The Morbid Psychology of Criminals

Abstract

The inner world of prison life is one of the best fields for the study of psychological questions, speculative as well as practical If the circumstances are somewhat exceptional, they have the special advantage of being uniform in their application; and this uniformity represents a standard to which individual minds, or particular groups of mind, bear a relation, and at which they may be tested. Imprisonment is the very antithesis of social usage, an involuntary servitude taking the place of the liberty of the subject, and it is surely a matter of no little interest to watch how social beings, varying in moral and intellectual status, bear themselves under confinement and a complete change in their circumstances and surroundings.