and pitifully 
 crooked bodies were not merely under-developed 
 but mal-developed, and that from birth. They 
 suggested successive layers of crookedness 
 the heritage of close inbreeding due to a 
 static state of the little society in which they 
 lived. They differed as much from the ordi- 
 nary child as one white race differs from 
 another. They could be picked out in a crowd. 
 These intermarrying with their kind produce a 
 degenerate class, yet they are not all criminals 
 by any means. There was often a beautiful 
 loyalty among them. One girl of ten was 
 foster-mother to several younger. She was 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 13 
 
 nursing a little baby, chopping herring boxes 
 with a table knife, and selling the kindlings at 
 ten bundles for a penny to support the others. 
 
 In Italy the social conditions in this sense are 
 still more adapted to the formation of a delin- 
 quent class. Italy has for centuries been the 
 home of criminal study, because the social con- 
 ditions made it the home of the criminal. It 
 will be remembered that La Mania, Camorra, 
 Mana Nigra, the Charbonari and other societies 
 of malefactors either had their rise in Italy or 
 came from nearby localities and found congenial 
 surroundings there. They have all flourished 
 within a century, Mania and Camorra at times 
 even competing with the government itself. 
 
 Now when we find that the percentage of 
 abnormal physiques increases in our country 
 with its mobile conditions, as we advance from 
 the younger to the older offender, and also see 
 that in England the percentage of abnormalities 
 is so great as to make them approach in appear- 
 ance a criminal type, we can perceive how 
 Ferri and Lombroso, working with the old cul- 
 prits of static Italy, could suppose that these 
 
14 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 peculiarities were typical of criminals every- 
 where. 
 
 In making anthropological charts of the in- 
 mates of a New Jersey institution the writer 
 found many Italians among them and it is an 
 undoubted fact that these Italian criminals 
 approximate Lombroso's types. Some of them 
 are surely in appearance the " born criminal " of 
 Lombroso. Yet an actual scientific analysis of 
 the data taken on the spot reveals not more 
 than two out of a hundred who can fairly be 
 described in Lombroso's terms, and if the writer 
 expresses his deepest conviction he would hesi- 
 tate to say that even these two were unques- 
 tionably born criminals, though the data lead 
 him to go on the supposition that one of them is. 
 
 These conclusions are confirmed from another 
 view-point. Elmira reports that 
 
 An examination of 
 
 the juvenile deiin- O ut of 5,899 men 89.7% showed 
 
 quent with respect to 
 
 intellect and culture " absolutely no moral sense. "* 
 
 confirms the conclu- . 1 
 
 Bions of the preted- But it must not be SUppOSCQ 
 
 (if P Elmira "condi- ^ na ^ criminal nature is inferred 
 in all of these, for her reports 
 
 tions. 
 
 * New York State Reformatory at Elmira, pages 30-32. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 15 
 
 also give only 18% of failure to reform. Also 
 many morbid and insane people who are not 
 criminal show no moral sense. The writer has 
 seen insane patients who had no sense of shame. 
 They exposed the body freely, falsified, and did 
 not recognize a reproof. They stole or even 
 attempted murder with no sign of moral repug- 
 nance, and yet the reasoning faculty was so 
 slightly impaired that the attendants were con- 
 vinced that the patient was not really insane. 
 One attendant said to me : " X is no more in- 
 sane than I am. She has the devil in her, that 's 
 all." The explanation of the dearth of moral 
 sense among criminals lies in illiteracy and lack 
 of culture. The reports of this institution give 
 19.5% with a mental capacity not good ; and 
 75.5% with little or no culture ;* and in another 
 place we read : " More than 60% of the prisoners 
 are practically illiterate on admission, and at 
 least one-third of the whole number are from 
 the dull scholars in public schools or truants 
 who burrow in lanes and alleys." 
 
 Experience shows that moral perception is 
 
 * Papers in Penology, page 30. 
 
16 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 largely a matter of intellectual capacity. It is 
 Moral perception is doubtful whether any child 
 
 intellectual in nature, -t .,-1 . , 
 
 knows either right or wrong 
 without instruction. Children who have not 
 been brought up with the ordinary moral con- 
 ceptions, who have been taught that it is right 
 to steal, lie, or commit crime, unless caught, if 
 mentally dull and lacking in intellectual 
 culture, cannot be expected to show later any 
 signs of moral sense for a different ethical 
 standard. It would be like asking a Chinaman 
 to produce the music of Wagner, or an African 
 savage to show the delicacy of moral feeling a 
 cultured woman manifests. For example, in a 
 small town of England the writer saw a girl of 
 eight who told, with all a child's naivete, of 
 unnatural sex acts which she practised with her 
 father and brother. Yet she was not vicious or 
 immoral by nature. She had been thus taught 
 by her father and the question of right or 
 wrong did not even arise. The child lacked 
 intellect and culture to discriminate. And that 
 the delinquent does so lack in intellect and 
 culture is clear. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 17 
 
 In the Reform School at Mitchellville 90% of 
 
 the inmates were illiterate and 95% had no 
 
 domestic accomplishments.* At 
 
 Data. 
 
 Washington, D.C., only 20% of 
 the prison boys could read.f Of the Reform 
 School children in England only 13% could read, 
 and this was due in large measure to natural 
 incapacity.:): 
 
 Much the same is true of French offenders. 
 Raux reports as follows : 
 
 Degre & instruction des jeunes delinquants.% 
 
 Illetres 35% 
 
 Sacbant lire 24% 
 
 Sachant lire et ecrire 31% 
 
 Sachant lire et ecrire et calculer 8% 
 
 Posse dont une bonne instruction primaire .... 2% 
 
 At the House of Refuge there was noticeable 
 
 backwardness. Some of the youths of sixteen 
 
 House of Refuge were struggling with mental 
 
 data - problems a child of twelve 
 
 could ordinarily solve, and though many were 
 
 * F. P. Fitzgerald, Supt. Industrial School for Girls, in pamphlet 
 entitled " What should be the Age Limit," etc. 
 
 f Prisoners' Aid in Washington, D.C., "Charities Review," Vol. 
 9, page 3. 
 
 " Juvenile Offenders," Morrison, page 109. 
 
 " Enfants Coupable," page 34. 
 
18 THE YOUJfG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 of foreign birth or parentage and therefore 
 handicapped by a strange language, much was 
 due to lack of capacity and training. The 
 story is told of a young boy being questioned 
 by the judge : " Do you ever go to church ? " 
 " Yes, sir." " Do you know what it is to be 
 born again?" "Sure thing." "Well, would 
 you like to be born again?" "Naw, sir, I 
 might be born'd a girl." 
 
 But when we come to the mildest offenders, 
 like those of New York Juvenile Asylum, we 
 New York Asylum &*& that though "many are 
 dau - backward when they enter the 
 
 institution, they rapidly catch up under the 
 training given."* None of them are utterly 
 lacking in intellect and in moral sense. And 
 when we consider the juvenile in court we find 
 that he often displays rather unusual shrewd- 
 ness and wit. It is a common occurrence to see 
 a child of ten or twelve stand with his chin 
 barely above the rail and answer offhand ques- 
 tions which would puzzle an older child without 
 the precocious knowledge gained on the street. 
 
 * Instructor's report for 1905. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 19 
 
 There is often a lack of culture, but this is 
 most naturally explained by the fact that they 
 have neither been trained at home nor sent to 
 school regularly, nor have they had the food 
 which would give mental strength. 
 
 From time to time a naturally backward 
 child appears, sometimes even an imbecile, but 
 these are rare exceptions, not amounting to 
 more than 2% of the whole, and somewhat less 
 than this if we limit our observations to first 
 court offenders. To summarize : In reforma- 
 tories like Elmira, which takes the oldest offend- 
 ers who could be called juveniles, there may be 
 39% of the inmates who show no moral sense. 
 Some of these are morbid or subtly insane. But 
 because moral sense is a phase of intellect, and 
 over 80% show deficiency in intellect or culture, 
 we may infer that the ethical defects of some of 
 this 39% who show no moral sense are due to 
 lack of mentality and training. As we descend 
 to the court offenders we find this explanation 
 confirmed by the fact that the ratio of those 
 strikingly lacking in mentality and moral sense 
 diminishes to not more than 2%. And since 
 
20 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 first court offenders embrace more who are 
 undoubtedly not so lacking we may conclude 
 that at least 90% and probably 98% of them are 
 normal children. How much of criminal nature 
 is present we may the better know by an exami- 
 nation of juvenile offences. 
 
 The offences for which children are tried 
 
 before the courts are usually of a trivial nature, 
 
 such as stealing a neighbor's 
 
 The delinquent com- 
 
 mite almost aii kinds rabbit, harassing a peddler, 
 
 of offences, but most 
 
 of them are compara- throwing Snowballs in City 
 
 tively trivial and the 
 
 rest largely indicate streets, entering vacant build- 
 
 or 
 
 dan gerous places. The motive 
 
 not more than i or 2% for many of these delinquencies 
 
 of them are the actions 
 
 of children criminal is often proven to be pure mis- 
 
 hy nature. . 
 
 chief as one group of juve- 
 niles expressed it, "Just to be chased by the 
 ginney." Judge Lindsey describes a group of 
 boys who had broken into a freight car, stolen a 
 box of bottles containing syrup of figs, and 
 drunk much of the contents. When the weak 
 and half sick culprits were brought to court 
 next day they replied to the judge's question of 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 21 
 
 " Why did you do it ? " " We thought it was 
 as good as the pictures said." 
 
 A large number of these children are merely 
 destitute, abandoned or guardianless, and as this 
 condition places them in grave danger they are 
 considered delinquents. 
 
 There are, however, some serious offences. 
 The delinquencies for which children were 
 brought before the New York Court, those of 
 the inmates of the New York Juvenile Asylum 
 and those of Jamesburg, are as follows :* 
 
 Bad Conduct. 
 
 Some Form 
 of Theft. 
 
 Mixed. 
 
 Unfortu- 
 nate. 
 
 Isolated. 
 
 Abnor- 
 mal. 
 
 N. Y. Juvenile 
 Court, 2 years 
 report : 
 
 a 364 
 
 51$ 
 
 54 
 
 8$ 
 
 1* 
 
 14 
 
 5 30^ 
 
 50$ 
 
 
 20# 
 
 
 
 N. Y.J. A., 46* . . 
 
 90 
 
 36$ 
 
 3* 
 60 
 
 40# 
 
 1% 
 
 1< 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The 2% entered as abnormal are not certainly 
 so ; they were fornication and other sex crimes 
 
 * A summary of reports of the Children's Courts ac Manhattan, 
 fifty-first report of N.Y.J.A., and Jamesburg. 
 
22 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 like indecent exposure. None of them indi- 
 cated surely more than bad training and careless 
 oversight by the parent. 
 
 Of the Jewish delinquents of Manhattan, 39% 
 were guilty of petty mischief and theft.* 
 
 The House of Refuge reports that 50% of its 
 inmates are truants, vagrants, and disorderly 
 persons. And here is shown the serious nature 
 of some delinquencies, namely, persistent recidi- 
 vism, for 
 
 51.9% were habitually irregular in school attend- 
 ance, 
 
 24.9% were idle, 
 54% were truants, 
 37% had been previously arrested, 
 31.2% had been in other institutions, yet not 
 more than 5% of these showed abnormality 
 enough to be classed as degenerate.! 
 
 In France there is the same report of triviality 
 with a current of serious offence. Passez re- 
 ports, " En 1891 (a Paris) on a arret6 68 jeune 
 filles &gees de trieze a seize ans et se livrant a la 
 
 *"The Jewish Boy Criminal." Jewish Charities, page 126. 
 1905. 
 
 t Eightieth report. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 23 
 
 prostitution."* And an old study of conditions 
 in New York probably reflects accurately the con- 
 ditions of to-day. Out of 2,000 prostitutes ex- 
 amined by Dr. Sanger of Blackwell's Island, 48% 
 were twenty years or under in age. 
 
 The fact that such young persons are found 
 in this class cannot be taken to indicate physical 
 or mental degeneracy of nature, for, where 
 the circumstances are examined, the parents 
 themselves are usually to blame, having often, 
 as the writer has seen both in New York and 
 Newark, taught the children by parental ex- 
 ample, and also invited men to prostitute the 
 children for the sake of the money thus ob- 
 tained. For example, a New York mother in 
 the neighborhood of the Jacob A. Riis House 
 was in the habit of prostituting herself, with her 
 thirteen-year old daughter in the same room 
 and her baby on the same bed. In Newark a 
 negro mother would invite passers-by to come 
 in, and then, with no apparent shame or hesita- 
 tion call her daughters for the inspection of the 
 
 *"Du vagabondage et de la prostitution des Mineurs," Revue 
 Penitentiaire, Vol. 16, page 972. 
 
24 THE TOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 visitor, receiving the money as if she were 
 merely selling an ordinary article. 
 
 Of the 2,000 examined by Dr. Sanger, 25% 
 gave " inclination " as their reason for entering 
 this life, yet further questioning elicited the 
 fact that it was not sexual desire but inclina- 
 tion induced by the persuasion of other fallen 
 women, craving for intoxicants and an easy 
 life, or desertion by husband that had led them 
 to take up this life.* All of which answers, as 
 can be seen by the cases cited in detail, reveal 
 not a morbid or degenerate nature, but unwhole- 
 some environment and training. And the accu- 
 racy of this conclusion is confirmed by later 
 statistics from Germany. Ferriani thus analyzes 
 10,422 cases of prostitution according to cause :f 
 
 General rice and depravity, i.e., inclination in 
 
 Sanger's sense 26 -}- % 
 
 Loss of husband or supporter 20 + % 
 
 Seduction by lovers 15 -f % 
 
 Seduction by patrons, employees, etc., upon whom 
 
 they were dependent 8 + % 
 
 Desertion by husband, parent, etc 7 -}- % 
 
 Luxury 6 + % 
 
 Incitement by those loved (not members of the 
 
 family) 6 + % 
 
 * History of Prostitution 1859, pages 450, 488, etc. 
 fMinderjahrige Verbrecher, page 169. 1895. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 25 
 
 Incitement by husband or other members of family, 3 + % 
 To support children, parents or poor or sick mem- 
 bers of their family 3 + % 
 
 Other offences of French delinquents are 
 given in the following table by Raux:* 
 
 ( ilefitres, homicides, coupes et blessures 
 
 ayant occasionne la mort 5 
 
 Tentatives de deraillment 2 
 
 Coupes et blessures, injures, menaces et 
 
 b voies de fait 13 
 
 Violences, voies de fait et outrage a 
 g agents de la force publiques .... 6 
 
 o> 
 
 o Q Viols et tentatives o 73 or 19# 
 
 Attentats a la pudeur 28 
 
 Outrages a la pudeur 13 
 
 Vols qualifies, complicite et tentative . 50 
 
 " simple- 169 
 
 oc p, Soustractions frauduleuses 2 
 
 cs b Abus de confiance 7 
 
 237 or 61* 
 q -2 ' Escroqueries et tentatives 4 
 
 _ ^ Faux en ecriture 1 
 
 Bris de cloture 3 
 
 Evasions par bris de prison 1 
 
 Incendies volontaires 4 
 
 <n Participation a insurrection 3 
 
 Vagabondage 56 
 
 Mendicite . . 12 
 
 " Enfants Coupable," page 40. 
 
26 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 It might be supposed that such crimes as 
 manslaughter, murder, sex crimes, and incendi- 
 arisms indicate degenerate physique or min-d. 
 But taking all the offences given under these 
 heads, 22 in number, still the percentage of 
 such crimes is only 5.7%. And it would be a 
 mistake to suppose that all of these are indica- 
 tions of vicious or criminal or atavistic nature, 
 that is, a nature reverting back to an earlier 
 type, so that both physique and mind are organ- 
 ized and function much in the way those of a 
 primitive savage might be expected to act had 
 he been brought in contact with civilization 
 and by training been taught the fundamental 
 customs of society. 
 
 Take an example of murder in a child of 
 about thirteen. A girl was given care of her 
 baby sister. Because the child troubled her 
 she poisoned it. Examination of the family 
 revealed a taint. There were stigmata of de- 
 generacy present but not in great numbers or 
 in sinister combinations. A brother was delin- 
 quent and sent to the George Junior Republic 
 at Freeville. The writer knew the family and 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOB. 27 
 
 visited the boy. There was, so far as he could 
 see, no trace of a criminal nature in either the 
 boy or the girl or in the parents, yet a morbid 
 streak appeared in the girl, and a kind of mental 
 instability in the mother. The girl had been a 
 bright child at school ; there was no record of 
 delinquent acts. When she was brought before 
 the courts she was declared insane. This was 
 probably not deep insanity, but the result of 
 parental neglect and overwrought nerves work- 
 ing temporarily on a neurotic subject. 
 
 Even when there is a record of previous bad 
 conduct like that shown in the following table 
 by Raux, there is not often either degeneracy, 
 morbidity, or atavism :* 
 
 Dont la conduite etait bonne 60 .. 16% 
 
 Dont la conduite laissait a desirer . . . 65 . . 16% 
 
 Dont la conduite etait mauvaise .... 138 . . 36% 
 
 {Une fois ... 68 
 
 Deux " ... 40 
 
 Trois " ... 77 
 
 I Plus de trois fois, 10 
 
 32% 
 
 It is very rarely criminal or vicious nature that 
 causes recidivism in the first court offenders ; it 
 
 * " Enfants Coupable," page 30. 
 
28 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 is bad environment, and the proof of this is that 
 whenever the environment has been thoroughly 
 changed the child has recovered. With no 
 medical aid and with no means except the in- 
 fluence of a strong personality exerted in such a 
 way that the effective environment of the delin- 
 quent was altered, Judge Lindsey of Denver 
 has cured 96% of all those handled in his court, 
 and there are many who are worse than first 
 court offenders there. 
 
 To understand the nature of juvenile offences 
 it is absolutely necessary to get at them not 
 from the technical names given in court, or by a 
 hearsay verdict of somebody who saw the mere 
 deed, but we must see the whole act from the 
 culprit's standpoint. Such a study reveals some 
 bizarre crime that is surely the result of morbid 
 nerves, much more which is the result of hered- 
 ity and training, but most of all from mere im- 
 maturity and accident. For example, a negro 
 boy in one of our juvenile classes would expose 
 himself in the presence of the children and 
 teacher. He would begin masturbation and 
 attempt homosexuality in the presence of the 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOE. 29 
 
 teacher or in public. He was decidedly lack- 
 ing in mentality. This is abnormal nerves, a 
 form of insanity, and it is so rare that the 
 writer has seen only one case in several hun- 
 dred delinquents. There is more of the second 
 kind, i.e., mixed heredity and environment. For 
 example, a family consisting of mother and four 
 children. The mother is a German peasant, 
 dull and uneducated. Though for years in 
 America she has not learned enough English to 
 understand a simple baptismal ceremony or to 
 speak with a visitor. She and her family were 
 found living in an old dwelling which had been 
 used as a chicken-coop. All the boys were 
 delinquent, and as soon as they were placed 
 with a good family interested and able to deal 
 well with them, the mother began proceedings 
 to recover her children. This was done at least 
 twice. The daughter is stupid and on the verge 
 of a life of illegitimacy or even prostitution. 
 Much of this delinquency is sheer dulness, the 
 rest is lack of training. A knowledge of the 
 family for years makes the writer know that 
 
30 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 there is nothing accurately described as " natural 
 criminality " among them. Even such a family 
 as this is so rare that its discovery was heralded 
 by all the newspapers. Not three in a hundred 
 are of this kind. 
 
 The third and by far the most common kind 
 is typified by the following : A boy of fourteen 
 had sold two pigeons to another. The price 
 agreed on was fifty cents, of which a quarter 
 was deposited with the understanding that the 
 rest would be paid soon and both the pigeons 
 (which were a pair) should be taken. The 
 pigeons were taken, but the other quarter was 
 not paid, even after repeated demands. There- 
 fore the boy went at night, broke the lock on 
 the coop and took back both his pigeons. In 
 court he repeatedly asserted that he had done 
 nothing wrong. The prosecutor said he himself 
 had offered to let the boy off if he would apolo- 
 gize. But the "culprit" refused even this. 
 And rightly so. He knew nothing of technical 
 law, yet he was indicted for "breaking and 
 entering," of which he refused to plead guilty. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 31 
 
 The judge solved the problem by saying, "Did 
 you break the lock and get in the coop?" 
 "Yes." "Then you plead guilty." But from 
 the boy's standpoint he had simply gone and 
 taken back his own property. This is typical of 
 very much so-called juvenile crime. The child 
 does not see the complainant's side, he does not 
 know the difference between an unwise act and 
 a criminal one and he has not knowledge enough 
 to right his wrongs in a legal way. 
 
 The juvenile delinquent commits all kinds of 
 
 offences, but, as shown by an examination of 
 
 court offenders, very many of 
 
 To recapitulate. 
 
 them are so trivial that the 
 child is merely fined or put on probation. Even 
 when the offence or condition of the juvenile is 
 such that he is sent to an institution like New 
 York Juvenile Asylum, figures covering almost 
 fifty years show the offences to be only destitu- 
 tion or misfortune in 40% of cases, and in an in- 
 stitution like the House of Refuge 54% are only 
 truants. Raux's table of French offences, which 
 we have every reason to believe typical, gives as 
 
32 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 a maximum 5.7% who might be counted degen- 
 erate. An examination of known cases shows 
 that some of this 5.7% are not atavistic natures 
 in Lombroso's sense, but only cases of weak 
 nerves or morbidity acted on by poor environ- 
 ment, as a child who throws a brick from a 
 house-top and kills a boy, not realizing that a 
 brick thrown from a house-top will carry farther 
 than one thrown on the level. And the fact 
 that Judge Lindsey has, by changing the envi- 
 ronments of delinquents, cured 96%, many of 
 whom were more deeply involved than first 
 court offenders, leads to the conclusion that all 
 kinds of delinquencies are committed by the 
 juvenile ; most, however, are trivial, and the 
 rest indicate largely an environmental source. 
 Not more than 10% are of an abnormal character 
 and probably not 5% of the offenders are abnor- 
 mal. Of the 5% who may be suspected of ab- 
 normality at least half are probably only slightly 
 morbid ; of the rest some are insane, and perhaps 
 1 or 2% at most of first court offenders may be 
 accurately called natural criminals. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 33 
 
 B. THE HOME OF THE YOUNG OFFENDER. 
 
 Many of the delinquents are arrested for 
 
 petty thieving, vagrancy, and the like. So per- 
 
 Generai thesis: a sistent are these habits that the 
 
 study of the deiin- ques tion of kleptomania or de- 
 
 quent with respect to 
 
 economic condition, linquent nature may be raised. 
 
 orphanage, parental 
 
 and home conditions But examination of the eco- 
 
 confirms the thesis ,, , , 
 
 that at least vo% of nomic status of the young male- 
 
 factor reveals the following: 
 cL' Eighty-eight per cent of 179 
 
 are a result of envi- homes of inmates of New York 
 
 ronment and training. 
 
 it also confirms the Juvenile Asylum had a per 
 
 judgment that not _ 
 
 more than 2* of first capita weekly income oi three 
 
 court offenders are , , . -. & j ff) o/>/ 
 
 atavistic in the itai- dollars or less ;* and 52.8% of 
 ian sense. S24i households of the children 
 
 attending the industrial schools f of the Chil- 
 dren's Aid Society of New York had an income 
 of seven dollars or less per week for the whole 
 household. Counting only the usual five per 
 family and the family of the poor averages 
 more than this we have an income of $1.40 
 per capita weekly. In one case the old mother 
 
 * See also another table, page 32, N.Y. J.A., 1903 report. 
 
 f Short-term Juvenile Offende s, Charities, Vol. 10 ; 1903 report. 
 
34 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOE. 
 
 had no income; she procured the entire sub- 
 sistence of the family from the garbage recepta- 
 cles on the street. The one room of the 
 "home" was a windowless attic and she slept 
 with her children on the bare floor. 
 
 Also many of the children, as we have seen, 
 are orphans or abandoned, with not even this 
 small sum to live on. It is not, therefore, a sign 
 of vicious nature if these habitually steal. 
 
 In England most of the parents could not pay 
 five shillings per week to the support of chil- 
 dren in an institution. Only 10% of the reform 
 school and 15% of the industrial school children 
 had ever lived under " comfortable " economic 
 conditions.* Forty-six per cent lived in lodg- 
 ings ; 77% of them had not even begun to learn 
 a trade. Much of this springs from the in- 
 capacity and poverty of the parents, but in 
 some cases it is misfortune ; 50% of the poverty 
 before the Bureau of Associated Charities was 
 caused either by illness or by misfortune, f 
 
 Of the prostitutes examined by Sanger the 
 
 * Morrison, "Juvenile Offenders," page 16. 
 f Twenty-second annual report. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 35 
 
 weekly earnings before entering that trade were 
 as follows :* 
 
 One dollar 534 
 
 Two dollars .... 33G 
 Three dollars . . . .230 
 Four dollars .... 127 
 Five dollars ... 67 
 
 Six dollars ..... 27 
 
 Seven dollars .... 8 
 
 Eight dollars .... 5 
 
 Twenty dollars ... 1 
 
 Fifty dollars .... 1 
 
 Unascertained, 664. Total, 2,000. 
 
 In some relatively few cases these women had 
 been compelled to choose between this arid 
 starvation ; some were supporting sick or aged 
 parents, and a somewhat large per cent were 
 earning almost one hundred times as much by 
 prostitution as by the only work open to them. 
 Where before they did " menial work " and 
 were looked down on, they now were, as they 
 expressed it, " Boss." In answer to the ques- 
 tion of how much was earned the following was 
 elicited and is probably correct : " We enter- 
 tain from five to thirty men a day ; we get from 
 one to two dollars from each man, and he pays 
 from half a dollar to two dollars to the saloon 
 for the room. We get also a ' rake off ' from the 
 
 * History of Prostitution, page 529. 
 
36 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 drink he buys." This money was almost in* 
 variably spent foolishly as fast as earned. 
 
 The view-point of some of these women is 
 thought>inducing. In answer to the writer's 
 offer to stand back of one woman who was sup- 
 porting a family so, she said : " If I leave this 
 what shall I do?" "Work at something 
 honest." " But I can not do anything except 
 rough work." " Well, that will be honest." 
 " Honest you call it ? Honest ? Yes, I work 
 at scrubbing, I am looked down on as a scrub- 
 woman ; I get four dollars a week and wear 
 rags. Here I work when I please, entertain 
 whom I please, and I 'd rather take the treat- 
 ment I get now than that which you offer me." 
 " But your little girl ; do you want hei to follow 
 you ? " " No ; and she never shall ; I '11 kill her 
 first ; she shall never know ; I will send her to 
 school and pay her way myself ; I don't want 
 any charity." 
 
 At Elmira 89% of those received in twelve 
 months had no steady means of securing a 
 living and no trade ; 85.5% of their parents had 
 no accumulations. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 37 
 
 Therefore it is not necessarily criminal nature 
 that impels children with such improper food 
 and such lack of money persistently to steal, or 
 sell themselves in prostitution.* Also parents 
 of homes like these will be unable to properly 
 clothe children, give them the many little things 
 a school child needs and the supervision which 
 will insure regular attendance at lessons, so that 
 even confirmed truancy is not an infallible 
 sign of vicious nature. 
 
 With a small amount of money an efficient 
 parent in a country home might struggle along, 
 and keep the children from delinquency, but in 
 a large city or small town it is more difficult, 
 and the delinquent is characteristically a 
 product of city and town life. Out of 130,000 
 in our reformatories 98% come from cities, 
 towns, and villages, 2% from the open country. 
 At the House of Kefuge 78% come from the 
 tenement region of New York. Most of the 
 children at the New York Juvenile Asylum 
 come from the lower East side ; of 268 families 
 
 * Thirty-eight per cent of Ferrani's prostitutes were driven to 
 it by poverty ; see table referred to on page 24. 
 
38 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 85% lived in tenements. Almost all the delin- 
 quents of Montclair come from the zones of 
 cheap rents and crowded living. Note what 
 this implies. 
 
 In answer to the question, Is the child of the 
 slums less moral than the child of wealthy 
 sections? a company of school-teachers unani- 
 mously said, "No; he is more moral." That 
 was because they realized the temptations of 
 slum life on a child. They were surprised that 
 the slum youth does so well. For, as the fol- 
 lowing table shows, there is a larger ratio of 
 crimes, of saloons, of illiteracy, and of persons 
 per dwelling (which last is a strong cause of 
 delinquency) in the slum than in the general 
 city: 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 39 
 
 BALTIMORE. 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 City. 
 
 Slum. 
 
 City. 
 
 Slum. 
 
 One crime to 
 every 14 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One crime to 
 every 9 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One crime to 
 every 11 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One crime to 
 every 4 per- 
 lions. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 229 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 105 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 212 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 127 per- 
 sons. 
 
 Illiterates 9.74$ 
 of the people. 
 
 Illiterates 19.60*. 
 
 IlliterateB,4.63$. 
 
 Illiterates 25.37$. 
 
 Ayerage number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 6.02. 
 
 Averege number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 7.71. 
 
 Average number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 8.60. 
 
 Average number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 15.51. 
 
 YORK. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 City. 
 
 Slum. 
 
 City. 
 
 Slum. 
 
 One crime to 
 every 18 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One crime to 
 every 6 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One crime to 
 
 every 18 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One crime to 
 every 13 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 200 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 129 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 870 per- 
 sons. 
 
 One saloon to 
 every 502 per- 
 sons. 
 
 Illiterates 7.69$ 
 of the people. 
 
 Illiterates 46.65$. 
 
 Illiterates 4.97$. 
 
 Illiterates 37.07$. 
 
 Average number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 18.52. 
 
 Average number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 37.79. 
 
 Average number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 5.60. 
 
 Average number 
 of persons per 
 dwelling 7.34. 
 
 This then is the external location of the 
 delinquent home and it is often so bad that not 
 
40 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 even trained settlement workers would risk 
 bringing their children up in it, were they given 
 a good house and money enough to do so. Sev- 
 eral cases have come to the writer's notice, of 
 young men specially trained and desirous of 
 working in slum betterment work. Yet they 
 were unable to withstand the influence of these 
 surroundings. Some left the work, and thus 
 barely saved themselves, others succumbed and 
 became a part of the thing they had attempted 
 to better. It is true that some of the appar- 
 ently morbid offences spring from this environ- 
 ment ; therefore the fact that the delinquent is 
 below the average child in bodily, mental, and 
 moral condition cannot be taken to indicate 
 natural degeneracy when we know the locality 
 of his home. 
 
 Also the data of orphanage strengthen this 
 conclusion. Of delinquents examined by Raux 
 47.4% had lost father, mother or both.* In 
 England 53% of the juvenile offenders were in 
 effect orphans or semi-orphans.f An old study 
 
 * " Enfants Coupable," page 4. 
 
 f " Juvenile Offenders," Morrison, page 145. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 41 
 
 of delinquents at Hartford found 66.6% orphans 
 in fact or in effect.* At Waukesha only 41% had 
 both parents living.f Of the delinquents at 
 Bridewell 45% had no parent living. Sixty-six 
 per cent of those at the House of Refuge were 
 orphans in fact or effect, while only 46% of 
 the New York Juvenile Asylum children had 
 both parents living 4 The State Home at James- 
 burg reports 19% orphans or semi-orphans. And 
 the report for the Reform School population of 
 the United States gives 75% orphans or semi- 
 orphans. At Elmira also 41.9% had left their 
 homes before they were fifteen years of age. 
 
 Considering that these orphans were adrift in 
 localities such as those described in the para- 
 graphs preceding, we should expect recidivism in 
 the children sent back without further help. 
 Yet it is to be doubted if the condition of these 
 orphans and deserted children is worse than 
 some of those delinquents who have a " home." 
 Under the paragraph on the economic condition 
 of the delinquent the economic status of the 
 
 *" Report of the Joint Special Committee," Hartford, 1863. 
 
 f Cady, " Juvenile Offender." 
 
 J N.Y.J.A. fifty-first report, covering 49 years and 37,528 children. 
 
42 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 home was seen to be markedly low. Much the 
 same is true when we look at the moral and 
 intellectual status of that home. It may be 
 surprising to discover that the parents of the 
 offender are often temperate. The Hebrew 
 Shelter Refuge reported that out of the parents 
 of seven hundred orphans, not one was intem- 
 perate. If this is true, it is not typical. At 
 Jamesburg 11% of the children had one or both 
 parents intemperate.* New York Juvenile 
 Asylum reports 81% of the parents temperate ; 
 15% one or both intemperate and 2% unknown. 
 At the House of Refuge 47% of the inmates 
 had one or both parents in temperate. f It should 
 be understood, however, that many of the 
 parents belonged to that class which, while not 
 intemperate, like drink and use it steadily. 
 
 In other respects the parents are not so good. 
 Of 385 families examined by Raux, 36% of the 
 parents were of good repute, 52% poor or bad 
 and 12% criminal.J Morrison says that 80% of 
 the parents of English delinquents have crimi- 
 
 * Fifty-first report covering 49 years. 
 + Eightieth report, page 33. 
 J"Enfants Coupable," page 4. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 48 
 
 nal or vicious habits ; * that is, about 60% of the 
 parents of delinquents are noticeably bad, and 
 this viciousness is often expressed in cruelty to 
 the child. Lydia VonWolfring, a German 
 student of juveniles, describes the results on the 
 children somewhat rhetorically, but truly, in her 
 classification of injuries to children brought to 
 court for relief, as follows : 
 
 (1.) Zufallige Misshandlungen. 
 
 (2.) Misshandlungen aus gehassigkeit mit boswilliger 
 
 Absicht um zu Qualen, aber ohne den Tod veran- 
 
 lassen zu Wollen. 
 (3.) Misshandlungen mit der Absicht die Kinder dem Tode 
 
 zuzufiihren; ein langsamer Mord, nicht leicht zu 
 
 beweisen. 
 
 The first caption of her classification, acci- 
 dental ill-treatment, indicates the character of a 
 relatively large number of the parents of the 
 delinquents. When they are not vicious in 
 intent, they are stupid, ignorant, or incompetent. 
 Forty-five per cent of the Mitchellville Reforma- 
 tory parents are described as incompetent-! 
 They do not fulfil the elementary requirements 
 
 * " Juvenile Offenders," page 150. 
 
 f " What should be the age limit ? " Pamphlet by Superintend- 
 ent Fitzgerald. 
 
44 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 of parentage. During the heat of summer many 
 children with parents of this class die for lack 
 of the most simple relief. The parents of the 
 inmates of the House of Refuge are of foreign 
 birth in almost 50% of cases, and most of these 
 hardly speak English at all. They are of the 
 immigrant type, sometimes described as the 
 " scum " of our population ; 95% of the parents 
 of Elmira inmates are below high school grade 
 in education, and only 7.6% of the inmates ever 
 had a good home.* 
 
 In France this incompetence is shown by 
 Raux as follows : 
 
 SITUATION MORALE DE I/ENFANT DAKS LA FAMILLE. 
 
 Jcuncs Delinquants. 
 Soumis a une surveillance normale 13% 
 
 " " " " faible ^ 
 
 " " " " impuissante I 41% 
 
 " " " brutale J 
 
 Moralement abandonnes \ nom 
 
 Completement " / 
 
 Excites au delit par 1'exemple des parents ^ 
 Ayant commis le delit sous Pinstigation et >-.... 8% 
 avec la complicite de leurs parents J 
 
 Only 13% of all examined had ordinary super- 
 
 * " The New York State Reformatory at Elmira," page 31. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 45 
 
 vision by the parents ;"" the rest were either 
 allowed to drift into delinquency, or taught 
 and initiated to criminality by their guardians. 
 
 Not only so, but the home itself possesses not 
 even the bare necessities which help to keep 
 the child off the streets. New York Juvenile 
 Asylum reports that " some of their children 
 come from cellars, lighted only by a stairway or 
 coal shaft, some from garrets approached only 
 by a ladder.* Other ' homes ' have no furniture 
 except a soap box, and in some cases a heap of 
 rags serves for a bed. Some are found in cold 
 rooms with no method of heating. Others de- 
 pend on the chance help of neighbors. Often 
 there are three families in three rooms, or a 
 family of five in one room. In one case a 
 mother and five children lived in one room and 
 slept on the bare floor. As a rule, the parents 
 belonged to that class who will not work at 
 reputable labor, who like drink and yield easily 
 to temptation." 
 
 Prof. Francis Wayland, dean of Yale Law 
 School, speaking of those delinquents usually 
 
 * N.Y.J.A. report. 
 
46 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 called inherently vicious or degenerate, says,* 
 " These are trained in a school of vice, taught 
 that successful crimes are the only things worth 
 living for; praised when they 'make a haul;' 
 punished when they come home empty-handed. 
 Their homes are foul dens, filthy, full of vermin, 
 and the scenes of infamous orgies of men and 
 women." If, therefore, these children commit 
 offences which are morbid or degenerate, we 
 ought not to conclude that the children are 
 by nature degenerates, criminal or atavistic. 
 Such homes as these described by Professor 
 Wayland are, of course, the exception. The 
 writer has not found more than 3% which could 
 be so described. In some of the worst homes 
 the parents encouraged the children in prostitu- 
 tion, and by tacit if not by open teaching led 
 them to steal, but the majority of dwellings 
 were better than those described above. 
 
 The large per cent of homes shows rather 
 negligence and tactlessness, than vicious intent. 
 For example, in one home the father was a 
 capable worker, but he drank, and lost his work 
 
 * " The duty of the State to its neglected and destitute children." 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 47 
 
 incessantly. The mother was ill. A child of 
 ten was strapped to a chair " to keep her off the 
 street." Another child was a delinquent. The 
 mother did not know where he was. On the 
 death of the mother the " home " was broken 
 up ; the delinquent boy was lost track of, and 
 the children found shelter wherever they could. 
 
 Another " home " was that of a widowed 
 woman and four children. She worked all day 
 and the children were left to do as they pleased. 
 Two of the four became delinquent. The other 
 two barely escaped. The house was almost 
 without furniture, and the mother rarely knew 
 where the children were. One of the boys was 
 in jail a whole week without her knowledge. 
 When brought before the judge she wrung her 
 hands and wept, and asserted that she was 
 doing the best she could. 
 
 To recapitulate : (a.) The home of the de- 
 linquent is on an unstable basis. The children 
 have so little money that habitual steal- 
 ing can not be interpreted as an indication 
 of natural viciousness. The family income 
 is not sufficient to give the delinquent bare 
 
48 TEE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 necessities of life in a city, and it is in the 
 city that the delinquent arises. His home is 
 usually in the slum portion of the locality in 
 which it is situated and in this slum influence 
 the delinquent child, often an orphan, is really 
 adrift. This in itself would explain all the 
 normal offences which he commits, (b.) But the 
 parents of the delinquent when not intemper- 
 ate are often not moral. Over 50% of the 
 parents show striking ethical weakness. They 
 are often negligent and stupid, and often cruel 
 to the children. Even when not negligent or 
 immoral they are often markedly incompetent. 
 Only 13% of the parents of French delinquents 
 gave normal supervision to their children. 
 Some, relatively few, train the children to a 
 vicious or criminal life. And others not crimi- 
 nal, incompetent, or vicious have yet not 
 personality or ability enough to cope with cir- 
 cumstances extraordinarily unfavorable. Under 
 such parental guidance and with such surround- 
 ings, if a child commits offences which are 
 morbid or degenerate in character, or if he 
 shows confirmed recidivism we ought not to 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 49 
 
 conclude that he is therefore by nature either 
 morbid, degenerate or criminal. Also, because 
 the data (summarized on pages 25, 26) show that 
 not more than 6% of the offences committed by 
 juveniles are even morbid or degenerate in 
 character, we may conclude that a study of the 
 delinquent with respect to economic condition, 
 orphanage, parental, and home conditions con- 
 firms the thesis that at least 90% of court offend- 
 ers are normal, and shows how not only the 
 normal but some of the morbid offences are the 
 product of environment. It also gives us 
 ground for believing that the morbid offenders 
 are not more than 5% of first court delinquents, 
 that some of these 5% of the whole are insane, 
 and not more than 1 or 2% of the whole can be 
 accurately called criminal by nature. 
 
 The need for some definite classification of 
 malefactors has already appeared in the preced- 
 ing. Before we can answer the 
 
 The necessity for . T . , ,. 
 
 classification; juve. question, Is the delinquent a 
 
 ^e^quents clas- normal chiM ? we must knQW 
 
 which delinquent is meant. We 
 can not say that the abnormal offender is or is 
 
50 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 not atavistic until we know which abnormal 
 child is indicated. There are different kinds of 
 delinquents ; how shall we classify them ? 
 
 Mornay Williams divides them into two 
 classes : (1) the untrained cub ; (2) the dull boy 
 made criminal by society's treatment of him.* 
 
 Beyers observes two classes : (1) those due to 
 neglect or incompetence of the home ; (2) those 
 due to incompetence of the State. f 
 
 Julius M. Mayer, justice of the Court of 
 Special Sessions in New York, arranges them 
 from a different standpoint, as : (1) mischievous 
 children ; (2) delinquents by temptation ; (3) by 
 bad associates ; (4) by parental neglect or in- 
 competency ; (5) children with criminal tenden- 
 cies, recidivists with no moral standard ; (6) 
 runaways and vagrants ; (7) disorderly and un- 
 governable children; (8) children neglected or 
 abused by parents. 
 
 From France comes another classification : 
 
 (a.) Vagabonds par temperament. 
 (6.) Vagabonds par indolence. 
 
 *" The Street Boy," pages 5, 6. 
 
 f Superintendent of the House of Refuge in an interview- 
 
THE YOUXG MALEFACTOR. 51 
 
 (c.) Vagabonds par occasion. 
 
 (d.) Les petits mendicants. 
 
 (e.) Les petits martyrs (probably meaning unfortunates). 
 
 (/.) Les petits prostituees. 
 
 (#.) Les petits voleurs. 
 
 (/&.) Les petits assasins. 
 
 For the purposes of this paper we may clas- 
 sify the young offender as follows : 
 
 (1.) The delinquent by occasion, stumbling, or chance 
 
 (an isolated act). 
 (2.) The delinquent by misfortune or destitution (in 
 
 grave danger of delinquency). 
 (3.) The delinquent by parental incompetency (ignorant, 
 
 tactless, or vicious parents). 
 (4.) The delinquent by contracted habit (junk pickers, 
 
 etc.). 
 (5.) The delinquent by unequal economic struggle 
 
 (negro vs. white ; immigrant vs. native ; poor 
 
 class vs. well equipped). 
 
 (6.) The delinquent by effective environment (poor as- 
 sociates; poor oversight). 
 (7.) The delinquent by effective heredity (in narrow 
 
 sense of neurotic tendencies). 
 (8.) The delinquent by congenital defect (accident of 
 
 birth, etc.). 
 (9.) The delinquent by physical defect acquired (disease 
 
 or mal-development). 
 (10.) The delinquent by mental defect acquired (disease, 
 
 no training, mal-development). 
 
 And we may say that all of the first six 
 classes are normal and not only can be but have 
 
52 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 been cured by present methods. Some of the 
 last four classes are morbid, some degenerate, 
 some insane, and perhaps some of these are 
 atavistic and criminal by nature. It is only in 
 the relatively small number covered by these 
 last four classes that the stigmata theory can be 
 applied, and that application will be studied in 
 Chapter II. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHILD BORN CENTURIES TOO LATE. 
 
 GENERAL thesis : (a.) The stigmata de- 
 scribed by the Italian School are not stigmata 
 of crime or type of crime but are stigmata of 
 degeneracy or abnormality, (b.) The " natural " 
 offender is not insane. 
 
 We have found that there are certain peculi- 
 arities among young delinquents. These in 
 summary of chap. first court offenders and among 
 ter I - the inmates of the milder insti- 
 
 tutions are surely in 90% and probably in 98% of 
 cases only mal-developments due to poor nutri- 
 tion and the like. As we proceed to the study 
 of the inmates of the sternest institutions we 
 find an increase of these anomalies which may 
 indicate natural criminality in some offenders. 
 An examination of the environment of the 
 juvenile shows that natural criminality is not as 
 common as might be supposed. Still, there are 
 
 (53) 
 
54 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 persons included in the last four classes given 
 on page 51, who may be described as naturally 
 criminal. And though these do not constitute 
 more than 1 or 2% of first court offenders, they 
 increase in number as we deal with older male- 
 factors. 
 
 We now propose to examine the convicts, 
 
 especially those who may be naturally criminal, 
 
 The question to be to S6e if these peculiarities are 
 
 treated in Chapter II. SQ con fi ne( l t O offenders OS to 
 
 constitute marks of identification of crime or of 
 types of crime. The question then is, are these 
 stigmata of crime or are they indications of 
 degeneracy, occurring also among the abnormal 
 or insane who are not criminal? 
 
 The Italian School claims that the criminal, 
 and therefore by implication the delinquent, is 
 
 The claim of the a person marked by typical body 
 Italian School. and mind . that his singularities 
 
 (stigmata) have a causative significance, an 
 evolutionary or atavistic connection, and dis- 
 cover not only the criminal but also the type of 
 crime to which he is or will be addicted. It 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOE. 55 
 
 will put the claim fully before us if we look at 
 the narrative of its rise. 
 
 Very early in history an extraordinary man 
 was thought to have an unusual body almost 
 
 Historical develop- all founders of religion, for 
 Zry* tbe 8dgmata example, were supposed to have 
 
 (a.) Hindoo sources, superhuman birth. An ugly 
 body was associated with a bad man and a 
 beautiful body belonged to the good. For 
 instance, the Buddhist sources describe Gau- 
 tama so : " The foot of Gautama came to the 
 ground as lightly as if it had been cotton wool. 
 His* fingers tapered gradually to the end. His 
 arms were straight and so long that without 
 bending he could touch his knee. The hair on 
 his body was smooth, not rough nor straggling. 
 His body was perfectly straight. The upper 
 part of his body was full like that of a lion. He 
 was sensitive to the slightest flavor. He had 
 forty-two teeth. The sole of his feet touched 
 the ground at all places alike. His nostrils 
 
 * Spense Handy, " Manual of Buddhism," page 380. No addi- 
 tion to this is made in either Burmese, Chinese or Japanese 
 descriptions of him. These nations rarely mention physiological 
 singularities. 
 
56 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 were high. His ears were long. His tongue 
 was so long that by putting it out he could 
 touch his forehead, or the orifices of his ears." 
 
 Here is revealed what we may call an appre- 
 ciation of physical anomalies, and it is in such 
 sources that the stigmata theory arises. Lom- 
 broso has a volume on the resemblances of 
 genius and insanity, and it is interesting to note 
 that several of the peculiarities described by 
 the Italian School as stigmata of crime are here 
 mentioned as characteristics of the Buddha. 
 For example, long arms, hairy limbs, abnormal 
 dentition (Buddha had forty-two teeth), flat- 
 footedness and long ears have all been described 
 by Lombroso as stigmata of crime. The crimi- 
 nal's lack of sensitiveness to flavors has also 
 been noted, and one student has described the 
 high nostril as a stigma of degeneracy. 
 
 As far as the writer discovered there are no 
 physical descriptions of Confucius in the classi- 
 cs.) Arabian ca ^ literature and the same is 
 
 sources. 
 
 * true with regard to Mahomet 
 and the Koran. Hardly a trace of the apprecia- 
 tion of physical singularity appears beyond the 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 57 
 
 fact that female beauty is depicted, and inci- 
 dentally the Queen of Saba is said to have had 
 hairy limbs.* In Burton's " Arabian Nights " 
 there are some faint shadowings of such appre- 
 ciation, but on the whole Mohammedan sources 
 are silent. 
 
 In Hebrew literature there are more data. 
 Ehud, the Benjamite assassin of King Eglon 
 
 (c.) Hebrew ^ Moab, is described as left- 
 
 sources. 
 
 . handed ; Saul the hypochondria- 
 cal king was also a Benjamite. f Most of the 
 savage men who became outlaws, the "lion- 
 faced " warriors of David, were Benjamites, and 
 the fighters of this tribe are described as ambi- 
 dextrous. The Sodomites, homosexualists, were 
 of the same tribe, as were also those sexual per- 
 verts who abused Lot's concubine to death. 
 The ferocity of this horde is shown in Judges : 
 with 33,000 men they beat combined Israel 
 mustering 400,000 men. Their ancestor Benoni 
 was prematurely born by the effect of sudden 
 grief. Again, Goliath, a " man of great stature," 
 
 * Al Koran, Chapters IV., XVI., XXVIII. 
 t Judges 3: 15. 20:4-8. 1 Sam. 9:1. IChron. 12:2. Gen. 
 35 : 16-18. 
 
58 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 " a son of a giant," had six fingers on each hand 
 and six toes on each foot. His sons were also 
 giants, and one of them at least had four and 
 twenty fingers and toes. 
 
 Now it is interesting to note that left handed- 
 ness, ambidexterity, extra digitation and the 
 moody temperament have all been connected by 
 the Italian School with the physical idiosyn- 
 cracies of the offender. 
 
 The New Testament, though Greek in atmos- 
 phere, is not a Greek book. Not a clear physi- 
 (d.) Greek ca ^ description of any of its 
 
 sources. h eroeg or villains is given. But 
 when we come to Homer these abound. His 
 depiction of the obnoxious Thersites has become 
 a classic in the literature of stigmata. "He 
 was the ugliest man who came to Ilion ; bandy- 
 legged, lame on one foot, his round shoulders 
 seemed drawn together on his chest, his head 
 moreover was pointed " (keel-shaped), " and 
 sparse was the wool that grew thereon." 
 
 This mention of the " keel-shaped " head in 
 connection with moral obliquity is, perhaps, the 
 first of its kind ; and the " keel-shaped " head 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 59 
 
 has also been called a stigma of crime by the 
 Italians. 
 
 But it was not until later that actual schools 
 
 of physiognomists arise. Socrates (469 B.C.) 
 
 () Later Greek was told by a member of such a 
 
 andEuropeaaschooiB. sc h oo i that his face indicated 
 
 brutality, sensuousness, and drunkenness. It is 
 said that Socrates agreed that these were natural 
 tendencies of his. He declared also that the 
 pale face and dark complexion of another man 
 indicated a murderer. Hippocrates (460-476 
 B.C.), the celebrated physician, makes the sur- 
 prising statement that all vice is the fruit of 
 madness. Plato (429 B.C.) recognizes congeni- 
 tal tendencies so thoroughly that he builds his 
 theory* of education upon them and declares 
 that the wicked owe their wickedness, to their 
 physical organization. 
 
 Aristotle (348 B.C.), born of a family of great 
 physicians, recognizes physiognomic signs of 
 vices and crimes, a connection between shape of 
 head and mental disposition, as well as the he- 
 reditary character of criminal instincts. Galen 
 
 * Republic. 
 
60 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 (130 A.D.), following Aristotle's views, inaugu- 
 rated the experimental study of the brain and 
 pointed out the influence of alcoholism in the 
 production of crime. 
 
 During later centuries these facts became so 
 generally known that proverbs appear like the 
 old Roman and French sayings, "From the 
 visage one may know the vice." " Little beard 
 and little color, there is nothing worse under 
 heaven." " Salute from afar the beardless man 
 and the bearded woman." Medieval law even 
 punished the uglier of two suspects. 
 
 Dalla Porta (16th century) laid scientific foun- 
 dations ; Gall (1758-77) did much to further this 
 study, though Cuvier did not accept his teach- 
 ings. And rightly so, for Gall connected his 
 results with the exploded bubble of Phrenology. 
 None the less, as Alchemy was the mother of 
 Chemistry, so Phrenology was to Cerebral Physi- 
 ology. 
 
 It was in 1859 that Broca instituted the An- 
 thropological Society at Paris and the same year 
 Darwin's " Origin of Species " appeared with 
 the key of evolution fitting an enormous mass 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 61 
 
 of data concerning the criminal, collected by 
 Lombroso of Italy. Lombroso accepted Darwin's 
 theory and made it the basis of his book, 
 " L'uomo Delinquente." The modern stigmata 
 theory was fully launched. Scores of anthro- 
 pologists agreed with Lombroso, also many dis- 
 agreed thoroughly. 
 
 That is, we see first the vague ideas of the 
 ancients that exceptionally great or bad men 
 summary of have peculiar bodies. Then the 
 
 historical data. sem i-scientific men and keen 
 thinkers see some nearer connection between 
 physique and crime. Later, the physiological 
 crirninologist is acutely alive to this factor and 
 searching to define it more exactly. At last 
 the evolutionary idea furnishes a key and full 
 theories spring to life. These divide into two 
 schools: (1) The stigmata school applying to 
 the extreme the ideas of Darwin, and declaring 
 that the criminal can be discovered practically 
 every time by certain stigmata ; that even the 
 type of criminal can be discovered without pre- 
 vious knowledge of any criminal act ; that these 
 stigmata are evolutionary in significance and 
 
62 THE TOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 the criminal atavistic related physically and 
 psychologically to the savage and sub-human. 
 (2) The more modern school, which accepts the 
 fact that some criminals are anomalous in mind 
 and body, but are not yet ready to say precisely 
 how. It is the purpose of this chapter to de- 
 scribe more exactly the manner in which these 
 singularities occur. 
 
 This classification of the malefactor as ata- 
 vistic, related to the savage and sub-human, is 
 The claim of the based on certain physical phe- 
 ?o Ch ?LC nomena by which the Italian 
 crime by .tigmta. School declares that he can be 
 picked out from a crowd even before he has 
 ever committed any crime and proved to be at 
 least an incipient offender. For example, Gara- 
 falo claims that if a strange criminal were in a 
 crowd of strangers he could pick him out by 
 these stigmata at the first effort eighty times 
 out of a hundred. 
 
 But that is not all, not merely do they claim 
 to discover a criminal so, but even to tell what 
 crime he has perpetrated ; and if he has not yet 
 committed an offence thev claim to tell what 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 63 
 
 kind of transgression he will be addicted to. 
 Ferri, for example, gives a case in which he 
 designated one man, an absolute stranger, from 
 several hundred strangers and accused him of 
 murder ; the fellow confessed. 
 
 What then are these stigmata? Lombroso 
 
 declares that the " born " criminal has project- 
 
 General stigmata, ing ears, thick head hair, a thin 
 
 These stigmata tabu- 
 
 beard, projecting chin, large 
 
 cheek bones, frequent gesticulation, and is a 
 type of European resembling a Mongolian. 
 Ferri declares the most marked feature of the 
 criminal skull to be lack of symmetry. He 
 finds three times as many anomalies of skull 
 among criminals as among the soldiers of Italy 
 and considers five anomalies to be rare in the 
 normal soldier. 
 
 Others of this school declare that crooked 
 bony palates, abnormal teeth, peculiar, deflected 
 or rectilinear nose, excessive Darwinian tu- 
 bercles, strange facial wrinkles, and abnormal 
 feet to be the shibboleths of the malefactor. 
 
 Examples of those stigmata which betray 
 type of crime are given as follows : Murderers 
 
64 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 and thieves have a decidedly inferior head 
 
 Stigmata of particu- 
 
 lar types of criminal. Tarnowskaia finds that female 
 thieves have decided defects of the bony palate, 
 and undeveloped teeth. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that these claims 
 
 can be tested with relative ease. It does not 
 
 require technical skill and 
 
 A statement of what 
 
 is necessary, accord- knowledge to understand or 
 
 ing to this school, to 
 
 discover a criminal or reCOgniZC theSC Stigmata. In 
 
 his type of crime. - ~ f , , 
 
 fact Garafalo was not a physi- 
 cian but a jurist of Naples. Anybody with 
 the ordinary scientific training which the Physi- 
 ology, Comparative Anatomy, and Biology of 
 college courses give can test these claims. 
 Also no stripping of the patient is necessary ; 
 only the head formation and the feet and hands 
 need be examined. If a person reveals five or 
 more of the stigmata above mentioned, he is a 
 criminal, according to this claim, and if he 
 shows decided inferiority of head, say six or 
 seven of the above peculiarities, he is a murderer 
 or a thief. If in addition a woman has defective 
 bony palate and defective dentition in a striking 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 65 
 
 way she is a thief. In fact, one trained in the 
 scientific course at a good university, after a little 
 practice with palate examination, should be able 
 to sit before a crowd and pick out all these stig- 
 mata without asking a question. For the 
 formation of the cheek, mouth, and chin will so 
 reveal the condition of palate and teeth that 
 one with three weeks' practice can tell if the 
 bony palate be strikingly abnormal. All the 
 other stigmata except feet and hands are in 
 plain sight. 
 
 If these stigmata are searched for in the 
 
 normal population and the percentage and ways 
 
 Requirements of a of occurring are tabulated and 
 
 test \ e the same thing repeated with 
 
 (a.) The normal 
 
 population examined, dependents, with the insane, 
 and with prisoners and juvenile offenders, the 
 claims of the Italian School can be thoroughly 
 tested. This was done by the writer. Re- 
 peated counts were made among student and 
 popular audiences, with the following results: 
 every single stigma mentioned by the Italian 
 School as typical of the criminal was found 
 among ordinary people. Some of them were 
 
66 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 found in practically as large a per cent of cases 
 among the normal as among the delinquent 
 class ; especially thick hair and abnormality of 
 palate, for example. These were found in about 
 10% of cases. Outstanding ears and defective 
 dentition were common. But it should be said 
 that rarely were five or more of the above found 
 in one person, and when such combination was 
 found an examination of the personal and 
 family history revealed a peculiarity, like insane 
 taint, neurotic character or special ability in 
 some lines. One example will suffice. A medi- 
 cal student had the high palate, the peculiar 
 nose, thin beard, outstanding ears, prominent 
 cheek bones, and a peculiar shaped head. The 
 medical staff pointed him out as normal none 
 the less. An examination of the family history 
 revealed relatives of his on the list of patients 
 in the insane asylum in which he was working. 
 The writer had seen him speak before a private 
 gathering of students when he was so markedly 
 nervous as to excite sympathy among all present. 
 He was also almost a genius in Bacteriology. 
 In actual examination there is always a point 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 67 
 
 reached when it is a question as to whether an 
 individual shall be classed as having five of 
 these stigmata. One or two may be there in 
 such light form that it is doubtful whether they 
 should be counted. But including all who had 
 five such anomalies there were not more than 
 5% of the ordinary student and popular audi- 
 ences who were so tabulated. 
 
 Also, the inmates of Weathersfield Prison in 
 
 Connecticut and the penitentiary in Caldwell, 
 
 N.J., revealed similar results. 
 
 (6.) Results of an 
 
 examination of older There WaS Oil the whole a notice- 
 offenders show n o 
 
 Btigmata of crime or able increase of physical peculiar- 
 ities. The thick head hair, thin 
 beard, prominent cheek bones, defective denti- 
 tion, and inferior head forms were all more 
 common. In addition to this was a pallor of 
 face, owing perhaps to confinement, and a 
 sinister expression, perhaps somewhat imagined 
 by the observer. But when an actual count 
 was made of those having five or more of the 
 so-called stigmata of crime not more than 10% 
 were discovered. That is, there were twice as 
 many strikingly abnormal heads among old 
 
68 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 prisoners as among the ordinary population. 
 But it should be noted that there was no proof 
 adduced that these were by nature criminal and 
 absolutely no proof that these stigmata occurred 
 in such a way as to discover type of crime with 
 even an approximate accuracy. Such results, 
 differing radically as they do from those of the 
 Italian School, should be explicable before they 
 are received, for the Italian anthropologists are 
 among the best, if not quite the best, in the 
 world. 
 
 It will be remembered that Lombroso worked 
 almost entirely with adults of one race, the 
 Italian. The writer's work, especially in New 
 Jersey institutions, has enabled him to work 
 with many Italian offenders, as well as with 
 almost every other common race of men. He 
 finds this true : Among the Italian criminals 
 adults are found who are accurately described 
 by Lombroso, i.e., they have asymmetrical heads, 
 thick hair, prominent frontal eminences, high 
 cheek bones, big facial angle, large orbital 
 capacity, abnormal facial hair, etc., and their 
 history reveals something very like born crimi- 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 69 
 
 nality. They approach the Mongolian in ap- 
 pearance even as Lombroso claims. 
 
 One such man the writer has in mind, a finely 
 built fellow full of life, strong and alert, with a 
 ferocious face, as fine a set of teeth as ever were 
 in a man's head, thirty-two white, shining, even 
 teeth, and never a brush on them in his life. 
 He was a typical born criminal according to the 
 Italian School. But he is the only one yet 
 found in an institution of 300 inmates. 
 
 Careful study leads the writer to conclude 
 that Lombroso's claims are right with a few 
 alterations. First, the Italian born criminal 
 approaches this type but not all criminals, for 
 the writer has not yet found an Irish, English 
 or American criminal who came under Lom- 
 broso's description. Secondly, Lombroso's stig- 
 mata will be found in as full a degree in Italian 
 insane as in Italian malefactors. That is, they 
 are marks of degeneracy, not of crime alone. 
 
 The basis of these peculiarities is not mere 
 atavism, it is also race aggregation. The peculiar 
 combination of peoples which has produced the 
 Italian produces, when atavism acts, the Mon- 
 
70 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 goloid type of degenerate, but when atavism 
 acts on other races it produces a somewhat 
 different type. 
 
 There is, therefore, no such radical difference 
 as at first appears between the conclusions of 
 Lombroso and those of the writer. 
 
 These results are ib essential agreement with 
 those published by ttye staff at Elmira. They 
 The result* found report that though many stig- 
 mata ar 
 
 of Refuge es- n t in gu h combinations 
 
 .-i-mially agree with 
 
 thls - as to indicate natural criminals 
 
 or types of crime. At Rahway and the House 
 of Refuge similar examinations were made by 
 the writer. Again, anomalies were frequently 
 found, especially inferiority and asymmetry of 
 head formation. But in not more than 8% or 
 10% of cases did these occur in striking and 
 sinister combinations, and there was no trace of 
 a betrayal of type of crime by these stigmata. 
 This was essentially the issue of a study of 
 lighter offenders at George Junior Republic and 
 similar places. 
 
 The results found at the Children's Court 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 71 
 
 have already been stated.* There remains only 
 Anthropologists to give the decisions of anthro- 
 
 agree with these re- 
 sults, pologists who made especially 
 
 careful examinations of the juvenile. No more 
 thorough search has been made of the lighter 
 offender than that of Hrdlicka, and his conclu- 
 sion is as follows : 
 
 "Abnormalities of the palate, ear, and male 
 genitals are the most frequent. The variety of 
 irregularities observed is very great. But there 
 is no one, nor any one set of abnormalities, 
 which runs through such a number of subjects 
 that we could consider it typical of the asylum 
 children or of any similar class. There is no 
 abnormal type of individuals in the institution ; 
 whatever abnormal persons there may be are 
 but exceptions. We have to deal here with a 
 class of children the large majority of whom, so 
 far as physical abnormalities are concerned, are 
 fairly average individuals. There are many 
 irregularities in the children which are due to 
 neglect arid can and ought to be corrected.! A 
 
 * Pages 8 et seq., Chapter I. 
 
 fN.Y.J.A., forty-seventh report. Appendix. 
 
72 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 small proportion of the inmates are children of 
 unhealthy parents, as a result of which descend- 
 ance they have fallen subject to states of mal- 
 nutrition or to rachitis, which have left them 
 with numerous physical abnormalities. I found 
 no single child whom I could call a degenerate." 
 Maupate of Paris has also made a thorough 
 study of French delinquents with regard to 
 Maupate finds no stigmata of crime. His report i 
 
 atigmaU of crime or 
 
 type of crime. aS follOWS : 
 
 (1.) "Chez les enfants a mauvais instincts 
 on peut trouver un certain nombre des deforma- 
 tions decrites par 1'ecole Italienne, mais elles 
 existent dans un nombre de cas trop faible pour 
 qu'on puisse les regarder comme characteris- 
 tiques." 
 
 (2.) " D'ailleurs les enfants * alienes pris dans 
 le meme mileau social presentent ces memes 
 conformations dans une proportion identique." 
 
 (3.) " II n'y a pas de rapport entre le degre 
 de criminalite et Fintensite de deformations." 
 
 (4.) "La co-existence d'un certain nombre 
 
 *" Recherches d'anthropologie criminelle, chez 1'enfant ; crim- 
 inalite et degenerescence," par Dr. L. Maupate, page 223. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 73 
 
 de ces signes chez le meme individu, a laquelle 
 Lombroso attache une certain importance, est 
 rare." 
 
 (5.) " A plus forte raison n'existe-t-il pas une 
 conformation special du visage ou du corps pour 
 chaque variete de criminel." 
 
 (6.) " II n'y a done pas de type physiologique 
 du criminelle. Dans 1'aspect d'un criminel il 
 faut tenir compte des sentiments que reflete sa 
 physiognomie, de la race a laquelle il apparti- 
 ent de son degre de degenerescence." 
 
 (7.) "En general, ces enfants a mauvaise 
 instincts etaitent alienes sont physiquement et 
 mentalment des degeneres et 1'etude de leurs 
 antecedents vient corroborer cette idee." 
 
 (8.) "Mais la degenerescence physique et 
 mentale n'est pas chez eux en rapport avec le 
 degre de criminalite ; n'est pas plus intense chez 
 eux que chez les enfants honnetes et alienes." 
 
 (9.) "II n'existe pas done aucun stigmate 
 regressif ou degeneratif que nous permettre de 
 reconnaitre le criminel, et en 1'internant des son 
 enfance, de prevenir le crime." 
 
 In summary we may say that these so-called 
 
74 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 stigmata of crime have been found to some 
 A Bummary of the degree in the normal population, 
 
 facts before Btated but in not mQre than 5^ Q f cages 
 leads to the conclu- 
 
 eion that the stigmata were they in striking numbers 
 
 described by Lorn- 
 
 i- and combinations in one mdi- 
 
 mately accurate signs . , , , . . . , . . , 
 
 of crime or types of vidual. And in such mdividu- 
 als they occurred with some 
 singularity of disposition not necessarily crim- 
 inal or morbid. They are found also among the 
 older offenders in larger numbers and more 
 baneful combinations, but not in more than 10% 
 of cases do they occur in strikingly abnormal 
 numbers, and in such individuals they do not 
 occur so as to indicate natural criminality or 
 type of crime. The same is true to a greater 
 degree of the milder offenders, like those of 
 Rahway or the House of Refuge. But when 
 we descend to the inmates of the mildest insti- 
 tutions we find the report of Maupate to be 
 characteristic, i.e., there are in children with 
 bad instincts a certain number of deformations 
 described by the Italian School as stigmata of 
 crime, but they do not exist in such a way as to 
 be characteristic. Other children of the same 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 75 
 
 state, not criminal, present the same deforma- 
 tions in identical proportion. There is no rela- 
 tion between the degree of criminality and the 
 intensity of the stigmata. The occurrence of 
 these stigmata in such combinations as Lom- 
 broso describes is rare. 
 
 There is no strong reason for supposing a 
 special conformation of physique to be character- 
 istic of a special type of crime. There is then 
 no physiological type of delinquent. 
 
 In spite of the strong supposition which these 
 data show against the stigmata school, their 
 
 An examination of position WOUld not be UU- 
 the insane shows that , . ... ., .. 
 
 the so-called stigmata doubtedly refuted UnleSS it 
 
 8 :r^ could be shown clearly that 
 
 criminal and therefore even jf the st i Rma ta which they 
 these peculiarities 
 
 can not be accepted as discovered WCre found in SUCll 
 marks of crime or 
 
 types of crime. numbers and combinations as 
 
 they describe, they are found in at least as great 
 numbers and as sinister combinations in others 
 who are not criminal. If, however, this can be 
 done, their position becomes untenable. The 
 realm of insanity offers the proof that the so- 
 called stigmata of crime occur there in at least 
 
76 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 as baneful and numerous combinations as among 
 the offenders. 
 
 The State Insane Asylum at Middletown 
 
 contains about 1,100 patients. Most of these 
 
 The inmates of con- were examined with sufficient 
 
 necticut State Insane ,-, f 
 
 Asylum B how these Care to note the OCCUTience of 
 
 SrZ 8ti e mata - A hundred of them > 
 
 Ister combination, as fifty men and fifty WOmen, Were 
 the criminals of Lom- 
 
 examined carefully by the writ- 
 er and the singularities tabulated. With the 
 result that every stigma save one described 
 by the Italian School was found there in at 
 least as great numbers and as sinister combina- 
 tions as Lombroso reports of the criminal. 
 Projecting ears, thick head hair, thin beard, 
 abnormal hair on female faces, projecting 
 frontal eminences, large jaws, prognathous jaws, 
 large cheek bones, and frequent gesticulations 
 were found hi more than 15% of cases. At least 
 one stigma not mentioned elsewhere to the 
 writer's knowledge was discovered, and the 
 percentage of strikingly abnormal, grotesque 
 heads was greater than that observed in any 
 penal institution. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOE. 77 
 
 Thick head hair was found in about 14% of 
 
 cases examined. Thin beard, especially in the 
 
 particular anomai- re g ion extending from the end 
 
 ies were found in as Q f ^ } hair fo ^ cep l ia l a( J 
 large a per cent of 
 
 cases as in criminals, angle of the jaw, was found in 
 15% of cases at least, and some of the faces ex- 
 amined had practically no beard (see appendix, 
 Plate II.). Projecting frontal eminences oc- 
 curred in about 14% of cases and sometimes 
 very striking examples were found (see appendix, 
 Plate VII.). The enormous jaws described by 
 Lombroso were seen in 12% of cases and also 
 noteworthy specimens of this occurred (see 
 Plate V., b). Projecting cheek bones were com- 
 mon (see Plate V., b).* And the last mentioned, 
 namely, frequent gesticulation, is so ubiquitous 
 that it would be futile even to count the percent- 
 age. Patients of the excitable kind have gestic- 
 ulations of all varieties occurring sometimes 
 the whole day long and half the night. Abnor- 
 mal hair on female faces was found in 15% of 
 cases (see Plate III.), and in such a way as to 
 
 * All these sketches are as faithful and accurate as the writer 
 could make. Special care was taken not to exaggerate anomalies. 
 
78 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 indicate to the writer that this hair appears 
 often on female faces about the time of climac- 
 teric. Facial wrinkles not due to age were 
 common (see Plate IV.). Deflected and abnor- 
 mal noses are shown on Plates II., III., V., a, 
 VI., VII., appendix. These were numerous. 
 While abnormal heads, heads with five anomal- 
 ies, amounted to at least 20%. Some of these 
 heads are so grotesque as to be beyond descrip- 
 tion. Even photographs do not give more than 
 a suggestion. Take those shown on Plates VII., 
 appendix; the female head can be likened to 
 nothing better than an elongated melon stand- 
 ing vertically on the shoulders. There is 
 hardly a normal part to it. The same is true of 
 the male head, with the exception that this is 
 dolichocephalic to an exaggerated degree, while 
 the former is brachycephalic to a grotesque 
 extent. 
 
 Surely in the face of such facts no one can 
 accept fully the statement of the Italian School 
 that an " incontestable inferiority of head forma- 
 tion is characteristic of thieves," or that people 
 in whom five or more of the above mentioned 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 79 
 
 abnormalities are present must therefore be 
 criminals. 
 
 Nor is the statement that abnormality of bony 
 palate betrays female thieves otherwise. Over 
 15% of the palates of insane patients were 
 abnormal and the dentition was noticeably 
 defective in at least as many. Is it not reason- 
 able to suppose that the teeth of women thieves 
 and of insane patients would naturally be 
 defective when we recall how much care is 
 necessary to preserve them in the normal per- 
 son ? For example, whenever the inside of the 
 mouth of a criminal was examined by the 
 writer, the following question was asked. 
 The standpoint of the criminal may be seen 
 from the answer. " Did you ever in your life 
 brush your teeth ? " " No, I ain't much of a 
 
 sport, I just " (The blank was filled in by 
 
 curving the index finger, opening the mouth, 
 and making a sweeping curve in the orifice.) 
 The implication was that he scooped the debris 
 from his teeth cavities by aid of his long finger- 
 nails or table knife. " But this is not a matter 
 of ' sportiness,' it does n't make any difference 
 
80 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 about your looks ; it is your digestion I am 
 thinking of." A surprised and incredulous 
 expression follows and then after further con- 
 versation our friend decides to clean his teeth. 
 But when he learns it must be done on rising 
 and retiring as well as after every meal, he 
 weakens, and invariably we say : " Well, do it 
 before you go to bed." Then comes the reply : 
 "We have no brush and no powder." The 
 examiner is compelled to tell them to use a 
 towel with a little soap, or even the bare finger. 
 How in the face of these facts can we expect 
 criminal teeth to be good, when we remember 
 that the slightest displacement facilitates decay 
 and the loss of one tooth may cause the rest to 
 grow crooked and even affect the hard palate ? 
 The same is true of the insane. Many examples 
 of abnormal dentition were found, as "wolf 
 teeth," " syphilitic teeth," and teeth out of place. 
 Picture a, Plate IV., reveals teeth so mis- 
 placed that the lips could not cover them; 
 while the female on Plate VII. had her teeth 
 arranged in two rows, one behind the other. 
 The high " V-shaped " palate and the palate 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 81 
 
 with the deflected or meandering ridge line were 
 plentiful ; so much so that the V-shaped palate 
 has been called characteristic of the insane. It 
 occurred in 15% at least of the cases. A medical 
 friend and the writer took wax imprints, arranged 
 and photographed the plaster models of forty- 
 two palates, some of which were not of insane 
 patients, in order to compare them with the 
 statement of the Italian School. We found 
 many kinds of abnormality present, some in 
 striking degree. Photographs of these palates 
 are given on Plate IX., appendix, and their 
 deviation from even ordinarily normal palates 
 can be seen by a comparison with the three at 
 the bottom, which are fairly regular and belong 
 to people not insane or criminal. 
 
 Can it then be held without reserve that 
 defects in the bony palate and teeth, even when 
 occurring with the other stigmata, in striking 
 intensity, indicate thieves? All the patients 
 whose photographs are given, which represent 
 about 10% of the whole, were so abnormal as to 
 catch the eye at once ; some few of them have 
 hardly a normal part to the head and there are 
 
82 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 many besides this 10% who would have more 
 than five abnormalities. Is not the claim of the 
 Italian School to be received with reservation 
 therefore ? 
 
 Not only so, but one of the stigmata described 
 by Lombroso was not present in 10% of the cases, 
 either in the offenders or in the insane ; that is 
 the prominent Darwinian tubercle. The ears 
 were easily examined, flapping ears, elongated, 
 attached lobes and those described as "blood 
 ears," namely, the whole ear apparently swollen 
 and its parts thus contracted until the orifice 
 was almost closed; all these were found, but 
 the Darwinian tubercle was not found in the 
 insane or in the criminal in as prominent a 
 degree as in the normal population. 
 
 One stigma not mentioned by any school to 
 the writer's knowledge was discovered, namely, 
 the almond-shaped nostril, shown on Plate VII., 
 appendix. The septum is not noticeably de- 
 flected, but the ala are shortened and so shaped 
 that a horizontal lateral view reveals an almond- 
 shaped orifice with the point cephalad or the 
 reverse. This was found in at least 12% of cases 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOB. 83 
 
 and was accepted by some of the physicians of 
 the staff as a probable stigma of degeneracy. 
 
 There were also strikingly abnormal feet (for in- 
 stance Plate X.), feet having twelve toes. Other 
 unusual defects were observed, as the peculiar 
 coloring of the face on Plate X. The patient 
 was black and white, and suggested the mark- 
 ings of an animal. 
 
 To sum up this section of the insane, all the 
 
 stigmata which Lombroso and his followers 
 
 claimed to be characteristic of 
 
 Summary and con- 
 clusion that the etig- the criminal have been found in 
 
 mata of Lombroso are 
 
 not characteristic of the insane, and found there in 
 at least as great numbers and 
 in as sinister combinations as the Italian School 
 claimed for the offender. One stigma, the promi- 
 nent Darwinian tubercle, claimed as a mark of 
 crime by this school, was not found as intense 
 among the insane or malefactors as in the normal 
 population. But another not mentioned by the 
 Italian students was found in the insane. 
 
 To gather up the data under stigmata we find 
 that beginning with the normal child, advancing 
 through the older normal person to the youngest 
 
84 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 and mildest offender and from these through the 
 grades of malefactors up to the oldest and most 
 deeply involved, and again from these into the 
 realm of the insane, there is on the whole a 
 steady increase in the number and sinister com- 
 binations of physical anomalies. The oldest 
 and deepest criminal has more stigmata than 
 any of the above classes except the insane. 
 Those forms of insanity usually considered con- 
 genital, however, have much more grotesqueness 
 of physique than the deepest of crime. From 
 nature's standpoint insanity of the congenital 
 kind is a greater degeneracy than the worst crime. 
 
 We may therefore conclude that if these 
 stigmata were found as described by Lombroso 
 they are not characteristic of criminals alone, 
 but probably of degeneracy of all kinds. 
 
 Is the offender then insane? That depends 
 B. The occurrence upon what we mean by the 
 
 of these Btigmata 
 
 among the insane term. In a very true sense 
 
 raises the question, .. ,- 
 
 is the natural crimi- there are few men perfectly 
 
 nal insane? And if W jj somew l iat 
 
 we would understand 
 
 the nature of delin- i nsane i n spots and streaks, 
 quency we must an- 
 swer this question, sometimes in whole areas. But 
 
 in the sense accepted by the medical men, 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 85 
 
 accurately and not metaphorically, is the male- 
 factor insane ? Again we repeat, most are not. 
 Fully 95% of first court offenders are thoroughly 
 sane. Of the residue some are insane in the 
 accepted medical sense ; they are not the " nat- 
 ural " criminals. Of the others, the genuine 
 criminals, we must hesitate before we answer. 
 We must not name them insane without a 
 mental reservation. We must compare the 
 psychoses of each. 
 
 The subtlety of the insane taint is almost 
 
 incredible to laymen. One may know a deeply 
 
 The subtlety of the tainted person intimately for 
 
 insane taint is very 
 
 great. months and never suspect his 
 
 insanity, when suddenly it will blaze up and 
 pass away, leaving one wondering if his eyes 
 have deceived him. Even physicians are puz- 
 zled. One patient escaped from an asylum, 
 passed a medical examination, and joined the 
 army without detection. A young man in a 
 settlement club, led by the writer, began to steal 
 and become delinquent in other ways. His 
 mother watched him closely, and was convinced 
 that something was wrong with his mentality. 
 
86 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 She had him examined by the family physicians 
 and others. All sniffed at the idea of mental 
 disturbance and said that he was no more insane 
 than they. The boy was committed at the sug- 
 gestion of expert alienists to an asylum. He 
 apparently recovered from his criminal tenden- 
 cies and was returned to his parents. He 
 attended business for some months and was one 
 day sent home ill. He had broken down ner- 
 vously. This time there was no criminal act, 
 but only the presence of delusions. There 
 seemed to be little probability of recovery, and 
 the physicians now recognize that the outbreak 
 of criminality was the first stage of the disease. 
 In the realm of epileptic insanity even a care- 
 ful observer may be deceived. The writer has 
 studied in the epileptic ward and clearly recog- 
 nized the existence of an epileptic temperament, 
 i.e., one characterized by vagarious irritability 
 and violence. For example, a person may step 
 up to a patient and in the pleasantest manner 
 say, " Good morning. It is a nice day." At once 
 the eyes of the patient blaze and a whistling 
 blow right from the shoulder follows forthwith 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 87 
 
 unless the experimenter is unusually adept at 
 dodging. Now let this temperament occur in 
 veiled form, as it often does, and the patient is 
 doomed to prison and punishment as a criminal. 
 The writer can point out case after case of this 
 among his criminals : Men brought from the 
 cell in a cold sweat of nervousness, then refus- 
 ing the politest and kindliest approach, and 
 replying with abuse and violence to courteous 
 requests. They are often described as incor- 
 rigible, yet the touch of my hand revealed the 
 twitching nerves, feverish blood, and general 
 physical condition of a neurotic patient. Under 
 his criminal acts and the cause of them was the 
 insane taint. 
 
 Notice this taint as it is expressed in the 
 most beautiful of Oscar Wilde's works. He 
 was sent to prison, yet he has a taint of some- 
 thing like insanity, and his photographs betray 
 stigmata. The same may be said of Dean Swift 
 and Swedenborg after a certain period of their 
 lives. 
 
 Again, the fact that crime and insanity may 
 result from wounds, toxics, overstrains, first 
 
88 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 stages of disease, and even the upheavals of 
 first child-bearing, so that both 
 
 The fact tha,. crime 
 
 and insanity often crime and insanity may run in 
 
 have like sources has ... 
 
 wrongly led Bome to the line of eldest sons, these facts 
 have led men to class both as 
 essentially alike. Yet there is one obstinate 
 fact which constantly arises, if they are both 
 the same, why are not their phenomena iden- 
 tical ? Why is one undoubtedly crime and the 
 other indubitable insanity ? 
 
 There is often a criminal disposition in the 
 
 insane. They would certainly break laws if 
 
 There is a horder. not confined. And there is also 
 
 land where both meet. an j nsane disposition among 
 
 some criminals. Dr. Richter proved that 26- 
 28% of the murderers brought before the bar, 
 sentenced and punished for crime, were really 
 insane at the time of the criminal act. Few 
 will doubt this common borderland after reading 
 the bizarre characters actually existing as 
 described by Krafft-Ebbing, persons to whom 
 coition with a corpse was preferable, men to 
 whom murder with mutilation, hair snipping 
 and the like, brought the same physical results 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 89 
 
 that the sexual act brings to the normal man. 
 Surely there is insanity there ! But this on 
 close study is seen to be only the juncture of 
 two neighboring realms. There is still a ques- 
 tion when we follow the diverging lines of crime 
 and insanity. 
 
 Nowhere do these diverging lines differ so 
 
 widely as in the realm of premeditation. Many 
 
 Premeditation and criminologists, notably Ferri, 
 
 plot are not sure sign 
 
 of crime. have asserted that premedita- 
 
 tion and cunning plot are not infallible tests of 
 crime. They are not even tests of sanity. In 
 the insane one will often see premeditation and 
 great cunning carried on for months in an 
 apparently rational way. Much evidence of this 
 was seen by the writer in an asylum. But when 
 one studies the consummation of the insane pre- 
 meditation and plot there is almost always an 
 essential link left out. Both remind one of the 
 cunning and instinct of a fox. For when these 
 are really matched against a keen student and 
 sane man who is putting his attention on them 
 they fail utterly. Any such man who knows 
 his business and puts all his time and energy to 
 
90 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 capturing a fox will realize that the realm of 
 Reynard's cunning is limited and he can be 
 caught with the simplest device. So of the 
 criminal and the insane. They seem exceedingly 
 cunning because they put all their energy to 
 the task and take into account details which the 
 ordinary man would not consider. But the 
 premeditation and cunning of the insane and 
 the criminal are different. One is characterized 
 by an irrational taint, the other is rational from 
 the criminal's standpoint. 
 
 In the realm of physical and moral insensi- 
 bility we find again confusions incident to a 
 Physical and moral borderland ; so that here espe- 
 i^emibiiuyintheia- cially we find the words, 
 
 Bane are not the same 
 
 a in the criminal. arrested development," " crim- 
 inal by nature," " insane," " savage," and " sub- 
 human " used. It is therefore necessary to put 
 the phenomena close beside each other and 
 differentiate. 
 
 In every correctional institution of a serious 
 grade we find more or less physical and moral 
 lack of sensibility. As a sample of moral dul- 
 ness take the following : " M is physically 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 91 
 
 very backward, was thirteen years old at com- 
 mittal, but weighed only sixty-one pounds. 
 Was almost three years old before he was able to 
 walk. Forehead very small, lower jaw well 
 developed, eyes unsteady, front teeth decayed, 
 is very irritable, and his moral defects come out 
 under the slightest provocation. He has already 
 gone through all stages of immorality, is very 
 untruthful, is cruel to animals, and has a tendency 
 to everything that is bad. Talks incoherently, 
 often changing the subject." * 
 
 This reads almost exactly like a case of in- 
 sanity. Again, another type which shows any- 
 thing but insanity. H was a pickpocket 
 
 and thief with whom the writer became well 
 acquainted. His view of life was most interest- 
 ing, and typifies a large number of "profes- 
 sional " criminals. We were talking of the 
 
 ethics of thieving and H said : " You are a 
 
 minister, another man is a lawyer, and another a 
 judge ; I am a rustler. Well, I am as good as 
 any of you, and if it were not for the likes of 
 me you would all be out of a job." In the 
 
 * Thirty-second annual report of Newark City Home, page 23. 
 
92 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 sterner institutions the percentage of these in- 
 creases until it may reach, as at Elmira, 34.25% 
 who are totally unsusceptible to moral educa- 
 tion. Or again, as Speranza reports, " There 
 are children born of orgies, who at a tender age 
 look at suicide as a good way out, juvenile 
 alcoholists, boy recidivists at ten years old ; 
 boys and girls past masters of crime. If you 
 say that there is hope for these you do not 
 know them. They are not to be confounded 
 with the merely bad." * In the adult stage this 
 moral and physical insensibility is often colossal. 
 The malefactor will pray to God for blessing on 
 a crime. Of the proceeds of theft or prostitu- 
 tion a part is given to the priest or church. In 
 danger and in suffering this kind of offender is 
 often indifferent walking miles on broken 
 ankles, undergoing painful operations with no 
 sign of wincing and surviving ghastly wounds. 
 In the insane we see similar phenomena. 
 The writer has watched patients who spent all 
 their time in devotions, even quoting scripture 
 by the chapter while claiming to be queen of 
 
 * " Criminality in Children." Small pamphlet. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 93 
 
 Heaven, and then attempting acts of violence 
 and obscenity. They also pray to God for 
 blessing on insane and revolting acts. In 
 danger they are oblivious, and in suffering 
 either supersensitive or indifferent. The writer 
 has seen an insane patient undergoing a painful 
 operation ; the patient was so ill that he could 
 not rise from the bed, and as the instrument 
 entered his flesh there was barely a wince. In 
 answer to the question as to how he felt he 
 answered with a vivacious smile that he was 
 all right, never felt better in his life. This 
 conduct he kept up until dying. 
 
 In savages similar manifestations appear. 
 Fink gives a volume of data showing that while 
 
 Similar phenomena they 1OV6 in O116 SCUSC that 1OV6 
 exist among savages -, ,-, -,, T 
 
 and semi-civilized 1S SO mixed Wlfch Cruelty and 
 
 peoples. brutality that it can not be called 
 
 love as we understand it. The thesis of this 
 book is that among savages and semi-civilized 
 peoples there is no such thing as affection (that 
 is, love in our sense of the term).* Sir Samuel 
 Baker after years of acquaintanceawith African 
 
 * " Primitive Love and Love Stories ; " also " The Albert 
 N'yanza Great Basin of the Nile," etc. 
 
94 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 savages says : " There is no such thing as love in 
 these countries : the feeling is not understood, nor 
 does it exist in the shape in which we under- 
 stand it." With all their religious ecstacy the 
 savages are often unspeakably brutal. The 
 very names of their gods reveal the character of 
 their religious concepts : " The Murderer," 
 " The Human Brain Eater," etc. 
 
 From Count de Warren's book, "British 
 India in 1831," there comes the description of 
 the community of Phansegars, a religious and 
 economical society which had existed for ages, 
 and one of whose principal ceremonies was 
 murder. Its devotees were pledged to strangle 
 all that they could.* 
 
 Roosevelt tells the same story of brutality 
 mixed with religion.f Indeed, it is a common 
 fact that religion and morality are two entirely 
 unconnected things in primitive religions. Also 
 every brutality which could be thought of has 
 been connected with both love and religion.^ 
 
 * Quoted fully by Eugene Sue in " The Wandering Jew," Vol. 1. 
 
 t " Winning of tbe West," Vol. 1, page 95. 
 
 J See Herbert Spencer's " Synthetic Philosophy," Vol. l.for full 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 95 
 
 Another sample of physical insensibility is the 
 Maori who cut off his toes to fit on a new boot 
 offered him. In a word, there is no lack of 
 data to show that the savage is morally and 
 physically blunted in feeling. 
 
 In another direction these phenomena are like 
 
 those observed in children. Children believe in 
 
 similar phenomena gods and pray to these divinities. 
 
 are observed also in . 
 
 children. But that is not inconsistent with 
 
 immorality until they are taught, "God does 
 not like so and so." In their affection they are 
 fickle and often alternate protestations of love 
 with actions of rage or hate against the beloved. 
 They will torture animals just to see what will 
 happen. Often has the writer seen boys try to 
 drown a snake or see if its head would snap off, 
 or gather a number of snakes and roast them 
 alive to watch their writhing. Nor is it uncom- 
 mon to see a child hold a puppy by the tail to 
 see if its eyes will drop out, or stone cats or 
 dogs which belong to another, fighting bitterly 
 if his own are hurt. It is to be doubted if a 
 child has any moral sensitiveness until he is 
 taught, often only by much patience, the funda- 
 
96 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 mental precepts of morality. And when one 
 considers the disvulnerability of children it is 
 surprising how much pain a vigorous youngster 
 can bear. Operations which are serious or fatal 
 in adult life can be easily performed in infancy. 
 The writer has seen extra fingers taken off in 
 babyhood with hardly a sign of pain. This 
 would certainly imply that children do not 
 suffer as keenly as an adult in the same posi- 
 tion ; the nerves are not fully awake and a cer- 
 tain amount of insensibility results. 
 
 That is, the criminal is often dull in response 
 to pain or moral impulses, and similar phenom- 
 
 phenomena ena are observed in the insane, 
 
 are similar, but not 
 
 identical. in savages, and in children, but 
 
 can we conclude that this similarity is identity ? 
 No, there is one fundamental difference at least. 
 When there is physical and moral insensibility in 
 the insane there is almost always lack of physi- 
 cal or nervous health. The blood is poor, the 
 digestion impaired. But when the criminal of 
 this class bears pain his body is not diseased in 
 that sense. He is more like the savage and the 
 child. So, too, of the moral obtuseness of the 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 97 
 
 insane, as compared with that of the criminal, 
 savage, and the child. In the case of the insane 
 it is grotesque and irrational to its base ; with 
 the criminal, the savage, and the child it is not 
 irrational from their standpoint. 
 
 The natural criminal is more accurately under- 
 stood as a phenomenon of atavism. Few indeed 
 are they in numbers and difficult to isolate with 
 certainty. But, given the presence of a sinister 
 combination of stigmata, the fact of persistent 
 and degenerate crime apparently for the love of 
 it and we may be fairly sure that we have a 
 " born " or natural criminal in our hands. He 
 is as interesting as a human tiger or ganoid born 
 in modern days. He is essentially a savage 
 irrevocably bound to the savage world by 
 physique and mind. The call of the wild 
 always allures him, and the blood thirst is part 
 of his nature. Living ages ago he would have 
 made a strong man for society in the rough 
 but now he is a child born centuries too late. 
 
 We are now ready to answer the question, 
 Is the " natural " criminal insane ? We have 
 found that he possesses stigmata identical with 
 
98 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 those of insanity and degeneracy. There is 
 often a criminal disposition in 
 
 Summary and con- 
 
 elusions. The natu. the insane, and an insane dispo- 
 
 ral" criminal is not 
 
 insane unieea we en. sition in the malefactor. Crime 
 
 large our definition. . . . 
 
 and insanity may result from the 
 same causes and may be transmitted by heredity. 
 Premeditation and plot occur in the insane and 
 criminal, but in one it is rational, in the other 
 irrational. Physical and moral insensibility 
 occur in both, but in the insane it is accompanied 
 by illness ; in the criminal it is not. And when 
 this dulness occurs in savages and in children 
 there is not an attendant illness. We may 
 therefore conclude that while natural criminality 
 has some of the phenomena of insanity it differs 
 so much in other ways that this type of criminal 
 can not be called insane unless we enlarge our 
 definition to include persons who, while irregu- 
 lar in exterior physique, are yet rational enough 
 though on a low moral basis. 
 
 We may also conclude from the data above 
 summarized that the stigmata named by the 
 Italian School as marks of crime and type of 
 crime are not such, but only stigmata of de- 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 99 
 
 generacy or abnormality. Given these alone we 
 could not tell surely that their possessor was a 
 criminal; nor could we tell his type of crime. 
 But given these and the fact of crime we might 
 well infer that the offender was, if not insane or 
 morbid, a u natural " criminal, and thus know 
 better what to do with him. 
 
 Before there can be any sound claim to 
 stigmata of criminality or type of crime, these 
 "natural" criminals must be isolated, their 
 external anomalies reclassified and then in 
 addition some more subtle abnormalities, such 
 as condition of blood, soundness of mind, dif- 
 ferentiation of congenital abnormalities from 
 those caused by such things as adenoid growths, 
 mouth breathing, mal-occlusion or extraction of 
 teeth and the like, must be found to classify 
 them. Until such things are done it will seem 
 unwise to put much emphasis on the general 
 theory of Lombroso in the treatment of the 
 delinquent. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE OCTOPUS WHOSE ARMS BEACH EVERY- 
 WHERE. 
 
 THE more one studies an actual case of 
 
 delinquency the more difficult it becomes to 
 
 The difficulty of isolate a concrete and sufficient 
 
 Isolating a sufficient 
 
 cause. cause. Suppose the child is 
 
 convicted of theft. A search reveals poverty 
 which incited the theft; then illness or mis- 
 fortune which caused poverty. But underneath 
 this was a poor physique always susceptible to 
 illness. Beyond the physical were perhaps bad 
 habits causing this state, and finally great lack 
 of training, initiative and oversight on the part 
 of the parents which allowed incipient illness 
 and weakness of will to spoil the boy who could 
 have been saved by wise oversight. This is a 
 comparatively simple case, yet it is not easy to 
 give one cause, for if the boy had had sufficient 
 
 (100) 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 101 
 
 calibre he could have dominated his circum- 
 stances at every point. 
 
 It would take a volume on the psychological 
 
 phases of heredity, will, and environment to 
 
 The three great trace the operation of these 
 
 factors at the root of 
 
 delinquency. three great factors as they cause 
 
 offences, for the further back we go the more 
 clear it becomes that delinquency has its rise in 
 the sub-normal, abnormal, or renitant factors of 
 will, heredity, and environment. In any con- 
 crete subject it is impossible to tell exactly what 
 part these three factors have played. We can only 
 say here that in every case of delinquency there 
 is something wrong with will, or heredity, or 
 environment, or all three. 
 
 Suppose for purposes of clearer study we 
 
 arrange under will, all individual causes ; under 
 
 The need of an out- heredity, dispositional and phys- 
 
 line of causes; out- 
 line, iological causes ; under environ- 
 ment, all economic, social, and physical causes. 
 We shall then have an outline for practical 
 study as follows : 
 
102 
 
 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 
 
 
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 VII 
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THE YOUNG MALEFACTOE. 103 
 
 The first six captions will be set forth largely 
 without indicating their bearing on the home, 
 until in the summary the data will be used to 
 introduce caption VII. 
 
 It can not be claimed that this outline is in 
 strict accord with facts. For example, not all 
 dispositional causes are due to heredity alone, 
 and not all bad habits are due to weak will 
 alone. Also, it is often a matter of choice 
 whether to include a cause under social or 
 economic captions, as for instance immigration. 
 Almost all social causes are economic in impulse, 
 or are colored by economic conditions. But 
 taking this as a working plan to get the field 
 before us let us begin with the more remote 
 forces, those included under the caption " Physi- 
 cal Causes." 
 
 I. PHYSICAL CAUSES OF DELINQUENCY. 
 
 The territory of feuds and moonshining is 
 
 always isolated. It is in the secluded mountain 
 
 regions that the still is operated. 
 
 (a.) Geographical. 
 
 Why? Corn will bring at the 
 distant market about a dollar a bushel. But to 
 
104 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 get this it must be carted over miles of rough 
 road. The people of these regions are so poor 
 that very few have horses ; the corn must be 
 carried on the backs of men sometimes ten or 
 fifteen miles. Supplies and medicines must 
 come over the same roads. Physicians are 
 almost unknown. Now if corn can be trans- 
 formed into whiskey it becomes a common 
 medium of exchange, taking the place of money. 
 It is more easily transported, and it forms the 
 chief medicine of the locality. To get the corn 
 in the shape of whiskey the whole family is put 
 on the side of lawlessness and the children 
 taught to believe that they have a right to 
 violate the license law at least. Perhaps they 
 are right and the law here unjust, but the fact 
 is, delinquency is caused among an otherwise 
 honest and hard-working people largely by the 
 accident of isolated geographical position. 
 
 Much the same is true of the feud region. 
 
 This form of violence flourishes in isolated 
 
 (a.) Geographical places where life is stagnant. 
 
 causes in the land of 
 
 feuds. Ancient insults are treasured 
 
 from generation to generation ; children too 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 105 
 
 young to understand the insult are trained to 
 kill. Not only so, but the atmosphere of such 
 places is usually one of ignorance, petty loafing 
 and shiftlessness, which is very favorable to 
 delinquency. Do but open up the locality to 
 fresh currents of life, by means of a good road, 
 telegraph, telephone, or railroad, and the whole 
 is changed by mobility of population, new 
 interests, and obliteration of old ruts. 
 
 Isolated pleasure resorts bring their flood of a 
 
 temporary population. This often induces 
 
 also a number of "catch pen- 
 
 (a.) 2. Geographi- 
 cal causes in the iso- nies," " fakirs," and the like, so 
 
 lated pleasure resort, 
 
 the military station, that even when the place is a 
 remote fishing village the legacy 
 left by the summer visitors is bad. Some of 
 these villages in the Adirondacks, White Moun- 
 tains, or near Greenwood Lake, for instance, are 
 so bad that, as one sociologist put it, " The only 
 cure would be to set fire to the whole village 
 and drive the inmates like vermin from their 
 holes." 
 
 Military and naval stations are chosen for 
 their geographical situation. Around them 
 
106 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 spring the low saloon and dive. In such places 
 crime is always high and where crime is high 
 delinquency is high also. 
 
 Disconnected as it seems at first sight, climate 
 
 as well as temperature have causative factors 
 
 (&.) ciimatc and in delinquency. Krafft-Ebbing, 
 
 (c.) Temperature as 
 causes of delinquency. Ellis, and Othei'S show that 
 
 offences tend to rise with the thermometer. 
 Most rebellions have taken place in the hot 
 months. In a warm climate puberty comes 
 earlier, and thus brings its turmoil on a child 
 less mature. Climate will change the mod- 
 erate drinker of Europe to a drunkard when he 
 comes to America with its extremes of tem- 
 perature, which force men to do a year's work 
 in nine months, and thus set the famed and 
 nervous pace to which we are accustomed. 
 
 II. SOCIAL CAUSES. 
 
 There is in society an upward impulse which 
 has elevated some peoples above the savage. 
 
 Social factors caus- Customs which Were OnC6 lin- 
 ing delinquency. 
 
 (a.) social progress, written and vaguely recognized 
 have become definitely crystallized into laws 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 107 
 
 and statutes. As a society increases in civiliza- 
 tion these laws become more complex, and 
 when men gather in centres of population 
 many statutes which did not seem necessary 
 before are now imperative. The progress of 
 society, in a word, results in at least increased 
 number and complexity of laws. Each child 
 must adjust himself so that he avoids all break- 
 ing of law or he becomes a delinquent. This 
 developed law system covers every part of the 
 ordinary life and unless a child is well balanced 
 or well shielded he comes in opposition to the 
 law at some point. With one the weakness 
 may be sex immorality; another finds it hard 
 to be sufficiently honest ; another can not bear 
 to be held down to regular school work, and he 
 therefore becomes truant and a little vagrant. 
 Still others have a quarrelsome or violent tem- 
 perament, or again it is a weak will that can 
 " resist anything but temptation." Each child 
 passes through a period of immaturity when he 
 is very apt to clash with the rights of others. 
 He can not accommodate himself to this devel- 
 oped social code. Often he does not even under- 
 
108 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 stand what it forbids. Many children come 
 before the court and the charge has to be care- 
 fully explained to them. Instead of asking a 
 child whether he is guilty or not the judge 
 usually says, after explanation, "Did you do 
 that?" With simpler codes and a less devel- 
 oped or complete system the child would escape, 
 but the standard, through social progress, has 
 become relatively so high that it needs training 
 to bring a child up to it. 
 
 Few people realize the amount of waste the 
 raising of such a standard involves. The Pall 
 
 (6.) Social machln- Mal1 G*tte & 150,000 
 
 ery produces deiin- officially registered insane in 
 
 quency aa a by-prod- 
 
 uct - Britain and calculates 100,000 
 
 more not registered because they can afford 
 private treatment.* There were 6,000 registered 
 insane in New Jersey alone and 4,000 under 
 private treatment.! 
 
 In the 232 children's agencies of New York 
 there are 40,000 juveniles dependent on these 
 institutions for parent and home. In 1893 
 
 * " Is Co-operation among Charities Desirable ?" C. M. Kellog, 
 pamphlet, 
 f " Address of Commissioner Wight," Newark, December, 1905. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 109 
 
 there were 40,000 prostitutes in New York City 
 alone and that means (five fallen men to one 
 fallen woman) 200,000 men in and about New 
 York who habitually visit these. We have in 
 America, as well as in foreign lands, criminal 
 societies, like Maffia and Mana Nigra, hundreds 
 of thousands of criminals and borderlanders 
 and paupers. There are 250,000 people in the 
 United States alone making their living in 
 part at least from crime, and 82,329 living 
 behind prison bars. 
 
 All this is just as much a by-product of our 
 social machinery as the noxious odor is of a 
 tannery. The juvenile is subjected to the influ- 
 ences which cause this waste, and the result is 
 that 20% of the boys living in American cities 
 become delinquent between the ages of ten and 
 fifteen. 
 
 The State is often as incompetent as the 
 worst parents in its dealings 
 
 (c.) Defective cor- 
 
 regional institutions with the young offender. This, 
 
 fail to prevent some, 
 
 and increase other de- when we remember that some 
 
 linquencies. . . . . 1 
 
 parents train their children to 
 crime, seems like rhetorical language. But 
 
110 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 many of the men most closely in touch with 
 correctional methods will agree to the state- 
 ment that the State is manufacturing criminals 
 as fast as it can with its limitations, i.e., it must 
 not avowedly or meaningly go into the criminal- 
 making profession. Notice the treatment of 
 some offenders. For example, it is a common 
 thing to have prisoners brought out of the cell for 
 anthropological examination. Trembling not 
 with fear but with nervousness induced by the 
 cell life, hands clammy, muscles twitching, here 
 is a man on the verge of collapse. Let a sud- 
 den or strange noise occur in the prison and 
 these men jump like frightened rabbits and are 
 almost in panic. Breath disordered, teeth un- 
 cleaned, hands stained by nicotine a man 
 going to rot for sheer lack of a human activity. 
 He wants the work and gladly does anything 
 for a diversion. Sometimes it is a German 
 peasant, with frank blue eyes and honest face. 
 He drank a little too much and was gathered in 
 with the " common drunks " and sent here for 
 thirty days. He tells you that in all his life he 
 never was arrested before, and almost heart- 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. Ill 
 
 broken he goes to the cell. Come now after 
 twenty days or so and you find your man 
 changed. The prison look is on him, he no 
 longer meets your eye frankly. He has learned 
 that there are hundreds here and it is not so 
 bad after all. He has heard the call of the low 
 and been forced to listen to it day and night. 
 It will ring in his ears now for all his life 
 and when he would forget it some ignorant 
 person says " jail bird," and he remembers 
 again. 
 
 In the police courts it is not an uncommon 
 
 sight to see the court room so crowded with 
 
 children that there is not enough 
 
 (c.) 1. Police courts. . . 
 
 time to finish their cases that 
 day. Yet this is attempted. In five minutes 
 the decision is made which starts the child on a 
 new career. If he has a clever counsel he gets 
 off, for the judge is too busy to hunt up all the 
 details. It takes at least all afternoon to exam- 
 ine ten men for anthropological data. Yet the 
 writer has seen over eighty cases of children de- 
 cided by a judge in one session of the court lasting 
 from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M. No careful student would 
 
112 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 think of classifying a case in ten minutes, and 
 yet this judge decides the fate of a boy's whole 
 existence and does it with less time and atten- 
 tion than the ordinary woman takes to buy a 
 roll of wall-paper for her house. Sometimes 
 the court officials bandy the boy about his 
 toughness while the busy judge is reading a 
 brief note of what the offender has done. Sev- 
 eral times the writer has seen the judge decide 
 to commit the child, the parents sob and the 
 whole decision reversed. There is often not a 
 fraction of the time necessary given for an 
 understanding of the case. 
 
 Often a boy of sixteen is jailed with deeply 
 involved criminals and kept there in idleness 
 
 (c.)2. Jails for ju- and dirt Until trlal > and the 
 
 vemiea. ^ me o d e i a y fg sometimes made 
 
 as long as convenient because the jailer gets a 
 per capita per diem wage for all his wards. 
 One of the boys from a club superintended by 
 the writer disappeared for about two weeks. 
 He was found in jail. During this period he had 
 had no change of clothing. He was dirty and 
 had been kept with deeper criminals. His 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 113 
 
 mother, a widow and a foreigner, wept and 
 asked what she could do. 
 
 These jails are almost always poor, and some- 
 times justly described in the words of Commis- 
 sioner Wight, of New Jersey, as "foul holes 
 breeding crime." In Ohio a committee headed 
 by the Governor reported, " with less than half 
 a dozen exceptions every jail in Ohio is a moral 
 pest house and a school of crime." The proba- 
 tion officer of Essex County, N.J., says : 
 " Jails are an acknowledged school of crime." 
 
 The writer knows of a jail in a town of Ver- 
 mont. It is built in circular shape and revolves 
 on a pivot, for all the world like a squirrel 
 wheel stood on end. The idea of this wonder- 
 ful Yankee invention is safety, to keep the men 
 there. For only as the bars come opposite the 
 exact spot can the prisoners get out. No lever 
 can be used and no saw. Here the men lie and 
 rot in this revolving cage with neither work nor 
 exercise nor education. Certainly it succeeds 
 far better than the inventor dreamed. For it 
 will not only keep the men safely there but 
 bring them back, regularly, each time more 
 
114 THE TOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 easily kept. Judge Lindsey says that even if 
 jails, prisons, and criminal courts are all right 
 for adults they are " monstrous for children." 
 
 But prisons are not all right even for adults ; 
 their influence extends to juveniles most directly. 
 ( C ) s priBonB are Hardly any man in a position to 
 always bad. judge broadly has a good word 
 
 for prisons. Russian prisons are described as 
 *' crime breeders " by Ellis, Dostoieffsky, Max- 
 inoff, and Tolstoi. 
 
 Spanish institutions of this class are reported 
 " filthy, overcrowded sewers of crime." Moroc- 
 can prisons are " places of oppression, starvation, 
 and filth." 
 
 Of French prisons Krapotkine says : " They 
 are the real cause of recidivism and they are the 
 nests of criminal infection. It is a greater 
 crime to lock up one hundred boys there than 
 the offences for which they were committed." 
 Laloue, inspector general of French prisons, says, 
 "with our existing conditions twenty-four hours 
 of imprisonment suffices, under certain circum- 
 stances, to ruin a man." Emile Gauthier, a 
 friend of Krapotkine, calls prison " a sewer and 
 
THE YOUNG NALEFACTOE. 115 
 
 hot-bed of vice." Reinach, in u le recidiviste," 
 and Panal Aubrey agree. In Italy Colajanni 
 and Ferri use stronger words. Adolphe Prins, 
 inspector general of Belgian prisons, has the 
 same story to tell and English criminologists 
 repeat it as true of their institutions.* Michael 
 Davitt, for example, characterizes them as 
 " having no sensitiveness, no discrimination, and 
 as reducing the prisoner to a disciplined brute." 
 Everywhere the report is essentially the same. 
 
 Yet we must not misunderstand. One of the 
 best and latest descriptions of European prisons 
 shows a big advance. f We have much to 
 learn from them in certain lines. Still, this 
 should be recognized clearly, a good prison 
 building does not make a good prison, but 
 even, possibly, a bad one. 
 
 In America we have some of the best prison 
 buildings in the world, and although a few are 
 filthy and bad, yet on the whole the property is 
 well kept and well run. But the prisoner 
 remains the same and the prison influence is the 
 
 * " The Criminal," pajrc 239. 
 
 t" European Prisons," by Samuel Barrows, "Charities and 
 The Commons," Dec. 7, 1907. 
 
116 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 same. At Caldwell Penitentiary the writer has 
 watched results for three years, no report being 
 published. And from all the sources at his 
 command he can not find twenty prisoners 
 redeemed in the history of the institution. At 
 the expiration of the term some of them ask 
 the warden to reserve a place for them, as they 
 are coming back. They like the atmosphere 
 and they are in better circumstances there than 
 when working in freedom for wages. When 
 released they go on a criminal debauch and 
 commit rape or steal something they like as a 
 pleasant way of returning when they are 
 tired of earning their living and when winter 
 makes it less convenient to live the loafer's 
 life. 
 
 Just as a weak parent alternates foolish 
 indulgence with petty anger, so the prisons treat 
 the malefactor. At the state prison in Weathers- 
 field the writer was shown to a subterranean 
 dungeon absolutely without light or sound. 
 The floor and walls were of cement. In the 
 wall was fixed an iron ring ; in one corner was 
 a bench made of two by six inch hardwood 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 117 
 
 planks fastened with six-inch spikes. A pris- 
 oner, for disobedience, was chained to the ring 
 and thus held in a standing position by the 
 manacled wrists during the day. At night he 
 was allowed to sit on the bench. His food was 
 bread and water. Seeing a hole gnawed in the 
 plank I asked the cause. The prisoner, driven 
 almost to madness by his treatment, had gnawed 
 out one of the spikes, swallowed the chips, 
 sharpened the spike on the floor and almost 
 succeeded in murdering his keeper. Convicts 
 are fed, but they have no uplifting impulse, no 
 education, no work to train them, no drills 
 except the lock step to and from cell. What 
 result can come of locking an ignorant and 
 vicious man in a prison with others of his kind 
 to communicate with, and then simply watching 
 him, rifle in hand ? 
 
 It is a common thing to see the definite term 
 
 system likened to sending a person to the hospi- 
 
 ( C .) 4. The definite tal f or six weeks and then turn- 
 
 and short terms deep- 
 en criminality. ing him out whether cured or not. 
 
 Annie Tighe, of Newark, for example, has been 
 sentenced sixty times in the same police court. 
 
118 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 At Caldwell Penitentiary the warden pointed 
 out convicts who had been there dozens of 
 times. In one case over a hundred separate 
 committals were alleged. Make a table of the 
 number sentenced and the terms given ; it will 
 tend to run in multiples of threes and fives. 
 There will be six or seven times as many sen- 
 tenced for five years as for four and so on up 
 the scale, showing the lack of rational method 
 in sentence. The judge must pronounce some 
 sentence within the limit of the law. His mind 
 runs in threes and fives. A year or two more 
 or less makes no difference to the judge. 
 But it makes the youth a confirmed criminal 
 and sets before the strongest and weakest of 
 them the enormous task of living down a year 
 of prison life. 
 
 Even children are sent to the lighter institu- 
 tions for twenty-four hours " to frighten them." 
 They were not frightened, but were introduced 
 to criminal life.* 
 
 Sometimes a mother with a baby is sent to 
 prison. Again the husband or bread-winner is 
 
 * New York Juvenile Asylum 1'eport 1903. page 17. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 119 
 
 sent and the wife left to do the best she can for 
 . the family. If the husband 
 could work at something and 
 
 delinquency. gend mone y ^ ome ft wou ld not b0 
 
 so bad, but he is there rotting in idleness while 
 his wife and family get along as best they can. 
 In one case the writer found a man, probably 
 innocent, who had been in prison for three 
 years. His wife and family were kept from 
 starvation only by the efforts of friends. 
 
 The poor farm is often inhabited not only by 
 
 aged paupers, but by the mildly insane, and 
 
 sometimes it is also a place 
 
 (c.) 6. As does 
 
 also the placing of where tramps and beggars are 
 
 children with paupers 
 
 and tramps in the poor sent temporarily. There is no 
 separation for these classes. And 
 the writer has seen babies and children commit- 
 ted with the parents. The result is often a life 
 of dependency or delinquency for the infants. 
 Even when the State means to be particularly 
 (c.) 7. Unwise kind to its ward, lack of care 
 
 State philanthropy ,-, -, . , , , 
 
 also causes del in. causes the results to be bad. 
 For example, the blind and de- 
 crepit are given permission to beg under the 
 
120 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 guise of pencil-selling or music-playing. Apart 
 from the harm done the adult, the evil of allow- 
 ing him to work at uncongenial and worse than 
 useless labor when he might be occupied with 
 something upbuilding, there is the child who 
 almost always accompanies the mendicant. 
 Could there be a better way of initiating this 
 youth to a life of mendicancy and delinquency? 
 Not seldom defectives in asylums and poor farms 
 are encouraged to marry that they may have 
 "the comforts of a home." The result is a 
 brood of degenerate and ill-kept children to 
 swell the ranks of delinquency. 
 
 In case a boy is sent to a " reformatory " it is 
 
 largely chance if his lot falls in a really good 
 
 (c.) s. Reforma. environment. No matter how 
 
 tories have crime- 
 
 breeding factors. well equipped such an institu- 
 tion may be, and no matter how well intentioned 
 the superintendent, if that overseer has not a 
 personality amounting to genius the reformatory 
 will be a vast machine which, though it per- 
 manently cure 50% of those who ought not to be 
 there, will unfailingly brand and deepen the rest 
 in delinquent life. It puts on them the institu- 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 121 
 
 tion stamp and the criminal brand so widely 
 recognized. 
 
 In every correctional and eleemosynary insti- 
 tution belonging to the State, from the Chil- 
 ( C .) 9. The influ- chin's Court up, the unfortunate 
 
 ence of bad politics influence Q f merC enaiy politics 
 causes offences to in- J * 
 
 crease - is seen. It has been one of the 
 
 most difficult factors Judge Lindsey's splendid 
 work has had to overcome. Practically every 
 juvenile institution in New York has had to 
 fight it and many of them are now handicapped 
 by it. Incompetent officials are put in power. 
 Lazy parents are relieved of their responsibility 
 to the child. Wardens who are ignorant of their 
 duties are put over hundreds of convicts. 
 
 Grace Johnson reports politics as endangering 
 the promising work of the State agent of Min- 
 nesota. Even a chaplain can not be chosen with- 
 out the interference of politics.* Governor Odell 
 is accused of attempting to put the Reformatory 
 at Elmira at the mercy of " plum " seekers. 
 Fetter of Cornell gives a list of such cases and 
 cites as an example a commissioner of charities 
 
 * " Bulletin of Iowa Institutions " for April, 1902. 
 
122 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 with no previous training appointed as a reward 
 for political service. The same was attempted 
 at Brooklyn and the judge himself was so bound 
 by politics that he had to appoint the office 
 seeker to draw the salary and a philanthropic 
 person to do the work. 
 
 One of the most common offences of the 
 
 juvenile is truancy. As far as the school is con- 
 
 (*.) Defective ed- ccmcd this springs from a cur- 
 
 ucation, curriculum, riculum not adapted to the needs 
 
 etc., cause del in- 
 
 quency. o f the truant boy, teachers who 
 
 while competent do not meet the need and the 
 fact that too much emphasis is put on acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge and too little on methods of 
 thinking. It is often found that a truant does 
 not care the least for academic education, he is 
 restless under it, or dislikes it, but if this is 
 taught in reference to its application in manual 
 work the need is satisfied. Many of the truants 
 come from a class who do not intend to go be- 
 yond high school at best. But the curriculum 
 there is essentially a preparation for college. 
 The juvenile finds no interest in Latin, Greek, 
 and algebra because he sees no utility in them. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 123 
 
 He is not interested in study for study's sake. 
 He wants practical work and this the school 
 does not give him. If there were some such 
 thing as a " volkschule " where manual labor 
 were prominent and studies adapted to the needs 
 of the boy who leaves school forever at the age 
 of sixteen, less truancy would be found. Every 
 superintendent of lighter schools for delinquents 
 can cite cases of " incorrigibles " who were 
 interested, became teachable, and were reclaimed 
 through manual labor and studies adapted to its 
 explanation. 
 
 The teachers of schools are overwhelmingly 
 women and girls. No criticism can be made of 
 their ability to teach, but the fact is that the 
 roughest boys need a man's personality and in- 
 fluence much more than they get. If, in addi- 
 tion to this, the school and the home were more 
 nearly related so that to some extent the teacher 
 could do visiting and personal work which the 
 parent does not do, some delinquency could be 
 obviated. Also the goal of teaching is too 
 often the acquiring of facts. If the teacher's 
 object were to make a child ashamed of poor 
 
124 TEE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 intellectual work, ashamed of passing a word 
 whose meaning was not clear to him, or naming 
 a place he could not locate, the effect would be 
 better character and better knowledge. 
 
 Besides this there are children who become 
 delinquents for lack of place to play, and lack 
 of organized amusements. They play ball in 
 the city streets and are arrested for this is a 
 delinquency; or they attend cheap theatres 
 where admission is gained for ten cents. Were 
 the educational facilities of the school extended 
 to include drill in games, athletics, and organ- 
 ized amusements, much of the delinquency 
 arising from this lack would disappear. 
 
 Besides bringing a family into a strange and 
 
 often unfavorable locality and disorganizing the 
 
 (.) The deiin- home, immigration has another 
 
 luency factors in im- 
 
 migration. delinquency-causing phase. The 
 
 child of the immigrant soon learns the lan- 
 guage, his parents do not, and the child feels 
 that he is brighter than his father. It is sur- 
 prising how soon he becomes a street boy. 
 The number of such children in the correctional 
 institutions is sometimes almost 40%. The forty- 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 125 
 
 seventh New York Juvenile Asylum report 
 says : " It is remarkable that recently arrived 
 immigrants who display small adaptability in 
 American standards are by no means slow in 
 learning about this and other institutions where 
 they may safely leave their children to be fed, 
 clothed, and cared for at the public expense. 
 This is one of the inducements which led them 
 to leave their native land." 
 
 Many of the causes tabulated as social are 
 
 colored by economic forces and of none is this 
 
 The social law of truer than of immigration. 
 
 extinction or absorp- 
 tion. Perhaps the main impulse of 
 
 immigration is economic. It is certain that its 
 worst crime-breeding elements are largely so. 
 The following law sums up this impulse: 
 Whenever two classes widely differing in eco- 
 nomic ability and intellectual development meet, 
 the weaker of them disappears either by absorp- 
 tion or death. And in the process of disappear- 
 ance a defective and delinquent class is one of 
 the stages. This is true whether the classes be 
 families or colonies of immigrants, or two types 
 of men in one land, as the negro and the white, 
 
126 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 the white and the Indian, or whether it is a 
 conquering nation and the savage, as the whites 
 and the Australians or Africans. It is in the 
 lower strata of both peoples that the delin- 
 quency factors operate most keenly. The 
 weaker people are pushed to the economic wall. 
 They become impoverished and work at the 
 least remunerative work. Some are pushed 
 over into dependency; the women tend to be- 
 come either prostitutes or low class wives of the 
 lowest strata of the stronger people. This 
 forms a population of half-bred children who 
 are brought up in bad surroundings, a realm of 
 borderlanders always on the verge of or over 
 into delinquency. Social factors such as race 
 and class prejudice come in, but the main 
 impulse is economic. 
 
 III. ECONOMIC CAUSES. 
 
 The law just stated applies not only to im- 
 migrants and peoples of different races, but 
 The effect of un- also to those of different eco- 
 
 equal economic strug- 
 gle is delinquency. nomic classes. Whenever social 
 
 classmaking has advanced far enough to clearly 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 127 
 
 define a set of men who have no definite hope 
 of ever being anything but "working men," 
 this law operates between them and the employ- 
 ing class. It also operates between individuals 
 of the same class with a downward tendency to 
 the vanquished. And whenever the struggle 
 for bread becomes acute there is borderland. 
 The vanquished will be pushed over into 
 dependency or delinquency. 
 
 This is especially true in times of crisis, for 
 then large bodies of men are thrown out of 
 
 the 
 
 Crisesleavealegacy 
 of delinquency. Q '73_7g ill Massachusetts, 
 
 about 30,000 out of 318,000 mechanics were 
 idle. In that of '82-'85 about 1,000,000 were 
 unemployed. During the depression of '91 the 
 Governor of Oregon estimated that one-third of 
 the workmen had no adequate support. The 
 trades union estimated at the same time that 
 4,500,000 mechanics were out of work. 
 
 One result of this is competition of the strong 
 with those who habitually get their living in a 
 precarious way. The latter being less efficient 
 are beaten and have either pauperism or crime 
 
128 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 before them. These onco tasted, return is diffi- 
 cult for such weaklings. The bracing effect of 
 honest work is lost. The family sometimes 
 becomes permanently degenerate. It is a well- 
 known fact that juvenile delinquency increases 
 with centralization of population ; but in times 
 of crisis the reverse is true, which means that 
 new localities are infected. This infection is 
 often permanent. During the cotton revolution 
 and the crisis caused in Lancashire, England, 
 by our civil war, offences rose very high, and 
 that shire is still one of the highest in England 
 in record of delinquency. 
 
 The present competition for monopoly, now 
 
 rapidly changing to a monopolistic regime, 
 
 ( C .) competition has bad results in the realm 
 
 P r a C eep';,,. under consideration. It forces 
 
 tlon ' business into politics. It pro- 
 
 2. Historic competi- 
 
 tion - duces the professional "politi- 
 
 cian " and " ward-heeler." It crowds incompe- 
 tent overseers into eleemosynary, penal, and 
 correctional institutions. It protects vice in 
 order to get votes, in order to get contracts, in 
 order to get monopoly. An example of its 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 129 
 
 results in preventing better civic conditions was 
 shown in Chicago's attempt at civic betterment. 
 Eight public-spirited business men tried to 
 better the conditions of foreign and ignorant 
 laborers at the stock-yards. Had they stood 
 together the work could have been carried 
 through. But six of the eight would have lost 
 votes and therefore contracts amounting to 
 thousands of dollars from each man's income. 
 It meant political weakness and perhaps busi- 
 ness ruin to attempt betterment, and six of them 
 dared not involve their families to that extent. 
 It is competition which has been the impulse 
 of the evolution of methods of production and 
 ( C ) i. (b) His- tin 8 has given us machinery 
 reo^T^o 8 everywhere. Machines increase 
 nomic evolution. fa G nervous pace of life. They 
 deteriorate the borderlander, and lower working 
 families by making men do stupid labor, like 
 feeding a machine all day or pulling a lever at 
 stated intervals. They make children as effi- 
 cient as men used to be and therefore cause child 
 labor to be productive. They increase the irregu- 
 larity of labor and hence the chances of depend- 
 
130 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 ency and delinquency. The absence of machinery 
 kept employers and workmen more on the same 
 level and preserved the personal relation. It 
 helped decentralization and allowed the children 
 to work in their own homes under the care of 
 parents. It is therefore to machinery that we 
 owe some of the present delinquency. 
 
 Trades unions are not without their bad side. 
 Their necessarily cast-iron rules are often 
 (c.) 2. Trades blindly unjust, not only to the 
 ^.^tTe": employer but also to those not 
 ment - fortunate enough to be in their 
 
 ranks. They bar out of skilled work exactly 
 the danger nucleus, the borderlander. And in 
 some parts of Australia we have the phenomenon 
 of thousands just above the borderlander who, 
 belonging nominally to the unions, refuse to 
 work at any time at anything less than union 
 wages, and so strong is the feeling for unions 
 that these " sturdy beggars " demand and get 
 subsistence without work, on the plea that the 
 union forbids labor at less than union rates. 
 
 In Newark a judge of the juvenile court 
 went so far as to say that the only way a child 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 181 
 
 of the borderlander could learn a trade was to 
 be committed for some offence. 
 
 These conditions strike primarily at the lower 
 working classes, for often those have only 
 
 (c.) 3. Mere brawn bniW11 tO g lv6 tO the WOrld ' 
 
 discounted. Barred out from skilled work 
 
 by the unions, their only resort is the rough 
 kind of toil. This is largely done by machinery, 
 so that what is left for them is unsteady and 
 unwholesome, or tedious work which tends to 
 embrute and keep them ignorant. The result on 
 the children is clear, for the home is poverty- 
 stricken and the many things which would raise 
 them above the parents' class are denied. 
 
 The modern city is the necessary outgrowth of 
 machine methods of production, and while the 
 
 ( C .) 4. centraiiza. process of centralization began 
 
 tion of population pro- 
 duces offenders. about the time of our revolution 
 
 it is only just completed in some trades. Not 
 thirty years ago in the hatting business in Lan- 
 cashire, England, the villages were dotted with 
 families of hatters. Every one or two families 
 had their little " plank shop " behind the house ; 
 the whole hat was made by hand, the wife and 
 
132 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 children helping. Machinery has been invented 
 and now the little shops are unused, as the 
 writer saw only a few months ago. The hatters 
 are gathered together about the large factories, 
 and the village hatter is almost unknown. This 
 is typical of almost all other trades. The result 
 is a centralization of population, and the young 
 people of the family working away from the 
 parents. In the city life less track can be kept 
 of the children ; goods are more freely displayed 
 and stealing becomes easier. Also playing in 
 the city streets, the formation of "gangs" and 
 their attendant phenomena of delinquency 
 appear so clearly as to be formulated in the law 
 that juvenile offences spring up in direct pro- 
 portion as the population increases. It will be 
 remembered (Chapter I.) that not 2% of delin- 
 quents come from the open country and that 20% 
 of city boys between the ages of ten and sixteen 
 years become offenders. 
 
 Even when the centralization is temporary 
 Even when that cen- this law holds. Paris had about 
 
 tralization is tempo- 
 rary, twice the usual number of 
 
 boys arrested for delinquency during the ex- 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 133 
 
 position year.* At the St. Louis exposition girls 
 were lured from country homes f and there was 
 serious reason for suspecting the existence of a 
 society for supplying girls for immoral purposes 4 
 Some data under this caption are given in 
 Chapter I. under " home conditions." In Paris 
 poverty produces poverty was one of the great 
 young malefactors. causes o f delinquency. Between 
 '90 and '92 over 47% of the children arrested 
 there had indigent parents. Israel Jones, super- 
 intendent of the New York House of Refuge, 
 finds cold and hunger a frequent cause of theft. || 
 Continued poverty lowers the standard of living, 
 and sometimes pushes the family over into 
 pauperism or delinquency. The New York 
 Juvenile Asylum reports that poverty often 
 pushes the boy out of home and initiates him 
 into the offender's life.^f 
 
 * " Du Vagabondage et de la Prostitution des Mineurs." Kevue 
 Penitentiaire. 
 
 fMrs. Whittemore of the Door of Hope declared a syndicate 
 had raised $250,000 to lure girls to the fair. 
 
 J " Charities," Nov. 19, '04. Also Telegram, N.Y., Jan. 14, '04. 
 
 Revue Penetentiaire, Vol. 19 ; pages 93-99. 
 
 || " Juvenile Delinquency, Limited Sentences," a pamphlet. 
 
 H Fifty -first report, page 22. 
 
134 
 
 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 Poverty prevents a boy from learning a trade 
 for he receives such small wages while learning 
 that the parents can not afford to keep him at it. 
 Also his ragged clothes often bar him from 
 employment. There is a society in connection 
 with the New York Institute for Social Service 
 whose object is to supply decent clothes in 
 which to apply for work. 
 
 The children of the poor are sent out to work 
 too soon, and are unequipped and puny. An 
 examination of four hundred and eighty-six 
 inmates of the New York Juvenile Asylum 
 showed the following: thirty-five were under 
 seven years of age and were not questioned; 
 of the four hundred and fifty-one left the aver- 
 age age at which they began work was eleven 
 years and nine months, as follows : 
 
 1 began work at the age of 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 99 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 44 
 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 135 
 
 61 began work at the age of 13 
 
 65 " " " " 14 
 
 11 " " " " 15 
 
 1 " " " " 17 
 
 That is, 83% never bad a childhood, but were 
 loaded with a man's burden and a child's 
 strength. 
 
 Not only so, but these children are sent out 
 to work at street occupations, which is a fruitful 
 source of delinquency. Mornay Williams puts 
 this as one of the great producers of delin- 
 quents.* Miss Kelly, an experienced worker 
 among the young, puts this as one of the three 
 great causes of delinquency. Of the above- 
 mentioned children, 105 were newsboys, 40 
 messenger boys, 55 in factories, 68 in stores, 28 
 peddlers, 11 were hall-boys, and 6 were boot- 
 blacks. It is not strange that the New York 
 Asylum reports " one of the causal factors of 
 delinquency is the factory and street employ- 
 ment of young children." Nor are the condi- 
 tions limited to New York City. Mrs. John 
 Van Vorst reports that there are in the United 
 
 * " The Street Boy," page 3, by Mr. Williams, President 
 N.Y.J.A. 
 
136 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 States a million and a half of children working 
 between the ages of 10 and 15; 25% of all the 
 textile workers of the South are under 16. 
 Two thousand girls under 13 are doing night 
 work in Pennsylvania ; 92,000 are employed at 
 or below that age in New York State. In 
 Maine there are good laws to prevent this, but 
 they are poorly enforced. In New Hampshire 
 there is no factory inspection. In Alabama the 
 laws are as poor as the enforcement. In Georgia 
 there are no laws at all.* In some cases children 
 from 4 to 6 years old are employed steadily in 
 the mills, and girls of 6, 7, and 8 years of age 
 work all night in the cotton factories. 
 
 The legacy which such conditions leaves is 
 permanent. Children sent to work under these 
 circumstances are naturally limited in horizon. 
 They work until they are of marriageable age 
 and then in turn put their children at the same 
 labor. The standard of living, health and vital- 
 ity, intelligence and the forces which oppose 
 delinquency and crime are constantly lowered, 
 until, as is the case of Lancashire and West 
 
 * " The Saturday Evening Post," March 10, 1906. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 137 
 
 Riding of Yorkshire, England, the legacy of 
 offences is permanent. Both of these localities 
 just mentioned had the same conditions years 
 ago; they have yet the highest ratio of crime 
 and delinquency in England. Few realize what 
 these figures mean. They mean that children 
 to the number of a million and a half are bat- 
 tered by belts and pulleys into crooked, igno- 
 rant, hopeless citizens, for it is the exceptional 
 child who rises from these conditions. Harvard 
 University has in all her departments some two 
 or three thousand students whom the State and 
 authorities are trying for eight months in the 
 year to educate. Here in the factories of our 
 United States are some 700 universities as large 
 as Harvard, running almost twice as long each 
 year and their unspeakable product is con- 
 sumption, ignorance, undeveloped bodies, border- 
 landers' homes, brutalities, the blotting out of 
 all the delicate and fine, the quenching of 
 700 Harvards of children, with their right to 
 laughter and life, the substitution of disgrace 
 and delinquency for sunshine and flowers. We 
 look back at the blue books of England with 
 
138 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 the record of children driven in gangs to work, 
 and fed on the swill of the swine, and we say 
 "it is past." But here it is in new birth, in- 
 volving more of our own children than were 
 ground to pieces for the cotton cloth of Eng- 
 land. Have we no Mrs. Browning to voice 
 " The Bitter Cry of Our Children " ? Seven hun- 
 dred Harvards of this kind with the corollary of 
 300,000 homes so ruined that a sociologist can 
 see them from the train windows as it rushes 
 through a town ! 
 
 The manner in which these conditions work 
 
 out high delinquency is devious. Besides those 
 
 above-mentioned is the avenue 
 
 The legacy of pov- 
 erty and unwholesome of tramp life. The monotony 
 
 work leads to embru- 
 
 tation and tramp nfe of feeding a machine ten hours 
 a day for six days a week results 
 in a certain stupidity which expresses itself in 
 physique. Initiative and adaptability are lost, 
 and from the dulness of labor a dulness of 
 ethical perception follows. After work hours 
 there is a desire for amusement, and this is 
 found in inert loafing about some favorite 
 lamp-post or alley. The cheap theatre is patron- 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 139 
 
 ized, as is also the drinking saloon. In the case 
 of a girl this is apt to lead to a misstep which 
 in turn closes her home against her and opens 
 the way to prostitution. With the boy an in- 
 ertia and aversion to all kinds of work is 
 developed, together with a desire to drink and 
 wander. The tramp life is easier and pleasanter 
 than the work they have been compelled to do. 
 It is from the ranks of messenger boys, the 
 underfed and under-aged factory children that 
 tramps are recruited. For even when they 
 have a home it has such little material basis 
 that they might as well be living in a tent. It 
 is easier to move than to pay rent. The number 
 of tramps is not often appreciated. In England 
 it was estimated that 30,000 persons were con- 
 tinually on the tramp. General Booth esti- 
 mated the number of homeless in the United 
 Kingdom to be 165,000.* In Germany estimates 
 vary from 40,000 to 200,000. No statistics are 
 available for the United States, but the indica- 
 tions are that the ratio is about the same here 
 
 * Warner, "American Charities," page 182. 
 
140 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 as elsewhere.* When we remember that the 
 adult tramp teaches boys begging, unnatural 
 sexual actions, and vagrancy, we may more 
 easily see the " vicious circle " of which the 
 underfed and overworked city child is a part. 
 For while economic processes are developing, 
 there is a great amount of waste product which 
 seems at times a necessary result of economic 
 evolution. 
 
 IV. DISPOSITIONAL CAUSES. 
 
 The adventurous disposition is common in 
 
 healthy children. It impels a child to rob a 
 
 garden, steal thermometers, milk 
 
 (a.) Normal. 
 
 Adventurous and or newspapers from piazzas, or 
 
 lawless dispositions, 
 
 truancy, idleness, and CVCU to drive away with SOme 
 
 the gang instinct, and , . , P >-> rm 
 
 immaturity cause the one s horse, "just for fun. There 
 
 fall of juveniles. 
 
 malicious purpose, but just the desire to be 
 " chased " by somebody. When this disposition 
 occurs in a city child it is only a question of 
 
 *" Six Weeks in Beggardom," Everybody's, December and 
 January, 1904-5. Forbes, Mendicancy officer of N.Y. C.O.S., " The 
 Jockers and the Schools they keep." 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 141 
 
 time, unless carefully guided by parents, before 
 he is landed at the court. 
 
 Sometimes it takes the form of lawlessness. 
 
 The boy wants to be " chased by the cop." He 
 
 takes a pride in being " tough." 
 
 Lawlessness. 
 
 The fact that a deed is against 
 the law, the rule of his parents or the express 
 command of school teacher or overseer is enough 
 to create a desire to do it. Still this is not 
 inherent criminality. It is normal and is fed 
 by the melodramatic theatre and dime novels. 
 Many children are arrested after witnessing a 
 circus performance or a cheap play. They have 
 been "playing highway robber" too realistically, 
 actually holding up others and robbing them at 
 the point of a pistol. 
 
 One of the commonest avenues of delinquency 
 
 is truancy, statistics of which have already been 
 
 given. There are many children 
 
 Truancy. 
 
 who can not bear school studies 
 and school methods. They become irritable 
 and avoid school at every possible opportunity. 
 Some of this is illness or nervousness, as is 
 proved by medical cures. Some is dislike for a 
 
142 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 particular school or school teacher. Still others 
 are truant because of overcrowded ,or distant 
 school. And again, there are many whose 
 minds revolt from academic studies, but they 
 take eagerly to them when combined with and 
 bearing on mechanical or manual labor Rela- 
 tively few of them are naturally truant. But 
 from whatever source truancy springs, it is an 
 offence which starts many in the delinquent life. 
 Idleness impels some truants. And perhaps 
 this should be put under physiological causes, 
 for it is often a matter of under- 
 
 Idlenegs. 
 
 developed body. At a certain 
 stage a growing child is lazy because his energy 
 is being taken up by growth. He refuses all 
 kinds of work, and in order to get out of it 
 becomes a truant or a little vagrant. Away 
 from home, playing on the street, he easily 
 drifts into delinquency. 
 
 It is such children, adventurous, lawless, idle, 
 
 and truant, that naturally form gangs. The 
 
 other school comrades being at 
 
 The gang instinct. . 
 
 work, these are isolated and 
 form a little clan. Often a whole " gang " is 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 143 
 
 brought into court and with the " gang " some 
 not belonging there who happened to be caught 
 with them. It is a well-known fact that either 
 adults or children will do things by " gangs " 
 which no single member would dream of doing 
 alone. These boys indulge in pitched battles 
 on the city streets, they annoy pedestrians, in- 
 sult passing women, incite each other to law- 
 lessness, and in some cases form little criminal 
 societies pledged to testify in favor of any who 
 are caught and " to stick by the gang " in every 
 possible way. This is not morbid or inherent 
 viciousness, as is proved by the fact that more 
 than once a remarkably " tough " gang has been 
 enlisted, every member, in useful work and be- 
 come a thoroughly useful club under tactful 
 leadership. 
 
 Immaturity sums up much of this matter 
 
 already cited and also such causes as lack of 
 
 will or volition, lack of moral 
 
 Immaturity. 
 
 discrimination, and lack 01 ap- 
 preciation of property rights. It seems as if 
 instincts develop before the child knows how to 
 control them. Until he is taught he does not 
 
144 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 realize the difference between ordinary naughty 
 acts and criminally wrong acts. When he 
 wants an object he sees no sufficient reason why 
 he should not take it. Indeed the difference 
 between the nervous organization and brain of 
 a child and those of a man is as great as the 
 chasm between a dog and a man, except for the 
 fact that the child possesses potential develop- 
 ment. But no lack of development, no imma- 
 turity counts with the law. The child may not 
 be severely dealt with, but he becomes delin- 
 quent and his immaturity (lacking guidance) 
 has been the cause. 
 
 It can not be doubted that some children are 
 
 backward by nature. They do not learn easily. 
 
 (&.) Abnormal School is a constant and labori- 
 
 ous dread to tbem > and tne y 
 become truant ( lackin s over - 
 
 fenders. sight). Also a naturally back- 
 
 ward child will show moral dulness. Morality 
 is not born in any child, it must be acquired, 
 and when one has said that a child is mentally 
 dull it is almost equivalent to saying that there 
 will be moral dulness. If there is not special 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 145 
 
 oversight a backward girl can be easily intro- 
 duced to an immoral life, and a backward boy 
 under such circumstances drifts with facility to 
 a truant, vagrant, and vicious life. 
 
 Sometimes there is a morbid taint without 
 insanity. The child develops perverse sexu- 
 ality, a desire to drink, or klep- 
 
 Morbidity. . 
 
 tomania and, lacking guidance, 
 these desires are developed and indulged. It is 
 not as rare as one could wish to find boys who 
 have been intoxicated more than once before the 
 age of ten, and there are both boys and girls 
 below that age already sexual perverts. 
 
 When the juvenile is clearly insane he is not 
 counted a delinquent, but in its subtler forms 
 insanity in Bubtie ^sanity is exceedingly difficult 
 forms - to recognize. Several cases of 
 
 delinquency and serious crime, afterward de- 
 clared insanity, have come to the writer's notice. 
 Maudsley gives several cases of what he calls 
 " affective " insanity. The patient is apparently 
 rational but has insane desires which lead 
 him to commit crimes.* Krafft-Ebbing gives a 
 
 * See numerous examples in Maudsley 's " Responsibility in 
 Mental Disease," and Krafft-Ebbin^'s " Psychopathia Sexualis." 
 Other cases are given in the present paper under insanity. 
 
146 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 volume of analogous data in the realm of sex 
 passion. There is no doubt that insanity may 
 take such a form that while reason is apparently 
 intact, the affective nature is so insane that all 
 kinds of offences from truancy, begging, and 
 vagrancy to " lust murder " may be committed 
 by juveniles apparently sane, and this insane 
 taint may rise from wounds, falls, poisons, drugs 
 and the like acting on a person of neurotic 
 temperament. 
 
 There is also reason for believing in the ex- 
 istence of "natural" criminals. Physical and 
 mental examination reveal no 
 
 The criminal nature. 
 
 condition which would justify 
 inclusion under any usual class of insane, but 
 yet the person is anomalous. His desires may 
 not be insane but only criminal. In every 
 serious correctional institution there are some 
 reports of those inherently vicious whose de- 
 linquency can not be clearly traced to environ- 
 ment or to insanity. For example, in examin- 
 ing the inmates of a penal institution the writer 
 came across a young man of Neapolitan birth. 
 He had the thick hair, prominent frontal 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 147 
 
 eminences, high cheek bones, outstanding ears, 
 heavy jaw, etc., of Lombroso's descriptions ; he 
 was a typical mongoloid criminal and I put him 
 down as such without asking his offence. A 
 month later the record of his crimes was 
 searched. He habitually carried a stiletto, had 
 stabbed a man in the head, and told me in 
 answer to my question as to whether he was 
 sorry, " Me sorry eighteen months." He re- 
 gretted the confinement but bore it like a cat. 
 The Italian school classifies these as the " born '' 
 criminal. And although this is obviously a 
 metaphorical use of the word, no man can be a 
 born criminal in reality any more than a man 
 can be a born sea captain ; still it is accurate 
 enough to describe a class of delinquents funda- 
 mentally vicious, yet not insane in the usual 
 sense. This viciousness may be hereditary, or 
 probably congenital. 
 
 V. PHYSIOLOGICAL CAUSES. 
 
 The renitant factors in abundant animal 
 spirits are largely the physical basis of adventu- 
 rous disposition. This phenomenon is noted by 
 
148 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 every settlement worker. There are children 
 (a.) Normal. " so full of life " that they can 
 
 T h e delinquency . , , . , , m, . , 
 
 factor. which appear not S1 * Still. IllCJ thrOW Stones, 
 
 BCX - and youth. yards, climb into empty build- 
 ings and prowl about private property. In 
 the country this superabundant energy expends 
 itself in tree climbing, swimming, fishing, and 
 long walks in the woods. But in the city there 
 is no opportunity for these harmless amuse- 
 ments. The former, which are all delinquen- 
 cies, are indulged in, and the youth is brought 
 before the court. 
 
 The maximum period of delinquency is from 
 
 fourteen to sixteen years of age, the age of 
 
 puberty. At this time not only 
 
 Puberty. 
 
 the sex passions come to con- 
 sciousness, but other impulses. The child is in 
 general more susceptible, more nervous and 
 more easily influenced for good or bad than in 
 any other period of life. Several experiments 
 have been tried by the writer to prove this. 
 One of them is to ask for a show of hands of 
 those in a church audience converted at the age 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 149 
 
 of fourteen to sixteen. It is remarkable that 
 almost 50% are converted about that period. It 
 is also under the stress of puberty that offences 
 against modesty are committed by children, 
 who, when normal, grow out of it later. 
 
 In the New York, Brooklyn, and Newark 
 
 Children's Courts the writer found the great 
 
 majority of offenders to be boys. 
 
 HPT 
 
 Before the New York Court 
 there were 1,204 juveniles in 15 months ; 95.19% 
 of them were boys.* At Atlanta 93.23% were 
 boys. In French juvenile institutions 76.92% 
 were males. In England 80% of police court 
 offenders and 85.72% of reformatory children 
 were boys. At the penitentiary at Caldwell the 
 writer counted during six visits 85% males. 
 The general figures for United States prisoners 
 show 93.86% to be males. Some of this differ- 
 ence of criminality between male and female is 
 to be explained by the fact that a girl is less 
 likely to be arrested, and a young woman 
 less likely to be committed than a young man. 
 
 * Report of the chief probation officer, 1904; Morrison's "Juve- 
 nile Offenders," page 43 j Census for Ib90. 
 
150 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 In conditions which make the life of a female 
 more nearly that of the male the ratio is more 
 equal. But in general the female is far less 
 criminal, both in number and in intensity of 
 offences, than the male. We may therefore 
 infer that sex has a causative influence on 
 delinquency. 
 
 The youthfulness of the delinquent, the pre- 
 cocity he displays in delinquency indicate age as 
 a causative element. When 
 
 Youth. 
 
 does the offender begin his 
 criminal life? If we begin with the older 
 delinquent and pass to the first court offender 
 we can answer this question. At Illinois Peni- 
 tentiary 58% of the inmates committed their 
 first penitentiary offence before the age of 25. 
 At Elmira 89.9% of the inmates were below 25 ; 
 the indications are that they began their reform- 
 atory offences below 20.* When we reach the 
 juvenile proper, we find that 57.5% of the 
 offenders in French institutions were between 
 
 * Report of N.Y. State Home, 1904, page 28; Fifty-first report 
 N.Y.J.A., page 50; N.Y. State Reformatory at Elmira, page 28; 
 "The Juvenile Court at Denver," pamphlet; " Enfants Coup- 
 able," Rauxj page 26 ; " Juvenile (.'Senders," Cady. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 151 
 
 14 and 26 years of age, the maximum number 
 being 15. Of those arrested at Paris 76% were 
 between the ages of 13 and 16. At Jamesburg, 
 N.J., 60% were between 13 and 16, most being 
 
 15 years old, while at the New York Juvenile 
 Asylum most were aged 14. Judge Lindsey 
 claims 20% of city boys are arrested between the 
 ages of 10 and 16. Cady, averaging all the 
 available data, concludes that the average age of 
 the delinquent boy is 14.09 and that of the 
 delinquent girl 14.71. 
 
 These figures give only the age at which the 
 offender was confined in an institution. But 
 there is almost always a bad record before the 
 delinquent is committed. It is the custom to 
 suspend sentence or parole a child for his first, 
 second or even third offence unless it is very 
 serious. So that the average age given by Cady 
 would be lessened by one or two years, if it 
 indicated the age at which the first court offence 
 was committed. But the first court offence is 
 not always the first actual offence. This can be 
 learned only by knowledge of the child at home 
 and on the street. Almost all the delinquents 
 
152 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOB. 
 
 sent to Newark court from Montclair School for 
 backwards during two years were known by 
 me ; they had been a year or two in this school 
 and had been known before that to be trouble- 
 some children. Their delinquent life began 
 before the age of ten. 
 
 Troublesome actions in children below ten are 
 rarely serious enough to compel general notice ; 
 they are seen only by persons in close touch 
 with the child, as the club leader or school 
 teacher. Such contact with these, and the fact 
 that many children are in court at the age of 
 eight, has convinced the writer that delinquency 
 has its beginning as soon as we can trace any- 
 thing like individuality. It is, therefore, reason- 
 able to suppose that youth, lack of physical ma- 
 turity, has a causative influence on delinquency. 
 
 It is clear that, other things being equal, 
 
 the child without deformations, the handsome 
 
 (6.) Abnormal youth, stands a better social 
 
 phyeical causes, as de- j , , , , , 
 
 formations, disease, and economic chance than those 
 
 ^: mal-formed. The latter tend 
 edit y- to become irritable, bitter, or 
 
 even criminal under the jokes and thoughtless 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 153 
 
 discriminations made by employers against them. 
 That is, there is a downward pressure. An ill- 
 favored boy is shunned and his tendency is to 
 grow up worthy of his treatment, especially if 
 he be the child of the borderlander. 
 
 Disease works both directly on the child and 
 indirectly on his parents. It may kill or cripple 
 
 Disease causes of- the guardians and leave the 
 fences, child adrift. Disease may at- 
 
 tack the juvenile in such a way as to develop 
 abnormal cravings, restlessness, and therefore 
 truancy or vicious acts. Many children have 
 been cured of delinquency by removal of ade- 
 noid growths, by castration, and the like. 
 
 Strange as it may seem there are records of 
 offences committed under the influence of 
 
 Hypnotism and som- hypnotism and somnambulism.* 
 
 nambulism enter in 
 
 causes. Persons may plan and execute 
 
 strange criminal acts while asleep or hypnotized 
 and have no remembrance of them afterward. 
 
 That crime or a neurotic tendency thereto 
 may be transmitted by heredity is well known. 
 The Juke family is a famous example. Juke, 
 
 *See Maudsley, " Responsibility in Mental Diseases," page 268; 
 also Moll, " Hypnotism." 
 
154 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 the father, was born about 1720-40 in New 
 York State ; 709 out of nearly 
 1,200 descendants have been 
 traced, and of this 709 there were less than 20 
 skilled workers and 10 of these learned their 
 trade while in prison. One hundred and eight 
 received out-door relief amounting to 2,300 
 years for one man. There were 76 confirmed 
 criminals; 52.4% of the women were harlots. 
 Altogether this family has cost the State one 
 and a quarter millions of dollars.* 
 
 VI. INDIVIDUAL CAUSES. 
 
 The action of bad personal habits is twofold, 
 individual causes of (1) on the parent, and (2) on 
 
 delinquency? as bad ,-> r -ij 
 habit! the Chll(i - 
 
 *' Intoxication is a rare phenom- 
 
 2 
 
 3. Drugs. enon in the iuvenile. Morrison 
 
 4. Sexual. 
 
 5. Bad associates, finds it practically non-existent 
 
 6. Bad literature. 
 
 7. cheap theatres, in England, but in South Africa 
 
 9. Lakotade. where the native grape pickers 
 
 10. street life. are childrcn of fourteen to six- 
 
 11. Lax honesty. 
 
 12. Gambling. ^ een years old it is common, for 
 the workers are paid part of their wages in wine, 
 
 *Dugdale, "The Jukes," N.Y., 1891. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 155 
 
 and it is served from four to six times a day. 
 Cecil Rhodes opposed this custom and some of 
 the English and Dutch farmers are now carrying 
 on his work. Alcoholism in the parent of the 
 juvenile, while not as common as other im- 
 moralities, is yet not unknown (see Chapter I., 
 Section B). In the adult offender guilty of the 
 most serious crime alcoholism is relatively rare. 
 The professional criminal is too " wise " to 
 drink. The criminals who drink are usually 
 the short term men, "bums," loafers, petty 
 thieves, " good-for-nothings," and the like who 
 crowd our penitentiaries. Drahm concludes that 
 little criminality is caused by intoxicants. 
 Among the Ishmaelites and Rodneys, two 
 famous families of criminals, as well as among 
 the Jukes, it is not as evident as sex immorality. 
 Yet the writer's experience shows how drink 
 is responsible for much crime of certain kinds. 
 Often at the penitentiary in answer to the ques- 
 tion " What was the trouble ? " " Drink " was 
 given as the cause. It must be remembered 
 that we have all grades of institutions and the 
 causes of crime naturally vary with the kind 
 
156 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 of crime. An examination of the jail and 
 penitentiary inmates, relatively short-term of- 
 fenders, would probably reveal about 50% as 
 drinkers and 25% practically little less than 
 " drunks." For it is to such places that these 
 are sent. Naturally the prisons and reforma- 
 tories would reveal slight percentages of 
 alcoholism, because a man whose crime was 
 only or mainly drink would not be sent there, 
 but to a short term institution. It is by con- 
 fusing these facts that such wild statements as 
 " 90% of all criminality is due to drink " are 
 made. The investigator has been to jail or a 
 short term institution and thinks this typical of 
 all. 
 
 More indirectly drink causes delinquency. It 
 is among parents who like drink without being 
 drunken, and who send the child to the saloon for 
 beer, and then wonder why he drinks ; it is here 
 that intoxicants work. So that while compara- 
 tively little of the " most serious " crime is 
 directly so caused, much has its indirect source 
 in drinking. For example, the November report 
 of the grand jury in Cook County, Illinois, says : 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 157 
 
 "It is a matter of general remark among the 
 jurors that a large number of cases before them 
 were connected with saloons at some stage. 
 Larceny and burglaries were generally planned 
 or executed in saloons. One murder was com- 
 mitted in a saloon, two just outside. The 
 assaults which happen about saloons or in them 
 are numerous." 
 
 It is perhaps more the saloon than the drink 
 per se which causes delinquency. The parents 
 and the child are acted upon unfavorably by the 
 drunken and low atmosphere of the saloon. 
 
 Brockway, the father of Elmira Reformatory, 
 
 was so convinced of the baneful effects of 
 
 tobacco that he refused to allow 
 
 Tobacco. 
 
 it in the place, and paddled any 
 inmate using it. How far he is right is a ques- 
 tion. The New York Juvenile Asylum finds 
 cigarette smoking a cause of delinquency among 
 its inmates.* Ellis finds that criminals begin 
 to use tobacco at an early age ; twenty-two per 
 cent smoke before the age of thirty ; nearly all 
 of them, 99% of males and 100% of females ex- 
 
 * Fifty-first report, page 39. 
 
158 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 amined smoked before entering prison ; * while 
 only 14% of the smokers of the normal population 
 and 7.2% of the insane begin before that age. 
 Love of tobacco is said to be the first passion 
 which roots itself in the juvenile delinquent. 
 Out of 603 juveniles between the ages of eight 
 and fifteen, 51% had acquired the tobacco habit 
 before detention. The way tobacco acts on 
 some offenders is interesting. One delinquent 
 revealed on examination noticeable traces of the 
 tobacco habit. I asked him how much he 
 smoked. " Oh, all the time." " Well, can you 
 give it up? " " I don't know." "Did you ever 
 try ? " " Yes, I tried one day to do without it 
 for an hour. After about half an hour I felt as 
 if I should die right there if I did n't take a 
 smoke. I had to smoke, I could n't help it." 
 Practically no data in percentage are available 
 for the ordinary population, but John Bain gives 
 an interesting volume to show its beneficent 
 effects when rightly used.f It is no doubt bene- 
 ficial for some adults when used moderately, 
 
 * Ellis, " The Criminal," page 120. 
 
 f " Tobacco in Song and Story," pages 24 et seq. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 159 
 
 but for children it is an evil. It seems to act 
 upon the juvenile organization like a mild intox- 
 icant, resulting in a relaxed or over-excited 
 nervous state. It acts as a stimulant of con- 
 viviality among the "gangs" of street boys and 
 makes their loafing pleasanter. 
 
 The use of drugs is comparatively rare, but 
 
 not unknown. Cocaine " fiends " appear from 
 
 time to time, and their delin- 
 
 Drugs. 
 
 quency is usually theft incited by 
 desire for money to buy the drug. 
 
 The misuse of the sex functions is more com- 
 mon. Ellis finds the criminal addicted from an 
 
 early, age to all kinds of natural 
 
 Bad sexual habits. 
 
 and unnatural sexual acts. Sex- 
 ual excess was more prominent in the Jukes, 
 Rodneys, and Ishmaelites than was alcohol. 
 The number of prostitutes (see Chapter I., Sec- 
 tion B.) in New York and the implied number 
 of feeders for them shows its prevalence. It is 
 found that the father of the juvenile often goes 
 with loose women. Misuse of the sex func- 
 tions is sometimes a disease, sometimes a result 
 of bad training and oversight and again caused 
 
160 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 by social conditions, but in some cases it is a 
 cause of delinquency directly or indirectly. 
 
 By bad associates we mean not the parents 
 
 but the comrades and acquaintances of the 
 
 child.* It is often stated that 
 
 Bad associates. 
 
 the root of delinquency is the 
 juvenile growing up in the midst of seasoned 
 crime. The New York Juvenile Asylum finds 
 a fruitful source of offences in the boys' alliance 
 with junk men and cellar keepers. f The first 
 send the boy out to pick " junk " or " any- 
 thing " and dispose of his wares. The second 
 furnish the " gang " a place to congregate. It 
 is in such resorts that " Fagin " goes on, i.e., 
 the older youth has younger helpers whom he 
 trains to pick pockets, etc. In other ways less 
 pronounced the association of younger and 
 weaker boys with older and delinquent ones 
 initiates some into the rank of the offender. 
 
 Bad literature has its effects in this realm. 
 Kelso finds it a cause of delinquency.^ Cady 
 
 * " The Life of the Street as it affects Juvenile Delinquency." 
 Jewish Charities, January, 1905, page 11. 
 
 f Fifty-first report, page 39. 
 
 J J. J. Kelso, "Work for Children." Charities, Vol. II., page 
 331. 
 
TEE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 161 
 
 found in Waukesha Reformatory only twenty- 
 four out of two hundred and 
 
 Bad literature. 
 
 fifty-five boys who had read a 
 single good book. "Diamond Dick" was the 
 usual type. It is not unknown to find counter- 
 feiting and even murder springing from bad 
 reading. French, the Orange boy, recently con- 
 victed for sending infernal machines through 
 the mails, explained that he had obtained his 
 plans from pictures of similar constructions 
 published in the papers. 
 
 " Work " for January, 1904, gives an example 
 of a child of ten who held up another and 
 robbed him of three dollars. The robber had 
 read dime novels from the age of seven. He 
 was particularly interested in Jesse James, and 
 knew more of him than of Washington. Ellis 
 found a large number of cases caused by the 
 reading of newspaper details of such criminals 
 as " Jack the Ripper." According to Cady 7% 
 to 27% of the news printed by our papers is 
 detail of crime or vice. 
 
 Bad theatres are from this standpoint simply 
 bad literature made more vivid. Every time a 
 
162 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 " Buffalo Bill " play or strikingly melodra- 
 matic piece is played in New 
 
 Cheap theatres. 
 
 York there follows indictment 
 of children for robberies and woundings, some- 
 times causing death, while " playing Indian " or 
 bandit. And the Newark probation officer 
 states this as a cause of the offences committed 
 by his wards.* In this city complaints have 
 been entered by a committee of prominent men 
 against certain theatres. They did not indict 
 the theatre commonly known as the lowest. 
 Why? It is not immoral plays with the sex 
 appeal it is that style of theatre, like the 
 Thalia of the Bowery, which is constantly 
 filled with children, wildly applauding a bandit 
 scene and hissing the villain in a swash- 
 buckling play. The delinquency factor arises 
 from two things uncontrolled excitement and 
 a craving induced in the poorer children which 
 leads them to steal in order to get the entrance 
 fee. 
 
 Loafing, no trade, and no work are also 
 
 * Report of the Probation Officer of Essex County, NJ. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 163 
 
 sources of delinquency. Kelso and Schroff 
 found these especially great 
 
 Loafing, etc. 
 
 causes in Pennsylvania's of- 
 fenders.* 
 
 Speranza examined two hundred and twenty- 
 five juvenile delinquents who were charged with 
 idleness and found the following explanations 
 of the culprits : f 
 
 48 said in essence 
 
 25 
 
 22 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 36 
 
 8 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 " We are good for nothing." 
 
 " Our father does not work." 
 
 " Work is fatiguing." 
 
 " Begging is work." 
 
 " Why work every day ? " 
 
 " You make more by stealing." 
 
 " We got along nicely by begging." 
 
 " We have n't time to work." 
 
 " Our employers discharged us, how 
 
 can we work ? " 
 " My father says only fools work." 
 
 This loafing often grows to such proportions 
 
 that it amounts to a disease. In an attempt to 
 
 redeem fallen women it was 
 
 Loftfiuffi 
 
 found almost impossible to make 
 them work at honest labor. They could do only 
 the coarsest work, and therefore received little 
 
 " Pennsylvania's Unfortunate Children." 
 f" Criminality in Children." 
 
164 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 pay, but at their trade they earned easily five to 
 fifty dollars a day and spent it all foolishly. 
 
 So it is with the youth who has no regular 
 
 work and has not been trained to a trade and 
 
 steady labor. He finds work 
 
 No regular work. 
 
 unbearable and would rather 
 pick up a living by begging or stealing than 
 undergo the ordeal of steady effort and low pay 
 at rough labor. For example, a delinquent 
 came to the writer with the story that his 
 father was dying and he needed money to get 
 home to the patient. So cunning was his plea 
 that he obtained the money, but was later in- 
 dicted for obtaining it under false pretences. 
 
 He begged for one more chance. After much 
 wrestling this was granted and the writer 
 started in the work of reform. The only condi- 
 tion on which the sentence was suspended by 
 the judge was that my culprit should prove 
 himself, because he had been at this for 
 years, robbing everybody he could. The writer 
 wrestled for five months, sometimes all day long, 
 with this delinquent. It was a marvel to see 
 how the malefactor would plan and scheme and 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 165 
 
 worry and labor to get out of paying a debt of 
 fifty cents. He worked harder to avoid paying 
 the sum of five dollars than he would have had 
 to work at chopping wood for fifteen dollars. 
 He would do anything except quit his dishonest 
 ways. 
 
 After months of struggle the writer took him 
 on a cold night in December and insisted that 
 he pay the debt at once or deliver up his sleek 
 overcoat, tie-pin, collar, and spick and span 
 shirt. " Would you do this a night so bitterly 
 cold?" "I would, as you have taken the 
 money of a poor widow washing for her living." 
 " For God's sake don't and I will pay to- 
 morrow." "Do it now." So the protracted 
 struggle went on for hours and only when the 
 writer backed him remorselessly up against 
 prison and nakedness and cold, or the paying of 
 the debt, for which he had abundant means of 
 liquidation, did he settle. Half an hour after 
 he asked for my recommendation on the grounds 
 that he had done the square thing. 
 
 Habits of lax honesty are often found in the 
 juvenile and lead him surely to the court. Per- 
 
166 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 haps no path is more certain than that of 
 the second-hand store and junk 
 
 Dishonesty. 
 
 dealer. The parent sends the 
 child to pick coal or junk, and sends him to the 
 second-hand dealer with goods to sell. It is 
 only a step before this becomes a habit of 
 stealing all he can find. The writer has seen 
 numerous cases where lead piping, brass, copper, 
 and books have been stolen and sold to the 
 second-hand dealer and junkman for theatre 
 tickets. 
 
 Crap-shooting is a favorite beginning with the 
 delinquent according to the asylum reports.* 
 
 Jane Addams finds the gambling 
 
 Gambling. . . 
 
 impulse strong among her delin- 
 quents. Ellis gives cases of criminals who 
 played cards two days without intermission. 
 One gambled away his rations and died of 
 starvation. Another was so absorbed that he 
 forgot his approaching execution.! More than 
 once this passion has led to the arrest of other- 
 
 N.Y.J.A., page 38 ; " Delinquent Children," Charities, Vol. 
 V1IL, page 490. 
 t"The Criminal," page 144. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 167 
 
 wise good boys, as is well known to all settle- 
 ment workers. 
 
 VII. FAMILY CAUSES. 
 
 The great cause is the non or semi-functionary 
 home. That the home is at the root of most 
 
 The deficient home. SOcial 6vils is SO often asserted 
 
 introduction. ^ to ma k e its repetition here 
 
 seem trite. Yet the attempt is made not only to 
 state this fact, but also to indicate precisely how. 
 From over a dozen prominent workers with 
 delinquents only one, the superintendent of the 
 House of Refuge, even clearly indicated the 
 home as among the first two causes of delin- 
 quency. Another prominent leader said it 
 would be brutally unjust to indicate the home, 
 and therefore the parents, as the prime agents in 
 this realm, for said she, " They can not help it." 
 It is not a question, however, of who is to 
 blame. We are not seeking culprits, but only 
 and dispassionately causes. 
 
 It will be seen that all the factors depicted 
 under " physical causes," such as geography, 
 climate, and temperature, while really produc- 
 
168 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 ing delinquency, yet become active only when 
 
 * not Wel1 
 
 A summary of 
 
 phy 8 icaicau Be8 shows ^ed ; and b a we ll- O rganized 
 
 them active only in a J 
 
 deficient home. home is meant healthy parents, 
 
 healthy children, with such physical, mental, and 
 ethical ability that the home is a wholesome 
 unit, is in a word organized. One does not 
 often blame parents and children for being ill or 
 malformed, nor do we blame the parents if the 
 atmosphere of the home is not thoroughly good, 
 but the fact remains, disorganization exists and 
 the way is open for delinquency to enter. 
 Whether the parents distil illegal whiskey, let 
 the children run loose in a summer resort, a 
 naval or military station with its quota of bad 
 women, or train the child to carry on a feud, is 
 all one from our standpoint. They may be 
 doing the best they can but the home is not well 
 organized ; it is only semi-functionary. No 
 home is good unless the children are recognized 
 practically, not theoretically, as of greater 
 importance than any material thing pertaining 
 thereto. Whether it is the parent who is so 
 impoverished or ignorant that he sacrifices them 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOE. 169 
 
 for wages or for food; or whether it is the 
 middle or better class parent who is so ignorant 
 or lazy that he does not properly control the 
 child, or whether it is the stupid parent who lets 
 the child become permanently hurt by lack of 
 care in hot weather, it is all one and the same 
 thing, the home is non or semi-functionary, the 
 parent is not doing what he was made for doing. 
 If we review the factors cited under social 
 progress and social machinery we shall find the 
 The renitant factors same thing true. The standard 
 
 are effective only in a 
 
 bad home. to which the child is asked to 
 
 rise by the law, complex as it may be, is yet 
 such that a child reasonably well brought up in 
 a well-organized home will not only pass the 
 requirements but consider that mere avoidance 
 of illegality is not sufficient. The waste product, 
 the refuse of our doing things, comes from the 
 disorganized home. The parent may be ill, 
 tainted, insane, over-strained in business, and 
 this may not be his fault but it is his misfortune. 
 He is not able to keep his children out of range 
 of delinquency factors ; they fail therefore. 
 The essence of the State's failure in correc- 
 
170 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 tional institutions is the same. By common 
 The eBBence of the consent criminologists recognize 
 
 State's failure ie it. tfa t f ^ h h h d 
 
 lack of forming a 
 
 home - homes, or whose homes have 
 
 failed, the State should stand in loco parentis 
 and furnish a foster home for its wards. By 
 this is meant not a place where the criminal will 
 be coddled, but where he will be made to work 
 hard, and at wholesome labor, under wholesome 
 influences, and with adapted education. The 
 reason the State fails is because the home she 
 furnishes is non or semi-functionary. She acts 
 as though simply locking a defective up in isola- 
 tion, standing guard over him with a rifle, and 
 keeping him there for a fixed period would 
 somehow produce the effect of a good home and 
 render the malefactor an honest citizen. 
 
 Again from this standpoint the baneful forces 
 of immigration reduce to the same denominator. 
 
 The downward fac- Tt is not the fact of immigration 
 tors of immigration nor fa e WO rking of the law there 
 
 become baneful only 
 
 in the defective home, stated that causes delinquency 
 per se ; it is that these impulses act on a home 
 not sufficiently strong to resist them. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 171 
 
 Nor is it otherwise with dispositional and 
 physiological causes. Not a single natural im- 
 there tabulated but is a 
 
 become functionary gource Q f w holeSOme living, if 
 
 only under defective 
 
 parents. properly guided. But the parent 
 
 who for lack of physical strength, laziness, igno- 
 rance or incompetence does not so guide, the 
 parent is the real source, and this is so clearly 
 recognized that the courts are beginning to hold 
 the parent of the offender and rigorously demand 
 that there be no whining about inability to 
 guide the child. It must be done, one may say, 
 whether the parent thinks he is able or not. A 
 case came to the writer's notice of a father with 
 two boys who broke windows and destroyed 
 property. Complaints elicited only apologies 
 and protestations of inability to control. The 
 court decided that the parent could not control 
 the child, but must pay for the property and be 
 held responsible at court for future misdeeds. 
 The offences were not repeated. The judge had 
 made the home functionary. 
 
 But when a child is abnormal is it then a 
 case of bad home ? Largely, yes. The parents 
 
172 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 are physically weak or they have allowed a 
 
 The above is true Congenital defect to gO Un- 
 even when the im- 
 pulses are normal, treated. The child does not come 
 
 before the court for its first offence. Usually 
 the parent has knowledge that the child is 
 dangerous before the criminal act. It has been 
 the writer's experience that parents knowingly 
 left the abnormal child at large rather than take 
 the trouble to constantly watch the defective, 
 or put it in an institution. Society has a right 
 to expect a home to take care of its sick. And 
 this right springs from a fact which experience 
 has taught, the family is able so to do unless 
 it is inherently weak, i.e., unless it is non or 
 semi-functionary. Again, let it be repeated, this 
 is not indiscriminating blame ; we may sympa- 
 thize but we must acknowledge the fact that 
 the reason a defective child becomes delinquent 
 in actual life is because the home was too weak 
 to do its function alone. 
 
 The same is true of individual causes, bad 
 habits of various kinds stated. Is it not true 
 that a child of ten to fifteen years of age will 
 not become a drunkard if his parents are wide 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 173 
 
 awake? If there is a neurotic disposition in- 
 NO child becomes ducing dipsomania, this will 
 " lie have been recognized years ago 
 
 ca^ of bad habits is and a pp ropr i a te measures taken 
 
 largely poor parental rr * 
 
 oversight. by the well-organized home. 
 
 Nor will a child of ten contract the tobacco 
 habit without his parents' knowledge, if they are 
 functionary. It is lack of persistent, unrelent- 
 ing, yet tactful effort on the part of the guar- 
 dian which allows the child with such tendencies 
 to indulge them. If the youth begins using 
 cocaine there is almost always a history of 
 parental weakness, they themselves have used 
 the drug or there has not been stalwart super- 
 vision. And certainly no girl of thirteen to 
 sixteen can become a prostitute unless the home 
 is almost non-functionary, for it has been seen 
 that very few such cases spring from abnormal 
 desire. In such cases where there is heightened 
 sexuality the alert parent knows it long before 
 prostitution is reached and most parents alive to 
 civic duty and the real welfare of the offspring 
 would resort to a surgical operation under the 
 direction of the family physician rather than by 
 
174 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 indecision allow the unfortunate to enter such a 
 life. Is it not true that even poverty-stricken 
 parents who realize their duty will avoid sending 
 a child to saloons, or putting him in alliance 
 with the junkman and second-hand dealer? 
 Experience with the families of the poor has 
 taught that it is not the sturdy poor who allow 
 the child to drift, it is the shiftless, the incom- 
 petent, the non-functionary. 
 
 Not more than 20% of homes become delin- 
 quent. These are the families weakened in 
 
 SOme ne f th 
 
 The non or B emi- 
 
 functionary home above sta ted, and they furnish 
 
 may be divided Into * 
 
 three classes : the susceptible matrix which 
 
 (1.) The lax home. 
 
 (2.) The border- fosters the bacteria of delin- 
 
 landers' home. rr-i t i 
 
 (3.) Th vicious quency. These homes may be 
 divided into three classes j^(l) 
 the lax home ; (2) the borderlanders' home ; (3) 
 the vicious home. Of the lax home we may 
 speak first. In this home there may or may not 
 be economic misfortune, illness, abnormality or 
 the like. The home may appear good and the 
 parents usually intelligent, but this is not the 
 weak spot. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 175 
 
 The baneful source is a lack of unity in the 
 
 home. The father leaves too much to the 
 
 mother : the father has not 
 
 (1.) The baneful 
 
 spot in the lax home wholesome ideals himself. The 
 
 is lack of wholesome 
 
 unity and incompetent home has not the home atmos- 
 
 oversight. _ . . 
 
 phere. (Quarreling and recrimi- 
 nations are often present. And the main fact 
 of all from the standpoint of this study is that 
 the children are not given wise oversight. Boys 
 and girls are out in the street long after dark. 
 There is no insistence on obedience ; no dignity 
 of treatment, but a " pecking " at the child 
 when he does petty things and a blank incompe- 
 tence or blind rage when he commits serious 
 acts of disobedience. Moreover, it is impossible 
 to convince the parent. He blames everybody 
 but himself and the child. If a club leader 
 reports misdemeanor the parent takes the child 
 from the club. Likewise the complaints of a 
 teacher or neighbor are received with resentment. 
 The fact that the child is a nuisance to others 
 does not seem to penetrate the mind of the 
 parent. He thinks that others take too seriously 
 the pranks of his child. It is only when a 
 
176 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 stinging rebuke from the court is administered, 
 and a fine on the instalment plan recalls the 
 circumstance periodically, that the parent begins 
 to waken to the situation, and the child can thus 
 be recovered. It is clear, however, that the 
 home, the parent, is the real cause of de- 
 linquency. 
 
 Below the lax home is that of the border- 
 lander, and there are all grades of descent to it. 
 ( 2.) The border- Only types can be given. Take 
 landers' home. -The fa e home where there are a 
 
 widow or widower 
 
 with a large young number of small children semi- 
 
 family ; the family 
 
 with emphasized idio- orphans. If the mother is left 
 
 syncrasies; the home 
 
 with too many chii- alone she has a problem before 
 
 dren : the family on an i r r r i j 
 
 unstable economic her Wnich fe W WOmen WOUld 
 
 ba8lB - care to solve, and when her re- 
 
 sources are only washing, scrubbing offices, and 
 the like, the situation becomes acute. She is 
 on the borderland of dependence or delinquency. 
 The children can not be left alone, or left to the 
 care of neighbors, nor can a care-taker be hired. 
 The mother must leave them to their own re- 
 sources and they drift almost inevitably to the 
 influences of the street. They avoid school 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 177 
 
 duties ; they are compelled to work at too early 
 an age and usually at unwholesome labor. For 
 example, the big stores are cleaned after all the 
 work of the day. For this work scrubwomen 
 are often employed all night. This was the 
 case with several delinquent families. In the 
 day-time the mother had to sleep ; in the night 
 the children were left alone, little girls on the 
 street long after dark. The " house " was fur- 
 nished and run on the scale of a city " home " 
 with five people living on a scrubwoman's in- 
 come of seven dollars to nine dollars a week. 
 
 When the father is alone with them the case 
 is not much otherwise. He may earn at his 
 rough work a little more than the mother, but 
 he is not as competent to give the right care to 
 his children, and when, as is often the case of 
 the bordeiiander, there is drunkenness in the 
 parent remaining, the children are on the vergej 
 any slightly unfavorable circumstance will push 
 them over into delinquency. It is such a parent 
 who will send the children to the saloon for his 
 beer, or to pick coal or junk. He does not ask 
 questions as to how the articles brought are 
 
178 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 obtained. He and his family are now into de- 
 linquency, now into dependence, until the 
 standard is lowered permanently and the chil- 
 dren one by one come before the court. 
 
 Another class of borderlander is that which 
 
 approaches the abnormal. The parents have 
 
 The family with been noticeably defective in 
 
 emphasized idiosyn- 
 crasies, body and mind without being 
 
 insane. They are not deft at work. They may 
 have been at times in some poor-house and have 
 been encouraged to marry for " the comforts of 
 a home." The children often appear with the 
 anomalies of the parents emphasized ; none of 
 them are well favored. For example, a negro 
 of Montclair, himself inefficient, married a wife 
 who developed a cancer. Charitable people 
 bought medicines, cared for the home, and pro- 
 posed to send the patient to a hospital. The 
 husband agreed on condition that these charita- 
 ble people would pay for a housekeeper to care 
 for him and his children. Although he did no 
 regular work and ate the dainties bought for 
 the patient it seemed too harsh to make him 
 shoulder the burden. At the death of his wife 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 179 
 
 he applied for money to go south. It seemed a 
 good way to get rid of him, and in spite of pro- 
 test this was done. The children were left to 
 the care of the philanthropic. In less than nine 
 months he reappeared with a younger wife and 
 is now increasing the burden of town support 
 for him and his family. Several of the children 
 are already delinquent and the home is a typical 
 borderlander's. 
 
 Another case of borderlander's family is that 
 
 in which there are too many children for proper 
 
 The home with too care - The father drinks and 
 
 many childien, and WQrkg ftt unremuner ative labor, 
 the family on an un- 
 stable economic basis. jj e j s no fc vicious but only easy- 
 
 going, careless, good-natured. But the mother 
 is constantly pulled down by the burden of 
 child-bearing. The home is not clean, the 
 children are not properly fed or cared for. 
 There is no effective discipline. The children 
 are always in trouble of some sort, and the 
 whole family on the verge of delinquency. 
 When this is complicated with the fact that 
 neither parent when single could earn an ade- 
 quate living, and now, married with a large 
 
180 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 family and the careless drinking and loafing 
 habits of both, it is every day a question of 
 enough bread. Coal is bought by the pailful, 
 provisions procured on credit at some place 
 where an account may be had. The children 
 are sent to do the shopping and to get credit 
 wherever they may. Not seldom do they fall 
 into the habit of buying things for themselves 
 on credit, or stealing whatever they can. The 
 family is on the border line and will become 
 delinquent at the slightest provocation. 
 
 Now let any calamity come to such homes 
 
 and there is not sufficient organization to resist. 
 
 If the mother dies, a new wife 
 
 In the borderland- 
 
 er's home step-parent- W ho will be Strong CUOUgh to 
 age, illegitimacy, and -I>VA- 
 
 orphanage produce shoulder the responsibility is not 
 easily found, nor in the event 
 of the father's death will another man be found 
 to bear the burden. Sometimes there is an 
 illegitimate child in the home. The father may 
 have been compelled by law to marry the 
 mother. The presence of the unwelcome infant 
 is a source of recrimination. If it fails to take 
 advantage of the many opportunities given it to 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 181 
 
 die, every mouthful of food is begrudged it. 
 The child is slowly pushed on the street. If 
 both the parents die, the children, never well- 
 trained, are adrift in a locality the poorest 
 to which the law of expensive rents has pushed 
 them. Relatives are unwilling to take the 
 orphans. Delinquency is a foregone conclusion. 
 It is from analogous cases that 40% of juvenile 
 offenders arise. 
 
 Still oelow these is the criminal or vicious 
 home, examples of which are given in Chapter 
 ( 3.) The vicious L > Section B, and there are 
 home - several grades even here. There 
 
 may be desertion on the part of one parent, 
 which implies a long period of vicious influ- 
 ence before. There is often illegitimacy with 
 its crime-breeding influence. To the drunken- 
 ness of parents may be added striking immoral- 
 ity. In addition to instruction in prostitution 
 and unnatural sexual actions the child is some- 
 times taught to sing obscene songs in low 
 saloons and habituated with fallen women and 
 their consorts. Boys are sent out under the 
 guise of street occupations and junk-picking to 
 
182 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 steal. They are called " smart " when they 
 succeed. For example, one boy's parents were 
 proud of him because he supplied them regu- 
 larly with stolen milk. Another girl revealed 
 on question that her parents sent ner to offices 
 to commit prostitution under the guise of ped- 
 dling. It is from such homes that a number of 
 those " inherently vicious " and " natural " crimi- 
 nals come. 
 
 To recapitulate, we have seen that the delin- 
 quency factors under physical causes can be 
 
 successfully opposed by a Well- 
 Summary and con- 
 clusion that the non organized home ; that social 
 
 or semi-functionary 
 
 home is tbe great causes act only on the children 
 not sufficiently protected by 
 parental guidance ; that economic forces as they 
 affect the child come only through the weakness 
 of the guardians ; the child depends and has a 
 right to depend upon his parents for support 
 and the necessities of life. We have seen that 
 all normal factors of dispositional and physiolog- 
 ical causes can be turned not merely against 
 delinquency but be made factors for good by 
 parents who are not themselves weak. And the 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 183 
 
 abnormal factors are either transmitted by defec- 
 tive parents or acquired through lack of wise 
 care, being sometimes allowed to develop because 
 the guardians lacked initiative. In case of acci- 
 dental misbirth delinquency could be prevented 
 by the well-organized family. It is almost uni- 
 versally true that the causes named individual 
 are yet mostly due to the inefficiency of parent 
 and home, when they become active in producing 
 offences. And finally we have seen that the 
 sources tabulated under family causes spring 
 most directly of all from defective home condi- 
 tions. Justly counting the parent as the essen- 
 tial part of a home we may therefore include his 
 defects under those of the home, and conclude 
 that all the delinquency factors, because they be- 
 come operative only in a weakened home, may 
 be summed up in one great cause which may be 
 named, the non or semi-functionary home. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 
 TREATMENT. 
 
 THE history of the treatment of juvenile 
 
 delinquency may be divided into two periods 
 
 Historical treatment which may be called ancient 
 
 of the young offender. and mo d e m.* Chronologically 
 
 the ancient period extends to the beginning of 
 the nineteenth century. The modern has its 
 rise during the period of the industrial revolu- 
 tion and is more or less directly connected with 
 the factory legislation in favor of women and 
 children. Apparently for the first time the 
 serious position of British juveniles compelled 
 English law to differentiate in favor of them. 
 
 *As far as the writer knows there is no history of delinquency 
 extant. The facts here given have been gathered, (1) from 
 scattered pamphlets, as reports of various institutions existing, and 
 from these the trend of events has been inferred ; (2) by visita- 
 tions of the old and new plants and by talks with older workers, 
 former customs have been studied. The ancient idea can be seen 
 by a study of the architecture of the old plants as compared with 
 the new. 
 
 (184) 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 185 
 
 Before the courts children were not treated as 
 adults ; it was recognized that they could not 
 make a fair bargain for their labor without pro- 
 tection from the law. This beginning, dealing 
 with parish children, dependents, and children 
 in the factories, has extended slowly until at the 
 present day it covers all the life of juveniles as 
 far as the law is concerned. No child below 
 sixteen is considered a criminal even if he has 
 committed the most criminal acts. 
 
 During the first period there is the slow 
 growth of a penology from a time when the 
 treatment sprang from anger at the offence 
 merely. The delinquent was not differentiated ; 
 age made no difference ; the offender was pun- 
 ished by sudden violence like lynching, he was 
 annihilated. From this period of thoughtless- 
 ness there finally emerges a primitive penology 
 with one fundamental principle, i.e., stern and 
 cruel treatment for punitive purposes. Crime 
 was presumed to be a product of vicious and 
 recalcitrant will, to be suppressed by violence 
 without regard to age. Even to the close of 
 the ancient period this penology held its essen- 
 
186 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 tials and still survives in many quarters. In 
 England up to the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century there were two hundred and twenty- 
 two capital offences. Death was the punish- 
 ment for theft exceeding the value of a 
 sheep and that sanction was enforced on old 
 as well as young. Prisons were filthy and 
 treatment brutal. Grown criminals and girls 
 were sometimes locked in the same cell. A 
 child of nine was sentenced to death for 
 stealing two and a half pence worth of paint. 
 With recognition of the age factor by law 
 there rises the clear definition of the difference 
 The second period: between crime and delinquency 
 transition. an( j an unw iiiingness to treat a 
 
 child as a grown criminal. This transition is 
 illustrated by a Russian trial. A girl of twelve 
 had murdered a child of four. In spite of clear 
 proof of guilt she was acquitted. The jury- 
 said, " The law will deepen the branding of this 
 girl by ten or fifteen years of prison life with 
 adult criminals. We prefer to deliver her from 
 the law altogether." * 
 
 * Ellis, " The Criminal," page 292. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 187 
 
 By the middle of the last century the modern 
 period was well inaugurated. It is character- 
 ized by a careful study of the 
 
 The modern period. .. , . 
 
 complex forces which cause 
 crime and by a realization of the folly of any 
 other treatment than that which reforms. The 
 undercurrents are seen ; medico-legal experts 
 employed ; insanity, crime, and delinquency dif- 
 ferentiated, even to methods of trial and treat- 
 ment. The law clearly distinguishes between 
 the juvenile and the adult. It sets the boundary 
 of delinquency at sixteen years of age, and the 
 practical workers enunciate the principle that 
 punishment as an end has no place in their 
 system and should never be used except for 
 educational purposes. The aim of treatment is 
 not to punish, but to reform ; the treatment is 
 framed to fit the offender, and not his crime. 
 These changes have resulted from experience, 
 not from sentimentality. The old system 
 
 These changes are has proven itself to have One 
 the result of experi- 
 ment, serious drawback, it does not 
 
 work, either in curing delinquency or prevent- 
 ing crime. For example, three brothers were 
 
188 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 thieves, the older leading the younger. The 
 younger two were handled by the New York 
 Children's Aid at a cost of $30. They were 
 both recovered, served honorably in the war, 
 and settled to good lives on a farm. The 
 oldest boy was handled by the old method of 
 prison and punishment. He cost the State $100 
 for trial and arrest, $750 for prison treatment, 
 and he made away with $2,000 worth of 
 property. Even if he had been recovered he 
 would have cost just 190 times as much as by 
 the new method under the Children's Aid. 
 
 Why, then, are not the new methods more 
 
 widely used ? The old ideas are outgrown, but 
 
 why the new meth- the new are held down by the 
 
 odn are not more 
 
 widely uued. fact that millions have been 
 
 expended for buildings and paraphernalia. 
 Thousands of men earn their livings so, and 
 politicians control these situations. The men 
 put in power through politics have not often a 
 broad grasp 011 the field. Not only so, but the 
 new ideas are not yet clearly enunciated. 
 Among men and women who have worked 
 decades with delinquents the broad trend of 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 189 
 
 events is not realized. They are usually busy 
 with one section and ignorant often of the work 
 in collateral lines. There is a nebulosity as to 
 what should be done, but the nebula is con- 
 densing and certain great principles begin to 
 appear. 
 
 The first step was naturally to reform the 
 
 prison buildings, etc. The property was made 
 
 The firBt etep was much better > improved ma- 
 
 reform of plants, and cilery stee l Cells and the 
 the rise of th institu- J ' 
 
 tion idea. \{^Q inaugurated. But the de- 
 
 linquent was not reformed. Next comes sepa- 
 ration of juvenile from adult institutions and 
 the development of the institution idea. The 
 young offenders are gathered into huge 
 " schools," " reformatories," " homes," and the 
 tendency was to make these as big, imposing, 
 and as beautiful as possible. All kinds [yet 
 exist and a division along religious lines appears 
 first. If the delinquent has a nominal religion 
 he is sent to an institution of the same stripe if 
 possible. Also there is an unconscious division 
 along the line of seriousness of offences. The 
 lighter organizations in America tend to be 
 
190 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 named " asylums," " refuges," " schools," 
 "homes," "farms," "republics," etc. The 
 sterner are named " State homes," " reforma- 
 tories," and the like ; there is also in these 
 latter no division along religious lines. A 
 tendency to specialization is arising, i.e., George 
 Junior Republics receive only certain offenders. 
 Elmira has an admittance restriction. But a 
 most necessary division has not yet come, the 
 unfortunate, the delinquent, the morbid, and 
 " natural " offenders are still mixed. 
 
 For example, in one institution a negro was 
 brought up. All the examination went on with 
 ordinary facility until it came to his trouble. 
 Then with perfectly solemn face he told me 
 how Shem, Ham, and Japheth appeared every 
 night to him. Also the devil and one or two 
 witches came and told him where to go to find 
 hidden treasures. I asked him why he con- 
 sidered these things as " troubles." He said 
 they were temptations but "the Lord" saved 
 him. " Does the Lord also speak to you ? " 
 With a face all illuminated he asserted that 
 every night the Lord appeared. He described 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 191 
 
 Him in detail and his description was as weird 
 and strange as an apocalypse of Greek times 
 combined with the medicine doctor's vision of 
 an African savage's god. 
 
 The next " patient " I find myself saying. 
 The next was a boy in his teens clean, 
 straight face and honest eyes. He had been 
 plied with drink and sent up on a charge of 
 abusive language. "Did you doit?" was my 
 question. " I don't know. I don't remember." 
 " Were you ever arrested before ? " " Never in 
 my life." "Are you ashamed of being here?" 
 I did not need any answer, for as the tears burst 
 from him I saw how crushed he was. 
 
 Again in the same institution were neurotic 
 patients, men with epilepsy veiled, men so 
 ignorant they could not spell their names, 
 college graduates, and with them men of 
 embruted life. One said to me on examination, 
 " Drink is the cause of my troubles." " Can't 
 you stop ? " " No." " Well, what were you 
 sent here for?" "Common drunk." And he 
 had been there half a dozen times. With these 
 were Negroes, Sicilians, Neapolitans, Austrians, 
 
192 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 Russians, Jews, Irish, English, American, 
 German, and other combinations, as though 
 the confraternity of this sub-world had been 
 swept together in one pile and shovelled there. 
 There were several grades of insane, professional 
 criminals, occasional and born criminals, all 
 mixed with the loafer and the " common drunk." 
 Now, who will tell us what to do with such a 
 combination? As well try to drive a squirrel 
 and an ox together as these. 
 
 So numerous are these institutions for the 
 juvenile that only a few typical ones can be 
 Type* of inetitu- mentioned. There are all kinds 
 tion8 - of foundling and orphanage 
 
 asylums with collateral societies for the aid of 
 children and prevention of cruelty to them. The 
 day and night industry schools are adapted to 
 teach the delinquent manual labor if not the rudi- 
 ments of a trade. His attendance, if a night 
 scholar, is especially reported to the court. There 
 are organizations, like the New York Juvenile 
 Asylum, which combine both these ideas, they 
 take orphans and destitute as well as delinquent 
 children, putting them as nearly as possible under 
 
TEE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 193 
 
 the regime of a strict boarding school with special 
 curriculum. The village, cottage, and farm plans 
 are a revolt from the large institution idea ; 
 such are the George Junior Republics. A vil- 
 lage is organized on the plan of a republic. The 
 delinquents are called citizens ; special money is 
 used. The children must manage to live on 
 what they earn, subsidized a little. The laws 
 are made and administered by the citizens under 
 supervision. The idea is to teach the juvenile 
 by personal experience what a nuisance the 
 offender is, and to inculcate the idea that 
 nothing comes without honest work. 
 
 In places like the House of Refuge, Rahway, 
 an$ Jamesburg the boarding and military school 
 plan is elaborated. Education is more thor- 
 oughly entered into and discipline is more strict. 
 Following the plan adopted at Paris, industrial 
 and manual training are emphasized with 
 the idea that when the juvenile has served 
 his time he may be the better fitted to earn a 
 living.* The indeterminate sentence is so adapted 
 
 * " Homes for Criminal Children," F. Fowke in " Lend a Hand," 
 Vol. V., page 527. 
 
194 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 that none can be kept beyond majority, but 
 within that time limit all are there until good 
 behavior has presupposed cure. 
 
 At Elmira the educational and industrial idea 
 has been elaborated until there are almost all 
 branches in operation; massage, turkish baths, 
 " setting up " exercises, drills, military and musi- 
 cal, wood working, manual training, printing, 
 horticulture, all school grades from kindergarten 
 up. So thoroughly are these convicts educated 
 that the complaint has been made that the State 
 treats her delinquents better than her orderly 
 children. But what have been the results ? 
 
 In the first place the institution idea is begin- 
 ning to break down. It is found that the more 
 The institution idea elaborate and expensive such an 
 
 is beginning to break 
 
 down. organization is, the more dim- 
 
 cult it is to get proportionate results. Even in 
 an orphan or foundling asylum this is true. If 
 the inmates are little babies it is almost impossible 
 to keep them alive. Every effort has been made, 
 but none succeed when carried out in the big 
 plant. 
 
 It has been a dream of such idealists as Plato 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 195 
 
 and the great thinkers of Socialism and Com- 
 munism that the State should bring up her chil- 
 dren in common, that no child should be mothered 
 individually. Never was a dream more fully 
 denied by facts than this. It is impossible to 
 bring little children up without mothering. 
 Apart from sentimental reasons, the nuzzling and 
 petting a child gets, combined with the gentle 
 massage of the caressing mother body, are 
 essentials to its life. It is so the baby gets its 
 exercise and keeps its body healthy. If it does 
 not have the mother breast to suckle, its teeth 
 may go crooked, inbent, and hence quickly be 
 lost, the whole face and head be undeveloped or 
 malformed, and even fatal mouth cancers arise. 
 A dozen babies in one room seem to poison each 
 other. In several institutions the mortality rose 
 to the nineties out of a hundred, and that before 
 the expiration of the three months necessary to 
 complete arrangements for placing them out. 
 It is impossible to feed a lot of tiny motherless 
 babies. The milk of goats and asses has been 
 tried, cow's milk in every preparation, but none 
 are very successful with very small children. 
 
196 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 If a wet nurse is hired she feeds her own child, 
 but it goes ill with the stranger. Much of this 
 is due to the fact that the infants are not well 
 born and strong, but so much of it is due to the 
 herding process that this has been called " cold 
 storage for infants." 
 
 If the wards are older, orphans, or members 
 of a lighter correctional school like New York 
 
 The orphanage and Juvenile Asylum when Or- 
 mild school institu- 
 tionalize, ganized on a congregate system, 
 
 another peculiar fact evolves. After years of 
 stay in the barrack-like place, playing at com- 
 mand, working, sleeping at a signal, assembling 
 to be seen by patrons, taught to say polite 
 things at a command, the result has been called 
 " institutionalization." When compared with 
 other children of the same age and social con- 
 dition they lack the ability to take care of them- 
 selves in ordinary life. They long to return to 
 the seclusion and protection of the barracks. 
 They find it hard to adapt themselves to home 
 life ; they are institutionalized. So well known 
 is this fact that every big plant is doing its best 
 to avoid the evil. For example, the New York 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 197 
 
 Juvenile Asylum has recently disposed of its 
 New York property and moved to a country 
 place on the Hudson, reorganizing on the village 
 or cottage plan. The prime factor inspiring 
 this movement was institutionalization. 
 
 In case the offender is sent to a sterner place 
 he is " branded " as a criminal and has a serious 
 
 The sterner organ- handicap to live down. HomCS 
 
 ization brands. are c i ose( j to him, employers 
 
 are afraid of receiving him ; everywhere society 
 shuns him when people learn the name of the 
 institution in which he has been incarcerated. 
 Judge Sweeney, in an address at Newark on 
 this theme, gave the following example : A 
 convict was brought before him for trial. He 
 recognized the culprit as one before sentenced 
 to a stern institution and spoke of the regret it 
 caused him to see him again in the court. The 
 offender raised his head and replied : " Judge, I 
 am guilty ; I did it, and I 'm sorry, but for God's 
 sake send me this time to some place where, 
 when I have served my time and paid the pen- 
 alty, I can come back and find some place where 
 they won't slam the door in my face." 
 
198 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 The sterner institutions have long recognized 
 this process of branding and are doing all 
 they can to avoid it. They call their places 
 "schools," "asylums," "farms," "republics," 
 but the result is not altered. The child who 
 enters there, however changed for the better, is 
 branded and it is exceedingly difficult for him 
 to get into society again and live it down. 
 
 The cause of these evils of institutionalizing 
 
 and branding is universally ascribed to the un- 
 
 The attempt to natural life the inmates lead. 
 
 make the institution 
 
 natural. What is good for a grown man 
 
 at liberty when a certain amount of restraint 
 and drill have been endured is fatal for a child 
 when he is under it day and night. Drill makes 
 a good soldier, but constant institution drill 
 makes a bad citizen. There follows, therefore, 
 the attempt to make these places "natural." 
 All kinds of schemes have been evolved ; the 
 big plants are broken into numerous smaller 
 ones, with small houses and matrons, the village, 
 cottage, and " home " plans are tried. But the 
 evils are not obviated ; they are only lessened a 
 little. With all the expensive paraphernalia 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 199 
 
 the results are unsatisfactory. It is impossible 
 to trace in detail the sequel of the lives so tam- 
 pered with. Some institutions give no report. 
 Those who do so put the percentage of reform 
 as high as possible. Few of their claims in this 
 respect will bear merciless scrutiny, for none of 
 them keep such accurate records that a released 
 convict would be discovered by them if he 
 became a recidivist years after in some distant 
 place. Yet taking these reports as essentially 
 accurate, let us see what becomes of the institu- 
 tion child. 
 
 Of all the delinquents coming before the 
 Juvenile Court at Denver, Judge Lindsey, in- 
 comparably the most successful worker with 
 boys, claims 96% finally reformed. Of all treated 
 by him 5% are returned to court and 10% sent 
 to some correctional institution. This may be 
 taken as the standard, for it is on the whole 
 the best record of the world. But it should be 
 noted that only 10% of all he handles are sent to 
 institutions, the rest are treated by a plan to be 
 described later.* Since only those not reformed 
 
 * The influence of his personality on the home. 
 
200 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 by court methods are sent to an institution it 
 follows that the 4% not reclaimed are institution 
 boys, that is, 40% of those committed to the care 
 of these big plants by the Denver court are not 
 redeemed. 
 
 Under a similar Australian scheme with the 
 best conditions, and handling only about twenty- 
 five boys, 4% failed. 
 
 First and mild offenders are usually put on 
 probation; we should therefore expect large 
 success with them. Newark returns show 60% 
 cured and the rest " needing but a little help." * 
 Chicago, Indiana, and French reports are exactly 
 alike, 10% of their probationers fail, and this is 
 Judge Lindsey's figure. But taking all the 
 children's courts in the United States 50% of 
 their wards are not cured. Some are sent from 
 the court to a mild institution. New York 
 Juvenile Asylum includes destitute as well as 
 delinquent children. It is well equipped and 
 managed, but 20% do not do well after treatment. 
 In France Raux gives a ten-year record and it is 
 
 * For all these data see reports of the institutions mentioned ; 
 "Children's Courts in the United States," by Dr. Barrows of the 
 New York Prison Association ; " Enfants Coupable." 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 201 
 
 almost the same as the general figures for the 
 United States 44% fail. 
 
 The Massachusetts plan is said to be one of 
 the best. It includes all grades of institutions, 
 well officered and organized ; 75% of all brought 
 before the courts are convicted; one-fifth of 
 these reconvicted; one-ninth sent to reforma- 
 tories ; one-tenth are in court again within a 
 year, and a few later. 
 
 The George Junior Republic takes only of- 
 fenders with no deep criminal record or taint. 
 It refuses mental or moral defectives, yet 40% of 
 its citizens fail. 
 
 Rahway Reformatory, splendidly equipped 
 and run, takes sterner cases. It reports 77% 
 permanently cured and claims this to be the 
 best record in America, if not in the world for 
 a like institution. By " permanently cured " 
 they really mean that no recidivism is discovered 
 within a few years of release, no life record is 
 kept. 
 
 English reformatories report 79% of boys 
 and 76% of girls do well after treatment. 
 Another report gives 25% of failure. Of the 
 
202 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 industrial schools 16 J% fail and this is precisely 
 the percentage of failure reported by the Min- 
 nesota State schools. 
 
 Elmira takes first felons between the ages of 
 sixteen and thirty. It weeds ] out the most 
 degenerate and most deeply tainted, sending 
 them to a prison for insane criminals. Yet it 
 reports with all its superb equipment 18%-28% 
 of failure, and even this report is based only on 
 a two-year post release record. What becomes 
 of those weeded out for sterner places and those 
 who fail? We have no accurate statistics of 
 them. They drift from one prison to another, 
 alternating their life with criminal debauch and 
 long captivity. We can get a hint of their fate 
 by the classifications of the Italian School, for it 
 will be remembered that they deal largely with 
 this type of offender. Ferri and Lornbroso 
 divide their offenders thus : (1) criminals by 
 passion ; (2) occasional criminals ; (3) criminals 
 by contracted habit; (4) born criminals; (5) 
 criminal madmen. The first and second classes 
 are those who not being deeply involved by dis- 
 position serve their terms and perhaps return to 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 203 
 
 honest lives. Of the future of the third class it 
 is reported laconically " once a thief always a 
 thief." They declare that not a single member 
 of the fourth class has ever been reclaimed. Of 
 the fifth class not even the most optimistic have 
 much hope. 
 
 Therefore, to summarize the effect of institu- 
 tion life we may say : it does not succeed with 
 summary of the ef- babies, and the orphan is not 
 
 fecte of institution 
 
 nfe. rendered efficient by its treat- 
 
 ment. A summary of results of purely institu- 
 tion life made from the preceding statistics 
 reveals from 20% to 50% of lighter offenders not 
 cured. And this percentage, when we remember 
 that at least 90% and probably 98% of these 
 culprits are normal and therefore curable, is not 
 satisfactory. All those whom it reclaims are 
 institutionalized and branded. The inmates not 
 cured by the milder schools drift to the sterner, 
 which in turn release them at the expiration of 
 sentence to continue the criminal life. For 
 these reasons the institution idea has begun to 
 change so that those closely in touch with the 
 big organization and yet not so involved that 
 
204 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 they are unable to enunciate its limitations 
 recognize that the sphere of such schemes should 
 be limited to the deeply criminal and anomalous 
 children. 
 
 The reason why the institution idea has per- 
 
 sisted so long is that there is a class of offenders 
 
 The sphere of the who are so bad that there seems 
 
 institution is with the ,, ,, , , ,. .., 
 
 deeply criminal, the no oieT method of dealing with 
 
 them - The onl J feasible Pi** 
 uraiiy criminal. seemed to be isolation in large 
 
 buildings with others of their kind. But it has 
 been shown that such, including the insane and 
 morbid, are probably not more than 5% of first 
 court offenders. With these, then, we will deal 
 briefly. It has been shown that some are not 
 natural criminals but only offenders by confirmed 
 habit. These may well be gathered in small 
 institutions and special efforts made to redeem 
 them, for they are normal. The insane delin- 
 quent may also be put in similar places under 
 the alienists' treatment. No plan universally 
 applicable can be given ; it is with the abnormal 
 more true than the normal each person consti- 
 tutes a separate problem. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 205 
 
 For those who are so deeply involved that they 
 may be called " natural " criminals and for those 
 who are by nature delinquents, the results of the 
 study of stigmata suggests some hope. If we 
 grant that the claims of the Italian School are 
 true when limited to the natural criminal and 
 when purged of any reference to discovery of 
 type of crimes, we may then use these stigmata 
 as a means of separating those persons who, while 
 not morbid or insane, are yet tainted with crime, 
 from those who are criminal by nature. 
 
 Those who have not the stigmata and are not 
 morbid or insane may be presumed offenders by 
 habit, and special efforts be made by isolation and 
 treatment in small institutions to reclaim them. 
 
 Those deeply criminal and also possessing 
 stigmata may be considered naturally vicious, 
 and after separating these in some small plant 
 we may test the claim of the Italian School that 
 these anomalies have a causative effect ; at least 
 we may prove whether these peculiarities are in 
 themselves a sufficient cause of criminality. 
 
 It will be remembered that these stigmata are 
 for the most part abnormally shaped head bones ; 
 
206 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 now it is known that deficiency in this respect 
 A plan to success, can affect breathing, vocaliza- 
 
 fully treat the natural 
 
 offender. tion, and enunciation, so that 
 
 through these clear thinking is made difficult. 
 Also deficient head bones can so affect the torsal 
 skeleton that lungs, chest, shoulder, and spine 
 may be mal-developed and thus the nerves and 
 mind weakened. Defective dentition can under- 
 mine digestion and profoundly affect general 
 health. It is well known that accident or mal- 
 development in head bones can cause crime, for 
 removal of such factors has brought reformation 
 in isolated cases.* But the crucial point, i.e., 
 that the natural offender is caused by defective 
 head bones, so that if these were righted normal 
 life would always result, is not known. It may 
 well be that the head is deformed by reason of 
 some subtle state of nerves or blood and that 
 what have been named stigmata are only exter- 
 nal manifestations of an internal and as yet un- 
 known cause. It may be that these external 
 anomalies as well as the psychic peculiarities are 
 
 * See the case of the Harvard skull, also Maudsley, " Responsi- 
 bility in Mental Diseases," etc. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 207 
 
 so deeply seated as to be involved in the human 
 ovum and sperm. 
 
 There is, however, a science which throws 
 light on the question. About twenty-five years 
 ago the assistant of an American physician resid- 
 ing in Paris began to study the jaw with respect 
 to teeth. He found good occlusion very rare. 
 A careful study of the effects of teeth on devel- 
 opment of the head was then begun. Models 
 were made of each patient and these repeated at 
 intervals so that every effect of treatment could 
 be watched. Several hundred series of models 
 were thus studied .and the results, though never 
 before recognized as bearing on the treatment of 
 the offender, are worthy of attention. 
 
 As they bear on our theme some of these dis- 
 coveries are mentioned: 
 
 Extraction of permanent teeth causes : (1) 
 diminution of the size of the dental arches; 
 (2) diminution of the size of the arch of the 
 palate ; (3) prevention of mastication ; (4) dimi- 
 nution of the room needed for the tongue ; (5) 
 injury to vocalization, and therefore of clear 
 thinking ; (6) noticeable twisting of the face ; 
 
208 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 (7) abnormal approximation of the nose and 
 chin ; and through these, mal-development of the 
 teeth causes : (1) prognathous jaws ; (2) under- 
 development of one side of the face ; (3) deflec- 
 tion of the nose ; (4) crooked and " wolf " teeth ; 
 (5) loss of dignity of expression ; (6) ugly face, 
 and (7) mouth breathing with its serious results 
 on vitality.* 
 
 Dr. Bogue declares that the displacement of 
 even one permanent molar further forward on 
 the arch than it should be will cramp to a 
 considerable extent all the contiguous bones, so 
 that the face never gets its development. The 
 vault of the palate is deformed ; there is no room 
 for the free use of the tongue or for respiration ; 
 the nasal septum is deflected. He has examined 
 hundreds of aboriginal skulls and finds that 
 from the same causes of uncorrected dentition 
 the size and shape of the skull are profoundly 
 affected. 
 
 * These results are given in a series of papers before American 
 and foreign medical associations on the influence of arranging teeth 
 in their normal position, etc., by E. A. Bogue, M.D., D.D.S., for- 
 mer lecturer on pathology and therapeutics at Harvard, member 
 of the Odontological Societies of Great Britain, New York, and 
 France, etc. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 209 
 
 It will be noticed that these results bear 
 directly on the realm of stigmata, for they show 
 the origin of some abnormal palates, sinister 
 faces, deflected noses, prognathous jaws, and 
 general cranial asymmetry, all of which are 
 stigmata recognized as typical of the natural 
 criminal and degenerate. 
 
 But the further question is of most in- 
 terest; having discovered these causes, can 
 the anomalies be righted? And what is the 
 result on the intellectual and moral life of the 
 patient ? 
 
 This physician has for years been working 
 along the line of correction and he finds it com- 
 paratively easy to right these peculiarities if the 
 child be given to him before the age of sixteen. 
 Every one of the above-mentioned stigmata the 
 writer has watched him correct. Abnormal 
 palates have been righted ; deflected noses made 
 straight ; jaws prognathous to half an inch have 
 been made normal. Indeed, the whole cranial 
 form has been so changed that strikingly abnor- 
 mal heads grow not merely regular, but almost 
 beautiful; and there is often a change for the 
 
210 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 better in the intellectual and moral life of the 
 child thus treated.* Before our interviews Dr. 
 Bogue had not thought of the application of this 
 science to criminal physiology, but he is now 
 convinced, as is the writer, that if the malforma- 
 tions described by the Italian School cause the 
 offences of the natural criminals, they can be 
 removed in youth, and thus that form of offender 
 usually recognized as most hopeless can be 
 eliminated. 
 
 The work of Dr. Cronin in the New York 
 Public Schools should be noted. Careful ex- 
 aminations were made, adenoid and post-nasal 
 growths were removed from children declared 
 incorrigible. The results are in many cases 
 simply amazing. The writer has seen juveniles 
 he would have suspected of natural backward- 
 ness or criminality children repulsive almost 
 in their mal-development and certainly ugly in 
 their disposition; he has seen such a change 
 wrought in six months as a result of the opera- 
 tion that the children were scarcely recognizable. 
 The faces were illuminated with intelligence, 
 
 * See appendix, Plates XII., XIII. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 211 
 
 the body erect with health, and mind and morals 
 wonderfully improved. 
 
 It is clear that all this plan can not be carried 
 out with best results in the scattered homes of 
 the delinquents. Part of it is expensive and 
 needs specialists, but because the number requir- 
 ing such treatment is relatively small we may turn 
 them over to the institution, for the two great 
 evils, branding and institutionalization, will not 
 have such disastrous effects on these, and it is 
 their only hope. We may therefore say that 
 the special field of the institution is reforma- 
 tion; particularly reformation of the abnormal 
 child. 
 
 There will surely be some who can not be re- 
 formed by any method yet devised. There are 
 Extirpation as a the adult offenders who, being 
 
 method of prevention. le ft Q f ten &t l ar g e? f orm a delhl- 
 
 quency-breeding centre not to be ignored. For 
 those who are not amenable to reformation there 
 is only one realm left, and that is extirpation. 
 This should not be considered in any other light 
 than as a method of prevention, for whether we 
 speak of formation, reformation or elimination, 
 
212 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 they are all merely departments of the one 
 supreme aim, prevention. 
 
 At the present time we have two methods of 
 getting rid of the worst criminals, life imprison- 
 ment and death, neither of which is satisfac- 
 tory. Entirely apart from any feeling as to 
 whether these are brutal, considering them as 
 means of eliminating a confirmed criminal, they 
 fail in their object. Even if we had a compara- 
 tively painless method like the lethal bath, the 
 same objections hold, a jury will not inflict 
 capital punishment except under the most 
 extraordinary pressure. In case an offender is 
 sentenced for life the crime is forgotten in a 
 short time ; his friends work through politics 
 and in a little while the criminal is liberated or 
 escapes. It is said that the sanction of murder 
 in the United States is not more than six years' 
 imprisonment on the average. Besides this the 
 extreme penalty is not inflicted except for 
 murder. The offender may so shock a sensitive 
 woman that she is an invalid for life ; he may 
 be a pervert who leaves a trail of ruin, but he 
 can not be kept beyond the expiration of his 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 213 
 
 term. Now if the hopeless criminal were ab- 
 solutely sterilized and then isolated, preferably 
 on a remote island with military or naval station 
 as guard, were he given also the necessities for 
 making a living there, he could associate with 
 his kind, even marry, and the problem would be 
 nearer solution. The man could live his life, 
 but could leave no progeny of defectives as did 
 old Juke and Rodney. 
 
 In review of these latter paragraphs we may 
 say that although the institution is not a success 
 when applied to the normal offender, there is 
 yet an important field which it alone can cover ; 
 it may deal with the abnormal criminal. For 
 with him the evils of institutionalism and 
 branding become comparatively insignificant 
 and he can not be otherwise treated. The 
 deeply involved can be handled only by an 
 organization of this type, and the same is true 
 of morbid and insane delinquents. The treat- 
 ment of the natural criminal calls for the same 
 kind of scheme ; and finally it may do the work 
 of an organization which officially designates 
 those who have proved themselves beyond any 
 
214 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 hope of recovery by any known method, yet 
 without depriving them of life or cruelly 
 restricting liberty it may by sterilization and 
 isolation render them harmless to society and 
 let them live their lives as freely as their unfor- 
 tunate condition will warrant. 
 
 Reformation and extirpation, two departments 
 
 of prevention, have been discussed ; what of pre- 
 
 Generai civic better, vention ? Outside of the efforts 
 
 meat as a method of 
 
 prevention. of the State a great civic move- 
 
 ment for prevention in the shape of civic better- 
 ment has been going on. Associations like the 
 Charity Organization Society and the Society for 
 the Prevention of Cruelty to Children have 
 arisen. These, by handling the borderlander 
 and his children in a tactful way, do a large 
 work for the prevention of delinquency, espe- 
 cially by educating the public in methods of 
 philanthropy. By applying their standard of 
 worthiness in a rigorous way the borderlander is 
 often saved. Thus from the standpoint of pre- 
 vention it makes no difference how a family 
 comes on the border line. If the individual or 
 the family will cooperate with the helper for 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 215 
 
 the applicants' benefit they are worthy, but if 
 there is the intent to lie down, no matter how 
 this state is reached, they are not worthy. 
 
 Of the lesser plans for civic betterment only 
 a few can be mentioned. Myriads of playgrounds, 
 
 Playgrounds, ciubs, clubs > P arks > settlements, and 
 parks, settlements, fa& like have risen. The root 
 
 etc., as preventive 
 
 schemes. i^. ea o f which as they bear upon 
 
 our theme is as follows : The home of the 
 offender is weak, it is in a crowded locality and 
 it is under bad supervision. Parks, playgrounds, 
 arid the like are meant to furnish a wholesome 
 environment where the child of the city can play 
 freely under the influence, if possible, of strong 
 personality. Clubs, settlements, adapted schools, 
 etc., are meant not only to furnish social advan- 
 tages, education, and the like, but also to put 
 their members under the influence of a strong 
 leader who will be their friend, and who will 
 extend to the home of the weaker members an 
 influence which will be preventive of delinquency 
 by its uplifting power. 
 
 Even the Puritanic idea of curfew has been 
 adopted. Curfew laws have been successfully 
 
216 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 administered in two hundred smaller cities or 
 curfew as preven- ^^^- All unescorted children 
 tive - are required to be off the 
 
 street at 8 or 9 P.M. Lincoln, Neb., had 75% 
 less arrests in the two weeks after its trial. In 
 North Platte no children have been sent to re- 
 form school for two years since curfew began. 
 The Prisoners' Aid of Canada also recommends 
 it.* 
 
 The preventive effect of civic cleanliness has 
 been so clearly recognized that in many cities of 
 civic cleanliness as America corps of boys have been 
 preventive. organized under the supervision 
 
 of the street cleaning department for the purpose 
 of rendering the streets in the slum portions 
 cleaner, f Public baths and baths in connection 
 with the schools in the poorer localities have 
 produced good results. 
 
 In another line much preventive work has 
 been done by the Social Secretary and the Con- 
 
 "The Juvenile Offender," Cady; "The Child Problem," 
 Prisoner's Aid of Canada, pamphlet. 
 
 f Report of D. Willard, D.S.C., Supervisor ; " Street Cleaning," 
 by J. E. Waring. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 217 
 
 sumer's League. One of their objects is to guard 
 The social Secre- the girls and children in large 
 
 tary and Consumer's . 
 
 League. stores and factories and through 
 
 a kindly influence to come to the rescue cf the 
 weakened home. They have kept down the 
 evils of child labor and unwholesome factory 
 conditions. 
 
 But the great result of all these civic better- 
 ment plans has been to mark out more clearly 
 the relative importance of branches of treatment. 
 Together with the experience derived from the 
 institution they have demonstrated that the 
 great field of treatment is prevention. Forma- 
 tion should take place in the home, and the 
 home can be best fortified by general civic bet- 
 terment, which will render it easier to avoid 
 delinquency. After the fact of delinquency the 
 results of the institution life have shown that 
 normal offenders should not be submitted to 
 incarceration except as an utterly last resort. 
 Reformation of the deeply involved and ab- 
 normal and extirpation of the hopelessly tainted 
 is the field of the institution. 
 
 We have seen that the function of the institu- 
 
218 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 tion is to treat the abnormal offender. The evils 
 The rise of the ^ institutionalization and of 
 foaterhome. branding, together with the un- 
 
 satisfactory record of reform, have led to a dis- 
 trust of the institution when it is used to harbor 
 the normal child ; the great lack when dealing 
 with the ordinary offender is its abnormal life. 
 Every effort has been made to render this life 
 natural, and these efforts have failed everywhere. 
 The life of the inmates is not normal, and no 
 ingenuity can make it so. Therefore, the attempt 
 has been given up by many leaders and they 
 are trying to take advantage of a natural institu- 
 tion already existing, i.e., the home. The effort 
 of this plan is to give the normal delinquent the 
 one thing he usually lacks, a home where he 
 will receive ordinary care and where his life 
 may develop under wholesome environment. 
 
 This plan has as yet evolved only to the stage 
 of a department of the most advanced institu- 
 tions. Homes are found for a certain number 
 of the wards. The child is apprenticed or 
 adopted. More or less vigorous visitation and 
 supervision are exercised, and very good results 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 219 
 
 have been reported wherever the plan has been 
 intelligently carried out. 
 
 There are various methods and grades of plac- 
 ing out. Sometimes the ward's board is paid 
 various piacing-out in part or in f ull ; or as by the 
 methods. German Rauhe Haus plan one 
 
 family or person becomes responsible for one 
 delinquent child ; sometimes he is apprenticed 
 until majority, or indentured for a period ; 
 sometimes the child is legally adopted. Pure 
 placing out in all cases is rarely advocated, 
 because there are children so abnormal or vicious 
 that special preparatory treatment is needed to 
 prevent them from infecting the foster home ; 
 samples of the various methods may be given. 
 
 In Victoria, Australia, a boy is sentenced to 
 Ballarat Reformatory for one year. He can re- 
 
 Australian math- duCG thls tO nllie months by good 
 
 behavior. After this prelimi- 
 nary discipline he is placed in a foster home, or 
 allowed to enter the army or navy. He is al- 
 ways under careful supervision.* This system 
 
 * " Homes for Criminal Children," " Lend a Hand," Vol. V., part 
 2, page 527. 
 
220 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 is adopted with variations in most Australian 
 colonies, in S. Australia, and in New Zealand. 
 All over Australia the government has decided 
 that the best method is to get foster homes and 
 keep the delinquent there until at least working 
 age. The history of this plan is worth knowing. 
 It began about twenty-one years ago in S. Aus- 
 tralia through the influence of Miss Emily 
 Clark, a niece of Sir Rowland Hill.* An indus- 
 trial school was to be built, and Miss Clark 
 opposed it. The school was completed and soon 
 overcrowded. The results were poor. Miss 
 Clark took the overflow and placed them out. So 
 numerous were the applications for wards that the 
 school was soon emptied ; the results were good. 
 Now there is only a central place of temporary 
 detention, and not a voice is raised against the 
 new plan. 
 
 In Scotland and in England (to some extent 
 also in Ireland) children are 
 
 British methods. 
 
 " boarded out, their board is 
 paid in some family. There is a central de- 
 
 * " Children of the State in Australia," Miss C. H. Spence, Chil- 
 dren's Advocate, Nov. 9, 1893. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 221 
 
 tention and distributing office ; with keen super- 
 vision the plan succeeds well.* 
 
 The Rauhe Haus illustrates a German plan ; 
 local families are obtained to become sponsor 
 
 German and Ameri- f r at leaSt OIie chlld ' In Bei>lin 
 
 can plans. there is placing out with a cen- 
 
 tral plant for inspection and quarantine. 
 Canada has subsidized homes. In Minnesota the 
 State Public School is designed merely as a clear- 
 ing house and location for preliminary treatment 
 before placing out. The New York Juvenile 
 Asylum has a placing-out department.! Michi- 
 gan has a county agent who must visit and fully 
 report all prospective foster homes. All chil- 
 dren must first be sent to the State School. 
 They are then placed out as far as possible 
 from their former surroundings. Delinquent 
 parents must report to the county agent and he 
 is empowered to visit and report on all children 
 placed out by private or county institutions. 
 
 *" Children of the State," Howard Ass'n, London, 1894. 
 
 f'The Supervision of Pauper and Friendless Children," pamph- 
 let; " Bulletin of Iowa Institutions," April, 1902; "The Child 
 Problem," by Prisoner's Aid Soc. of Canada; "The Michigan 
 County Agent," Charities, 1902, Vol. VIII., page 433, 
 
222 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 The system has worked so well that it has been 
 adopted by Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Rhode 
 Island. In Ohio delinquents are kept in 
 " county orphanages " until they are located in 
 foster homes. Pennsylvania places the child 
 out directly from the street, without preliminary 
 training. It is reported as working well with 
 the jounger children but not with the older and 
 deeply tainted. 
 
 It may be a matter of surprise that practically 
 
 everywhere, especially in Australia, Oceanica, 
 
 There is demand for and the United States there is 
 
 wards. Advantages. 
 
 Defects. great demand for foster children. 
 
 Good results are everywhere reported. Some 
 advantages claimed are as follows : 
 
 It costs about half as much as the institution 
 plan and gives better results. 
 
 Overcrowding is avoided. 
 
 Those peculiar phenomena of institutions 
 known as " immoral explosions " are pre- 
 vented. 
 
 Epidemics and immoral infection are avoided. 
 
 The children can not be institutionalized. 
 
 The ways of common living are taught. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 223 
 
 The stigma of reformative institutions on 
 children is obviated. 
 
 The nearest approximation to a real home is 
 given the child. 
 
 Yet there are weaknesses.* Abuses on girls 
 boarded out in remote districts of Canada and 
 Nova Scotia are reported. A difficulty in find- 
 ing proper school facilities in rural districts is 
 experienced. City children put in lonesome 
 country places are not happy. Some foster 
 parents overwork the wards, or use them to 
 make money, and at the close of the period 
 agreed upon they leave the child helpless and 
 deserted. 
 
 Experience has taught that several things are 
 essential to success in this plan. There must be 
 no following of unbreakable rules ; a wise per- 
 sonality must direct. The agent must have full 
 power to transfer the ward when he thinks best. 
 It often happens that a child is unfavorably 
 reported in four or five families in succession, 
 
 *" Juvenile Offenders," a pamphlet issued by Howard Ass'n; 
 "Children of the State;." "Second Mass. State Conference," page 
 161. 
 
224 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 yet the next family likes him very well. Central 
 places of reception, quarantine, and preliminary 
 preparation for weeding out bad, vicious or 
 morbid children are needed. Only constant and 
 vigilant supervision by volunteers as well as by 
 paid officials will guarantee success. 
 
 All correspondence between parents and wards 
 must be carefully supervised and forbidden if 
 necessary, because in several countries it is 
 found that when the ward is able to work the 
 parents want him back, and instigate all kinds 
 of trouble. With these guards the foster home 
 has succeeded better than any other place. Its 
 best results equal Judge Lindsey's and both lead 
 the world. Its average results exceed the average 
 of 50% cure claimed by the children's courts of 
 the United States, and these far exceed the best 
 and average records of institutional reformation. 
 So true is this that the organizations with data 
 covering the whole field and with no institution 
 to uphold, urge that children be taken from the 
 big plants and placed in families as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 The legal development has taken the same 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 225 
 
 trend. Before the differentiation of delinquency 
 
 The legal develop, from crime, the offender was 
 
 r/towa tha'ap! treated impersonally, whether an 
 
 plication of personal, ^normal child, a poor child, or 
 
 ity in the atmosphere 
 
 of the home. a mischievous one committed 
 
 theft it was all the same as far as the court was 
 concerned. The law was not administered for 
 offenders, but for offences. All the three classes 
 mentioned received the same "penalty," for 
 that is the only fit word ; they did not receive 
 treatment. 
 
 But the law discovered that it must distin- 
 guish, it must treat and not merely punish. 
 
 The honest application of the letter of the 
 law was seen to be not only unjust, but disas- 
 trous, defeating its very purpose, especially 
 when applied to juveniles in this impersonal 
 sense. The children did not understand the 
 difference between naughtiness and illegality, 
 nor did the enforcement of the law teach them. 
 They came as children, homeless, guardianless, 
 bad, and at last the law recognized that it must 
 receive them in the same spirit; it must bridge 
 the chasm between the judge and state father ; 
 
226 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 these two functions are united in the latest and 
 best legal method devised for handling the 
 delinquent, the children's court. 
 
 The greatest product of legal evolution during 
 
 the past decade has been the juvenile court. 
 
 By this is not meant merely a 
 
 The juvenile conn. 
 
 separate place for trial, but the 
 court and its organization of associated child- 
 saving methods. Most of all is meant the evo- 
 lution of the function of the judge to combine 
 the office of court president and regulator with 
 that of state father to its wards. The purpose 
 of the child's court is to give separate, personal, 
 and adapted treatment to each offender, with a 
 view to preventing delinquency from hardening 
 into criminal life. 
 
 Judge Lindsey considers the essentials of his 
 court to be: "The acts enabling him to deal 
 freely with the delinquent and dependent chil- 
 dren ; and to hold parents or adult agents re- 
 sponsible for the offences of their wards; the 
 acts holding fathers accountable for the support, 
 care, and maintenance of their offspring, the 
 statutes providing for the punishment of cruelty 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 227 
 
 to children, that cooperation between school and 
 court officials by which all these laws are en- 
 forced in one court having power to deal with 
 every aspect of the situation before one judge ; 
 with a set of paid officials for the enforcement of 
 the law; the administrative work with delin- 
 quents as well as for them ; and the cooperation 
 of these children with the court." * 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that a court in which 
 only children are tried is not a children's court ; 
 this is only one of nine or ten essentials. It is 
 often said that some of the best States have no 
 juvenile court, Massachusetts for example, but 
 it will be observed that they have all the 
 essentials except a separate building. The 
 kernel of the court is not the division as to 
 place, it is the change of judicial function and 
 that change wrought out in all the atmosphere 
 and action of the court. The judge does more 
 than rule the proceedings, he sympathizes, ex- 
 plains, guides, inspires. Most of Judge Lind- 
 sey's work is done apart from the court and its 
 
 * " The Boy and the Court," Charities, Jan. 7, '05, page 350 ; 
 " Children's Courts in the United States," S. Barrows. 
 
228 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 officials. He goes to the home, the gang, the 
 boy, whenever he can, talks to and guides the 
 child as a father. When in court his actions 
 are not otherwise, except that he administers the 
 law in the same spirit and dominates all civic 
 and legal institutions with the fatherly idea, 
 always legal, and always judicial. He is state 
 father to the children and his record of redemp- 
 tion is the best in the world. 
 
 This organization has done more than cure 
 96% of its offenders. It has taught old princi- 
 ples more clearly. It has proved the practica- 
 bility of certain theories hitherto called ideals 
 merely. For example, the French congress for 
 juveniles stated an ideal, a recommendation as 
 follows : " Le congres estime, qu'il est d'interet 
 social que des mesures legislatives soient 
 prises pour parer aux consequences deplora- 
 bles d'une education immorale donnee par les 
 parents a leurs enfants mineurs. II pense 
 qu'un des moyens a recommander est de per- 
 mettre aux tribunaux d'enlever aux parents 
 pour un temps determine tout ou une partie 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 229 
 
 des droits derivant de la puissance paternelle," 
 etc.* 
 
 That is, the State should assume the parents' 
 function when this is not done by the naturally 
 appointed persons. 
 
 Judge Lindsey's court has assumed this and 
 proved the practicability of so doing. 
 
 Furthermore, Judge Wilkin and Pennsyl- 
 vania's leaders in juvenile work declared the need 
 of holding parents responsible for the acts of their 
 children. The children's court under Judge 
 Lindsey has proved the wisdom of this also. 
 For he has held not only parents and guardians 
 accountable for the offences of children, but 
 also other adult agents, as saloon keepers who 
 sell to minors, people who harbor gangs, and all 
 who indirectly encourage the boy in his badness. 
 
 Not only so, but the juvenile court idea under 
 this judge has shown why the institution plan, 
 whether congregate, barrack, village or farm 
 can not succeed ; namely, because they do not 
 and can not admit of the individual, varied, 
 adapted, and constant supervision of a strong 
 
 * Theophile Roussel, " Rapport." 
 
230 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 and fatherly personality expressed in the atmos- 
 phere of a home, which all experience has shown 
 to be the one thing absolutely necessary if the 
 normal delinquent be reclaimed. The State 
 must through such an instrument do the work 
 which the parent has not done, for whatever 
 reason. 
 
 In reviewing the data presented in this chapter 
 we find that the history of modern treatment of 
 
 Summary and con- J^VCnile offenCCS begins With 
 
 ciuaion. the realization that the law must 
 
 deal especially and in a personal way with 
 the child offender. Practical work has shown 
 that the aim of this treatment should not 
 be punitive but educative, formative, reform- 
 ative, and extirpative, yet all from the stand- 
 point of prevention. The development of 
 the institution has shown that education 
 and reform are spoiled by institutionalization and 
 branding, so that only the abnormal or deeply 
 involved delinquent should be handled by 
 it. Attempts to render the institution free 
 from its evil effects on the normal child took the 
 trend of making this organization natural. This 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 231 
 
 was found to be practically impossible. Civic 
 movements demonstrated that general civic better- 
 ment, closer alliance between the home and the 
 school, performed the work of prevention better 
 than the institution could. And all schemes 
 showed that the most successful methods had 
 been those where strong personality was exerted 
 directly on the offender in the home and not in 
 the institution. The search for a natural insti- 
 tution in which to deal with the offenders re- 
 vealed the foster home, which was tried with 
 the best success yet attained. The legal devel- 
 opment took the form of children's courts, the 
 essence of which is a combination of fatherly and 
 judicial function exerted on the juvenile and on 
 his home. The best examples of children's 
 courts revealed the same truth that the other 
 plan had discovered, namely, the necessity of 
 strong influence exerted on the child in his 
 home. And the fact that wards were demanded 
 in sufficient numbers by foster homes has shown 
 that all normal offenders can be so located. It 
 is therefore reasonable to conclude that instead 
 of making placing out a department of an insti- 
 
232 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 tution the reverse should be done, that is, the 
 institution should be made a department of 
 placing out, so that the abnormal offenders alone 
 should be permanently handled by it. 
 
 And the treatment of the normal delinquent 
 should be the influence of a wholesome person- 
 ality exerted in the atmosphere of a home, nat- 
 ural or foster. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 ALDEN, L. P., " The Shady Side of Placing out Sys- 
 
 tem." 
 BARROWS, S. J., " Children's Courts in the United 
 
 States." 
 " " " "European Prisons," Charities and 
 
 Commons, Dec. 7, 1907. 
 
 BOGUB, E. A., " Influence of Arranging Teeth," etc. 
 
 " " " " Results that follow Extraction of 
 
 Permanent Teeth." 
 
 BRACE, C. L., " The Cost of Punishment and Preven- 
 
 tion." 
 
 " Bulletin of Iowa Institutions," April, 1902. 
 CADT, " The Juvenile Offender," in Bulletin 
 
 of Iowa Institutions, 1893, p. 452. 
 " Charities," vol. 8, pp. 433, 490. 
 " " 9, p. 60. 
 
 " 11, p. 331. 
 " 13, p. 337. 
 
 " Charities Review," vol. 10, May, 1900. 
 "Charity (Jewish)," January, 1905, p. 126. 
 41 Children's Advocate," Nov. 9, 1903. 
 " Commons, The," January, 1905. 
 FERRI, E., " Criminal Sociology." 
 
 FORBES, " The Jockers and the Schools They 
 
 keep." 
 (233) 
 
234 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 HOWARD ASSOCIATION, " Juvenile Offenders." 
 
 " Children of the State . ' ' 
 
 " Lend a Hand," vol. 6, p. 527. 
 
 LINDSEY, B. B., " The Boy and the Court," Chari- 
 
 ties, Jan. 7, 1905. 
 
 " " '" " My Experience with Boys," in 
 
 Ladies' Home Journal, Octo- 
 ber, 1906, p. 37. 
 
 " " " " The Juvenile Court at Denver," 
 
 in "Children's Courts in the 
 United States." 
 
 LOMBROSO, C., " L'uomo Delinquante " (parts 
 
 translated). 
 
 MADPATB, DB. L., " Recherches d'anthropologie 
 
 criminelle chez 1* enfant," etc. 
 
 MILES, B. J., " The Delinquent Boy.'* 
 
 MORRISON, "Juvenile Offenders." 
 
 "New York State Reformatory at Elmira." 
 
 "Outlook, The," Feb. 24, 1906; March 17, 1906. 
 
 " Papers in Penology," Elmira. 
 
 "Prisoners' Aid Society of Canada," "The Child Prob- 
 lem." 
 
 RAUX, " En f ants Coupable." 
 
 REPORTS OF New York Children's Court. 
 
 " " " " Juvenile Asylum. 
 
 " " Elmira Reformatory. 
 
 " " Newark City Home 
 
 " " Jamesburg State School. 
 
 New York House of Refuge. 
 
 " " Rahway Reformatory. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOB. 235 
 
 REPORTS OF "A Joint Special Committee," 
 
 Hartford, 1863. 
 
 " Essex County Probation Officer. 
 
 " " " Theophile Roussel," etc. 
 
 Revue Penetentiare, vol. 14, p. 300 ; vol. 16, pp. 776 and 
 972; vol. 19, p. 93. 
 
 SPENCE, C. H., " Children of the State in Austra- 
 
 lia," in Children's Advocate, 
 Nov. 9, 1893. 
 
 SPERANZA, G., " Criminality in Children." 
 
 VON WOLFRING, LTDIA, lt Kindermisshandlungen," etc., 
 Wien, 1902. 
 
 WATLAND, F. (DEAN), " The Duty of the State to Its 
 Neglected Children." 
 
 WILLIAMS, MORNAY, 4< The Street Boy." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abnormality, physical, in criminals, 
 
 2-5. See Stigmata of crime. 
 Absorption, the social law of, 125, 
 
 126. 
 
 Addams, Jane, cited, 166. 
 Adenoids, results of removal of, 210. 
 Affection, absence of, in savages, 93, 
 
 94. 
 Age of delinquents, statistics of, 
 
 150-152. 
 Ambidexterity as a stigma of crime, 
 
 58. 
 Aristotle and the stigmata of crime, 
 
 59. 
 Associates, delinquency caused by 
 
 bad, 160. 
 Australia, methods in, for treating 
 
 delinquents, 219, 220. 
 
 Babies in institutions, 195, 196. 
 Baker, Sir Samuel, quoted, 93, 94. 
 Barrows, Samuel, cited, 115, 200, 227. 
 Baths, public and school, 216. 
 Beard, thin, as stigma of crime, 63, 
 
 76 ff. 
 Begging as cause of delinquency, 
 
 119, 120. 
 
 Belgium, prisons in, 115. 
 Beyers, classification of delinquents 
 
 by, 50. 
 " Blood ears " as stigmata of crime, 
 
 82. 
 Bogue, E. A., study of imperfect 
 
 dentition by, 207, 208. 
 Booth, General, cited, 139. 
 
 Borderlanders, the class called, 125, 
 
 126. 
 Born criminals, so-called, 2-5, 146, 
 
 147. See Natural criminals. 
 " Branding" of criminals, 197. 
 Bridewell, data from, 41. 
 Brockway, former Superintendent, 
 
 157. 
 Buddhism and the stigmata theory, 
 
 55, 56. 
 
 Cady, cited, 41, 150, 151, 160, 161, 216. 
 
 Caldwell, N. J., penitentiary, data 
 furnished from, 3, 4, 9, 67, 116, 
 118, 149. 
 
 Camorra, the, 13. 
 
 Centralization of population and de- 
 linquency, 37 ff., 131-133. 
 
 Charbonari, the, 13. 
 
 Cheek bones, large, as stigmata of 
 crime, 63, 68, 76 ff ., 147 ; proposed 
 treatment of, 205-208. 
 
 Child labor, 134-136. 
 
 Children, cases of homes with too 
 many, 179, 180. 
 
 Children's court, evolution and bene- 
 fits of, 226 ff. 
 
 Chiu, projecting, as stigma of crime, 
 63. 
 
 Cigarette-smoking as cause of de- 
 linquency, 157. 
 
 Cities, percentage of delinquents 
 from, 37 ff., 131, 132. 
 
 Clark, Miss Emily, work of, 220. 
 
 Classes, social, and delinquency, 11. 
 
 (237) 
 
238 
 
 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 Climate, effect of, on delinquency, 
 
 106. 
 Clothes for children seeking employ. 
 
 ment, 134. 
 Cocaine fiends, 159. 
 Competition, effect of, on delin- 
 quency, 128-130. 
 Confucianism and stigmata of crime 
 
 theory, 56. 
 
 Consumers' leagues, 216, 217. 
 Cottage plan for institutions, 193, 
 
 197, 198. 
 Cotton factories, children employed 
 
 in, 136. 
 Country, percentage of delinquents 
 
 from, 37 ff., 131, 132. 
 Crap shooting, 166. 
 Crises, delinquency resulting from, 
 
 127, 128. 
 
 Cronin, Dr., work of, 210. 
 Curfew laws, 215, 216. 
 
 Davitt, Michael, quoted on English 
 prisons, 115. 
 
 Deformations as cause of delin- 
 quency, 152, 153. See Stigmata. 
 
 Degeneracy, correspondence of stig- 
 mata of, and stigmata of crime, 
 69. 
 
 Degenerates, delinquents classed as, 
 22. 
 
 Delinquencies, juvenile, nature of, 
 20 ff. 
 
 Delinquency, geographical causes of, 
 103-106; social causes, 106-126; 
 economic causes, 126-140; dis- 
 positional causes, 140-147 ; physi- 
 ological causes, 147-154; indi- 
 vidual causes, 154-167; family 
 causes, 167-183; history of treat- 
 ment of juvenile, 184 ff . 
 
 Dentition, defective, as stigma of 
 crime, 8, 56, 63, 68, 69; found 
 
 among insane patients not crimi- 
 nals, 79; physical effect on pos- 
 sessor, 206; scientific study of, 
 and conclusions, 207-209. 
 
 Disease and delinquency, 153. 
 
 Dishonesty among juveniles, 165,166. 
 
 Drugs and delinquency, 159. 
 
 Ears, outstanding, as stigmata of 
 crime, 4, 8, 63, 66; found also 
 among the insane, 76 ff. 
 
 Economic causes of delinquency, 126- 
 140. 
 
 Education, defective, as cause of de- 
 linquency, 122-124, 141, 142. 
 
 Ellis, cited, 114, 158, 161, 166. 
 
 Elmira Reformatory, data obtained 
 from, 2, 3, 9, 11, 14, 15, 19, 36, 41, 
 44, 70, 92; in danger from pol- 
 itics, 121; age of inmates, 150; 
 elaboration of educational and 
 industrial idea at, 194; percent- 
 age of success and of failure at, 
 202. 
 
 Employment of children, statistics 
 of, 134-136. 
 
 England, social conditions and de- 
 linquency in, 11-13; Reform 
 School data from, 17 ; prisons in, 
 115 ; vagrancy in, 139 ; percentage 
 of reform of juvenile delinquents 
 in, 201 ; boarding out of children 
 in, 220. 
 
 Environment, and crime, 23, 24, 27, 
 28; effect of geographical, 103- 
 106. 
 
 Evolution, theory of, applied to stig- 
 mata of crime, 60, 61. 
 
 Extinction, the social law of, 125, 
 126. 
 
 Extirpation of criminals, 211-213. 
 
 Factory employment of children, 
 136. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 239 
 
 Family causes of delinquency, 167- 
 183. 
 
 Feet, abnormal, as stigmata of crime, 
 63, 83. 
 
 Ferri, E., cited, 10, 13, 63, 89, 202. 
 
 Ferriani, cited, 24, 37. 
 
 Feuds, geographical cause for, 104, 
 105. 
 
 Fink, cited, 93. 
 
 Fitzgerald, E. P., cited, 17, 43. 
 
 Foster homes for children, 219 ff.; 
 advantages and defects of, 222- 
 224. 
 
 Fowke, F., cited, 193. 
 
 France, social conditions and delin- 
 quency in, 12; Reform School 
 data from, 17 ; nature of juvenile 
 delinquencies in, 22, 23 ; a classifi- 
 cation of juvenile delinquents 
 m, 50, 51; absence of stigmata 
 among delinquents of, 72, 73; 
 the prisons of, 114, 115. 
 
 Galen and the study of stigmata, 59, 
 
 60. 
 
 Gambling among delinquents, 166. 
 Gangs, formation of juvenile, 132; 
 
 causes of, 142, 143. 
 Garafalo, on the stigmata of crime, 
 
 62, 64. 
 
 Gauthier, Emile, quoted, 114, 115. 
 George Junior Republic, data from, 
 
 70 ; percentage of reform at, 201 . 
 George Junior Republics, nature of, 
 
 as institutions, 193. 
 Germany, vagrancy in, 139; Rauhe 
 
 Hans plan for treating delin- 
 quents, 219, 221. 
 Gesticulation, frequent, as stigma of 
 
 crime, 63; found also among the 
 
 insane, 76 ff. 
 
 Great Britain, vagrancy in, 139. 
 Greek sources of stigmata of crime 
 
 theory, 58-60. 
 
 Habits, personal, and delinquency, 
 154-167. 
 
 Hair, thick head, as stigma of crime, 
 63, 68 ; found among the insane, 
 76. 
 
 Hardy, Spense, quoted, 55, 56. 
 
 Hartford, data from, 41. 
 
 Head bones, deficient, physical effect 
 of, on owner, 206. 
 
 Hebrew Shelter Refuge, data from, 
 42 
 
 Hebrew sources of stigmata of crime 
 theory, 57, 58. 
 
 Heredity, influence of, 29, 153, 154. 
 
 Home, delinquency due to deficien- 
 cies in, 33, 167 ff ., 175-182 ; failure 
 of the State to furnish a, 170. 
 
 Homes, placing out children in fos- 
 ter, 219 ff. ; advantages and de- 
 fects of plan, 222 ff. 
 
 Homer and the stigmata of crime 
 theory, 58. 
 
 House of Refuge, New York, data 
 from, 4, 9, 17, 18, 22, 31, 37, 41, 
 44, 70, 74, 133; character of train- 
 ing at, 193. 
 
 Hrdlicka, quoted, 5, 71, 72. 
 
 Hypnotism, criminal offences due to, 
 153. 
 
 Idleness, delinquents through, 22, 
 
 142, 162 ff . 
 Illinois Penitentiary, data obtained 
 
 from, 150. 
 Immaturity as cause of delinquency, 
 
 143, 144. 
 Immigration, delinquency factors in, 
 
 124, 125, 170. 
 Imprisonment, definite term system 
 
 of, 117, 118. 
 Inbreeding, degeneracy resulting 
 
 from, 12. 
 Indeterminate sentence, the, 193, 194. 
 
240 
 
 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 Industrial training for delinquents, 
 193. 
 
 Insane, stigmata of crime found 
 among the, 75 ff. ; question of 
 classing delinquents among, 84 
 ff . ; at poor farms, 119. 
 
 Insanity, among juvenile delin- 
 quents, 27, 28, 29; and crime, 
 84 ff.; in subtle forms in chil- 
 dren, 145, 148. 
 
 Insensibility to pain, of insane, 93; 
 of children, 96. 
 
 Institution, effects of life in, 194- 
 204; the proper sphere of the, 
 204 ff. 
 
 Institutions, improvement in, 189; 
 types of, 192 ff . 
 
 Institutionalization of children, 196. 
 
 Intellect, dependence of moral sense 
 on, 15, 16. 
 
 Intemperance of parents, and juve- 
 nile delinquency, 42, 48. 
 
 Intoxication among juveniles, 154; 
 extent of responsibility of, for 
 crime, 155, 156. 
 
 Ireland, boarding-out method for 
 children in, 220. 
 
 Italians, peculiar effect of atavism 
 on, 69, 70. 
 
 Italian School, the, 4, 8, 13, 14, 53; 
 claims of, respecting detection 
 of crime by stigmata, 62, 63; 
 conclusions regarding theory of, 
 98, 99; classification of offenders 
 by, 202, 203. 
 
 Italy, social conditions and delin- 
 quency in, 13; prisons of, 115. 
 
 Jails for juveniles, defects of, 112- 
 
 114. 
 Jamesburg State Home, data from, 
 
 21, 41. 
 Jaws, large and prognathous, as 
 
 stigmata of crime, 4, 76 ff . ; cure 
 
 of, 209. 
 
 Jewish delinquents, 22. 
 Johnson, Grace, cited, 121. 
 Jones, Israel, 133. 
 Juke family, the, 153, 154. 
 
 Keel-shaped head as stigma of crime, 
 4, 58, 59. See Stigmata. 
 
 Kelly, Miss, on causes of delin- 
 quency, 135. 
 
 Kelso, J. J., cited, 160, 163. 
 
 Krafft-Ebbing, 88, 106, 145-146. 
 
 Krapotkine, on French prisons, 114. 
 
 Left-handedness as a stigma of crime, 
 58. 
 
 Lindsey, Judge, cited, 20, 21, 32, 151 ; 
 percentage of delinquents cured 
 by, 28, 199; on jails for children, 
 114 ; has factor of bad politics to 
 contend with, 121; quoted on 
 the children's court, 226, 227; 
 parents, guardians, and other 
 adult agents held responsible by 
 229. 
 
 Literature, delinquency caused by 
 bad, 160, 161. 
 
 Loafing as source of delinquency, 
 162-164. 
 
 Lombroso, C., 10, 13, 14, 32, 56, 61, 
 63, 68, 69, 202. 
 
 Love, absence of, in savages, 93, 94. 
 
 Machines, effect of introduction of, 
 on delinquency, 129 ff . 
 
 Maffia, the, 13, 109. 
 
 Maldevelopment, physical, in crim- 
 inals, 2-5. See Stigmata. 
 
 Mana Nigra, the, 13, 109. 
 
 Massachusetts plan, percentage of 
 reform under, 201. 
 
 Maudsley, cited, 145, 153, 206. 
 
 Maupate, L., quoted, 72, 73. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 241 
 
 Mayer, Julius M., classification of 
 
 delinquents by, 50. 
 Michigan, foster homes for children 
 
 in, 221. 
 Middletown State Insane Asylum, 
 
 data from, 76 ff. 
 
 Military school treatment of delin- 
 quents, 193. 
 Military stations, evil effects of, 105, 
 
 106. 
 Minnesota, placing out of children 
 
 in, 221. 
 Mitchellville Reform School, data, 
 
 17,43. 
 Mohammedanism and stigmata of 
 
 crime theory, 56, 57. 
 Montclair School for Backwards, 7, 
 
 38. 
 
 Moonshining, 103, 104. 
 Moral insensibility, of criminals, 15, 
 
 16, 90 ff . ; of the insane, 90 ff . ; 
 
 of savages, 93-95; of children, 
 
 95, 96, 144, 145. 
 Morbidity resulting in delinquency, 
 
 145. 
 
 Morrison, cited, 7, 17, 34, 40, 42, 149. 
 Murder, cases of, by juveniles, 26, 27. 
 Murderers, inferior heads of, 63, 64. 
 
 Natural criminals, 2-5, 146, 147 ; stig- 
 mata of, 4, 8, 54-75, 205-209; 
 question of insanity of, 97-99; 
 suitability of institution life for, 
 204 ff.; extirpation suggested 
 for, 211-214. 
 
 Naval stations, evil effects of, 105, 
 106. 
 
 Nerves, case of abnormal, 28, 29. 
 
 New York Juvenile Asylum, data 
 obtained from, 5, 6, 7, 9, 18, 31, 
 33, 37, 42, 45, 118, 125, 133, 134, 
 135,157, 160, 166; delinquencies 
 causing commitment to, 21 ; plac- 
 ing-out department of, 221. 
 
 Nose, the criminal's, 63, 65 ; scientific 
 treatment of, 209. 
 
 Nostril, high, as a stigma of degen- 
 eracy, 56; the almond-shaped, 
 
 82, 83. 
 
 Offences, nature of juvenile, 20 ff. 
 Ohio, treatment of delinquents in, 
 
 222. 
 Orphanage and delinquency, 40-42. 
 
 Palates, defective, as stigmata of 
 crime, 4, 8, 63, 65, 66; found 
 among insane patients not crimi- 
 nals, 79; study of and cure of, 
 209. 
 
 Parents of juvenile delinquents, 33 
 ff., 167 ff.; effect of imprison- 
 ment of, on children, 119. 
 
 Parks, as preventive scheme, 215. 
 
 Pennsylvania, placing out of children 
 in, 222. 
 
 Phansegars, the, 94. 
 
 Philanthropy as cause of delin- 
 quency, 119, 120. 
 
 Physiological causes of delinquency, 
 147-154. 
 
 Physique of criminals, 2 ff. See 
 Stigmata. 
 
 Placing-out methods for treating de- 
 linquents, 219 ff. ; advantages 
 and defects of, 222-224. 
 
 Playgrounds, 215. 
 
 Pleasure resorts, delinquency caused 
 by, 105. 
 
 Plotting as a test of crime and of 
 insanity, 89 ff. 
 
 Police courts, defects of, 109-112. 
 
 Politics, effect of, on increase of de- 
 linquency, 121, 122. 
 
 Poor farms, 119. 
 
 Population, centralization of, and 
 growth of delinquency, 37, 131- 
 133. 
 
242 
 
 THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 Poverty as cause of delinquency, 33, 
 47, 48, 133 ff . 
 
 Premeditation as a test of crime and 
 of insanity, 89 ff. 
 
 Prins, Adolphe, cited, 115. 
 
 Prisons, influence of, 114-117; im- 
 provement in construction of, 
 189 ff. 
 
 Prostitutes, age of, at Blackwell's 
 Island, 23; earnings of, 35; num- 
 ber of, in New York City, 109. 
 
 Prostitution, causes of, 23-25, 35, 36; 
 in homes, 46. 
 
 Puberty, age of, as connected with 
 delinquency, 148, 149. 
 
 Rah way Reformatory, data from, 4, 
 9, 10, 70, 74, 201. 
 
 Rauhe Haus plan for delinquents, 
 219, 221. 
 
 Raux, cited, 17, 25, 27, 31, 32, 40, 42, 
 44, 150, 200. 
 
 Reading, delinquency resulting from 
 wrong, 160, 161. 
 
 Reform, percentage of, among juve- 
 nile delinquents, 199 ff . 
 
 Reformatories, effect of, 120. See 
 Institution. 
 
 Religions of savages, 94, 95. 
 
 Richter, Dr., 88. 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, cited, 94. 
 
 Roussel, Th6ophile, quoted, 228, 229. 
 
 Russia, prisons of, 114. 
 
 Saloons, connection of, with crime, 
 156, 157. 
 
 Banger, Dr., 23, 24, 34-36. 
 
 Schools, defects in, causing delin- 
 quency, 122-124, 141, 142. 
 
 Schroff, cited, 163. 
 
 Scotland, boarding out of children 
 in, 220. 
 
 Sentence, the definite term system, 
 
 117, 118; the indeterminate, 193, 
 194. 
 
 Sex, influence of, on delinquency, 
 149, 150. 
 
 Sexual habits, influence of, 159. 
 
 Skull, the criminal's, 63. 
 
 Social causes of delinquency, 106- 
 126. 
 
 Social secretaries, 216, 217. 
 
 Society, classes of, and delinquency, 
 11. 
 
 Somnambulism, criminal offences 
 caused by, 153. 
 
 Spain, prisons of, 114. 
 
 Spence, Miss C. H., cited, 220. 
 
 Speranza, GK, quoted, 92, 163. 
 
 Sterilization of natural criminals, 
 213, 214. 
 
 Stigmata of crime, 4, 8; Italian 
 School's theory, 54; historical 
 sources of theory, 55-62; enu- 
 meration of, 63-65; practical 
 tests of theory, 65 ff.; theory 
 applies to Italians but not to 
 other races, 69 ff. ; theory is not 
 accurate, 74, 75; found among 
 insane who were not criminals, 
 75 ff. ; conclusions concerning 
 theory, 98, 99 ; physical effect on 
 possessors of, 205-207 ; scientific 
 medical study of, and conclu- 
 sions, 207-209. 
 
 Street-cleaning by juveniles, 216. 
 
 Street occupations of children, 135. 
 
 Sweeney, Judge, quoted, 197. 
 
 Tarnowskaia, Dr., cited, 64. 
 
 Teeth, defective, among stigmata of 
 crime, 8, 56, 63, 68, 69, 79, 206; 
 study of, and results, 207-209. 
 
 Temperature, effect of, on delin- 
 quency, 106. 
 
 Theatres, cheap, delinquency due 
 to, 161, 162. 
 
THE YOUNG MALEFACTOR. 
 
 243 
 
 Thieves, stigmata of, 63-65. 
 Tobacco and delinquency, 157-159. 
 Trades unions and delinquency, 130, 
 
 131. 
 Tramps, causes and statistics of, 138- 
 
 140. 
 Truancy, statistics of, 22 ; causes of, 
 
 122-124, 141, 142; gangs resulting 
 
 from, 142. 
 Tubercle, the prominent Darwinian, 
 
 as stigma of crime, 63, 82, 83. 
 
 Vagrancy, statistics of, 139, 140. 
 
 Van Vorst, Mrs. John, cited, 135, 
 136. 
 
 Victoria, Australia, treatment of de- 
 linquents in, 219. 
 
 Village plan for institutions, 193, 197, 
 198. 
 
 Von Wolfring, Lydia, cited, 43. 
 
 Wards, juvenile, demand for, 222. 
 
 Waring, J. E., cited, 216. 
 
 Warner, cited, 139, 140. 
 
 Warren, Count de, 94. 
 
 Washington, D.C., prison data, 17. 
 
 Waukesha Reformatory data, 41, 
 161. 
 
 Wayland, Francis, quoted, 45, 46. 
 
 Weathersfield Prison data, 67. 
 
 Wight, Commissioner, cited, 108, 
 113. 
 
 Willard, D., cited, 216. 
 
 Williams, Mornay, classification of 
 delinquents by, 50; on street 
 occupations as source of delin- 
 quency, 135. 
 
 Wrinkles, facial, as stigmata of 
 crime, 63; found also among in- 
 sane, 78. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
I. Malformed Heads of Insane Females. 
 
II. Peculiarities in the Insane: Abnormal Hair on Male Faces. 
 
I. Peculiarities in the Insane : Abnormal Hair on Female Faces. 
 
IV. Abnormal Facial Wrinkles of Insane Females. 
 
.c 
 hi) 
 
IX. Palates of Sane and Insane Patients, not Criminal. 
 (Only the three on lowest row are from Sane Patients.) 
 
X. Peculiarities in the Insane : Spottedness and Extra Toes. 
 
XI. Peculiarities in Paupers, not Insane or Criminal: Flopping Ears. 
 
XII. The Under-developed Face of a Child, before Treatment. 
 
XIII. the Under-developed Face of a Child, after (Unfinished) Treatment. 
 
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