It was easily to be seen at the beginning of the work that there would
be value in both extensive and intensive studies. The former would give
a survey of the field which might lead to establishment of definite
knowledge of the larger needs of the situation, would perhaps point
the way to better legislation and public provision for various classes
of offenders. The intensive work would furnish better understanding of
types and the possibilities of their treatment. Then we soon realize
that the careful and prolonged study of individual offenders was a
rational preliminary to working up statistics from which general
conclusions could be safely drawn. Time has justified this opinion.
Nothing is rasher than to make general statements about social needs
upon the basis of tests, observations and figures that have not been
proved to solve the point at issue.
As an incident to the work with offenders the psychologist in court is
occasionally asked about the reliability of witnesses. We have been
gathering data upon this point in hundreds of cases by some tests, and
find the matter a very difficult one to generalize upon. In this we
agree with various foreign students of the subject. The ability to be
a good witness is a highly individual matter, and frequently involves
the conditions of a given occasion, upon which tests do not throw any
light. Occasionally from psychological study one can render a strong
positive or negative opinion concerning individual capacities, but much
more frequently it seems to us that no safe opinion can be rendered.
We would still maintain, as we ever have done, that the greatest
hope for amelioration of the heavy burden of delinquency is in very
early studies and early understandings of individual cases. Not only
for scientific purposes but also for practical treatment the young
individual with delinquent tendencies is best handled. Not entirely,
since some social offences may first arise in late adolescence, but
in a large share of cases some of the most valuable criminological
work can be done by specialists in child study. Even in early periods
of life intensive studies must be made, especially of children of the
psychopathic type. We are more than glad to see the purpose all over
the country.
One word more about method. Those who early suggested to us that
intensive, continued study of a dozen offenders of a dozen different
types would be worth more than a thousand short examinations spoke from
a strong standpoint. Continuation studies are most valuable. They are
necessary not only for giving understandings of types, but also for
so understanding the individual that proper social adjustment of his
case can be made. Our work shows plainly that except in the case of the
grossly defective a short cross-section study is absolutely inadequate
for the work in hand, namely, scientific treatment of the offender.
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