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Charges.—Individuals charged with every type of offense from disorderly
conduct and vagrancy to incest and murder, have been referred to us for ex-
amination. Of the cases referred the largest number were those indicted on
sex crimes (32 per cent), including rape (10 per cent of the total number
referred), crime vs. children (14 per cent of the total number referred),
crime vs. nature, incest, indecent liberties, and contributing to the delin-
quency of minors. The next largest group were those charged with robbery,
(17 per cent), 15 per cent of the cases referred were charged with murder,
13 per cent with burglary, 9 per cent with larceny and 4 per cent with
“white collar crimes’, such as embezzlement, forgery and confidence game.
Among the offenders referred for examination were individuals serving sen-
tence at the County Jail for violation of the Municipal Code on such charges
as disorderly conduct, soliciting, vagrancy and non-support. In five in-
stances individuals held in the County Jail for safekeeping while awaiting
transportation to Federal prison or other institutions were referred for
examination. .

Stage of Referral—Though it was intended that examinations by the
Behavior Clinic be made after an individual was convicted of a crime, but
not yet sentenced, the majority of the cases (80 per cent) have been re-
ferred after indictment, but before conviction; 12 per cent were referred
after arrest and before indictment; 3 per cent referred were already serving
sentence in the County Jail. The remainder were in the County Jail either
on habeas corpus writs, for safekeeping for parole officers, or were prose-
cuting witnesses.

Additional Services—The Behavior Clinic performs many services to
the Court incidental to its work proper. Sometimes emergency physical ex-
aminations have to be made and patients treated. On a few occasions the
psychiatrist has had to make home or hospital visits to determine the fitness
of an individual to appear in court. Occasionally the psychiatrist is called
into court to answer questions involving psychological phenomena.

(1) Expert Testimony.—The psychiatrist is called into court to testify
regarding a patient’s mental condition in cases where a diagnosis of a
psychosis (insanity) or feeblemindedness has been made warranting com-
mitment to a State hospital. Thus the Court is saved the expense of paying
outside psychiatrists for their testimony, and even more important, elimin-
ates the so-called “battle of alienists”, for the findings of the Clinic are, in
nearly every case, accepted by the State and the Defense as impartial un-
biased conclusions.

In many instances where a patient is found to be suffering from a
mental disease he is committed at once to a State hospital upon testimony
of the Clinic psychiatrist. Thus, not only are matters expedited, but the
County is saved the expense of a trial, the impaneling of a criminal jury,
the time of the judge, the prosecution and the defense. And the patient is
spared the ordeal of a trial until his sanity is recovered.

The psychiatrist has on several occasions been called by the State’s At-
torney’s office to examine a suspect in a murder case at the time of the in-
quest, especially where it is anticipated that insanity will be used as-a
defense. (In the recent Wynekoop case Dr. Hoffman, besides making
psychiatric examinations of the chief suspects, Dr. Alice Wynekoop and her
son, was present during every interview with all the suspects in the case.
During the initial investigation in the State’s Attorney’s office the psychiatrist
was called in to make a psychiatric examination of the Touhy gangsters
suspected in a pending kidnapping case).

(2) Education.—Frequent informal conferences are held between the
psychiatrist and judge or attorney concerning medico-legal problems. It is
very encouraging to note the growing interest among the practitioners of