INSANITY AND CRIME

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2613, 31 July 1923, Page 2

INSANITY AND CRIME

London, July 28. During a discussion at the British Medical Congress at Portsmouth on the treatment of mental defectives, Dr. East, medical officer at Brixton Gaol, said that recently, of six men under observation awaiting trial for murder, three were insane. Early diagnosis and treatment would, have prevented the murders they committed.

Dr. William Potts said the number of mentally defective persons in England and Wales, apart from lunatics, was estimated at 1,496,000 of whom it was estimated 66,500 were in urgent need of provision, in their own or in the public interest. All mental defectives at large were a potential danger, which increased as modern industry became more complicated and opportunities more frequent. He was confident the public would welcome a thorough preliminary medical examination, in order to determine the extent to which an offender was a deliberate wrong-doer or the victim of environment.

Dr. Gibbons said it had never been known for two mentally defective individuals to become the parents of a normal child. They could be reasonably certain that by the time (lie defective child reached the age of sixteen how much benefit it would receive from treatment, segregation and so forth. If there was no indication that the child could ever he regarded as normal, or approaching normal, steps should be taken to prevent that child ever becoming a parent.