Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) THE CRIMINAL IMBECILE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO [Illustration: JEAN GIANINI. (Upper picture taken in jail. Printed by permission of Zintsmaster and Jones, Herkimer, N. Y., Photographers.)] THE CRIMINAL IMBECILE AN ANALYSIS OF THREE REMARKABLE MURDER CASES BY HENRY HERBERT GODDARD DIRECTOR OF DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH VINELAND TRAINING SCHOOL New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1915 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1915. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE This book is offered to the public in the belief that the three cases herein described are typical of a large proportion of criminal cases and that the analysis and discussion attempted will help to make clear important points which are often misunderstood, points relative to the criminal and to the imbecile. A clear conception of the nature of the imbecile and of his relation to crime will inevitably result in a most desirable change in our criminal procedure. It should be noted that we use "imbecile" in the legal sense which includes the moron and often the idiot as scientifically classified. This usage is justified since much of the literature still describes all mental defectives as imbeciles, idiots, or feeble-minded--according to the preference of the writers. These cases are unique in that they were the first court cases in which the Binet-Simon tests were admitted in evidence, the mental status of these persons under indictment being largely determined by this method. It happens, also, that these cases well illustrate three phases of the workings of defective minds. Jean Gianini shows the criminal imbecile of high grade and of loquacious type working by himself. Roland Pennington, equally high grade but of a quiet, phlegmatic temperament, shows how a defective mind works under suggestion. Finally, Tronson shows the crude brutality of a somewhat lower grade defective. In the chapter on Responsibility we have tried to indicate the difference between _verbal_ morality and deep-seated, appreciated, moral principle. A child may have the former but the latter comes only with experience and the age at least of the adolescent. We would remind the reader that in the confessions and the appendices we have had at hand only stenographic reports.