Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic PsychologyHealy, William
Science
Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology
Healy, William
Criminal psychology; Swindlers and swindling
From Hazel's own story told at this time and even after she
became more stable it seems very likely that her bad tendencies
began with her acquaintance with a certain rather notorious
woman. Her mother came to believe that this was undoubtedly the
fact. Our inquiry into beginnings brought to light the fact that
Hazel while a school girl for long associated with this woman who
taught her about sex immoralities. ``I don't believe my mother
knows what this Mrs. R. did to me or she would have her arrested.
She started me on all this. When I was about 11 years old I
first knew of those things. The first I ever heard was from that
woman's daughter. I never said anything to my mother. I was
always ashamed of myself to say anything about it. After I got
to working with factory girls I heard a lot about it.'' The
mother told us later that she thought it probable from what she
now knew that this Mrs. R. may have been largely responsible for
Hazel's tendency to delinquency. Hazel kept this association of
several years' standing quite to herself. The mother remembers
now how Hazel once stayed for hours after school and told a story
in explanation that they felt sure was untrue. The teachers used
to tell the mother that Hazel seemed as if she couldn't pay
attention to her school work. One teacher reported to us that
she remembers Hazel as a girl who seemed peculiar and hysterical.
The other girls called her queer and used to steer clear of her.
The mother reports Hazel as being for several years impulsive,
erratic, talkative, untidy, and rather dishonest in other small
ways besides lying--all this in spite of vigorous home
discipline. The girl at one time under the influence of revival
meetings left the religious faith of her parents. However, they
thought if any form of religion would make her better it would be
all right.
At our last interview with Hazel before she was sent away, an
interview which she prefaced by saying, ``I want to apologize for
everything I did,'' the girl showed herself unable to avoid
prevarications. Coming back, for instance, to the subject of her
schooling she tells us how she won a graduating medal. This her
mother said was untrue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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