Reprint From The Training School
Vol. IX, No. 3 May, 1912. Whole Number 95
Delinquent Girls Tested by the Binet Scale
Louise Morrow, M. D. and Olga Bridgman, M. D.
There is current a popular idea that the cause of delinquency in girls is largely environmental; that every human "soul" is capable of redemption, and that, given a girl who has been a moral delinquent, or who has perhaps even been a prostitute, it will be possible to make out of her a normal woman, if only the proper methods of teaching and training are made use of. A very short period of time spent with these girls is sufficient to demonstrate that environment alone is not enough to have been responsible for their transgressions of the laws of society.
The State Training School for Girls in Geneva, Illinois, is the only institution for delinquent and dependent girls supported by the State of Illinois, and has on the average five hundred inmates, ranging in age from ten to twenty-one years. Girls are committed by the several county courts and a few are sent by the Federal Government. The offenses are varied, but the charge of immorality is by far the most important one. Of the last five hundred admissions, three hundred and seventy-one or more than 74 per cent, were committed for this reason alone, while out of those committed ostensibly on other grounds, many had also lived immoral lives. The following table will show the different offenses and the number of girls committed for each.
Immorality&371&74.2%
Incorrigibility&50&10%
Dependency&46&9.2%
Larceny&25&5%
Truancy&4&0.8%
Drunkenness&3&0.6%
Sending obscene matter through the mail&1&0.2%
Total&500&100.0%