Salt Lake Telegram | 1920-10-31 | Page 32 | Do Criminals Have Intellects Superior to Normal Persons?

Do CRIMINALS Have INTELLECTS 1 SUPERIOR to Normal PERSONS makes it appear t that t A PREVALENT ALENT error A the difference between the average individual indIvidual individual indi indI- difference difference dif dif- criminal is a vidual and the tho average feren ference e unfavorable to the tho criminal In Current Opinion Prof Carl Murchison the eminent educator educator edu edu- that cator and psychologist is quoted as stating the truth Is otherwise On t the tho e basis of the facts he declares as reported in School and Society one might even be justified in assuming that the tho same characteristics making for lor worldly success in business or professional life Ute also makes maltes for success in crime It is is not lack of intelligence that makes one onea a criminal says Prof Murchison neither either is ita it ita ita a possession of intelligence that causes one to become a college student The most intelligent college man I have bave ever tested is now in a state prison serving a sentence for forgery Students have been registered during the past year having an intelligence far below the average of the five thousand criminals I have examined Too often there has been pictured for our information the poor degraded felon sullenly crouching in his iron cage grinding his ill-formed ill teeth with his deformed jaws glaring out from his set close-set eyes while his poor brain attempts in vain to perform its function within the close confines of the low receding forehead On the basis of the so-called so alpha intelligence test test test-a a scale offering a range of 0 to the the median intelligence of the white members of the recent American army including officers was 62 According to the same scale the white criminals Prof Murchison has tested also have a l. l median intelligence grade of 62 In other words If the American army was fairly representative tive of the intelligence of the American people and there is no reason to suppose otherwise the inmates of our penitentiaries are arc equally representative quantitatively of that same intelli j gence Using tho the same scale or its equivalent the tha median intelligence of tho the Negroes in the Ameri Amen American can army is expressed as 23 The male Negro criminals that I have examined have a median intelligence grade of 25 That is the tho Negroes in the various prisons are a more intelligent intelligent intelli intelli- gent group than the Negroes NegroS outside the prisons Prof Murchison says that it has been found that the women attending two colleges measure measure about six points lower on the average than col col- college legs leg men do That should hold true for white women in general he says In other outer words the white women of the country should have a si median intelligence of approximately 56 The white women that I examined in the Marys Marys- villa villo prison had a median intelligence grade of So 35 or 21 points below the tho average for women If If the same difference in males and females holds in the case of Negroes we should expect Negro women to have haTe a median intelligence grade of about 20 The 40 Negro women that I exam examined ined fined in tho the Marysville prison had a median Intelligence intel inte intelligence grade of 30 or err 10 points above the average average aver aver- 1 age for Negro women in general Many other facts of this kind could be cited in support of the view that whatever the Difference Differ Differ- difference difference differ differ- ence between the honest man and the criminal it is a n difference reflecting credit upon the intellect intellect intel intel- lect lest of the male criminal speaking generally The explanation is 3 simple enough if we wo look atthe at atthe t the individual rather than at the masses of me men men men-i If a man of excellent ability is working as a day laborer it matters not if he is earning his living and supporting his family he will wm be restless unhappy and an easy prey for the agents of dis dis- j dis-j The happy and contented man is he be whose behavior is calling into play all the j of his intelligence