CLUES TO CRIME

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 26, 22 April 1927, Page 5

CLUES TO CRIME

A WOMAN’S SEARCH Dr. Grace W. Pailthorpe, a London ■woman doctor, has been searching among the women prisoners at Holloway Gaol by the aid of psycho-analysis, for mental clues to the causes that lead to crime (states an English exchange). Sherlock Holmes sought to reconstruct the crime itself. His in-

terest ended when the delinquent was in the arms of the law. Dr. Pailthorpe seeks to reconstruct the mental processes that urge women into the abyss. Her interest is to determine how far mental disorder, environment, or inherent defects have been the compelling forces. After her Holloway investigations she is extending her studies to the women and girls in rescue homes. Application was made through the Medical Research Council to the Prison Commissioners for permission to see the cases in Holloway, writes a “Daily Chronicle” correspondent, and Dr. Pailthorpe has been spending hours with the women in the gaol who may be termed “psychopathic cases.” By gaining the confidence of these women and going thoroughly into their life his-

tory she has been building up the structure of the particular mental processes which accounted for their abnormal conduct.

In this work she has been assisted by Dr. H. Hamblin Smith, the medical officer at His Majesty's Gaol at Birmingham, who is known for his remarkable experiments in the Midland prison, where attempts have been made to cure prisoners of their criminal tendencies. Dr. Grace Pailthorpe has had an interesting career, having seen service in France and Salonika, besides holding posts in London and provincial hospitals. Abroad she was a surgeon attached to the Scottish Women’s Hospital Unit until invalided home.