Richard L. Dugdale's 1877 work, The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism, Disease and Heredity, studied a family whose numbers included a large proportion of criminals, in an attempt (purportedly) to discover if criminality was inherited. The author was a sociologist, and he concluded that what the "Jukes" inherited was a family environment conducive to mental illness, physical disease and social dysfunction. His conclusions were widely misinterpreted to support the "bad seed" theory.
The Kallikak Family: A Study in the Heredity of Feeble-Mindedness, published in 1912 by Henry H. Goddard, a psychologist and eugenicist, concluded that "feeble-mindedness," the then-current umbrella term for a number of varieties of mental retardation, learning disorders, and mental illnesses, was hereditary, and that "unfit" individuals should be prohibited from reproducing. Goddard eventually modified most of his conclusions and recanted his recommendations, such as compulsory sterilization of morons and confinement in what would amount to prison camps, but by then the work had been translated into German and become popular with Nazi policy makers.
The "Jukes" and the "Kallikaks" (pseudonyms for actual extended family lines) were as infamous as the Hatfields and McCoys, whose thirteen-year feud ignited the Kentucky - West Virginia border in the late nineteenth century. Recent reviews of Dugdale's and Goddard's data have uncovered a common factor apparently overlooked by the original researchers: alcohol. Alcohol also could have played a role in the Appalachian feud, since both families were moonshiners.
Statistics show that fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) run in families, but it has been shown that a woman with FAS can have normal, healthy children unless she uses alcohol during pregnancy. Alcohol addiction runs in families, but there is no general consensus on whether that is because of a genetic biochemical predisposition to alcoholism, or if the cause is environmental (learned behavior). It is probably both.
Social service agencies and government public health officials have been investing heavily in education about FASD, and for good reasons. It is the number one leading known preventable cause of birth defects in the U.S. In addition to the medical and welfare costs due to disabilities associated with full-blown fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), rates of violence and criminal behavior are much higher for those with FASD than in the general population. Some studies have revealed that as many as 60% of all adults diagnosed with FASD have been arrested.
Dysmorphologist, Dr. David W. Smith, who, along with Dr. Kenneth Lyons Jones, first identified the pattern of, "craniofacial, limb, and cardiovascular defects associated with prenatal onset growth deficiency and developmental delay," opted to name the syndrome for its cause, in the hope that this would promote prevention. That tactic has partially backfired because it has led many women to lie about their alcohol use during gestation.
Pregnant women have been arrested and jailed for prenatal child abuse in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, and other states. In most of those cases, the charges were based on the women's untreated addictions to alcohol and other drugs. This is a stupid idea.
The American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Nurse Midwives, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the March of Dimes, all agree with me that addictions and prenatal health are public health issues, and not for the criminal justice system to correct. Anyone who doesn't know that alcohol and other drugs are available
behind bars has never been incarcerated or worked in corrections. Not only does the threat of arrest deter women from getting care that they and their babies need, being jailed, while undoubtedly punitive to the mother, in no way is protective to the fetus.
To illustrate how incarceration of the mother can endanger the fetus, take the case of Kari Parsons:
She was arrested when she was seven months pregnant because a drug test mandated as part of her probation for shoplifting returned a positive result. Though standard practice is to release people arrested for probation violations on their own recognizance until their later court dates, the judge in Parsons' case sent her to jail, citing his interest in protecting the fetus's health.
Yet three weeks later, because of the judge's ostensible concern for the fetus, Parsons' son was born in conditions that put both his and his mother's health and life at risk.
Parsons gave birth to her son alone in a dirty Maryland jail cell furnished only with a toilet and a bed with no sheets. She had been in labor for several hours and had countless times pleaded for help and medical attention. The requests were denied.
The Jennifer Road Detention Center, where she was incarcerated, repeatedly ignored her cries that she was well into labor and needed to go to the hospital. Other inmates, hearing Parsons' cries, implored guards to take her to the hospital.
Instead, guards took her out of a holding area with other inmates--who had helped to time her contractions--and put her in a cell by herself. A few hours later, Parsons gave birth completely alone, without health care or support of any kind. According to press reports, although completely healthy when he was born, Parsons' son soon developed an infection due to the unsanitary conditions of his birth.
The only way to protect babies and the society at large from the effects of FASD is for all sexually active women of child bearing age to voluntarily avoid alcohol unless they are certain of the effectiveness of their contraception (and who is?). Such voluntary abstinence is not going to happen in a society where the drug is readily available everywhere, drug use is historically accepted and culturally approved, and where it is generally associated with "fun" and relaxation. Oh, I neglected to mention that this drug is highly addictive, and only a small minority of individuals are capable of just cutting out its use without help. When reaching out for help can result in arrest and imprisonment, the problem gets worse.
The problem is not going away in this generation, nor the next, probably. Maybe if we begin to replace punitive non-solutions with education and treatment, we can diminish the damage over time. It might help if we begin to respect the wisdom of our ancestors. Alcohol use and drunkenness are more strongly disapproved for women than for men, cross-culturally. The traditions of several religions proscribe alcohol for everyone or restrict women from using it.
I found an informative page about FASD at Young Adult Health.
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