The measurement of intelligence : $b an explanation of and a complete guide for the use of the Standard revision and extension of the Binet-Simon intelligence scaleTerman, Lewis M. (Lewis Madison)
Science
The measurement of intelligence : $b an explanation of and a complete guide for the use of the Standard revision and extension of the Binet-Simon intelligence scale
Of 540 Jukes, practically one fifth were born out of wedlock, 37
were known to be syphilitic, 53 had been in the poorhouse, 76
had been sentenced to prison, and of 229 women of marriageable
age 128 were prostitutes. The economic damage inflicted upon the
State of New York by the Jukes in seventy-five years was
estimated at more than $1,300,000, to say nothing of diseases
and other evil influences which they helped to spread.[5]
[5] R. L. Dugdale: _The Jukes_. (Fourth edition, 1910.) 120 pp. G. P.
Putnam's Sons.
But why do the feeble-minded tend so strongly to become delinquent? The
answer may be stated in simple terms. Morality depends upon two things:
(a) the ability to foresee and to weigh the possible consequences for
self and others of different kinds of behavior; and (b) upon the
willingness and capacity to exercise self-restraint. That there are many
intelligent criminals is due to the fact that (a) may exist without
(b). On the other hand, (b) presupposes (a). In other words, not
all criminals are feeble-minded, but all feeble-minded are at least
potential criminals. That every feeble-minded woman is a potential
prostitute would hardly be disputed by any one. Moral judgment, like
business judgment, social judgment, or any other kind of higher thought
process, is a function of intelligence. Morality cannot flower and fruit
if intelligence remains infantile.
All of us in early childhood lacked moral responsibility. We were as
rank egoists as any criminal. Respect for the feelings, the property
rights, or any other kind of rights, of others had to be laboriously
acquired under the whip of discipline. But by degrees we learned that
only when instincts are curbed, and conduct is made to conform to
principles established formally or accepted tacitly by our neighbors,
does this become a livable world for any of us. Without the intelligence
to generalize the particular, to foresee distant consequences of present
acts, to weigh these foreseen consequences in the nice balance of
imagination, morality cannot be learned. When the adult body, with its
adult instincts, is coupled with the undeveloped intelligence and weak
inhibitory powers of a 10-year-old child, the only possible outcome,
except in those cases where constant guardianship is exercised by
relatives or friends, is some form of delinquency.
Considering the tremendous cost of vice and crime, which in all
probability amounts to not less than $500,000,000 per year in the United
States alone, it is evident that psychological testing has found here
one of its richest applications. Before offenders can be subjected
to rational treatment a mental diagnosis is necessary, and while
intelligence tests do not constitute a complete psychological diagnosis,
they are, nevertheless, its most indispensable part.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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