xii):  "  If  a  hundred  average  schoolboys  could,
under  the  same  condition,  be  subjected  to
precisely  the  same  temptation  faced  by  the
boy  who  took  the  pocketbook  from  his  neigh-


627


CHILDREN,  CRIMINALITY   IN


CHILDREN,  CRIMINALITY   IN


bor's  kitchen,  when  he  believed  no  one  saw
his  act,  and  that  he  would  not  be  detected,
only  God  knows  how  many  out  of  the  hundred
would  not  have  acted  in  precisely  the  same
way."  These  statements  are  thought  to  be
valid,  with  regard  not  merely  to  the  acts  of
violence,  and  offenses  against  the  social  order,
committed  by  the  young,  but  also  the  phe-
nomena of  lying  and  kindred  actions.  Those
who  take  this  view  of  the  matter  overestimate
the  suggestion  of  the  environment  and  the
"weakness"  of  the  individual,  and  underesti-
mate the  possibilities  of  the  early  appear-
ance of  at  least  the  elements  of  temperament
and  character  which  are  often  noticeably  pres-
ent among  primitive  peoples.  All  the  inves-
tigations of  "  children's  lies  "  and  the  facts
adduced  by  the  rapidly  increasing  literature
concerning  the  nature  of  the  testimony  of
children  (the  Aussage  data  of  Meumann,
Stern,  etc.),  while  serving  to  bring  out  many
interesting  classifications  of  children's  lies  and
much  new  material  concerning  the  behavior
of  children,  while  under  adult  influence  and
suggestion,  have  not  accounted  for  the  re-
markable fact,  admitted  by  the  best  students
of  the  child,  that  up  to  the  age  of  5  there  is
practically  an  entire  absence  of  deliberate
lying,  —  the  period  of  lying  proper  beginning
not  before  this.  The  advocates  of  "  recapitu-
lation "  might  score  a  point  here  by  calling
attention  to  the  notable  truthfulness  of  cer-
tain primitive  peoples,  such,  e.g.,  as  the  un-
spoiled Veddas  of  Ceylon,  etc.  Those  who
have  resorted  to  "  imagination"  as  the  source
of  children's  lying,  while  successful  in  certain
directions,  have  rather  overdone  the  matter,
as  so  many  cases  of  an  early  perception  of  the
difference  between  "  the  real  real  "  and  "  the
make-believe  real,"  on  the  part  of  quite  young
children,  seem  to  indicate.  The  utterly  false  is
also  often  very  early  distinguished.
