"[83] He is not, in most respects, the
creature which he was made out to be by Lombroso and his followers; but
he exists, nevertheless, and no ameliorative treatment given him will be
of such value to society as preventing his reproduction.
The feeble-minded who make up a large proportion of the petty criminals
that fill the jails, must, of course, be excluded from this discussion
except to note that their conviction assists in discovering their
defect. They should be treated as feeble-minded, not as criminals.[84]
Those who may have been made criminals by society, by their environment,
must also be excepted. In an investigation, the benefit of the doubt
should be given to the individual. But when every possible concession is
made to the influence of environment, the psychiatric study of the
individual and the investigation of his family history still show that
there are criminals who congenitally lack the inhibitions and instincts
which make it possible for others to be useful members of society.[85]
When a criminal of this natural type is found, the duty of society is
unquestionably to protect itself by cutting off that line of descent.
This, we believe, covers all the classes which are at this time proper
subjects for direct restrictive action with eugenic intent; and we
repeat that the problem is not to deal with classes as a whole, but to
deal with individuals of the kind described, for the sake of
convenience, in the above categories.
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