Criminal Sociology

, and frequently even impossible; observation in this domain brings the greatest aid to scient

e recourse to criminal statistics for the study of the social aspect. Statistical information in the words of Krohne, ``is the firs

en offences and the conditions of social life, in some of its aspects

ve organism, the factors of crime as a

social phenomenon. And that not only for scientific inductions, but also for practical and legislative purposes; for

erations, that the statistics of crime must be considered in regard to the growth and activity of the population, has op

ural orders the whole series of causes leading to crime, which had

lation:-temperament, health, strength, physical imperfections, culture, intellectual faculties, strength of mind, dispositions, ideas of honour and religion, fe

:-race civilisation, poverty, heredity, age sex, civil status, profession, education, organic anomalies, sensations imitation. Morselli, treating of suicide, has giv

e of a man's physio-psychical organism, and of the physical and social atmosphere which surrounds him, I have drawn

first condition of crime; and they may be divided into three sub-classes

brain, the vital organs, the sensibility, and the reflex activity, and all the bo

es of intelligence and feeling, especially of the moral s

age, sex; bio-social conditions, such as civil status, profession, domicile, social rank, instructio

oil, the relative length of day and night, the seasons, the av

nomic and political conditions; public administration, justice and police; and in general, legislative, civil and penal institutions.

We have here a host of latent causes

en accepted by almost all criminal anthropologists and sociologists, see

ssary to make two final observations as to the practical results which may be

st lay stress on this positive deduction, that we cannot find an adequate reason either for a single crime or for the aggregate criminality of a nation if we do not take

ses. Since the former of these explanations has no scientific value, it is impossible to give a scientific explanation of a crime (or indeed of any

other acti

has always from the beginning maintained that crime is the effect of anthropological, physical, and social conditions, which evolve it by their simultaneous and inseparable operation

the relative value of these three classes of

lly stated inaccurately, and also that it c

on of which the organic and psychical anomalies of the criminal have had no part, ignore more or less consciously the universal correlation of natural forces, and f

of its lungs, or its heart, or its stomach, or of vegetable constituents, or of the atmosphere;

ent. do not commit crimes, and, of the other forty, five prefer suicide, five go mad, five simply become beggars or tramps not dangerous to society, whilst the remaining twenty-five actually commit crimes? And amongst the latter, whils

our great towns, or amongst those who are surrounded by the temptations of money or power, or the like, are clearly not enough in themselves to

which of the three kinds of natural causes of crime has a

greater or less influence

lative influence of the anthropological, physical, and social conditions varies

purity, it is evident that each class of determining causes, but especially the biological and social conditions, have a d

ssion of theft, is far inferior in the genesis of homicides and indecent assaults. And similarly, in each catego

a much higher degree than homicides which for the most part spring from brutality, from the moral insensibili

with a promiscuity of sex between parents and children such as obtains amongst the brutes, effaces or deadens all normal sense of modesty. On the other hand, there are cases of rape and

ebler in comparison with impulses due to the personal constitution, organic and psychical, as, for instance, in the case of thefts with

statistics, in years when the cold is greatest) is only an indirect result, through the social and economic influences of temperature, the increase of crimes of passion and indecent assaults dur

raised against the conclusions which

xtending from slightly manifested anomalies of an anthropological character to the most accentuated pathological condition, this does not exclude the possibility of a crime being due to social c

e taken in a relative sense, but groun

hat if wretchedness, material and moral, is a cause of degeneration, degeneration itself, like biological anomaly, is a cause of wretchedness. And in this sens

onomic conditions (of rural and industrial pursuits, and the like), I was able to make a very simple reply. For, apart even from statistical proofs, if the

social conditions of such and such a province, which have an unquestionable influence, are really the absolute and e

eanwhile assert themselves amongst the biological factors of crime, there is a very great number of these cases in which it cannot

s who differ intellectually from the cradle; we also find in the degree or in the kind of their talent, the same individuals also differ from their cradle in physical and moral constitution. An

a greater or a less influence in proportion as the physical and psychica

most certain and profitable mode of defence which society can employ against criminality is of a twofold character, and both modes ought to be employed and brought into action simultaneously-in the first place, the amelioration of the social conditions, as a natural preventive

ularity which Quetelet claimed with much exaggeration, the proportional figures in regard to the bearings of age, sex, calling, &c., upon criminality exhibit very insignificant variations from year to year. And as for the physical factors, if marked variations are explicable at some given period, it is nevertheless evident that n

participation of women in non-domestic, commercial and industrial life, preventive and repressive measures, and the like. And again, since the social factors have special import in occasional crime, and crime by acquired habit, and since these are the most numerous sections of crime as a whole, it is clear that the periodic movement of crime must be attributed in the main to the social factors. So true is this,

of the problem of criminality, by showing

legislators, outside the limits of their punitive remedies, as eas

ake a closer view of the general statistics of the movement of cr

iodic movement of crime, these data, which do not render it easy to compare one country with another, though they are intim

France, England, and Belgium. This proceeds mainly from the progressive accumulation of offences against special enactments, which are constantly being added to the original basis of the penal code; but it is also a symptom of an actual transformation in t

r of increase, as in England, and still more in Germany. But this phenomenon in the case of crimes against the person is in actual correspondence with criminal activity arising from an increase of population. On the other hand-apart from the transformation of crime

in the annual increase of theft, such as scarcity and extremes of weather, cause a corresponding diminution of violent assaults and bodily harm, of homicides and indecent assaults, and vice vers. On the other hand, offences against property, which are very numerous, contribute most of all to the total of annual crime; so that the maximum of 1880 in Italy, as

is nevertheless far more towards increase than towards decrease. This is also shown by the proportion

amental conditions of each nation, physical and social, apart from the purely artificial section of transgressions brought into existence by new laws. The special oscillations, on the other hand, are determined by the an

and offences amounts to a proof of that breakdown of penal systems, practical and theoretical, which have hitherto been applied-as was admitted by Holtzendorff. And on the other hand, the increase of crimes is denied or affirmed for the purpose of supporting or attacking some particular ministry. For, in parliaments more than elsewhere,

c publications, at the sittings of the Central Commission of Judicial Statist

positive school, such as Ferri, Garofalo, Pavia, Pugliese, Guidi, Bournet, Barzilai, and Rossi, who produced evidence that the general tendency of cri

aken up in the exigency of polemical discussion. They compared, in fact, the years just concluded, 1881-5, with 1880, and thus it naturally followed that after a maximum they had a relative decrease. And it was only this ingenious comparison which gave an appearance of actual proof to their optimistic assertions; for when a fever is at forty degrees, the fall of even half a degree is very important. They paid special attention to the so-called high crimina

e, we often find that the keepers of the seals, reporting on volumes of the excellent and valuable series of criminal statistics since the year 1826, occasionally remar

creased or decreased. Dufau, Branger, Berrzat de St. Prix, and Legoyt affirmed that it had diminished since 1826, against the true opinion of de Metz, Dupin, Chassan, Mesuar

l optimism and national self-complacency spoke of as pessimism on our part was but a conscientious inference from lamentab

ffences in each division of the country; for not all crimes, nor all districts, pursue the same course from year to year.

AN

8. 18

entions ... ..

.. ... ... ...

e person ... ...

y ... ...

6

LG

2. 18

Correctiona

t the person soO

rty ...

2. 18

bunals for ``Off

mes against the perso

roperty

GL

9. 18

or offences ... Io

7. 18

, against the

perty, and for

f false money

EL

6. 18

ily ... ...

person ... .. Ioo

and false m

US

6. 13

`vols de bois'' -. I

offences ..

RM

4. 18

ces against publ

rson 100 116

roperty

ST

9. 18

d for crimes -. 10

fences .

AI

4. 18

and offences - 10

ntions ....

side by side with constancy or

slight diminution in crimes against the person, and a large diminution in crime agai

er, we must distinguish betwee

s of 1838 and 1848, and in England by the Acts of 1856 and 1878-an election of the slighter but more certain punishment of the magistrates in preference to going before a jury. Indeed, crimes against the person, in which there is less power of e

drunkenness, and of 1874 on requisition of horses. I dealt with the statistical results of these laws, and with the influence of the increasing number of police

agents, in my ``Studies on Criminality in France'' (Rome, 1881); and I will here add only a single observation. If it is true, as M. Joly says, that other laws, passed since 1826, have extinguished a few offences, or at least have diminishe

t offences we have a real and very noteworthy increase, apa

nces tried summarily is due in part to new infractions, created by special legislation, and especially by the Education Ac

entions of the Italian, French, Belgian and Austrian codes) it is to be observed that the increase of 76 per cent. in thirty years is due rather to c

ness account for most of this increase (from 82,196 in 1861 to 183,221 in 1885 and 165,139 in 1886). On the other hand, offences

e the variations in a

d, we have the fo

GL

3. 18

mmarily for assaul

ling, larceny,

.. ... ... ...

AN

ed by the

ounding ... ... .

... ... ... ... .

gainst the person in England (coinciding, of course, with the doubling of the population in fifty-five years), this fact seems to me to prove the salutary influence of English organisations against certain social factors which lead up to delinquency (such as the care of

foundli

of law. And the most general and constant of these causes, in all the various physical and social environments, is the annual increase of population, which, by adding to the d

the periods corresponding to the variations of criminality, the following rates of increase

rea

n 1863-30,947,306

n 1873-30,565,1

n 1826-38,218,903 i

9 in 1840- 5,583

4 in 1852-26,614,

00 in 1882-47,54

7 in 1831-27,870,

n 1861-27,870,5

1 in 1869-23,070,

in 1861- 4,777,545

tance by M. Bodio, who said that in Italy, from 1873 to 1883, ``since the population had increased by 7.5 per cent., crime might have increased during the same time by 7.5 per cent., without its being fair to say that it had actually increased.'' In point of fact, as M. Rossi remarked, since in Italy, and almost all the European States, the growth of the population is due to the excess of births over deaths (

ium; the rapid oscillations of crime in Ireland, indicating the unstable political and social conditions of the country; and the parallel movements of crime in, France and Prussia. We see, indeed, a constant diminution of crime for the period between 1860 an

se in the number of the police, the abundance or scarcity of corn and wine, the spread of drunkenness, family circumstances, increase of personal possessions, the facility or otherwise of the settlement of disputes, commercial and industrial crises, the rate of wages, the variation

76>

t is evident that the level of criminality in any one year is determined by the different conditions of the physical and social environment, combined with the heredita

of any chemical substance, not an atom more or less, so in a given social environment, in certain

he number of crimes against the person varies but little in sixty-two years. The same thing holds good for England and Belgium, because their special environment is also less variable,

by reason that hereditary dispositions and human passions cannot vary profoundly or frequently, except under the influence of exceptional disturbances of the weather, or of social conditions. In fact, the more serious variations in respect of crimes against the person in France have taken place either during political revolutions, or in years of excessive heat, or

lmost always in a condition of unstable equilibrium, as in periods of scarcity, and of commercial, financial and industrial crises, and so forth, whilst they are subject also to

the annual movement of criminality in France, and perceived some extraordinary oscillation in the crimes and offences, I foresaw that in the annals of the year I should find mention of an agricultural or political crisis, or an exceptional winter or summer in the records

rature of the liquid envelopes an exceptional super-saturation, so in criminal sociology, in addition to the ordinary satura

upon the guardians of public order, together with false witness, insults, avoidance of supervision, absconding, and the like. Certain crimes and offences also have their complementary offences, which from being consequences become in th

ine of 1847, theft of grain rises in France to forty-two in a single year, whilst for half a century it barely reaches a total of seventy-five. It is notorious, again, that in years of dear provisions, or severe winters, a large number of thefts and petty offences are committed for the sole object of securing maintenance within the prison walls. And in this connection I have observed in France that other offences against property decrease during a famine, by an ana

fashion, only the crimes of theft and breach of confidence by household servants showed a characteristic decrease, because such

es). 1844. 18

operty ... 3,767

of conf

ants ... ... 1

same ... ... 1

and high prices of grain, the number of cases of escape from justice also decreases, *for ``thieves and

iminal sociology may be drawn fro

than any other''; and that it is possible to calculate beforehand how many homicides, poisoners, and forgers we shall have, because ``crimes are generated every year in the same number, with the same punishments, in the same proportions.'' And one constantly meets with this

he more serious crimes, and to a very short succession of years, has already been refuted,

times very considerable, of this same environment? That which does remain fixed is the proportion between a given environment and the number of crimes: and this is precisely t

effects by modifying the activity of these causes. And, indeed, even Quetelet himself recognised this when he said, ``If we change the social order we shall see an immediate change in the facts which have been so constantly reproduced. Statisticians

w platonic declarations, as the best remedies for crime, are less effectual than they are supposed to be. For crimes and offences increase and dimini

us various imp

. Rom.,'' lxxvi. 16) says that in the city of Rome alone, after the law of Septimus Severus, there were three thousand charges of adultery. But the stringent laws against these crimes continued to the days of Justinian, which shows that the crimes had not been checked; and, as Gibbon says (``D

y ``truces'' and ``peaces,'' notwithstanding the harsh penalties of previous centuries. And Du Boys called Cettes simple because, after giving a table of sh

ays happens. If the Reformed faith does not strike root in Italy, France, and Spain, that must be explained by psychological reasons proper to those nations, independently of the stake and of massacres, for it did not strike root even when religious belief was liberated from its fetters. This does not pre

magic and witchcraft, though they had withstood the mos

h in those times had an extraordinary development. And the habit of blasphemy diminished under the psychological and social evolution of our own days, precisely when it ceased to be punished. Or, rather, it continued to this day, as in Tuscany, where the Tuscan penal code (Art. 136), which survived until Dece

and resistance to authority than in Ireland and on the Continent, this must be due in great measure to nat

different spheres; but when statistics support the teaching of history, no doubt can remain as to

y referring to the progress of repression in France, over a period of

de, modified punishments to some extent, but with the definite purpose and result, as shown by the same official records of criminal statistics, of strengthening the repressive power of the law by providing for the application of less aggravated punishments. The repugnance of juries and judges against excessive punishments, and their preference for acquittal, is, indeed, a psychological law. Moreover, it is well known that if there is in Europe a penal code less mild than any of the rest, it is tha

ime. Laws, in fact, have no real operation if they are not applied more or less rigorously; for in the social strata which contribute most to criminality the laws are known on

might well do. The dangerous classes attend to the sentences of the judges, and still more to the execution of those sentences, than to the articles of a code. In this connection I cannot agree with the forecast of Garofalo as to the perilous effect of the abolition of capital puni

greater or less severity of judic

itted to the total number of

unishments to the total number

iciency or insufficiency of the evidence. But, as a matter of fact, the proportional increase of convictions does partly represent greater severity on the part of the judges, and still more of the juries, who disp

it is to the credit of criminal theorists of the classical school that they have steadily maintained that a mild yet certain punishment is more effectual than one which, being severe in itself, holds out a stronger hope of escaping it. Nev

ast quadrennial period. This may of course indicate a more careful management of the trials by the judges; but it certainly s

22 ... ... 23 1841-5 ... ... 32 ... ... 18 ... ... 19 1846-50 ... ... 36 ... ... 16 ... ... 17 1851-5 ... ... 28 ... ... 12 ... ... 13 1856-60 ... ... 24 ... ... 10 ... ... 7 1861-5

5 ... ... ... 34 1863-7 ... ... ... 24 ... ... ... 31 1868-72 ... ... ... 26 ... ... ... 24 1873-7 ..

kening of judicial severity through the greater number of acquittals. The number has, in fact, constantly d

sentenced to death, penal servitude, and solitary imprisonment, excluding such as are sentenced to correctional punishment (simple imprisonment and fines) as well as young prisoners sent to reformatories; and in rega

at Assizes

-----------

nal servitude.

2.5 ... ... 58

1.5 ... ... 4

. .7 ... ... 3

1 ... ... 40

. 1 ... ... 39

1.1 ... ... 4

. 1 ... ... 49

.6 ... ... 48

.5 ... ... 47

.7 ... ... 49

. .7 ... ... 5

1 ... ... 49

n the other hand, we can see that, in the assize cases, excluding the first period, before the revision of 1832, whilst capital punishment shows a certain diminution (especially due to the laws of 1832, 1848, &c., which reduced the

w oscillations, as in the ninth period, t

s can only be contested on the ground of a simultaneous increase of the more serious crimes and offences. On the other hand, we note

quittals decrease (as in the 4th, 6th, 7th, and 10th periods at the Assizes, and the 2nd, 5th, and 8th periods at the Tribunals); whilst in the years of more frequent acquittals there is also a diminu

nt. in 1833 to 73 per cent. in 1806, and at the Tribunals from 54 per cent. in 1851 to 65 per cent. in 1886. Nevertheless it is a fact that the

have the foll

ts 1874 21 79 1.2 5.6 65 28 5 22 80 1.3 6.5 63 29 6 23 81 1.3 6.1 66 27 7 24 82 1.5 7.2 66 25 8 25 85 1 7.6 67 25 9 25 - 1.2 6.3 67 25 1880 26 - 1.3 5.5 68 25 1 24 8

repression, except in late years for those cond

dicial repression, in France and Italy, has grown stronger a

r of punishment, we may fairly find a positive proof that the penal, legislative, and administrative systems h

of society, so that, by the observation of psychological and sociological laws, it may tend, not to a violent an

m it by adding to the statistical data the general laws of biology and sociology. This

influence upon it. Punishment, in fact, by its special effect as a legal deterrent, acting as a psychological motive, will clearly be unable to neutralise the constant and hereditary action of clima

e by a force homogeneous with that of gravity. So punishment, as a psychological motive, can only oppose the psychological factors of crime, and indeed only the occasional and moderately

owerful remedy against all the factors of crime, is there

tinctive needs and occupations, is a product of the union of social classes which differ greatly in their organic and psychical characteristics. The physical constitution, the habits, sentiments, ideas, and tendencies of one social stratum are far from being the same as those of other strata. Here again we have, as Spencer would say, the law of evo

eir own accord, without

calling for strict discipline; that of the ignorant and idle (degenerate and of weak nervous force) from whom neither mildness nor severity can obta

These partial organisms, due to the constant relationships of a life more or less in common, are in this respect reprod

less defined groups. The phenomena of these groups are analogous, but not identical with those of the sociological body properly so called, according as the union is more or less definite. Collective psychology has its field of observation in all unions, however occasional, such as the public

sense, of religious sentiments and public opinion, together with the hereditary transmission of moral habits. This class, for which no penal code would be necessary, is unfortunately very small; and it is far smaller if, in

ute struggle for existence, inherit from their parents and transmit to their children an abnormal organisation, adding degeneration and disease, an atavistic return to savage humanity. This is the nursery of the born cr

m punishment may be genuinely useful as a psychological motive. It is just this class which yields the large contingent of occasional criminals, for whom punishments are efficacious if they are dir

this subject,

insists on the necessity of distinguishing between the dif

tham said, is confirmed by the application of each punitive act, precisely because its previous application did not succe

this tendency is so common that many of those who have dwelt upon or accepted the positive movement of the new school, not long after they had admitted that I was in the right, declared impulsively that ``the constant commission of crime arises from the lack of timely repression,'' and that ``one of the chief causes of the growth of crime in Italy is the mildness of our punishments.'' Or else they forgot to ask thems

but with the prevention of future crime. For whilst the advocates of severity, and those whom I will call the ``laxativists,'' virtually think (apart from a few platonic statements) only of punishments as remedies of offences, we on the other hand believe that punis

ly debars him from accepting this conclusion.'' As a matter of fact, punishment regarded as a psychological motive so far as it is a legal deterrent, and as a physical motive so far as it implies the confinement of the person condemned, would more naturally belong, in abstract

logic, to the biological and phys

tics of truth to repeat itself persistently, however much it may be forgotten or even opposed-we must nevertheless remark that it i

tself with the prevention of crimes, which is far more useful and efficacious. A few isolated thinkers, it is true, wrote a few bold and far-reaching pages on preventive methods in opposition to the nume

actical men, as amongst public officials and legislators, the illusion th

y than intimidation.'' The Keeper of the Seals, in his report on French penal statistics for 1876, speaking of the continued increase of indecent assaults, comes to the conclusion that ``in any case, only firm and energetic repression can avail against a lamentable increase of crimes against morality.'' And more recently another Keeper of the Seals ended his report on the statistics of 1826 to 1880 by observing that ``the gr

here are two ways of effecting useful innovations, to discover what was not known be

s well to inquire into its historic and psychological arguments; for, as Spencer says,

penal laws, and still subsists as a more or less unconscious and enfeebled residuum in modern society. We may also pass by the hereditary

, and the impression it makes upon them, with the idea and the impression of the social classes from which the majority of criminals are recruited. This has been remarked upon by Beccaria, Carmignani, and Holtzendorff amongst the classical criminalists, and by Lombroso and others of the new school who have studied the slang and literature of c

xchange bargains are scrupulously discharged, though for them there is neither penal obligation nor evidence in writing. And

I have often found, that ``if you were afraid of hurting yourself when you went to work, you would give up working.'' These indeed are what one would expect to be the feelings prevailing amongst the lower social strata, to whom h

laws is treated on the same basis as that of the ordinary codes, slow and uncertain in their procedure, which sa

an end, as, for instance, after the death of Pope Sixtus V., brigandage and other crimes were persistently renewed. But my main rejoinder is this, that these exceptional repressions depend upon the jus belli; and therefore cannot enter into the ordinary and constant methods of penal a

about to be condemned; but this in no way proves its efficacy, which should have been displayed by the menace of the law in guarding the prisoner against the crime. Even with the death penalty, there are many instances of condemned persons who, through congenital insensibility, submit to it cynically. Moreover, for such as have been overwhelmed with terror when the moment of ex

ys less stern than simple folk imagine when they read the codes and the sentences. And criminals naturally judge of punishments by their ow

d the natural tendency of criminalists to think only of their two syllogistic symbols of crime and punishment-if we further add the easy-going idea of the multitude, that the inscribing of a law in the statute-book is a sufficient remedy for social diseases,

forms of pain, is always a direct motive in human conduct, as it is also an indirect guide, by virtue of its being a sanction of justice, unconsciously strengthening respect for the law. But still this psychological truth, whilst

ocial sanction in order to see how the really great power of natural punishment almost ent

inged them, constitute a repression of the most efficacious kind, wherein every man, especially in the earlier years of his life, receives daily and never to be forgott

have

been made and repeated by the classical students of crime, that in punishment, and especially the punishment of death, the certainty is more effectual than the severity. And I will add t

ated crime: then the chance, in case of detection, that the evidence will not be strong enough, that the judges will be merciful, or will be deceived, that judgment may be averted amidst the intricacies of the trial, that clemency may eit

consequences are defied, and lose most of their power to guard an improvident man from anti-natural and dangerous actions. Now in regard to legal punishment, even apart from passionate impulse, it is known that criminals, occasional and

ny with natural tendency and environment, every process, on the other hand, which is opposed to the natural ten

d. M. Fayet, in an essay on the statistics of accused persons in France, extending over twenty years, remarked that specific and proportionately greater criminality was displayed by notaries and bailiffs, who knew better than any one else the punishments fixed by law. And in the statistics of capital punishment at Ferrara, during nine centuries, I discovered the significant fact that there is a succession of notaries executed for forgery, frequently at very short intervals, in the same town. This attests the truth of th

ild or severe, can change his natural and invincible tendencies,

st force. It is true that, as Beccaria said, the classical school has always aimed at rendering social reaction against crime less violent; but that is not enough. Henceforward, if we are to adapt ourselves to psychological and sociological laws, the development of our defensive administration must tend to render this social reactio

n schools. All the three were once dominated by the idea of taming human passions by force; the rod was supreme. In course of time it was perceived that this produced unexpected results, such as violence and hypocrisy, and then men thought fit to modify their punishments. But in our own days schoolmasters see th

ising rivalry with the atrocity of criminals, laboured in a vicious circle. Now, in the lower social grades, the brutal man, who often resort

g of their arguments have maintained, in an absolute negation, but rather and especially in objecting

because its use is rather to preclude the serious mischief which would result from impunity than to convert, as some imagine that it can, an anti-social into a social being. But impunity would lead to a demoralisation

ce on children, and is therefore more effectual than punishment, is far more serviceable in eliminating anti-social tendencies, w

d mischievous, still this does not prove conversely that punishment and educat

y the classical school, we believe, on the other hand, that their abbreviation of the term of punishments is altogether mistaken and dangerous. We admit that punishment ought not to be an arbitrary and inhuman torture, and fo

ort isolation of the prisoner. For, setting aside the well-known results of short punishments, such as corruption and recidivism, it is evident that in this way pun

I

al writers on crime and of legislators, imagine them, are very limited in their deterrent influence, it is natural that the

en, and the history of social life, that in order to lessen the danger of outbreaks of passion it is m

y paying the professors in proportion to the number of their pupils, so that the Faculties find it to their interest to engage and encourage the best professors, in order to attract as many students as possible. Thus the activity and zeal of professors, magistrates, and officials would be stimulated if their remuneration depended not only on the automatic test of seniority, but also on the progress displayed by publications, sentences not reversed, s

al activity, still it is more conducive to social order to prevent or d

order to supply the natural wants of mankind. So in the criminal sphere, as we are convinced by experience that punishments ar

social defence, for which punishments will come to be secondary means, albeit permanent. For in this connection we must not forget the law of criminal saturation, which in every social environment makes a minimum of crime inevitable, on

the social factors of crime. And they will also be

more possible and practical than that universal social metamorphosis, direct and uncompromising, insisted on by generous but impatient refo

d especially over the social factors, and thus secure an indirect but more certain influence over the development of crime. That is to say, in all legislative, political, economic, administrative, and penal arrangements, from the greatest institutions to the smallest details, the social organism will be so a

in biology and psychology as Mr. Spencer justly insisted on in his ``Introduction to Social Science.'' And it is the fundamental idea rather than the sub

hment, and such as confine themselves to the futile question whether this theory belongs to criminal science or to police administration, a majority of criminal sociologists have now definitely accepted the doctrine of penal substitutes. This t

note of a

import tariff, as M. Villerm has shown in the case of France. So that everyday facts justify the system of Adam Smith, who said that the law which punished smuggling, after creating the temptation, and which increased the punishment when it increased the temptation, was opposed to all justice; whilst Bentham, on the contrary, departing from his maxim that the punishment ought to be dreaded more strongly than the offence attracted, called for the stern repression of smuggling.-The system of taxation which touches wealth and visible resources instead of the prime necessaries of life, and which is proportional to the taxpayer's income, diminishes the systematic frauds which no punishment availed to stop, and it will also abolish the arbitrary and exaggerated fiscal traditions which have been the cause of rebellions and outrages. In fact, Frgier describes the criminal industries which are called into existence by octrois, and which will disappear with the abolition of these absurd and unjust duties. And whilst M. Allard demonstrated that a decrease of taxes on necessari

icacious than our more or less enormous gaols. The question of pronounced and chronic drunkennes

of alcohol in France rose from .93 in 1829 to 3.24 in 1872, and 3.9 in 1885, the rates in a few towns being still higher. The total manufacture of alcohol in France (95 per cent. of

which is consumed in the form of drink) rose from

between the number of homicides, assaults, and malicious wounding, and the more or less abundant vintage, especially in the years of extraordinary variations, whether of failure of the vintage (1853-

gainst the person, owing to that connection between drink and crime which had already been remarked upon by M. P

d a demoralised and brutalised class of wretched beings, characterised by an early depravation of instincts, and by indulgence in the most immoral and dangerous actions.'' It is

useless

abuse of liquor was the most active cause of crime. After him M. Fournier de Flaix, maintaining the same proposition with the same statistical arguments, and admitting that ``alcohol is a special scourge for the individual who indulges in it,'' yet concluded that ``alcoholism is not a scourge which menaces the European race.'' And he repeated that the nations which consumed the greatest quantity of alcohol show a slighter frequency of crime, esp

s brochure, I will only observe that this pro

po

as well as of wine-as to which it is not correct to say that the southern departments are not consumers of alcohol-it cannot be maintained

exceptions, due to intervening causes) would only be justified if it had been maintained that alcoholism is the sole and exclusive cause of crime. But as this has never been asserted by anybody, all the statistical arguments of Fournier and Colajanni are based on a misapprehension. And unfortunately they do not destroy the link of causality between drink and crime. This connection is occasional, in assaults,

y of economic causes it is necessary to add certain bio-psychical conditions and conditions of physical environment, which go far to determine the geographical distribution of

ased responsibility of license-holders before the law, as in America; the expulsion of tipsy members from workmen's societies; the provision of cheap and wholesome amusements; the testing of wines and spirits for adulteration; better organised and combined temperance societies; the circu

land); but with too much zeal for public revenue, and, under the pretext of public health, almost exclusively framed with a view to duties on manufacture, distribution, and consumption. Ye

eyond taxation and punishment. And we perceive, as for instance in France, in spite of the repressive law introduced by my distinguished friend Senator Roussel (January, 1873), and in spite of the ext

al or repressive law, acting solely by direct compulsion, will ever be able to paralyse these natural tendencies, which can only be weakened by indirect

measures. On the other hand, when we remember that habitual intoxication, so common in medival days amongst the nobles and townsfolk, has grown less and less fre

ic officials, and to general economic conditions, stems the tide of corruption and embezzlement, which were partly due to their concealed poverty.-Limited hours of duty for the responsible services on which the safety of the public depends, as for instance in railway stations, are far more serviceable in preventing accidents than the useless punishment of those who are guilty of manslaughter.-High-roads, railways, and tramways disperse predatory bands in rural districts, just as wide streets and large and airy dwellings, with public lighting and the destruction of slums, prevent robbery with violence, concealment of stolen goods, and indecent assaults.-Inspection of workshops and shorter hours for children's labour, with their superintendence of married women, may be a check on indecent assaults, which penal servitude does not prevent.-Cheap workmen's dwellings, and general sanitary measures for houses both in urban and rural districts, care being taken not to crowd them with poor families, tend to physical health, as well as to prevent many forms of immorality.-Co-operat

condemned persons in France, and .04 per cent. in Belgium; but they reach

than by policemen and prisons.-Electoral reform adapted to the condition of a country is the only remedy against electoral offences.-Similarly, in addition to the economic reforms already indicated, political and parliamentary reforms are much more serviceable than the penal code in preventing many offences of a social and political type, provided that a more real harmony has been established between a country and its lawful representation, and that the latter is freed from the occasions and the forms which lead to its abuse, by removing technical questions from injurious political influences, and giving the people a more direct authority over public affairs, including the referendum.-Finally, that great mass of crimes, isolated or epidemic, evolved by unsatisfied needs and the neglect of separate divisions of a country, which differ in climate, race, traditions, language, customs, and interests, would be largely eliminated if we were to dispense with the vague folly of political symmetry and bureaucratic centralisation, and in their pla

ly been suggested as a means of detection in cases of forgery, for when documents are exposed to iodine vapour, effaced or altered writing is restored.-Women doctors will diminish the opportunities of immorality.-The free expression of opinion will do more to prevent its possible dangers than trials of a more or less scandalous kind.-Piracy, which

was not extirpated by punishments which are now obsolete, is disappearing under the effects of steam navigation.-The spread of Malthusian ideas prevents abortion and infanticides.[15]-Systematic bookkeeping, by its clearness and simplicity, obviates many frauds and embezzlements, which were encouraged by the old compl

le law by virtue of which the struggle for existence, amongst individuals as amongst nations, becomes gradually less vehement and direct. War, which is an everyday matter with savages, grows constantly more rare and difficult. The varying social and international conscience of civilised humanity is not to be neglected, and it must be reckoned with as a positive factor in considering the destiny of nations. Men continue to speak of the perils of war (in which numbers stand for a great deal, but are not the exclusive element) as thou

sociologists, civil responsibility for crime ought to be

as much a social obligation as penal responsibility, and not a mere private concern.-Simplification of the law would prevent a large number of frauds, contraventions, &c., for, apart from the metaphysical and ironical assertion that ignorance of the law excuses no man, it is certain that our forest of codes, laws, decrees, regulations and so forth, leads to endless misapprehensions and mistakes, and therefore to contraventions and offences.-Commercial laws on the civil responsibility of directors, on bankruptcy proceedings and the registration of shareholders, on bankrupts' discharges, on industrial and other exchanges, would do more than penal servitude to prevent fraudulent bankruptcy.-Courts of honour, recognised and regulated by law, would obviate duels without having recourse to more or less serious punishments.-A well organised system of conveyancing checks forgery and fraud, just as registration offices have almost abolished the palming and repudiation of children, which were so common in medival times. Deputy Michelin, in order to discourage bigamy, proposed in 1886 to institute in the registers of births for every commune a special column for the civil standing of each individual, so that any one who contemplated marriage would have to produce a certific

tertainments, and to substitute for them wholesome amusements and exercises, public baths, properly superintended, and so built as to render private meetings impossible, cheap theatres, and so forth. Thus the prohibition of cruel spectacles, and the suppression of gambling houses, are excellent penal substitutes.-The experimental method in the teaching of children, which applies the laws of physio- psychology, according to the physical and moral type of each pupil, and by giving him less of archaology, and more knowledge serviceable in actual life, by the mental discipline of the natural sciences, which alone can develop in him a sense of the actual, such as our classical schools only enfeeble, would adapt men better for the struggle of existence, whilst diminishing the number of those left without occupation, who are the candidates of crime.-Many of the causes of crime would be nipped in the bud by checking degeneration through physical education of the young, as well as by prev

ing these causes, can influence the development of crime within limits imposed by the competition of other anthropological and physical factors. Quetelet was right, therefore, when he said in this connection, ``Since the crimes committed every year seem to be the necessity of our social organisation, and t

trange, that history, statistics, and direct observation of criminal phenomena prove that penal laws are the least effectual

th of the individual by the aid of experimental science, resorts as little as possible, and only in extreme cases, to the more forcible methods of surgery, has a limited confidence in the problematic efficiency of medicines, and relies rather on the trustworthy processes of hygienic science. Only then will he be able to avoid the d

social reforms

and other measures suggested by a study of the natural factors of crime are most effective in preventing crime, legislators, employing the a{sic} priori method of the classi

crime, or by a serious manifestation of some phenomenon of social pathology, then all they can do in their perplexity and astonishment is to pass s

t, even in private life, to be perpetually living up to rules of health; and it is easier, if more dangerous, to forget them, and to fly, when the mischief declares itself, to drugs which are too frequently deceptive; but it is just the want of forethought, both public and private, which it is so important to overcome. And as hygienic science was not possible as a theory or as a practice until after

the experim

elevation of the masses of men, the least measure of progress with reforms which prevent cri

ffect which these laws will have on the criminality of the nation, for it is imagined that sufficient has been done in this respect by means of reforms in the penal code.

therwise we might easily fall into the opposite and equally fallacious illusion of thinking that we could absolutely suppress all crimes and offences. For it is easy to reach on one side the empiric idea of penal terrorism, and on the other side the hasty and one-sided conclusion that to abolish some particular institution would get rid of its abuses. The fact is that we must consider before all things whether it is not a less evil to put up with institutions, however inconvenient, and to reform them, than to forfeit all the a

h the law of criminal saturation are a sufficient answer to the t

been applied, without preventing crime; and again, that there were some institutions which it would

al than all the penal codes. Murders still occur, though very rarely, on the railways; but it is none the less true that the substitution of the railways and tramways for the old diligences and stage coaches has decimated highway robberies, with or without murder. Divorce does not eliminate wife-m

lating them or that which would be due to their suppression is the greater. But my main contention is that by reforming these institutions we can do mor

nd interests which have to be overcome before we can secure the appli

cation, not of all, but of any one of the penal substitutes which I have enumerated. And some of these are not simple, or

nd difficult to reach. The first condition of attaining legislative and social reforms is that they should impress themselves beforehand on the public conscience; and this is not possible if science, in

itutes is only the familiar process of prevention of crime. The second is that the criminal expert need not concern himself wit

solated declaration, with no such systematic development as might have given them practical application, based on experimental observations. Moreover, this prevention has always been held as subsidiary to repression, whereas we ha

its germ is already developed and active, and it nearly always employs methods of direct coercion, which, being themselves repressive in their character, are often inefficacious, even if they do not provoke additional offences. Social pr

ative police prevention. ``There have been authoritative works and learned folios,'' says Ellero, ``which dealt not only with punishmen

more or less taken the positive point of view), are Bentham, Romagnosi, Barbacovi, Carmignani, Ellero, Lombroso, and a few Englishmen, who, without making much of the theory, have made many practical suggestions of preventive reform. But even these writers either confine themselves to general synthetic considerations, like Romagnosi and Carm

nal sociologist could convince them, that punishments are far from having the deterrent force commonly attributed to them, and that crime i

of these authors with more than ordinary insight, but they have also enacted

f criminal saturation, whereby the physical and social environment, aided by individual tendencies, hereditary or acquired, and by occasional impulses, necessarily determine the extent of crime in every age and country, both in quantity and quality. That is to say, th

of the function of social defence, which should be carried out in harmony wit

e future evolution of the social administration of defence against crime is to consist in the development of the primitive forms of direct physical coercion into the higher forms of indirect psychical discipline of human activity, this

will not

society should be submerged. I do not deny that punishments are the dykes of crime, but I assert that they are dykes of no great strength or utility. All nations know by sad and chronic experience t

stream, and by due rectilineation or excavation along its course and near its mouth, so, in order to defend ourselves against crimes, it is best to observe