New Methods Necessary.
In spite of all that has been recently said and written about crime and the criminal, certain problems remain unsolved. (writes Captain Frederick Graves,L.R.C.S., a former prison surgeon and Senior medical officer in army punishment barracks, in the London "Daily Mail").
To begin with, what constitutes a criminal? Is a man born one? Is crime preventable and the criminal curable? Are we still pushing into prison unfortunate delinquents who should never go there— to be transformed into habitual criminals? If there any different between defect and deliberate wickedness? Until we treat the roots of crime we shall always grow the fungus. Putting a man in gaol does not relieve us of crime or cure him of evil. The psychologist and the alienist must have a hand in the job of prevention and reformation.
The prison system is by no means perfect, and some of the well-meant efforts at reform are probably worse than useless. The young and the first offender should be spared at all costs from prison taint; but if a man deserves prison that treatment should be punitive and sharp. The short sentence is futile. Prison experience should be dreaded as a deterrent. All authorities are agreed that coddling the prisoner, so largely practiced of late in America, in bad. It is no use doing and half undoing a thing, and to lighten penal servitude with concerts, films, and lectures is probably a great mistake.
Shall we ever eliminate the criminal? Perhaps not, since crime is not so much an offence against society—the old view— as against sanity and normality. We know that many factors enter in— heredity, mental defect, environment. The child of the slums, with bad food, bad air, bad example, and the rest of it, has too often little chance of escaping the prison gates with its poor deformed body and brain. Is it a wonder it so often goes under and that once it fails it falls again?
Defects of Mind.
And prison blunts the inmates' feelings. '"Prison creates a criminal" as an authority has said. "Before he goes to gaol a man dreads it, both for the life be may live there and for the social stigma it confers; but this deterrent effect disappears with familiarity, and nothing be comes easier than to return to prison. Out of 37,000 persons in prison last year 24,000 had been there before, and of 8,000 women 7,000 had been previously convicted."
But much has been done. The criminal has not increased in proportion, to the population. There are 91 fewer prisons in England than 50 years ago, when the population was half what it is now. Another interesting point: crime to-day is not gene rally due to the great unemployment. In proportion to population there was practically four times as much crime half a century ago with scarcely any unemployment as there is now with over 1,000,000 men and women out of work!
Much crime is rather the result of defect than of deliberate evil. When there is crime there is abnormality; the mind is warped. No criminal cam be truly sane, and whether maniac, a victim of dementia precox or mere crank, the hide-bound law that takes no account of cause is blithely adding to the problem.
Some interesting things have recently mine to light. One striking fact is that it is, as a rule, the young man who falls. Of 47,000 men convicted in 1923 nearly 11,000 were between 20 and 30. Ten years later seems to be the danger period for women.
But much has been done. The criminal has not increased in proportion, to the population. There are 91 fewer prisons in England than 50 years ago, when the population was half what it is now. Another interesting point: crime to-day is not gene rally due to the great unemployment. In proportion to population there was practically four times as much crime half a century ago with scarcely any unemployment as there is now with over 1,000,000 men and women out of work!
Much crime is rather the result of defect than of deliberate evil. When there is crime there is abnormality; the mind is warped. No criminal cam be truly sane, and whether maniac, a victim of dementia precox or mere crank, the hide-bound law that takes no account of cause is blithely adding to the problem.
Some interesting things have recently mine to light. One striking fact is that it is, as a rule, the young man who falls. Of 47,000 men convicted in 1923 nearly 11,000 were between 20 and 30. Ten years later seems to be the danger period for women.
Tainted Blood.
Dr. Woods Hutchinson, the great American alienist, tells us some strange things. Take one of his examples:— There were two well-known branches of a family. A young man ran wild and lived for a time with a feeble-minded girl. He went to the war of 1778, returned, and married a decent girl of good family. On delving into the pedigrees it was found that all the members of the family could be traced back to one or other of the two far-back female ancestors. From the first girl sprang a progeny of 150 lunatics, drunkards, thieves, paupers, and prostitutes. From the other side 130 decent citizens.
Again, consider the famous Jukes case, with its 700 delinquents' and prostitutes, three bad murderers, and innumerable minor offenders. "Feeble-mindedness," we are told, "probably accounts for 30 per cent, of crimes and 9 per cent, of pauperism and prostitution."
Perhaps too many cases have been classed as dementia. Jacoby of Detroit, regards criminals as 10 to 15 per cent. insane, 30 to 40 per cent. feeble-minded, and 30 per cent, "cranks" or "misfits"— which means that about 60 to 70 per cent. are mentally defective and unbalanced. Judge Olsen's famous "laboratory" at Chicago detects 1,500 criminal "apprentices" a year and puts them to educative or reparative institutions. As has been well said, the secret of the crime problem lies in the mind of the criminal. When grave mental defect producing anti-social conduct is discovered the rational remedy is segregation, with the sexes separated, or sterilisation. Little can be done with the confirmed sinner. One may, to some extent, improve or reform him: but the great thing is to prevent his evolution.
The Advertiser 5 March 1926,
Again, consider the famous Jukes case, with its 700 delinquents' and prostitutes, three bad murderers, and innumerable minor offenders. "Feeble-mindedness," we are told, "probably accounts for 30 per cent, of crimes and 9 per cent, of pauperism and prostitution."
Perhaps too many cases have been classed as dementia. Jacoby of Detroit, regards criminals as 10 to 15 per cent. insane, 30 to 40 per cent. feeble-minded, and 30 per cent, "cranks" or "misfits"— which means that about 60 to 70 per cent. are mentally defective and unbalanced. Judge Olsen's famous "laboratory" at Chicago detects 1,500 criminal "apprentices" a year and puts them to educative or reparative institutions. As has been well said, the secret of the crime problem lies in the mind of the criminal. When grave mental defect producing anti-social conduct is discovered the rational remedy is segregation, with the sexes separated, or sterilisation. Little can be done with the confirmed sinner. One may, to some extent, improve or reform him: but the great thing is to prevent his evolution.
The Advertiser 5 March 1926,
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