View report page

49
The question of family background is of much importance to these very helpless
people. Practically all these employed imbeciles have some kindly and stable
relative in the home to "mother" them, and to shield them from full adult responsibility
in the management of their lives.
This brief study brings out some interesting points. It shows the accuracy of
prognosis in childhood by means of intelligence tests and school observation, for it
appears that, of those certified imbecile, 97 per cent. are never fit for industrial
employment of any kind. Only 2 per cent. are able to contribute in any substantial
way to their own support. The notes further illustrate the point that social adaptability
depends not only on intelligence, but on general stability, good temper,
obedience, cleanly personal habits, self control of sex-instincts—qualities much more
susceptible to training, and also to variation, at difierent periods of life.
It may further be suggested that the exclusion of the really low grade imbecile
from special schools is no hardship and operates equitably. Children of this grade
have more to gain from the "socialising" training of the Occupation Centre type
than by any more formal education. Experience tends to confirm the opinion
expressed in the Wood Report that an intelligence quotient of 55 should, generally
speaking, be the lower limit for the special school child, and that those below that
level should be relegated to occupation centres in their own interests, and in that
of the higher grade child.
It should be added that the progress notes of the employed imbeciles give
abundant proof of the value of skilled supervision of defectives in the community.
Only by bringing the defectives into touch with sympathetic employers and by giving
wise advice on home management, are these satisfactory adiustmeDts possible.
Women
delinquent
defectives,
1925-1929.
Dr. Fairfield has made a survey of all female cases notified from London police
courts and prisons in the five years 1925-1929. Seventy-eight such notifications were
received. Of these 20 were considered by the prison doctor and the Council's
certifying officers to be not defective, while 58 were certifiable under the Mental
Deficiency Acts. Twenty-three out of the 58 girls had arrived in London within the
year and a few more were country-reared. The ages of these women at the time
of arrest were as follows:
Age groups in
years.
Under
20
20- 30- 40- 50- 60- 70-
Cases 25 23 6 2 1 —
The fact that almost five-sixths of the whole were under 30 years of age shows
that ascertainment is acting at effective ages; it is, of course, most important in
the women's interests to put them under suitable care before they become confirmed
in criminal habits and while there is yet opportunity for training. In the case of
older women of degraded life, it is often difficult to estimate whether lack of response
is due to a defect present before the age of 18 years as required by the Acts.
The home background of these cases was investigated wherever possible either
by a visit from a trained social worker or by correspondence if the girl came from the
country. In eight instances the girls had been reared in an orphanage, 16 came
from definitely bad (not merely poor or ignorant) homes, 29 were from apparently
good homes and information was insufficient for classification in five cases.
The school records were ascertained in every case either from the teachers or
from relatives. It was possible to group them into two divisions, i.e., whether they
had or had not been recognised as defective in childhood by the school authorities.
The first group comprised 21 girls, 14 being Londoners and 7 country-reared. Of
the Londoners 2 were educated before special schools came into being, but of the
12 younger ones 10 had been in special schools, 1 in an industrial school, and 1