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Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Venereal Disease Linked to Crime, Aug. 20, 1919

From The University of North Carolina News Letter, Chapel Hill, N.C., Aug. 20, 1919. The term social diseases meant venereal diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea.

Disease and Crime

Chattanooga, Tenn., is one of the first American cities to officially recognize certain social diseases as a prime factor in crime, and as a result every person arrested on a charge which might warrant the assumption is examined by an official of the United States Public Health Service before going to trial.
If the prisoner is found to be infected with certain diseases, the trial court judge is acquainted with the fact, and in passing judgment directs the person to be treated while in jail, or paroles him for treatment at one of the free clinics.

Ninety percent of the prisoners examined were found to be suffering with social diseases.

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