Analysis Of The Theories In American Eugenics

American eugenics was created in the 1880’s by Sir Fransis Galton. Many other researchers such as Sullivan , Brabook, Tregold, and Kirby began to follow the notion of eugenics.

The Kallikak family were used to do studies on by Goddard. Each eugenicists came up with their own ideas and theories on eugenics such as being feeble minded, causes for poverty, relations to crime and being mentally ill. However, these studies are now considered to be misogynistic, racist and classist.

Galton devised a way known as composite photograph that he believed might be accustomed determine 'types' by look, that he hoped would aid diagnosing, and even sociology through the identification of typical criminal faces. His inquiries into the mind concerned elaborate recording of subjects' own explanations for whether or not and the way their minds proscribed things like imagination, that he evoked by his pioneering use of the form. Galton defined eugenics as 'Eugenics is the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race. ” (Eugenics Its Definitions, Scope, and Aims, Galton, Pg 2). He believed that he could control the quality of the human race by using selective breeding. His theory was extremely racist since he believed there was a “superior race” that had better qualities. He also completely mistreated those who were “mentally defective” by being vocal about his superiority towards them.

Brabrook believed that the cause of poverty was due to eugenics and the conditions that a child would be living in. If a child would be living in a dirty or unsanitary situation due to the parents income the child would most likely end up also dealing with poverty when they get older. Brabook mentions that families intentionally birth more children in order to receive more welfare, this leads to them not wanting to work. Brabrook believed the best way to make the poverty loophole subside was to detain the children until the family can sustainably provide for them. “. . . should be taken in dealing with 'ins-and-outs. ' Public assistance authorities should have the power to retain the children of such under their care, and to take proceedings to secure the detention and training of the parents in a suitable institution or colony, until they are prepared to maintain themselves and their families outside. ”(“The Report of the Poor Law Commission”,pg 3). His theory directly related to classism since Brabrook is stating that people who are in poverty don’t work hard and deserve to have their children taken away. Like Brabrook, Tredgold suggested that being feeble minded will lead to pauperism, vagrancy, inebriety, immorality, unemployment, even physical unfitness, ect. Tredgold also found that, “As an example, I may say that in Somersetshire I found that out of the total number of I67 feeble-minded women, nearly two-fifths. . . and the average number of offspring to each one of them is probably three or four, although even six is not uncommon. ”(Tredgold, pg 100) His study found that feeble-minded women give birth to feeble minded children. When having more kids there will be more government welfare and less of a need to work and become educated. His theory is very misogynistic since it follows the notion that women's only job should be to raise children. Kirby also believes that the more children a family has, the more feeble minded the children become and that the defect comes at an early age. “Persons who may be capable of earning a living under favourable circumstances, but are incapable from mental defect, existing from birth or from an early age:” (Kirby, pg 85).

Sullivan believed the link between heredity and crime cannot be compared since biologically it is almost impossible for there to be any sustainable evidence of inborn qualities affecting the criminal behaviors of an individual. “ the relation of heredity is simply through mental defect: what may be inherited is not criminality but the incapacity to acquire the elements of good or social conduct, and this incapacity does not exist as an isolated condition but is merely one side of a general debility of mind. ” (Page 116, Eugenics and Crime). Sullivan suggests that criminals act out due to their environments or influences, such as if they were drunk or if they lived in poverty. Sullivan's theory was racist since he believed other races were less likely to become criminals.

The 'disability as menace' theme reached its peak in AMerica within the early twentieth century as Dr. Henry Robert Hutchings Goddard, explored the role of the atmosphere versus the role of heredity on the lives of persons with biological process disabilities. Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard and his analysis assistant set to explore the case history of a lady they known as Deborah Kallikak. one amongst the items they claimed to own discovered was that Deborah's great grandparent was a revolutionary war soldier named Martin Kallikak. Apparently, Martin had relations with a 'feeble-minded' barmaid. Later, Martin came back to the City of Brotherly Love, wherever he married a lady of the class and raised a wholesome family. The barmaid, meanwhile, gave birth to Martin's kid and not-so-feeble-mindedly named him Martin Kallikak Jr. mistreatment this history, Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard derived the lineage of Martin Kallikak's family along with his mate, finding solely sure-fire, worthy people of traditional or higher intelligence. Of Kallikak's lineage through his offspring with the barmaid, Robert Hutchings Goddard found criminals, prostitutes, vagabonds: individuals of below traditional intelligence. Dr. Goddard's conclusion, that he revealed in a very widely-read book entitled The Kallikak Family, was that backwardness is that the root explanation for several of our social issues, which it's hereditary.