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Page 53
On summing up the results of this inquiry into criminal biology we
arrive at the following conclusions. In the first place, it cannot be
proved that the criminal has any distinct physical conformation,
whether anatomical or morphological; and, in the second place, it
cannot be proved that there is any inevitable alliance between
anomalies of physical structure and a criminal mode of life. But it
can be shown that criminals, taken as a whole, exhibit a higher
proportion of physical anomalies, and a higher percentage of physical
degeneracy than the rest of the community. With respect to the mental
condition of criminals, it cannot be established that it is, on the
whole, a condition of insanity, or even verging on insanity. But it
can be established that the bulk of the criminal classes are of a
humbly developed mental organisation. Whether we call this low state
of mental development, atavism, or degeneracy is, to a large extent, a
matter of words; the fact of its wide-spread existence among criminals
is the important point.
The results of this inquiry also show that degeneracy among criminals
is sometimes inherited and sometimes acquired. It is inherited when
the criminal is descended from insane, drunken, epileptic, scrofulous
parents; it is often acquired when the criminal adopts and
deliberately persists in a life of crime. The closeness of the
connection between degeneracy and crime is, to a considerable extent,
determined by social conditions. A degenerate person, who has to earn
his own livelihood, is much more likely to become a criminal than
another degenerate person who has not. Almost all forms of degeneracy
render a man more or less unsuited for the common work of life; it is
not easy for such a man to obtain employment; in certain forms of
degeneracy it becomes almost impossible. A person in this unfortunate
position often becomes a criminal, not because he has strong
anti-social instincts, but because he cannot get work. Physically, he
is unfit for work, and he takes to crime as an alternative.
Another important result is the close connection between madness and
crimes of blood. We have seen that almost one third of the cases of
conviction for wilful murder are cases in which the murderer is found
to be insane. And this does not represent the full proportion of
murderers afflicted mentally; a considerable percentage of those
sentenced to death have this sentence commuted on mental grounds. In
Germany, from 26 to 28 per cent. of criminals suffering from mental
weakness escape the observation of the court in this important
particular, and the same state of things unquestionably exists in the
United Kingdom. The actual percentage of criminals who suffer from
mental disorders in the prisons of Europe is probably much greater
than is generally supposed. At the present time a knowledge of
insanity is no part of the ordinary medical curriculum. "With respect
to this malady the great majority of medical men are themselves in the
position of laymen. They have not studied it. It was not included in
their examinations."[45] Till this state of things is altered we shall
never exactly know the intimacy of the connection between nervous
disorders and crime.
[45] _Sanity and Insanity_. C. Mercier, p. XII.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME.
In a previous chapter the deterrent action of punishment on the
criminal population has been pointed out. It now remains for us to
consider the nature of punishment, and the methods by which punishment
should be carried out. What is punishment as applied to crime?
According to Kant it is an act of retribution; it consists in
inflicting upon the criminal the same injury as he has inflicted on
his victim. It is an application by society of the principle of "jus
talionis." Such a definition of punishment does not harmonise with the
facts. We cannot punish the slanderer by slandering him in turn; and
in punishing the murderer, it is impossible to torture him in the same
way as he has probably tortured his victim. According to the theory of
retribution, punishment becomes an end in itself; it is quite
unrelated to the benefits it may confer on the person who is punished,
or on the community which punishes him.
The difficulties surrounding the theory of retribution have led to
other definitions of punishment. Punishment, it is said, is not
inflicted on the offender as a retribution for his misdeeds, it is
inflicted for the purpose of protecting society against its enemies.
Such a view leaves moral considerations entirely out of account; it
leaves no room for the just indignation of the public at the spectacle
of crime. It is defective in other ways. For instance, a criminal has
a particular animosity against some single individual; it may be he
murders this person, or does him grievous bodily harm. Such an
offender has no similar animosity against any one else; as far as the
rest of the community is concerned he is perfectly harmless. On the
supposition that punishment is only intended to protect society
against the criminal, a man of this description would escape
punishment altogether. Or supposing a man (and this often happens),
after committing some serious crime for which he is sent to penal
servitude, sincerely and bitterly repented of it, and would be, if
released, a perfectly harmless member of the community, such a man,
according to the theory we are now discussing, should be released at
once. The certainty that the public conscience would tolerate no such
step shows that punishment has a wider object than the mere attainment
of social security.
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