And when these same children grew up and took college entrance
examinations, or examinations for military service at age l8 (for children
born in 1945 this occurred in 1963), their IQ scores were found to be lower,
and these scores have been declining steadily ever since. The scores on tests
taken by high-school seniors to enter college were, in the early 1960s: 466
for verbal skills and 492 for mathematical. Today they are 424 for verbal
skills and 476 for mathematics; the American IQ is lower now than it was in
the early 1940s, and it may be even worse than the statistics indicate, since
there is some evidence that the tests have been made easier than they used to
be.
As this same generation went on into early adulthood, it created and has
maintained the present historically high incidence of violent crime. Violent
crime (murder, rape, aggravated assault) started to rise in the early 1960s
and is still on the rise today.
A large body of research has been done on the neurologic status of
persons involved in violent crime. They are seen to have a very high incidence
of typical post-encephalitic conditions: low IQ, hyperactivity, allergies,
mental retardation, and seizure disorders.
When I read newspaper accounts of the typical kinds of crimes being
committed these days, I often see indications that the criminals suffer from
the post-encephalitic syndrome, because there is often evidence of a central
nervous system dysfunction and the associated disorders described in my
twobooks.
The following are some cases taken at random from the American press.
The notorious Ted Bundy, who was executed in Florida for the murders of
between 50 and 80 young women, suffered from: diagnosed central nervous system dysfunction, low self-esteem, fascination with violence at an early age, and a tendency to outbursts of rage. Furthermore, he gave no hint of remorse for his actions. In a lengthy series of interviews he described the killings as the result of an urge which overcame him at periodic intervals and which was
uncontrollable. He characterized himself as virtually schizophrenic: with a
rational side of his character continually struggling against the dark and
irrational urge to kill.
A California adolescent made history when his adoptive parents
abandoned him and revoked the adoption because of his violence and threats
against them. His medical history included: blank staring as a baby, severe
withdrawal, fearfulness, anxiety, depression, tendency to pyromania,
fascination with urine and feces, cruelty to animals, learning disabilities,
premature sexuality, episodes of rage, self-mutilation, and suicide attempts.
Robert Dale Angell, a 19-year old white adolescent from an upper middle
class family in Maryland, robbed a bank and then killed three persons (two of
them policemen). His father described him as "a misfit, a deeply depressed,
uncommunicative, learning-disabled teenager who dropped out of the tenth
grade." In court he shocked the presiding judge by his lack of remorse over
the three killings.
Joel Steinberg, the New York lawyer who beat his adopted daughter to
death and regularly beat his wife, had a continuous facial tic, which was
readily observed during his trial. Like Bundy, he described himself as a split
personality. According to his wife, when she asked him why he did these
things, "He said he hated himself for doing it. He said it wasn't him who was
going it. He felt it wasn't within his character." She also said that he was
obsessedwith the fear that she and their daughter were staring at him and
"trying to put him in a trance."