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This is a statistical paper dealing with the types of women prisoners admitted to the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital during 1940, comparing them with admissions during 1939, with other reports from both here and abroad, and with studies of male prisoners.
Two hundred forty-five women prisoners were studied with regard to hereditary and environmental factors, as well as the types of crime committed. As found by others, the majority were native-born, poorly educated and vocationally untrained. A disproportionate number were Catholic. Forty per cent were psychotic and the importance of hospitalizing psychotic patients is indicated by the finding that four out of five homicide cases were in this group. Of the two hundred forty-five cases, ten per cent were mentally defective, five per cent psychoneurotic, and eighteen per cent were diagnosed psychopathic personality. The low incidence of venereal disease (15.5 per cent) seems to indicate that we are getting results from our new drug treatment of gonorrhoea and our more open talk of venereal disease and its treatment.
The paper confirms the finding of others that when women commit serious crimes these are directed more against persons than against property.