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The Defective Classes

Creator: A.O. Wright (author)
Date: 1891
Publication: Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction
Source: Available at selected libraries

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The defective classes form a series of small, but very troublesome, tumors upon the body politic. For various reasons, ranging all the way from the imperative need of protection to society up to those humane influences for which our century is distinguished, these classes have fallen under the more or less effective guardianship of government in all civilized countries. Private effort is also doing much to palliate or to prevent the evils which the defective classes bring on themselves and upon society at large.

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I propose the following classification of the defective classes, depending upon the three divisions of the mental faculties which are generally accepted by psychologists. Insanity and idiocy are different forms of defective intellect. Crime and vice are caused by defect of the emotions or passions. And pauperism is caused by defect of the will. Blindness and deaf-mutism are defects of the senses, requiring special forms of education, but are not defects of the mind any more than the loss of an arm or a leg. Blind or deaf people properly educated are not a burden or a danger to society, as are criminals, insane persons, or paupers. Their defects are physical, not mental, and they should not be classed with persons who have these mental defects. The above classification has the advantage of starting from the center instead of from the circumference. "The mind is the measure of the man," and it is the abnormal and defective mind which produces the mischief. Anything which fosters the abnormal and ill-regulated thoughts or passions, or which weakens the control of reason, conscience, and will over the mind, tends to produce insanity, crime, and pauperism. Everything which aids self-control reduces the tendency to these abnormalities.

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The distribution of the defective classes by nationality, education, wealth, age, sex, occupation, and the like, is interesting from a scientific point of view, and important from a practical standpoint. A study of the distribution of insanity, crime, and pauperism, may reveal the conditions which create or foster them. And as society has more or less control over social conditions it may become possible to heal some of these ulcers on the body politic, if we know where they are and what irritant produced them. But please notice that I say may, not shall. The small success of all effort in the past toward curing these evils ought to make social reformers modest.

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First, the question of sex. Men and women are about equally afflicted with insanity. Either the causes are the same in men and women which produce insanity, or they are equivalent. Heredity, worry, over-work, under-feeding, sickness, and the weaknesses of old age affect men and women equally, and the perils of child-birth and of loneliness for solitary farmers wives are about equal to the dangers from accident and the vices to which men are exposed. But crime and pauperism are liabilities of men much more than of women. There are generally about forty times as many men as women in our prisons. The disproportion is not quite so great in some states, and is still less in European countries. In Europe there is no sentimental pity for a woman on account of her sex. But even in Europe the proportion of men to women is perhaps ten to one. Women do not commit crime as readily as men do; it may be from principle; it may be from cowardice; it may be from lack of temptation. And women do not become paupers as readily as men. In getting out-door relief it is true women are a little ahead of men, but that is because it is easier for a woman to get poor-relief than for a man. And in fact where out-door relief is laxly administered, though it is the women who usually apply for it, there are often lazy men behind them, sending them for it, or else drinking up all their earnings in the comfortable consciousness that the public will support their families. So that even in out-door relief it is probable that the men have a good share of the pauperism. And in poorhouses there are about twice as many men as women.

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Second, as to age. About an equal number of each sex are born idiots, and remain so all their lives; so that the question of age in idiocy need not be taken into account, except that idiots are not long-lived. But insanity is a defect of mature years. Going through an insane asylum you are struck with the general age of the patients in contrast with the youth of the attendants. This, of course, is partly caused by the fact that insanity is not very curable. Only about one fourth of the insane recover, a few die, and the rest end their days as chronic insane. But it is also caused by the fact that most insane are middle-aged or elderly before they become insane.

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Crime is rarely committed by little children, and when committed is frequently excused by the law, or by the judges and jury. But every visitor to a jail or state prison must notice the comparative youthfulness of the prisoners. The average age of the convicts in state prison is twenty-seven. Or, to put it in another way, the majority of convicts in state prison are under twenty-five. The difference between twenty-seven and twenty-five is accounted for by the difference between an average and a majority. The direct opposite of this is the case with pauperism. The majority of paupers are over fifty years old. Criminals are mostly young men. Paupers are mostly old men and old women. Youth is the age of passion, and perverted passions lead to crime. The author of "The Jukes Family" says that among the descendants of Margaret, the "Mother of Criminals," it is very noticeable that in youth they were prostitutes and criminals, and in age beggars and paupers. The same perverted instincts which led them to prey upon the community took the direction of crime in the time of strength and of pauperism in the time of weakness.

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