Psychology and crime / by Thomas Holmes.

  • Holmes, Thomas, 1846-1918.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Psychology and crime / by Thomas Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    discipline. They demand pity instead of punish¬ ment, the doctor and the nurse instead of the governor and the warder; medicine and fresh air instead of cellular confinement. Most of them are poor, helpless creatures, weak of mind and weak of body ; quite incapable of looking after themselves, still more incapable of caring for and training children. I have seen the dirt and misery of many women, and the hopeless¬ ness of their lives long before they were committed to prison. I have helped to renew their homes, and have clothed the children while the feeble¬ minded mothers were in prison. But when those mothers came back, bringing their helplessness and irresponsibility with them, I have had the mortification of witnessing those homes and chil¬ dren sink back again to the old conditions. For neither warning nor imprisonment has the least effect upon such poor creatures. But there is another class of women who are charged with this offence: women that seem possessed with an incarnate spirit of cruelty ; who perpetrate fiendish cruelties upon children, or upon unfortunate little serving-maids ; cruelties that are certain to be discovered and punished; cruelties that can neither bring pleasure nor profit if they remain undiscovered. These cruelties are not the result of impulsive passion, for they are long per¬ sisted in. They form, it would appear, part and parcel of their ordinary life. I want to say a word for these women ! Does anv one in their heart of hearts doubt the madness