Theories on Criminality and Mental Retardation Project CAMIO, Volume 2.

This historical review of theories on criminality and mental retardation is part of Project CAMIO (Correctional Administration and the Mentally Incompetent Offender), a Texas study to determine the incidence of criminal incarceration of the mentally retarded (MR) and to identify laws, procedures, and practices which affect the prosecution and imprisonment of the MR offender. The review indicates that prior to the 19th century there was little effort to discriminate between the MR individual and the criminal offender, that early studies suggesting that MR predisposes a person to criminal acts have been replaced by evidence that the high percentage of MR individuals in the criminal justice system is due to administrative and legal factors, that advances in testing techniques and causal theories have led to correctional programs concerned with multivariate causes, that current correctional treatment sees the offender as a unique individual, that prejudicial attitudes toward the MR still exist within the criminal justice system, but that a growing philosophy concerning the right to treatment should facilitate the handling of the MR offender. The discussion examines MR from ancient times to the present and then reviews the relationship between MR and crime in terms of legalities, theories of MR and crime (such as religious, genetic, or environmental), and treatment of the defective offender. (DB)