[Review of the book The Mentality of the Criminal Woman

Abstract

Reviews the book, The Mentality of the Criminal Woman by Jean Weidensall (1916). The text's subtitle "A Comparative Study of the Criminal Woman, the Working Girl, and the Efficient Working Woman in a Series of Mental and Physical Tests" indicates the general scope of the work which was conducted by the Department of Psychology in the Laboratory of Social Hygiene at Bedford Hills, New York Reformatory. The results of testing include the physical tests of standing and sitting height, weight, strength of grip for each hand with the Smedley dynamometer, steadiness of hand, and rapidity of the tapping movement during 30 and 60 seconds, as an index of fatiguability. The results from several mental tests are also included. The text also details general methods and provides descriptions of the various tests and materials used in the experiments. The reviewer notes that overall, there is great value to the work of the Bedford Laboratory in this text. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)