Deficiency and Delinquency: An Interpretation of Mental TestingMiner, James Burt
Science
Deficiency and Delinquency: An Interpretation of Mental Testing
Miner, James Burt
Children with mental disabilities; Juvenile delinquents; Mentally ill offenders; Psychological tests
“It is immaterial for the purposes of this hypothesis whether three
or a smaller or larger percentage be designated as feeble-minded.
The important point is the agreement upon some fixed percentage, and
we have chosen three per cent. as covering presumably all the cases
of marked mental deficiency. A brief glance at the chief estimates
of the number of feeble-minded in civilized communities would
indicate that our percentage is somewhat higher than the
conservative writers give, but we shall show later on that it is
much lower than the results obtained from groups of children tested
by intelligence scales” (_44_, p. 36).
With those who understand that deficiency is mainly a question of
degree, it would seem that there might be some agreement as to the plan
for defining tested deficiency. In order to make this plan more useful
to those dealing with the social care of the feeble-minded, it would be
necessary to supplement the bare percentage definition by relating it to
expectations of social failure somewhat after the manner I have
attempted. In particular it will gain its main value for diagnostic
purposes, it seems to me, if the percentage is so chosen that it may
receive the support of conservative scientific opinion. To be most
useful it seems evident, also, that the percentages must be chosen with
regard to the sort of social care which it is anticipated would be
_justified_ for the particular degrees of deficiency.
Let us recall the percentages suggested to harmonize the estimates: the
lowest 0.5% to be regarded as presumably deficient enough to justify
isolation and the next 1% as doubtful, but low enough to warrant special
training and probably requiring indefinite social assistance. If these
percentages for tested intellectual deficiency have been shown to be
fairly conservative estimates in the light of the authoritative
judgments with which they have here been compared, the laboriousness of
this comparison has been worth while. Further light upon the social
assistance group may be thrown by the study of the success of those
children who have already had the advantage of training in local classes
for the deficient.
F. THE ABILITY OF THE MENTALLY RETARDED, ESPECIALLY THOSE RECEIVING
SPECIAL TRAINING.
That we are not justified in isolating all whom we class as
feeble-minded is best indicated by the evidence as to the number of
these sent to special local classes for deficients who are able to float
socially with the assistance of capable after-care committees. A fair
picture of the present situation may be obtained by thinking of these
pupils in the help-classes and schools as representing about the next 1%
above those who have been isolated in institutions. With this picture in
mind let us see what has been the outcome of their special instruction
and social assistance thereafter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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