[83] See the recent studies of C. B. Davenport, particularly _The Feebly
Inhibited_, Washington, Carnegie Institution, 1915.
[84] In this connection diagnosis is naturally of the utmost importance.
The recent action of Chicago, New York, Boston, and other cities, in
establishing psychological clinics for the examination of offenders is a
great step in advance. These clinics should be attached to the police
department, as in New York, not merely to the courts, and should pass on
offenders before, not after, trial and commitment.
[85] As a result of psychiatric study of the inmates of Sing Sing in
1916, it was said that two-thirds of them showed some mental defect.
Examination of 100 convicts selected at random in the Massachusetts
State Prison showed that 29% were feeble-minded and 11% borderline
cases. The highest percentage of mental defectives was found among
criminals serving sentence for murder in the second degree,
manslaughter, burglary and robbery. (Rossy, C. S., in _State Board of
Insanity Bull._, Boston, Nov., 1915). Paul M. Bowers told the 1916
meeting of the American Prison Association of his study of 100
recidivists, each of whom had been convicted not fewer than four times.
Of these 12 were insane, 23 feeble-minded and 10 epileptic, and in each
case Dr.
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