THE SCIENTIFIC CRIMINAL
There can be little doubt that the criminal product of the twentieth
century is vastly different in its make up and harder to deal with than
the criminal of any other century of the Christian era. Not perhaps from
the standpoint of moral depravity, for all criminals are depraved,
although some seem to be more so than others. But the criminal of to-day
to be successful in his operations must be daring in his conceptions and
highly scientific in his methods; otherwise he will be unable to cope
with the difficulties in his way.
Criminals as a rule are not indifferent to the feelings of honest men as
to their methods of getting a living. They know full well they do wrong.
Yet if you cross their path while in the act of committing a felony,
they will without the least hesitation take your life, and think nothing
of it. All men who start out on a mission of crime make up their minds
beforehand to take “no chances.” They are strenuously against every one
that opposes them and they know that every honest, law-abiding citizen
is against them.
But the great advance in civilization the past hundred years and the
easy way fortunes seem to be accumulated, has unquestionably invented
new methods of guarding the wealth, but it has also sharpened the
criminal’s wit, making him more practical in his deeds of daring and
ingenious in his plans and operations.
It is a well known fact that criminals of to-day do not carry around
with them long “jimmies,” saws or crowbars such as were used by the old
school crooks.
The twentieth century “outfit” of an experienced criminal seldom weighs
more than sixteen to twenty ounces. The entire “kit” is made of the
finest steel instruments and by these he is able to find his way to
strong boxes, bureau drawers and closets of the best city and country
residences. If he thinks he has to encounter a safe he will carry with
him an electric drill by which he can punch holes in steel plates at
short notice.
With these he has besides a silk rope ladder, which has an attachment
that can take him to the roof of a house or get him to the street from
any part of the building when he desires.
With the outfit just described a Connecticut crook was able to commit
sixty burglaries in less than three months in this city. The typical
twentieth century criminal is therefore a most dangerous character to
deal with, and when in possession of a gun he lets nothing stand in his
way.
Scientific writers on penology of recent times have divided the criminal
into many parts for the purpose of analyzing the natural causes that
have led to his downfall and the treatment best calculated to bring
about his restoration.
One of the grave defects, in the study of criminal law, is that while
the lawyer ransacks the Code in an effort to save or punish the
wrongdoer, the criminal’s moral nature is entirely ignored. This is
certainly not right. We firmly believe that the best possible way of
reaching a correct solution of the mysterious dualism which confronts us
in our study of criminal character, is to find out not only his early
habits, but what he is in his normal and abnormal conditions, and how
his delusions can be removed.
But there are criminals and criminals. Some indeed are born into
criminal lives from infancy, aided by the laws of heredity, while others
become criminals on the impulse of the moment and for months or years,
run a wild career of wrong doing, but afterwards change the course of
their conduct, and become useful members of society. Of course the only
kind of reformation that becomes permanent is the kind that changes the
man inside and out. Others like the twig that is bent, remain crooked
all their lives. Nor does imprisonment improve such people to any great
extent. Harsh treatment may subdue the animal passions but will not
change his higher nature.
We do not believe that God brands any man as the victim of an
unavoidable destiny, nor does He compel him to live a criminal life
against his will. The fact is each law breaker is the victim of his own
depraved will and is what he wants to be.
The twentieth century crook in forgery, burglary, safe cracking and
swindling studies the situation so carefully that in two-thirds of the
cases he is able to “beat” the law. A greenhorn crook is sure to leave
traces behind him but an expert never. The twentieth century crook uses
an automobile and naphtha launch so as to disappear with his “loot” to
parts unknown. When he travels at home or abroad, he patronizes the most
expensive hotels, the dearest express trains, and only the best
accommodations on ocean steamers. Expert crooks as a rule travel in
pairs.
Under the head of Criminal Anthropology we are called upon to study the
criminal’s anatomy, social and moral habits and temperaments. But the
strangest thing about him is that though he may be physically and
mentally normal—just as other men are—he is abnormal morally. We must
always remember, however, that while we consider the criminal
scientifically, his disease is entirely moral. Nor has the average
criminal any peculiarities that are not common to the rank and file of
other men in every walk of life. His head and his heart and his brain
are like those of other men and he shows the marks of human folly just
as men do who never saw the inside of a jail.
As a rule the criminal is largely a creature of circumstances; often too
lazy to work and unwilling to resist the common temptations of life, he
simply drifts. He takes to crime as an easy way of making a living and
often believes that the fates are against him, as an excuse for his
wrong-doing, or perhaps he has a foolish delusion that there is
something heroic in criminality.
Crime is defined as a violation of a human law enacted by the state in
its own defense, and the criminal is the one who wilfully breaks that
law and makes himself amenable to it.
The most noted authority in our day on crime and criminals is Lombroso,
the Italian penologist, who has made a thorough study of the subject. In
describing the criminal we find there is a freshness of detail to
whatever he says, and he writes like one familiar with the subject.
Lombroso rightly contends that criminals must be dealt with, not
according to the way that society views the crime, but according to the
circumstances and conditions that have led to it, and our laws must be
changed to meet the new conditions. “Penal repression,” says Lombroso,
“should be based on social utility scientifically demonstrated; instead
of studying law books, we should study the criminal. It is doubtless
true the criminal, as a rule, has feeble cranial capacity, a heavy
developed jaw, large orbital capacity, projecting superciliary ridges,
an abnormal and symmetrical cranium, a scanty beard or none, or an
abundance of hair, projecting ears and frequently a crooked or flat
nose. Criminals are sometimes subject to Daltonism or left-handedness,
their muscular force is feeble and alcoholic and epileptic degeneration
exists among them to a large extent. Their nerve centres are frequently
pigmented. They blush with difficulty. Their moral degeneracy
corresponds to their physical make up. Their criminal tendencies are
manifested in infancy by onanism, cruelty, inclination to steal,
excessive vanity and impulsive character. The criminal in a large number
of cases is lazy, cowardly, not susceptible to remorse, without
foresight, fond of tattooing. His handwriting is peculiar, his signature
is complicated and adorned with flourishes. His slang is widely
diffused, abbreviated and full of archaisms.”
Before we leave the subject it would be well to say that naturally the
criminal is the product of anomalous conditions of long standing that
have worked themselves into the moral fibre of his being. After many
years the criminal has come to bear the distinguishing peculiarities of
crime which mark him as a man among men. So that to-day with all our
advanced civilization, the criminal stands midway, as Lombroso remarks,
“Between the savage and the lunatic.”
It has therefore become a perplexing question what is to be done with
him, for during the four hundred years of white civilization on the
American Continent his condition remains almost the same.
After many years of failure to improve him, would it not be well to
adjust the penal treatment to his nature as a man and eliminate from his
life the temptations that overcame him? For example, thousands of people
are arrested yearly in New York for drunkenness, a temptation which they
cannot resist. Why not close the saloons and thus take even this one
temptation out of the way of such weaklings? At any rate, if our prison
populations are to be reduced, society must pass a law to prevent crime,
or invent something that shall defeat the conditions that make men
criminals.
At the present time the main object of a criminal court is to find out
if a defendant is guilty or innocent. If guilty, the sentence of the
Court is measured by the character of the crime and not by the
conditions that led to it. Before the wrongdoer can be reformed our
criminal laws must be readjusted to the conditions of the times. Many of
those who come into our courts for sentence, if not hardened criminals
themselves, are the offspring of criminal parents or are mentally
defective, weak-minded or insane, epileptics or otherwise diseased.
Crime gnaws at the life of the nation, destroys its vitality and wastes
its wealth. We can stand changes of government or changes of policy,
hard times, prosperity and adversity, but no nation can long survive the
awful demoralization of crime.
But what an anomalous life the criminal lives! After having many chances
and opportunities placed in his way to live right, he refuses the good
and chooses the evil. He will not reform nor do better. He has become a
misanthrope; he hates himself and everybody else.
The only sure remedy for the present day criminal is the indeterminate
sentence; he should be detained in prison under the most rigorous
discipline, till he is reformed or cured of his insane notions. It is
nothing short of a crime to turn such people loose to scourge society
after a few months or years’ detention in prison.
European criminologists are unanimous in advocating the most restrictive
measures for incorrigibles, such as hard labor, longer imprisonment and
more repressive humiliation, or if necessary, deportation and exile.
Professor Prins of Brussels says, “The solution of the question of the
incorrigible lies in a progressive aggravation of punishment and the
absence of all prison luxury.” After reading a mass of opinions on what
should be done with the criminal incorrigible and how he should be
punished, all of which had not a ray of hope in it for his higher
nature, we thought of the British soldier in India half a century ago,
who was called up for sentence before a court martial; he had suffered
all sorts of imprisonment, corporal punishment and all manner of
deprivation and humiliations, but all to no purpose; the punishments
only hardened him. But now a new commander came on the scene who, after
hearing all that could be said against him, dismissed him with an
admonition, saying that they forgave him, asking him from henceforth to
go and sin no more. The effect of this was that he broke down and wept
like a child. He had steeled his heart to every kind of punishment, but
when they tried kindness it touched him.
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