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diff --git a/10580-h/10580-h.htm b/10580-h/10580-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27aad99 --- /dev/null +++ b/10580-h/10580-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2386 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta HTTP-EQUIV="content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of + The Positive School of Criminology, + by Enrico Ferri. +</title> +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + * { font-family: Times; + } + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 12pt; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; } + PRE { font-family: Courier, monospaced;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10580 ***</div> + +<center> + <h1 align="center"> + The Positive School of Criminology +</h1> + <h2 align="center"><em>Three Lectures</em></h2> + <h2 align="center"><em>Given at the University of Naples, Italy on April 22, 23 and 24, 1901 </em></h2> + <h2 align="center"> </h2> + <h2 align="center"><b>By Enrico Ferri</b></h2> + <h2 align="center">Translated by Ernest Untermann</h2> +</center> +<center><div align="center"> + Chicago +</div> +<div align="center"> + Charles H. Kerr & Company +1908 +</div></center> +<a name="2H_4_1"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<p> </p> +<h2> + I. +</h2> +<p> + My Friends: +</p> +<p> + When, in the turmoil of my daily occupation, I received an invitation, + several months ago, from several hundred students of this famous + university, to give them a brief summary, in short special lectures, of + the principal and fundamental conclusions of criminal sociology, I + gladly accepted, because this invitation fell in with two ideals of + mine. These two ideals are stirring my heart and are the secret of my + life. In the first place, this invitation chimed with the ideal of my + personal life, namely, to diffuse and propagate among my brothers the + scientific ideas, which my brain has accumulated, not through any merit + of mine, but thanks to the lucky prize inherited from my mother in the + lottery of life. And the second ideal which this invitation called up + before my mind's vision was this: The ideal of young people of Italy, + united in morals and intellectual pursuits, feeling in their social + lives the glow of a great aim. It would matter little whether this aim + would agree with my own ideas or be opposed to them, so long as it + should be an ideal which would lift the aspirations of the young people + out of the fatal grasp of egoistic interests. Of course, we positivists + know very well, that the material requirements of life shape and + determine also the moral and intellectual aims of human consciousness. + But positive science declares the following to be the indispensable + requirement for the regeneration of human ideals: Without an ideal, + neither an individual nor a collectivity can live, without it humanity + is dead or dying. For it is the fire of an ideal which renders the life + of each one of us possible, useful and fertile. And only by its help can + each one of us, in the more or less short course of his or her + existence, leave behind traces for the benefit of fellow-beings. The + invitation extended to me proves that the students of Naples believe in + the inspiring existence of such an ideal of science, and are anxious to + learn more about ideas, with which the entire world of the present day + is occupied, and whose life-giving breath enters even through the + windows of the dry courtrooms, when their doors are closed against it. +</p> +<hr> +<p> + Let us now speak of this new science, which has become known in Italy by + the name of the Positive School of Criminology. This science, the same + as every other phenomenon of scientific evolution, cannot be + shortsightedly or conceitedly attributed to the arbitrary initiative of + this or that thinker, this or that scientist. We must rather regard it + as a natural product, a necessary phenomenon, in the development of that + sad and somber department of science which deals with the disease of + crime. It is this plague of crime which forms such a gloomy and painful + contrast with the splendor of present-day civilization. The 19th century + has won a great victory over mortality and infectious diseases by means + of the masterful progress of physiology and natural science. But while + contagious diseases have gradually diminished, we see on the other hand + that moral diseases are growing more numerous in our so-called + civilization. While typhoid fever, smallpox, cholera and diphtheria + retreated before the remedies which enlightened science applied by means + of the experimental method, removing their concrete causes, we see on + the other hand that insanity, suicide and crime, that painful trinity, + are growing apace. And this makes it very evident that the science which + is principally, if not exclusively, engaged in studying these phenomena + of social disease, should feel the necessity of finding a more exact + diagnosis of these moral diseases of society, in order to arrive at some + effective and more humane remedy, which should more victoriously combat + this somber trinity of insanity, suicide and crime. +</p> +<p> + The science of positive criminology arose in the last quarter of the + 19th century, as a result of this strange contrast, which would be + inexplicable, if we could not discover historical and scientific reasons + for its existence. And it is indeed a strange contrast that Italy should + have arrived at a perfect theoretical development of a classical school + of criminology, while there persists, on the other hand, the disgraceful + condition that criminality assumes dimensions never before observed in + this country, so that the science of criminology cannot stem the tide of + crime in high and low circles. It is for this reason, that the positive + school of criminology arises out of the very nature of things, the same + as every other line of science. It is based on the conditions of our + daily life. It would indeed be conceited on our part to claim that we, + who are the originators of this new science and its new conclusions, + deserve alone the credit for its existence. The brain of the scientist + is rather a sort of electrical accumulator, which feels and assimilates + the vibrations and heart-beats of life, its splendor and its shame, and + derives therefrom the conviction that it must of necessity provide for + definite social wants. And on the other hand, it would be an evidence of + intellectual short-sightedness on the part of the positivist man of + science, if he did not recognize the historical accomplishments, which + his predecessors on the field of science have left behind as indelible + traces of their struggle against the unknown in that brilliant and + irksome domain. For this reason, the adherents of the positive school of + criminology feel the most sincere reverence for the classic school of + criminology. And I am glad today, in accepting the invitation of the + students of Naples, to say, that this is another reason why their + invitation was welcome to me. It is now 16 years since I gave in this + same hall a lecture on positive criminology, which was then in its + initial stages. It was in 1885, when I had the opportunity to outline + the first principles of the positive school of criminology, at the + invitation of other students, who preceded you on the periodic waves of + the intellectual generations. And the renewal of this opportunity gave + me so much moral satisfaction that, I could not under any circumstances + decline your invitation. Then too, the Neapolitan Atheneum has + maintained the reputation of the Italian mind in the 19th century, also + in that science which even foreign scientists admit to be our specialty, + namely the science of criminology. In fact, aside from the two terrible + books of the Digest, and from the practical criminologists of the Middle + Ages who continued the study of criminality, the modern world opened a + glorious page in the progress of criminal science with the modest little + book of Cesare Beccaria. This progress leads from Cesare Beccaria, by + way of Francesco Carrara, to Enrico Pessina. +</p> +<p> + Enrico Pessina alone remains of the two giants who concluded the cycle + of classic school of criminology. In a lucid moment of his scientific + consciousness, which soon reverted to the old abstract and metaphysical + theories, he announced in an introductory statement in 1879, that + criminal justice would have to rejuvenate itself in the pure bath of the + natural sciences and substitute in place of abstraction the living and + concrete study of facts. Naturally every scientist has his function and + historical significance; and we cannot expect that a brain which has + arrived at the end of its career should turn towards a new direction. At + any rate, it is a significant fact that this most renowned + representative of the classic school of criminology should have pointed + out this need of his special science in this same university of Naples, + one year after the inauguration of the positive school of criminology, + that he should have looked forward to a time when the study of natural + and positive facts would set to rights the old juridical abstractions. + And there is still another precedent in the history of this university, + which makes scientific propaganda at this place very agreeable for a + positivist. It is that six years before that introductory statement by + Pessina, Giovanni Bovio gave lectures at this university, which he + published later on under the title of "A Critical Study of Criminal + Law." Giovanni Bovio performed in this monograph the function of a + critic, but the historical time of his thought, prevented him from + taking part in the construction of a new science. However, he prepared + the ground for new ideas, by pointing out all the rifts and weaknesses + of the old building. Bovio maintained that which Gioberti, Ellero, + Conforti, Tissol had already maintained, namely that it is impossible to + solve the problem which is still the theoretical foundation of the + classic school of criminology, the problem of the relation between + punishment and crime. No man, no scientist, no legislator, no judge, has + ever been able to indicate any absolute standard, which would enable us + to say that equity demands a definite punishment for a definite crime. + We can find some opportunistic expedient, but not a solution of the + problem. Of course, if we could decide which is the gravest crime, then + we could also decide on the heaviest sentence and formulate a descending + scale which would establish the relative fitting proportions between + crime and punishment. If it is agreed that patricide is the gravest + crime, we meet out the heaviest sentence, death or imprisonment for + life, and then we can agree on a descending scale of crime and on a + parallel scale of punishments. But the problem begins right with the + first stone of the structure, not with the succeeding steps. Which is + the greatest penalty proportional to the crime of patricide? Neither + science, nor legislation, nor moral consciousness, can offer an absolute + standard. Some say: The greatest penalty is death. Others say: No, + imprisonment for life. Still others say: Neither death, nor imprisonment + for life, but only imprisonment for a time. And if imprisonment for a + time is to be the highest penalty, how many years shall it last + —thirty, or twenty-five, or ten? +</p> +<p> + No man can set up any absolute standard in this matter. Giovanni Bovio + thus arrived at the conclusion that this internal contradiction in the + science of criminology was the inevitable fate of human justice, and + that this justice, struggling in the grasp of this internal + contradiction, must turn to the civil law and ask for help in its + weakness. The same thought had already been illumined by a ray from the + bright mind of Filangieri, who died all too soon. And we can derive from + this fact the historical rule that the most barbarian conditions of + humanity show a prevalence of a criminal code which punishes without + healing; and that the gradual progress of civilization will give rise + to the opposite conception of healing without punishing. +</p> +<p> + Thus it happens that this university of Naples, in which the illustrious + representative of the classic school of criminology realized the + necessity of its regeneration, and in which Bovio foresaw its sterility, + has younger teachers now who keep alive the fire of the positivist + tendency in criminal science, such as Penta, Zuccarelli, and others, + whom you know. Nevertheless I feel that this faculty of jurisprudence + still lacks oxygen in the study of criminal law, because its thought is + still influenced by the overwhelming authority of the name of Enrico + Pessina. And it is easy to understand that there, where the majestic + tree spreads out its branches towards the blue vault, the young plant + feels deprived of light and air, while it might have grown strong and + beautiful in another place. +</p> +<p> + The positive school of criminology, then, was born in our own Italy + through the singular attraction of the Italian mind toward the study of + criminology; and its birth is also due to the peculiar condition our + country with its great and strange contrast between the theoretical + doctrines and the painful fact of an ever increasing criminality. +</p> +<p> + The positive school of criminology was inaugurate by the work of Cesare + Lombroso, in 1872. From 1872 to 1876 he opened a new way for the study + of criminality by demonstrating in his own person that we must first + understand the criminal who offends, before we can study and understand + his crime. Lombroso studied the prisoners in the various penitentiaries + of Italy from the point of view of anthropology. And he compiled his + studies in the reports of the Lombardian Institute of Science and + Literature, and published them later together in his work "Criminal + Man." The first edition of this work (1876) remained almost unnoticed, + either because its scientific material was meager, or because Cesare + Lombroso had not yet drawn any general scientific conclusions, which + could have attracted the attention of the world of science and law. But + simultaneously with its second edition (1878) there appeared two + monographs, which constituted the embryo of the new school, + supplementing the anthropological studies of Lombroso with conclusions + and systematizations from the point of view of sociology and law. + Raffaele Garofalo published in the Neapolitan Journal of Philosophy and + Literature an essay on criminality, in which he declared that the + dangerousness of the criminal was the criterion by which society should + measure the function of its defense against the disease of crime. And in + the same year, 1878, I took occasion to publish a monograph on the + denial of free will and personal responsibility, in which I declared + frankly that from now on the science of crime and punishment must look + for the fundamental facts of a science of social defense against crime + in the human and social life itself. The simultaneous publication of + these three monographs caused a stir. The teachers of classic + criminology, who had taken kindly to the recommendations of Pessina and + Ellero, urging them to study the natural sources of crime, met the new + ideas with contempt, when the new methods made a determined and radical + departure, and became not only the critics, but the zealous opponents of + the new theories. And this is easy to understand. For the struggle for + existence is an irresistible law of nature, as well for the thousands of + germs scattered to the winds by the oak, as for the ideas which grow in + the brain of man. But persecutions, calumnies, criticisms, and + opposition are powerless against an idea, if it carries within itself + the germ of truth. Moreover, we should look upon this phenomenon of a + repugnance in the average intellect (whether of the ordinary man or the + scientist) for all new ideas as a natural function. For when the brain + of some man has felt the light of a new idea, a sneering criticism + serves us a touchstone for it. If the idea is wrong, it will fall by the + wayside; if it is right, then criticisms, opposition and persecution + will cull the golden kernel from the unsightly shell, and the idea will + march victoriously over everything and everybody. It is so in all walks + of life—in art, in politics, in science. Every new idea will rouse + against itself naturally and inevitably the opposition of the accustomed + thoughts. This is so true, that when Cesare Beccaria opened the great + historic cycle of the classic school of criminology, he was assaulted by + the critics of his time with the same indictments which were brought + against us a century later. +</p> +<p> + When Cesare Beccaria printed his book on crime and penalties in 1774 + under a false date and place of publication, reflecting the aspirations + which gave rise to the impending hurricane of the French revolution; + when he hurled himself against all that was barbarian in the mediaeval + laws and set loose a storm of enthusiasm among the encyclopedists, and + even some of the members of government, in France, he was met by a wave + of opposition, calumny and accusation on the part of the majority of + jurists, judges and lights of philosophy. The abbi Jachinci published + four volumes against Beccaria, calling him the destroyer of justice and + morality, simply because he had combatted the tortures and the death + penalty. +</p> +<p> + The tortures, which we incorrectly ascribe to the mental brutality of + the judges of those times, were but a logical consequence of the + contemporaneous theories. It was felt that in order to condemn a man, + one must have the certainty of his guilty, and it was said that the best + means of obtaining tins certainty, the queen of proofs, was the + confession of the criminal. And if the criminal denied his guilt, it was + necessary to have recourse to torture, in order to force him to a + confession which he withheld from fear of the penalty. The torture + soothed, so to say, the conscience of the judge, who was free to condemn + as soon as he had obtained a confession. Cesare Beccaria rose with + others against the torture. Thereupon the judges and jurists protested + that penal justice would be impossible, because it could not get any + information, since a man suspected of a crime would not confess his + guilt voluntarily. Hence they accused Beccaria of being the protector of + robbers and murderers, because he wanted to abolish the only means of + compelling them to a confession, the torture. But Cesare Beccaria had on + his side the magic power of truth. He was truly the electric accumulator + of his time, who gathered from its atmosphere the presage of the coming + revolution, the stirring of the human conscience. You can find a similar + illustration in the works of Daquin in Savoy, of Pinel in France, and of + Hach Take in England, who strove to bring about a revolution in the + treatment of the insane. This episode interests us especially, because + it is a perfect illustration of the way traveled by the positive school + of criminology. The insane were likewise considered to blame for their + insanity. At the dawn of the 19th century, the physician Hernroth still + wrote that insanity was a moral sin of the insane, because "no one + becomes insane, unless he forsakes the straight path of virtue and of + the fear of the Lord." +</p> +<p> + And on this assumption the insane were locked up in horrible dungeons, + loaded down with chains, tortured and beaten, for lo! their insanity was + their own fault. +</p> +<p> + At that period, Pinel advanced the revolutionary idea that insanity was + not a sin, but a disease like all other diseases. This idea is now a + commonplace, but in his time it revolutionized the world. It seemed as + though this innovation inaugurated by Pinel would overthrow the world + and the foundations of society. Well, two years before the storming of + the Bastile Pinel walked into the sanitarium of the Salpetriere and + committed the brave act of freeing the insane of the chains that weighed + them down. He demonstrated in practice that the insane, when freed of + their chains, became quieter, instead of creating wild disorder and + destruction. This great revolution of Pinel, Chiarugi, and others, + changed the attitude of the public mind toward the insane. While + formerly insanity had been regarded as a moral sin, the public + conscience, thanks to the enlightening work of science, henceforth had + to adapt itself to the truth that insanity is a disease like all + others, that a man does not become insane because he wants to, but that + he becomes insane through hereditary transmission and the influence of + the environment in which he lives, being predisposed toward insanity and + becoming insane under the pressure of circumstances. +</p> +<p> + The positive school of criminology accomplished the same revolution in + the views concerning the treatment of criminals that the above named men + of science accomplished for the treatment of the insane. The general + opinion of classic criminalists and of the people at large is that crime + involves a moral guilt, because it is due to the free will of the + individual who leaves the path of virtue and chooses the path of crime, + and therefore it must be suppressed by meeting it with a proportionate + quantity of punishment. This is to this day the current conception of + crime. And the illusion of a free human will (the only miraculous factor + in the eternal ocean of cause and effect) leads to the assumption that + one can choose freely between virtue and vice. How can you still believe + in the existence of a free will, when modern psychology armed with all + the instruments of positive modern research, denies that there is any + free will and demonstrates that every act of a human being is the + result of an interaction between the personality and the environment of + man? +</p> +<p> + And how is it possible to cling to that obsolete idea of moral guilt, + according to which every individual is supposed to have the free choice + to abandon virtue and give himself up to crime? The positive school of + criminology maintains, on the contrary, that it is not the criminal who + wills; in order to be a criminal it is rather necessary that the + individual should find himself permanently or transitorily in such + personal, physical and moral conditions, and live in such an + environment, which become for him a chain of cause and effect, + externally and internally, that disposes him toward crime. This is our + conclusion, which I anticipate, and it constitutes the vastly different + and opposite method, which the positive school of criminology employs as + compared to the leading principle of the classic school of criminal + science. +</p> +<p> + In this method, this essential principle of the positive school of + criminology, you will find another reason for the seemingly slow advance + of this school. That is very natural. If you consider the great reform + carried by the ideas of Cesare Beccaria into the criminal justice of + the Middle Age, you will see that the great classic school represents + but a small step forward, because it leaves the penal justice on the + same theoretical and practical basis which it had in the Middle Age and + in classic antiquity, that is to say, based on the idea of a moral + responsibility of the individual. For Beccaria, for Carrara, for their + predecessors, this idea is no more nor less than that mentioned in books + 47 and 48 of the Digest: "The criminal is liable to punishment to the + extent that he is morally guilty of the crime he has committed." The + entire classic school is, therefore, nothing but a series of reforms. + Capital punishment has been abolished in some countries, likewise + torture, confiscation, corporal punishment. But nevertheless the immense + scientific movement of the classic school has remained a mere reform. +</p> +<p> + It has continued in the 19th century to look upon crime in the same way + that the Middle Age did: "Whoever commits murder or theft, is alone the + absolute arbiter to decide whether he wants to commit the crime or not." + This remains the foundation of the classic school of criminology. This + explains why it could travel on its way more rapidly than the positive + school of criminology. And yet, it took half a century from the time of + Beccaria, before the penal codes showed signs of the reformatory + influence of the classic school of criminology. So that it has also + taken quite a long time to establish it so well that it became accepted + by general consent, as it is today. The positive school of criminology + was born in 1878, and although it does not stand for a mere reform of + the methods of criminal justice, but for a complete and fundamental + transformation of criminal justice itself, it has already gone quite a + distance and made considerable conquests which begin to show in our + country. It is a fact that the penal code now in force in this country + represents a compromise, so far as the theory of personal responsibility + is concerned, between the old theory of free will and the conclusions of + the positive school which denies this free will. +</p> +<p> + You can find an illustration of this in the eloquent contortions of + phantastic logic in the essays on the criminal code written by a great + advocate of the classic school of criminology, Mario Pagano, this + admirable type of a scientist and patriot, who does not lock himself up + in the quiet egoism of his study, but feels the ideal of his time + stirring within him and gives up his life to it. He has written three + lines of a simple nudity that reveals much, in which he says: "A man is + responsible for the crimes which he commits; if, in committing a crime, + his will is half free, he is responsible to the extent of one-half; if + one-third, he is responsible one-third." There you have the + uncompromising and absolute classic theorem. But in the penal code of + 1890, you will find that the famous article 45 intends to base the + responsibility for a crime on the simple will, to the exclusion of the + free will. However, the Italian judge has continued to base the exercise + of penal justice on the supposed existence of the free will, and + pretends not to know that the number of scientists denying the free will + is growing. Now, how is it possible that so terrible an office as that + of sentencing criminals retains its stability or vacillates, according + to whether the first who denies the existence of a free will deprives + this function of its foundation? +</p> +<p> + Truly, it is said that this question has been too difficult for the new + Italian penal code. And, for this reason, it was thought best to base + the responsibility for a crime on the idea that a man is guilty simply + for the reason that he wanted to commit the crime; and that he is not + responsible if he did not want to commit it. But this is an eclectic way + out of the difficulty, which settles nothing, for in the same code we + have the rule that involuntary criminals are also punished, so that + involuntary killing and wounding are punished with imprisonment the same + as voluntary deeds of this kind. We have heard it said in such cases + that the result may not have been intended, but the action bringing it + about was. If a hunter shoots through a hedge and kills or wounds a + person, he did not intend to kill, and yet he is held responsible + because his first act, the shooting, was voluntary. +</p> +<p> + That statement applies to involuntary crimes, which are committed by + some positive act. But what about involuntary crimes of omission? In a + railway station, where the movements of trains represent the daily whirl + of traffic in men, things, and ideas, every switch is a delicate + instrument which may cause a derailment. The railway management places a + switchman on duty at this delicate post. But in a moment of fatigue, or + because he had to work inhumanly long hours of work, which exhausted all + his nervous elasticity, or for other reasons, the switchman forgets to + set the switch and causes a railroad accident, in which people are + killed and wounded. Can it be said that he intended the first act? + Assuredly not, for he did not intend anything and did not do anything. + The hunter who fires a shot has at least had the intention of shooting. + But the switchman did not want to forget (for in that case he would be + indirectly to blame); he has simply forgotten from sheer fatigue to do + his duty; he has had no intention whatever, and yet you hold him + responsible in spite of all that! The fundamental logic of your + reasoning in this case corresponds to the logic of the things. Does it + not happen every day in the administration of justice that the judges + forget about the neutral expedient of the legislator who devised this + relative progress of the penal code, which pretends to base the + responsibility of a man on the neutral and naive criterion of a will + without freedom of will? Do they not follow their old mental habits in + the administration of justice and apply the obsolete criterion of the + free will, which the legislator thought fit to abandon? We see, then, + as a result of this imperfect and insincere innovation in penal + legislation this flagrant contradiction, that the magistrates assume the + existence of a free will, while the legislator has decided that it shall + not be assumed. Now, in science as well as in legislation, we should + follow a direct and logical line, such as that of the classic school or + the positive school of criminology. But whoever thinks he has solved a + problem when he gives us a solution which is neither fish nor fowl, + comes to the most absurd and iniquitous conclusions. You see what + happens every day. If to-morrow some beastly and incomprehensible crime + is committed, the conscience of the judge is troubled by this question: + Was the person who committed this crime morally free to act or not? He + may also invoke the help of legislation, and he may take refuge in + article 46,[<a href="#fA">A</a>] or in that compromise of article 47,[<a href="#fB">B</a>] which admits + a responsibility of one-half or one-third, and he would decide on a + penalty of one-half or one-third. +</p> +<p> + All this may take place in the case of a grave and strange crime. And on + the other hand, go to the municipal courts or to the police courts, + where the magic lantern of justice throws its rays upon the nameless + human beings who have stolen a bundle of wood in a hard winter, or who + have slapped some one in the face during a brawl in a + saloon. And if they should find a defending lawyer who would demand the + appointment of a medical expert, watch the reception he would get from + the judge. When justice is surprised by a beastly and strange crime, it + feels the entire foundation of its premises shaking, it halts for a + moment, it calls in the help of legal medicine, and reflects before it + sentences. But in the case of those poor nameless creatures, justice + does not stop to consider whether that microbe in the criminal world who + steals under the influence of hereditary or acquired degeneration, or in + the delirium of chronic hunger, is not worthy of more pity. It rather + replies with a mephistophelian grin when he begs for a humane + understanding of his case. +</p> +<p> + [<a name="fA">A</a>] Article 46: "A person is not subject to punishment, if at the moment + of his deed he was in a mental condition which deprived him of + consciousness or of the freedom of action. But if the judge considers it + dangerous to acquit the prisoner, he has to transfer him to the care of + the proper authorities, who will take the necessary precautions." +</p> +<p> + [<a name="fB">B</a>] Article 47: "If the mental condition mentioned in the foregoing + article was such as to considerably decrease the responsibility, without + eliminating it entirely, the penalty fixed upon the crime committed is + reduced according to the following rules: +</p> +<p> + "I. In place of penitentiary, imprisonment for not less than six years. +</p> +<p> + "II. In place of the permanent loss of civic rights, a loss of these + rights for a stipulated time. +</p> +<p> + "III. Whenever it is a question of a penalty of more than twelve years, + it is reduced to from three to ten years; if of more than six years, but + not more than twelve, it is reduced to from one to five years; in other + cases, the reduction is to be one-half of the ordinary penalty. +</p> +<p> + "IV. A fine is reduced to one-half. +</p> +<p> + "V. If the penalty would be a restriction of personal liberty, the judge + may order the prisoner to a workhouse, until the proper authorities + object, when the remainder of the sentence is carried out in the usual + manner." +</p> +<p> + It is true that there is now and then in those halls of justice, which + remain all too frequently closed to the living wave of public sentiment, + some more intelligent and serene judge who is touched by this painful + understanding of the actual human life. Then he may, under the illogical + conditions of penal justice, with its compromise between the exactness + of the classic and that of the positive school of criminology, seek for + some expedient which may restore him to equanimity. +</p> +<p> + In 1832, France introduced a penal innovation, which seemed to represent + an advance on the field of justice, but which is in reality a denial of + justice: The expedient of <i>extenuating circumstances</i>. The judge does + not ask for the advice of the court physician in the case of some + forlorn criminal, but condemns him without a word of rebuke to society + for its complicity. But in order to assuage his own conscience he grants + him extenuating circumstances, which seem a concession of justice, but + are, in reality, a denial of justice. For you either believe that a man + is responsible for his crime, and in that case the concession of + extenuating circumstances is a hypocrisy; or you grant them in good + faith, and then you admit that the man was in circumstances which + reduced his moral responsibility, and thereby the extenuating + circumstances become a denial of justice. For if your conviction + concerning such circumstances were sincere, you would go to the bottom + of them and examine with the light of your understanding all those + innumerable conditions which contribute toward those extenuating + circumstances. But what are those extenuating circumstances? Family + conditions? Take it that a child is left alone by its parents, who are + swallowed up in the whirl of modern industry, which overthrows the laws + of nature and forbids the necessary rest, because steam engines do not + get tired and day work must be followed by night work, so that the + setting of the sun is no longer the signal for the laborer to rest, but + to begin a new shift of work. Take it that this applies not alone to + adults, but also to human beings in the growing stage, whose muscular + power may yield some profit for the capitalists. Take it that even the + mother, during the period of sacred maternity, becomes a cog in the + machinery of industry. And you will understand that the child must grow + up, left to its own resources, in the filth of life, and that its + history will be inscribed in criminal statistics, which are the shame of + our so-called civilization. +</p> +<p> + Of course, in this first lecture I cannot give you even a glimpse of the + positive results of that modern science which has studied the criminal + and his environment instead of his crimes. And I must, therefore, limit + myself to a few hints concerning the historical origin of the positive + school of criminology. I ought to tell you something concerning the + question of free will. But you will understand that such a momentous + question, which is worthy of a deep study of the many-sided physical, + moral, intellectual life, cannot be summed up in a few short words. I + can only say that the tendency of modern natural sciences, in physiology + as well as psychology, has overruled the illusions of those who would + fain persist in watching psychological phenomena merely within + themselves and think that they can understand them without any other + means. On the contrary, positive science, backed by the testimony of + anthropology and of the study of the environment, has arrived at the + following conclusions: The admission of a free will is out of the + question. For if the free will is but an illusion of our internal being, + it is not a real faculty possessed by the human mind. Free will would + imply that the human will, confronted by the choice of making + voluntarily a certain determination, has the last decisive word under + the pressure of circumstances contending for and against this decision; + that it is free to decide for or against a certain course independently + of internal and external circumstances, which play upon it, according to + the laws of cause and effect. +</p> +<p> + Take it that a man has insulted me. I leave the place in which I have + been insulted, and with me goes the suggestion of forgiveness or of + murder and vengeance. And then it is assumed that a man has his complete + free will, unless he is influenced by circumstances explicitly + enumerated by the law, such as minority, congenital deaf-muteness, + insanity, habitual drunkenness and, to a certain extent, violent + passion. If a man is not in a condition mentioned in this list, he is + considered in possession of his free will, and if he murders he is held + morally responsible and therefore punished. +</p> +<p> + This illusion of a free will has its source in our inner consciousness, + and is due solely to the ignorance in which we find ourselves concerning + the various motives and different external and internal conditions which + press upon our mind at the moment of decision. +</p> +<p> + If a man knows the principal causes which determine a certain + phenomenon, he says that this phenomenon is inevitable. If he does not + know them, he considers it as an accident, and this corresponds in the + physical field to the arbitrary phenomenon of the human will which does + not know whether it shall decide this way or that. For instance, some of + us were of the opinion, and many still are, that the coming and going of + meteorological phenomena was accidental and could not he foreseen. But + in the meantime, science has demonstrated that they are likewise subject + to the law of causality, because it discovered the causes which enable + us to foresee their course. Thus weather prognosis has made wonderful + progress by the help of a network of telegraphically connected + meteorological stations, which succeeded in demonstrating the connection + between cause and effect in the case of hurricanes, as well as of any + other physical phenomenon. It is evident that the idea of accident, + applied to physical nature, is unscientific. Every physical phenomenon + is the necessary effect of the causes that determined it beforehand. If + those causes are known to us, we have the conviction that that + phenomenon is necessary, is fate, and, if we do not know them, we think + it is accidental. The same is true of human phenomena. But since we do + not know the internal and external causes in the majority of cases, we + pretend that they are free phenomena, that is to say, that they are not + determined necessarily by their causes. Hence the spiritualistic + conception of the free will implies that every human being, in spite of + the fact that their internal and external conditions are necessarily + predetermined, should be able to come to a deliberate decision by the + mere fiat of his or her free will, so that, even though the sum of all + the causes demands a no, he or she can decide in favor of yes, and vice + versa. Now, who is there that thinks, when deliberating some action, + what are the causes that determine his choice? We can justly say that + the greater part of our actions are determined by habit, that we make up + our minds almost from custom, without considering the reason for or + against. When we get up in the morning we go about our customary + business quite automatically, we perform it as a function in which we do + not think of a free will. We think of that only in unusual and grave + cases, when we are called upon to make some special choice, the + so-called voluntary deliberation, and then we weigh the reasons for or + against; we ponder, we hesitate what to do. Well, even in such cases, so + little depends on our will in the deliberations which we are about to + take that if any one were to ask us one minute before we have decided + what we are going to do, we should not know what we were going to + decide. So long as we are undecided, we cannot foresee what we are going + to decide; for under the conditions in which we live that part of the + psychic process takes place outside of our consciousness. And since we + do not know its causes, we cannot tell what will be its effects. Only + after we have come to a certain decision can we imagine that it was due + to our voluntary action. But shortly before we could not tell, and that + proves that it did not depend on us alone. Suppose, for instance, that + you have decided to play a joke on a fellow-student, and that you carry + it out. He takes it unkindly. You are surprised, because that is + contrary to his habits and your expectations. But after a while you + learn that your friend had received bad news from home on the preceding + morning and was therefore not in a condition to feel like joking, and + then you say: "If we had known that we should not have decided to spring + the joke on him." That is equivalent to saying that, if the balance of + your will had been inclined toward the deciding motive of no, you would + have decided no; but not knowing that your friend was distressed and not + in his habitual frame of mind, you decided in favor of yes. This + sentence: "If I had known this I should not have done that" is an outcry + of our internal consciousness, which denies the existence of a free + will. +</p> +<p> + On the other hand, nothing is created and nothing destroyed either in + matter or in force, because both matter and force are eternal and + indestructible. They transform themselves in the most diversified + manner, but not an atom is added or taken away, not one vibration more + or less takes place. And so if is the force of external and internal + circumstances which determines the decision of our will at any given + moment. The idea of a free will, however, is a denial of the law of + cause and effect, both in the field of philosophy and theology. Saint + Augustine and Martin Luther furnish irrefutable theological arguments + for the denial of a free will. The omnipotence of God is irreconcilable + with the idea of free will. If everything that happens does so because a + superhuman and omnipotent power wants it <i>(Not a single leaf falls to + the ground without the will of God)</i>, how can a son murder his father + without the permission and will of God? For this reason Saint Augustine + and Martin Luther have written <i>de servo arbitrio</i>. +</p> +<p> + But since theological arguments serve only those who believe in the + concept of a god, which is not given to us by science, we take recourse + to the laws which we observe in force and matter, and to the law of + causality. If modern science has discovered the universal link which + connects all phenomena through cause and effect, which shows that every + phenomenon is the result of causes which have preceded it; if this is + the law of causality, which is at the very bottom of modern scientific + thought, then it is evident that the admission of free thought is + equivalent to an overthrow of this law, according to which every effect + is proportionate to its cause. In that case, this law, which reigns + supreme in the entire universe, would dissolve itself into naught at + the feet of the human being, who would create effects with his free will + not corresponding to their causes! It was all right to think so at a + time when people had an entirely different idea of human beings. But the + work of modern science, and its effect on practical life, has resulted + in tracing the relations of each one of us with the world and with our + fellow beings. And the influence of science may be seen in the + elimination of great illusions which in former centuries swayed this or + that part of civilized humanity. The scientific thought of Copernicus + and Galilei did away with the illusions which led people to believe that + the earth was the center of the universe and of creation. +</p> +<p> + Take Cicero's book <i>de Officims</i>, or the <i>Divina Commedia</i> of Dante, and + you will find that to them the earth is the center of creation, that the + infinite stars circle around it, and that man is the king of animals: a + geocentric and anthropocentric illusion inspired by immeasurable + conceit. But Copernicus and Galilei came and demonstrated that the earth + does not stand still, but that it is a grain of cosmic matter hurled + into blue infinity and rotating since time unknown around its central + body, the sun, which originated from an immense primitive nebula. + Galilei was subjected to tortures by those who realized that this new + theory struck down many a religious legend and many a moral creed. But + Galilei had spoken the truth, and nowadays humanity no longer indulges + in the illusion that the earth is the center of creation. +</p> +<p> + But men live on illusions and give way but reluctantly to the progress + of science, in order to devote themselves arduously to the ideal of the + new truths which rise out of the essence of things of which mankind is a + part. After the geocentric illusion had been destroyed, the + anthropocentric illusion still remained. On earth, man was still + supposed to be king of creation, the center of terrestrial life. All + Species of animals, plants and minerals were supposed to be created + expressly for him, and to have had from time immemorial the forms which + we see now, so that the fauna and flora living on our planet have always + been what they are today. And Cicero, for instance, said that the + heavens were placed around the earth and man in order that he might + admire the beauty of the starry firmament at night, and that animals + and plants were created for his use and pleasure. But in 1856 Charles + Darwin came and, summarizing the results of studies that had been + carried on for a century, destroyed in the name of science the superb + illusion that man is the king and center of creation. He demonstrated, + amid the attacks and calumnies of the lovers of darkness, that man is + not the king of creation, but merely the last link of the zoological + chain, that nature is endowed with eternal energies by which animal and + plant life, the same as mineral life (for even in crystals the laws of + life are at work), are transformed from the invisible microbe to the + highest form, man. +</p> +<p> + The anthropocentric illusion rebelled against the word of Darwin, + accusing him of lowering the human life to the level of the dirt or of + the brute. But a disciple of Darwin gave the right answer, while + propagating the Darwinian theory at the university of Jena. It was + Haeckel, who concluded: "For my part, and so far as my human + consciousness is concerned, I prefer to be an immensely perfected ape + rather than to be a degenerated and debased Adam." +</p> +<p> + Gradually the anthropocentric illusion has been compelled to give way + before the results of science, and today the theories of Darwin have + become established among our ideas. But another illusion still remains, + and science, working in the name of reality, will gradually eliminate + it, namely the illusion that the nineteenth century has established a + permanent order of society. While the geocentric and anthropocentric + illusions have been dispelled, the illusion of the immobility and + eternity of classes still persists. But it is well to remember that in + Holland in the sixteenth century, in England in the seventeenth, in + Europe since the revolution of 1789, we have seen that freedom of + thought in science, literature and art, for which the bourgeoisie + fought, triumphed over the tyranny of the mediaeval dogma. And this + condition, instead of being a glorious but transitory stage, is supposed + to be the end of the development of humanity, which is henceforth + condemned not to perfect itself any more by further changes. This is the + illusion which serves as a fundamental argument against the positive + school of criminology, since it is claimed that a penal justice + enthroned on the foundations of Beccaria and Carrara would be a + revolutionary heresy. It is also this illusion which serves as an + argument against those who draw the logical consequences in regard to + the socialistic future of humanity, for the science which takes its + departure front the work of Copernicus, Galilei and Darwin arrives + logically at socialism. Socialism is but the natural and physical + transformation of the economic and social institutions. Of course, so + long as the geocentric and anthropocentric illusions dominate, it is + natural that the lore of stability should impress itself upon science + and life. How could this living atom, which the human being is, + undertake to change that order of creation, which makes of the earth the + center of the universe and of man the center of life? Not until science + had introduced the conception of a natural formation and transformation, + of the solar system, as well as of the fauna and flora, did the human + mind grasp the idea that thought and action can transform the world. +</p> +<p> + For this reason we believe that the study of the criminal, and the + logical consequences therefrom, will bring about the complete + transformation of human justice, not only as a theory laid down in + scientific books, but also as a practical function applied every day to + that living and suffering portion of humanity which has fallen into + crime. We have the undaunted faith that the work of scientific truth + will transform penal justice into a simple function of preserving + society from the disease of crime, divested of all relics of vengeance, + hatred and punishment, which still survive in our day as living + reminders of the barbarian stage. We still hear the "public vengeance" + invoked against the criminal today, and justice has still for its symbol + a sword, which it uses more than the scales. But a judge born of a woman + cannot weigh the moral responsibility of one who has committed murder or + theft. Not until the experimental and scientific method shall look for + the causes of that dangerous malady, which we call crime, in the + physical and psychic organism, and in the family and the environment, of + the criminal, will justice guided by science discard the sword which now + descends bloody upon those poor fellow-beings who have fallen victims to + crime, and become a clinical function, whose prime object shall be to + remove or lessen in society and individuals the causes which incite to + crime. Then alone will justice refrain from wreaking vengeance, after a + crime has been committed, with the shame of an execution or the + absurdity of solitary confinement. +</p> +<p> + On the one hand, human life depends on the word of a judge, who may err + in the case of capital punishment; and society cannot end the life of a + man, unless the necessity of legitimate self-defense demands it. On the + other hand, solitary confinement came in with the second current of the + classic school of criminology, when at the same time, in which Beccaria + promulgated his ideas, John Howard traveled all over Europe describing + the unmentionable horrors of mass imprisonment, which became a center of + infection for society at large. Then the classic school went to the + other extreme of solitary confinement, after the model of America, + whence we adopted the systems of Philadelphia and Harrisburg in the + first half of the nineteenth century. Isolation for the night is also + our demand, but we object to continuous solitary confinement by day and + night. Pasquale Mancini called solitary confinement "a living grave," in + order to reassure the timorous, when in the name of the classic school, + whose valiant champion he was, he demanded in 1876 the abolition of + capital punishment. Yet in his swan song he recognized that the future + would belong to the positive school of criminology. And it is this + "living grave" against which we protest. It cannot possibly be an act of + human justice to bury a human being in a narrow cell, within four walls, + to prevent this being from having any contact with social life, and to + say to him at the end of his term: Now that your lungs are no longer + accustomed to breathing the open air, now that your legs are no longer + used to the rough roads, go, but take care not, to have a relapse, or + your sentence will be twice as hard. +</p> +<p> + In reality, solitary confinement makes of a human being either a stupid + creature, or a raving beast. And "s'io dico il vero, l'effeto nol + nasconde"—if I speak the truth, the facts will also reveal it—for + criminality increases and expands, honest people remain unprotected, and + those who are struck by the law do not improve, but become ever more + antisocial through the repeated relapses. And so we have that contrast + which I mentioned in the beginning of my lecture, that the theoretical + side of criminal science is so perfected, while criminal conditions are + painfully in evidence. The inevitable conclusion is the necessity of a + progressive transformation of the science of crime and punishment. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_2"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<p> </p> +<h2> + OF CRIMINOLOGY. +</h2> +<h2>II. </h2> +<p> + We saw yesterday in a short historical review that the classic cycle of + the science of crime and punishment, originated by Cesare Beccaria more + than a century ago, was followed in our country, some twenty years + since, by the scientific movement of the positive school of criminology. + Let us see today how this school studied the problem of criminality, + reserving for tomorrow the discussion of the remedies proposal by this + school for the disease of criminality. +</p> +<p> + When a crime is committed in some place, attracting public attention + either through the atrocity of the case or the strangeness of the + criminal deed—for instance, one that is not connected with bloodshed, + but with intellectual fraud—there are at once two tendencies that make + themselves felt in the public conscience. One of them, pervading the + overwhelming majority of individual consciences, asks: How is this? What + for? Why did that man commit such a crime? This question is asked by + everybody and occupies mostly the attention of those who do not look + upon the case from the point of view of criminology. On the other hand, + those who occupy themselves with criminal law represent the other + tendency, which manifests itself when acquainted with the news of this + crime. This is a limited portion of the public conscience, which tries + to study the problem from the standpoint of the technical jurist. The + lawyers, the judges, the officials of the police, ask themselves: What + is the name of the crime committed by that man under such circumstances? + Must it be classed us murder or patricide, attempted or incompleted + manslaughter, and, if directed against property, is it theft, or illegal + appropriation, or fraud? And the entire apparatus of practical criminal + justice forgets at once the first problem, which occupies the majority + of the public conscience, the question of the causes that led to this + crime, in order to devote itself exclusively to the technical side of + the problem which constitutes the juridical anatomy of the inhuman and + antisocial deed perpetrated by the criminal. +</p> +<p> + In these two tendencies you have a photographic reproduction of the two + schools of criminology. The classic school, which looks upon the crime + as a juridical problem, occupies itself with its name, its definition, + its juridical analysis, leaves the personality of the criminal in the + background and remembers it only so far as exceptional circumstances + explicitly stated in the law books refer to it: whether he is a minor, a + deaf-mute, whether it is a case of insanity, whether he was drunk at the + time the crime was committed. Only in these strictly defined cases does + the classic school occupy itself theoretically with the personality of + the criminal. But ninety times in one hundred these exceptional + circumstances do not exist or cannot be shown to exist, and penal + justice limits itself to the technical definition of the fact. But when + the case comes up in the criminal court, or before the jurors, practice + demonstrates that there is seldom a discussion between the lawyers of + the defense and the judges for the purpose of ascertaining the most + exact definition of the fact, of determining whether it is a case of + attempted or merely projected crime, of finding out whether there are + any of the juridical elements defined in this or that article of the + code. The judge is rather face to face with the problem of ascertaining + why, under what conditions, for what reasons, the man has committed the + crime. This is the supreme and simple human problem. But hitherto it has + been left to a more or less perspicacious, more or less gifted, + empiricism, and there have been no scientific standards, no methodical + collection of facts, no observations and conclusions, save those of the + positive school of criminology. This school alone makes an attempt to + solve in every case of crime the problem of its natural origin, of the + reasons and conditions that induced a man to commit such and such a + crime. +</p> +<p> + For instance, about 3,000 cases of manslaughter are registered every + year in Italy. Now, open any work inspired by the classic school of + criminology, and ask the author why 3,000 men are the victims of + manslaughter every year in Italy, and how it is that there are not + sometimes only as many as, say, 300 cases, the number committed in + England, which has nearly the same number of inhabitants as Italy; and + how it is that there are not sometimes 300,000 such cases in Italy + instead of 3,000? +</p> +<p> + It is useless to open any work of classical criminology for this + purpose, for you will not find an answer to these questions in than. No + one, from Beccaria to Carrara, has ever thought of this problem, and + they could not have asked it, considering their point of departure and + their method. In fact, the classic criminologists accept the phenomenon + of criminality as an accomplished fact. They analyze it from the point + of view of the technical jurist, without asking how this criminal fact + may have been produced, and why it repeats itself in greater or smaller + numbers from year to year, in every country. The theory of a free will, + which is their foundation, excludes the possibility of this scientific + question, for according to it the crime is the product of the fiat of + the human will. And if that is admitted as a fact, there is nothing left + to account for. The manslaughter was committed, because the criminal + wanted to commit it; and that is all there is to it. Once the theory of + a free will is accepted as a fact, the deed depends on the fiat, the + voluntary determination, of the criminal, and all is said. +</p> +<p> + But if, on the other hand, the positive school of criminology denies, on + the ground of researches in scientific physiological psychology, that + the human will is free and does not admit that one is a criminal because + he wants to be, but declares that a man commits this or that crime only + when he lives in definitely determined conditions of personality and + environment which induce him necessarily to act in a certain way, then + alone does the problem of the origin of criminality begin to be + submitted to a preliminary analysis, and then alone does criminal law + step out of the narrow and arid limits of technical jurisprudence and + become a true social and human science in the highest and noblest + meaning of the word. It is vain to insist with such stubbornness as that + of the classic school of criminology on juristic formulas by which the + distinction between illegal appropriation and theft, between fraud and + other forms of crime against property, and so forth, is determined, when + this method does not give to society one single word which would throw + light upon the reasons that make a man a criminal and upon the + efficacious remedy by which society could protect itself against + criminality. +</p> +<p> + It is true that the classic school of criminology has likewise its + remedy against crime—namely, punishment. But this is the only remedy of + that school, and in all the legislation inspired by the theories of that + school in all the countries of the civilized world there is no other + remedy against crime but repression. +</p> +<p> + But Bentham has said: Every time that punishment is inflicted it proves + its inefficacy, for it did not prevent the committal of that crime. + Therefore, this remedy is worthless. And a deeper study of the cause of + crime demonstrates that if a man does not commit a certain crime, this + is due to entirely different reasons, than a fear of the penalty, very + strong and fundamental reasons which are not to be found in the threats + of legislators. These threats, if nevertheless carried out by police and + prison keepers, run counter to those conditions. A man who intends to + commit a crime, or who is carried away by a violent passion, by a + psychological hurricane which drowns his moral sense, is not checked by + threats of punishment, because the volcanic eruption of passion prevents + him from reflecting. Or he may decide to commit a crime after due + premeditation and preparation, and in that case the penalty is + powerless to check him, because he hopes to escape with impunity. All + criminals will tell you unanimously that the only thing which impelled + them when they were deliberating a crime was the expectation that they + would go scot free. If they had but the least suspicion that they might + be detected and punished they would not have committed the crime. The + only exception is the case in which a crime is the result of a mental + explosion caused by a violent outburst of passion. And if you wish to + have a very convincing illustration of the psychological inefficacy of + legal threats, you have but to think of that curious crime which has now + assumed a frequency never known to former centuries, namely the making + of counterfeit money. For since paper money—from want or for reasons of + expediency—has become a substitute of metal coin in the civilized + countries, the making of counterfeit paper money has become very + frequent in the nineteenth century. Now a counterfeiter, in committing + his crime, must compel his mind to imitate closely the inscription of + the bill, letter for letter, including that threatening passage, which + says: <i>"The law punishes counterfeiting</i> ..." etc. Can you see before + your mind's eye a counterfeiter, in the act of engraving on the stone or + the others may ignore the penalty that awaits them, but he cannot. This + illustration is convincing, for in cases of other crimes one may always + assume that the criminal acted without thinking of the future, even when + he was not in a transport of passion. But in the case of the + counterfeiter the very act of committing the crime reminds him of the + threat of the law, and yet he is imperturbable while perpetrating it. +</p> +<p> + Crime has its natural causes, which lie outside of that mathematical + point called the free will of the criminal. Aside from being a juridical + phenomenon, which it would be well to examine by itself, every crime is + above all a natural and social phenomenon, and should be studied + primarily as such. We need not go through so hard a course of study + merely for the purpose of walking over the razor edge of juristic + definitions and to find out, for instance, that from the time Romagnosi + made a distinction between incompleted and attempted crime rivers of ink + have been spilled in the attempt to find the distinguishing elements of + these two degrees of crime. And finally, when the German legislator + concluded to make no distinction between incompleted and attempted crime + and to recognize only the completed crime in his code of 1871, we + witnessed the spectacle of Carrara praising that legislator for leaving + that subtile distinction out of his code. A strange conclusion on the + part of a science, which cudgels its brains for a century to find the + marks of distinction between attempted and incompleted crime, and then + praises the legislator for ignoring it. And another classic jurist, + Buccellati, proposed to do away with the theory of attempted crime by + simply defining it as a crime by itself, or as—a violation of police + laws! A science which comes to such conclusions is a science which moves + in metaphysical abstractions, and we shall see that all these finespun + questions which abound in classical science lose all practical value + before the necessity of saving society from the plague of crime. +</p> +<p> + The method which we, on the other hand, have inaugurated is the + following: Before we study crime from the point of view of a juristic + phenomenon, we must study the causes to which the annual recurrence of + crimes in all countries is due. These are natural causes, which I have + classified under the three heads of anthropological, telluric and + social. Every crime, from the smallest to the most atrocious, is the + result of the interaction of these three causes, the anthropological + condition of the criminal, the telluric environment in which he is + living, and the social environment in which he is born, living and + operating. It is a vain beginning to separate the meshes of this net of + criminality. There are still those who would maintain the one-sided + standpoint that the origin of crime may be traced to only one of these + elements, for instance, to the social element alone. So far as I am + concerned, I have combatted this opinion from the very inauguration of + the positive school of criminology, and I combat it today. It is + certainly easy enough to think that the entire origin of all crime is + due to the unfavorable social conditions in which the criminal lives. + But an objective, methodical, observation demonstrates that social + conditions alone do not suffice to explain the origin of criminality, + although it is true that the prevalence of the influence of social + conditions is an incontestable fact in the case of the greater number + of crimes, especially of the lesser ones. But there are crimes which + cannot be explained by the influence of social conditions alone. If you + regard the general condition of misery as the sole source of + criminality, then you cannot get around the difficulty that out of one + thousand individuals living in misery from the day of their birth to + that of their death only one hundred or two hundred become criminals, + while the other nine hundred or eight hundred either sink into + biological weakness, or become harmless maniacs, or commit suicide + without perpetrating any crime. If poverty were the sole determining + cause, one thousand out of one thousand poor ought to become criminals. + If only two hundred become criminals, while one hundred commit suicide, + one hundred end as maniacs, and the other six hundred remain honest in + their social condition, then poverty alone is not sufficient to explain + criminality. We must add the anthropological and telluric factor. Only + by means of these three elements of natural influence can criminality be + explained. Of course, the influence of either the anthropological or + telluric or social element varies from case to case. If you have a case + of simple theft, you may have a far greater influence of the social + factor than of the anthropological factor. On the other hand, if you + have a case of murder, the anthropological element will have a far + greater influence than the social. And so on in every case of crime, and + every individual that you will have to judge on the bench of the + criminal. +</p> +<p> + The anthropological factor. It is precisely here that the genius of + Cesare Lombroso established a new science, because in his search after + the causes of crime he studied the anthropological condition of the + criminal. This condition concerns not only the organic and anatomical + constitution, but also the psychological, it represents the organic and + psychological personality of the criminal. Every one of us inherits at + birth, and personifies in life, a certain organic and psychological + combination. This constitutes the individual factor of human activity, + which either remains normal through life, or becomes criminal or insane. + The anthropological factor, then, must not be restricted, as some laymen + would restrict it, to the study of the form of the skull or the bones + of the criminal. Lombroso had to begin his studies with the anatomical + conditions of the criminal, because the skulls may be studied most + easily in the museums. But he continued by also studying the brain and + the other physiological conditions of the individual, the state of + sensibility, and the circulation of matter. And this entire series of + studies is but a necessary scientific introduction to the study of the + psychology of the criminal, which is precisely the one problem that is + of direct and immediate importance. It is this problem which the lawyer + and the public prosecutor should solve before discussing the juridical + aspect of any crime, for this reveals the causes which induced the + criminal to commit a crime. At present there is no methodical standard + for a psychological investigation, although such an investigation was + introduced into the scope of classic penal law. But for this reason the + results of the positive school penetrate into the lecture rooms of the + universities of jurisprudence, whenever a law is required for the + judicial arraignment of the criminal as a living and feeling human + being. And even though the positive school is not mentioned, all profess + to be studying the material furnished by it, for instance, its analyses + of the sentiments of the criminal, his moral sense, his behavior before, + during and after the criminal act, the presence of remorse which people, + judging the criminal after their own feelings, always suppose the + criminal to feel, while, in fact, it is seldom present. This is the + anthropological factor, which may assume a pathological form, in which + case articles 46 and 47 of the penal code remember that there is such a + thing as the personality of the criminal. However, aside from insanity, + there are thousands of other organic and psychological conditions of the + personality of criminals, which a judge might perhaps lump together + under the name of extenuating circumstances, but which science desires + to have thoroughly investigated. This is not done today, and for this + reason the idea of extenuating circumstances constitutes a denial of + justice. +</p> +<p> + This same anthropological factor also includes that which each one of us + has: the race character. Nowadays the influence of race on the destinies + of peoples and persons is much discussed in sociology, and there are + one-sided schools that pretend to solve the problems of history and + society by means of that racial influence alone, to which they attribute + an absolute importance. But while there are some who maintain that the + history of peoples is nothing but the exclusive product of racial + character, there are others who insist that the social conditions of + peoples and individuals are alone determining. The one is as much a + one-sided and incomplete theory as the other. The study of collective + society or of the single individual has resulted in the understanding + that the life of society and of the individual is always the product of + the inextricable net of the anthropological, telluric and social + elements. Hence the influence of the race cannot be ignored in the study + of nations and personalities, although it is not the exclusive factor + which would suffice to explain the criminality of a nation or an + individual. Study, for instance, manslaughter in Italy, and, although + you will find it difficult to isolate one of the factors of criminality + from the network of the other circumstances and conditions that produce + it, yet there are such eloquent instances of the influence of racial + character, that it would be like denying the existence of daylight if + one tried to ignore the influence of the ethnical factor on + criminality. +</p> +<p> + In Italy there are two currents of criminality, two tendencies which are + almost diametrically opposed to one another. The crimes due to hot blood + and muscle grow in intensity from northern to southern Italy, while the + crimes against property increase from south to north. In northern Italy, + where movable property is more developed, the crime of theft assumes a + greater intensity, while crimes due to conditions of the blood are + decreasing on account of the lesser poverty and the resulting lesser + degeneration of the people. In the south, on the other hand, crimes + against property are less frequent and crimes of blood more frequent. + Still there also are in southern Italy certain cases where criminality + of the blood is less frequent, and you cannot explain this in any other + way than by the influence of racial character. If you take a + geographical map of manslaughter in Italy, you will see that from the + minimum, from Lombardy, Piedmont, and Venice, the intensity increases + until it reaches its maximum in the insular and peninsular extreme of + the south. But even there you will find certain cases in which + manslaughter shows a lesser intensity. +</p> +<p> + For instance, the province of Benevent is surrounded by other provinces + which show a maximum of crimes due to conditions of blood, while it + registers a smaller number. Naples, again, shows a considerably smaller + number of such cases than the provinces surrounding it, but it has a + greater number of unpremeditated cases of manslaughter. Messina, Catania + and Syracuse have a remarkably smaller number of blood crimes than + Trapani, Girgenti and Palermo. It has been attempted to claim that this + difference in criminality is due to social condition's, because the + agricultural conditions in eastern Sicily are less degrading than those + of Girgenti and Trapani, where the sulphur mines compel the miners to + live miserably. But we should like to ask the following question in + opposition to this idea: Why and in what respect are the agricultural + conditions in some provinces better than in others? This condition is + merely itself a result, not a cause of the first degree. +</p> +<p> + Since the theory of historical materialism, which I prefer to call + economic determinism, has demonstrated that political, moral and + intellectual phenomena are reactions on the economic conditions of any + time and place, the attempt has been made to interpret this theory very + narrowly and to pretend that the economic condition of a nation is a + primary cause and not determined by any other. For my part, ever since I + have demonstrated the perfect accord between the Marxian and the + Darwinian theories, I have said: Very well, the economic conditions of a + nation explain its political, moral, intellectual conditions, but the + economic condition is in its turn the result of other factors. For + instance, how can the industrialism of England in the nineteenth century + be explained? Take away the coal mines (the telluric environment), and + you could not have the economic conditions of England as they are. For + the economic conditions are a result of favorable or unfavorable + telluric conditions which are acted upon by the intelligence and energy + of a certain race. Catania, Messina, Syracuse, are in a better economic + condition, because they have better geographical conditions and a + different race (of Grecian blood) than the other Sicilian provinces. So + it is in Apulia and Naples, which have likewise a considerable mixture + of Grecian blood. The northern tourists are still attracted by our art + and visit the ruins of Taormina or Pesto, which are the relics of the + Grecian race. And it is the Grecian blood which explains the lesser + frequency of bloody crimes in those provinces. This is therefore + evidently the influence of the race. And I maintain that the same fact + is due in the province of Benevent to the admixture of Langobardian + blood. For the Duchy of Benevent has had an influx of Langobardian + elements since the seventh century. And as we know that the German and + Anglo-Saxon race has the smallest tendency towards bloody crimes, the + beneficial influence of this racial character in Benevent explains + itself. On the other hand, there is much Saracen blood in the western + and southern provinces of Sicily, and this explains the greater number + of bloody crimes there. It is evident that the organic character of the + inhabitants of that island, where you may still see the brutal and + barbarian features of the Saracen by the side of those of the blond, + cool and quiet Norman, contains a transfusion of the blood of diverse + races. But it is also true that wherever a certain race has been + predominant, there its influence is left behind in the individual and + collective life. +</p> +<p> + Let this be enough so far as the anthropological factor of criminality + is concerned. There are, furthermore, the telluric factors, that is to + say, the physical environment in which we live and to which we pay no + attention. It requires much philosophy, said Rousseau, to note the + things with which we are in daily contact, because the habitual + influence of a thing makes it more difficult to be aware of it. This + applies also to the immediate influence of the physical conditions on + human morality, notwithstanding the spiritualist prejudices which still + weigh upon our daily lives. For instance, if it is claimed in the name + of supernaturalism and psychism that a man is unhappy because he is + vicious, it is equivalent to making a one-sided statement. For it is + just as true to say that a man becomes vicious because he is unhappy. + Want is the strongest poison for the human body and soul. It is the + fountain head of all inhuman and antisocial feeling. Where want spreads + out its wings, there the sentiments of love, of affection, of + brotherhood, are impossible. +</p> +<p> + Take a look at the figures of the peasant in the far-off arid Campagna, + the little government employee, the laborer, the little shop-keeper. + When work is assured, when living is certain, though poor, then want, + cruel want, is in the distance, and every good sentiment can germinate + and develop in the human heart. The family then lives in a favorable + environment, the parents agree, the children are affectionate. And when + the laborer, a bronzed statue of humanity, returns from, his smoky shop + and meets his white-haired mother, the embodiment of half a century of + immaculate virtue and heroic sacrifices, then he can, tired, but assured + of his daily bread, give room to feelings of affection, and he will + cordially invite his mother to share his frugal meal. But let the same + man, in the same environment, be haunted by the spectre of want and lack + of employment, and you will see the moral atmosphere in his family + changing as from day into night. There is no work, and the laborer comes + home without any wages. The wife, who does not know how to feed the + children, reproaches her husband with the suffering of his family. The + man, having been turned away from the doors of ten offices, feels his + dignity as an honest laborer assailed in the very bosom of his own + family, because he has vainly asked society for honest employment. And + the bonds of affection and union are loosened in that family. Its + members no longer agree. There are too many children, and when the poor + old mother approaches her son, she reads in his dark and agitated mien + the lack of tenderness and feels in her mother heart that her boy, + poisoned by the spectre of want, is perhaps casting evil looks at her + and harboring the unfilial thought: "Better an open grave in the + cemetery than one mouth more to feed at home!" +</p> +<p> + It is true, that want alone is not sufficient to prepare the soil in the + environment of that suffering family for the roots of real crime and to + develop it. Want will weaken the love and mutual respect among the + members of that family, but it will not be strong enough alone to arm + the hands of the man for a matricidal deed, unless he should get into a + pathological mental condition, which is very exceptional and rare. But + the conclusions of the positive school are confirmed in this case as in + any other. In order that crime may develop, it is necessary that + anthropological, social and telluric factors should act together. +</p> +<p> + We generally forget the conditions of the physical environment in which + we live, because supernatural prejudice tells us that the body is a + beast which we must forget in order to elevate ourselves into a + spiritual life. Manzoni could designate the Middle Ages by the term + "dirty." because they neglected the demands of elementary hygiene, and + thus of human morality. For where the requirements of our physical body + are neglected or offended, there no flower can bloom. The telluric + environment has a great influence on our physical activity, by way of + our nervous system. We feel differently disposed, according to whether a + south or a north wind blows. When Garibaldi was on the Pampas, he + observed that his companions were irascible and prone to violent + quarrels, when the Pampero blew, and that their behavior changed, when + this wind ceased. The great founders of criminal statistics, Quetelet + and Guerry, observed that the change of seasons carried with it a change + in criminality. Sexual crimes are less frequent in winter than in spring + and summer. And with reference to this point I have maintained, and + still maintain, that it is due to the combined effects of temperature + and social conditions, if crimes against property increase in winter. + For lack of employment, the want of food and shelter, intensify the + misery and lead to attacks on property. On the other hand, the cold by + itself reduces sexual crimes and personal assaults. And those who claim + that the longer intercourse between people in summer time has also a + social influence, are also partly in the right. +</p> +<p> + The most eloquent fact in this respect was mentioned by Murro, when he + pointed out that this change in the frequency of bloody crimes, greater + in the warm months than in winter, applied also to prisoners. Statistics + show that breach of discipline is most frequent in hot seasons. The + social factor does not enter there, because the social life is there the + same in winter and in summer. This is, therefore, a practical proof of + the influence of climate, and it is re-enforced by the fact that + delirium and epilepsy in insane asylums are also more frequent in hot + than in cold months. The influence of the telluric factors, then, cannot + be denied, and the influence of the social factor intensifies it, as I + have already shown by its most drastic and characteristic example, that + of want. One can, therefore, understand that a man, whose morality has + been shaken by the pressure of increasing want, may be led to commit a + crime against property or persons. +</p> +<p> + It is certainly quite evident, that economic misery has an undeniable + influence on criminality. And if you consider, that about 300,000 + criminals are sentenced in Italy every year, 180,000 of them for minor + crimes, and 120,000 for crimes which belong to the gravest class, you + can easily see that the greater part of them due mainly to social + conditions, for which it should not be so very difficult to find a + remedy. The work of the legislator may be slow, difficult, and + inadequate, so far as the telluric and anthropological factors are + concerned. But it could surely be rapid, efficacious and prompt, so far + as the social factors influencing criminality are concerned. +</p> +<p> + We have now demonstrated that crime has its natural source in the + combined interaction of three classes of causes, the anthropological + (organic and psychological) factor, the telluric factor, and the social + factor. And by this last factor we must not only mean want, but any + other condition of administrative instability in political, moral, and + intellectual life. Every social condition which makes the life of man in + society insincere and imperfect is a social factor contributing towards + criminality. The economic factor is in evidence in our civilization + wherever the law of free competition, which is but a form of disguised + cannibalism, establishes the rule: <i>Your death is my life</i>. The + competition of laborers for a limited number of places is equivalent to + saying that those who secure a living do so at the expense of those who + do not. And this is a disguised form of cannibalism. While it does not + devour the competitor as primitive mankind did, it paralyzes him by + calumnies, recommendations, protection, money, which, secure the place + for the best bargainer and leave the most honest, talented, and + self-respecting to the pangs of starvation. +</p> +<p> + Moreover, the economic factor exerts its crime-breeding influence also + under the form of a superabundance of wealth. Indeed, in our present + society, which is in the downward stage of transition from glorious + bourgeois civilization, which constituted a golden page of human + history in the 19th century, wealth itself is a source of crime. For the + rich, who do not enjoy the advantage of manual or intellectual work, + suffer from the corruption of leisure and vice. Gambling throws them + into an unhealthy fever; the struggle and race for money poison their + daily lives. And although the rich may keep out of reach of the penal + code, still they have condemned themselves to a life devoted to + hypocritical ceremonies, which are devoid of moral sentiment. And this + life leads them to a sportive form of criminality. To cheat at gambling + is the inevitable fate of these parasites. In order to kill time they + give themselves up to games of chance, and those who do not care for + that devote themselves to the sport of adultery, which in that class is + a pastime even among the best friends, on account of sheer mental + poverty. And all because man's mind unoccupied is the devil's own forge, + as the English poet says. +</p> +<p> + We have now surveyed briefly the natural genesis of crime, as a natural + social phenomenon, brought about by the interaction of anthropological, + telluric, and social influences, which in any determined moment act + upon a personality standing on the cross road of vice and virtue, crime + and honesty. This scientific deduction gives rise to a series of + investigations which satisfy the mind and supply it with a real + understanding of things, far better than the theory that a man is a + criminal because he wants to be. No, a man commits crime because he + finds himself in certain physical and social conditions, from which the + evil plant of crime takes life and strength. Thus we obtain the origin + of that sad human figure which is the product of the interaction of + those factors, an abnormal man, a man not adapted to the conditions of + the social environment in which he is born, so that emigration becomes + an ever more permanent phenomenon for the greater portion of men, for + whom the accident of birth will less and less determine the course of + their future life. And the abnormal man who is below the minimum of + adaptability to social life and bears the marks of organic degeneration, + develops either a passive or an aggressive form of abnormality and + becomes a criminal. +</p> +<p> + Among these abnormal human beings, two groups must be particularly + distinguished. Limiting our observations to those who are true + aggressively antisocial abnormals, that is to say, who are not adapted + to a certain social order and attack it by crimes, we must distinguish + those who for egoistic or ferocious reasons attack society by atavistic + forms of the struggle for existence by committing socalled common crimes + in the shape of fraud or violence, thereby opposing or abolishing + conditions in which their fellow beings may live. This is the atavistic + type of criminals which represents an involutionary, or retrogressive, + form of abnormality, due to an arrested development or an atavistic + reversion to a savage and primitive type. These constitute the majority + in the world of criminals and must be distinguished from the minority, + who are evolutionary, or progressive, abnormals, that may also commit + crime in a violent form, but must not be confounded with the others, + because they do not act from egoistic motives, but rebel from altruistic + motives against the injustice of the present order. These altruistic + criminals feel the sufferings and horrors due to the injustice + surrounding them and may go so far as to commit murder, which must + always be condemned, but which must not be confounded with atavistic or + egoistic murder. Recourse to personal violence is always objectionable + from the point of view of higher manhood, which desires that human life + should always be held in respect. But the reasons for such a crime are + different, being egoistic in the one, and altruistic in the other case. + The evolutionary abnormal is often an instrument of human progress, not + in the form of criminality, but in that of intellectual and moral + rebellion against conditions which are sanctioned by laws that + frequently punish such an evolutionary rebellion harder than atavistic + crime, as they do in Russia, where capital punishment has been abolished + for common crimes, but retained for political violations of the law! We + are living in an epoch of transition from the old to the new, and + contemporaneous humanity has an uneasy moral conscience in this critical + time. The ruling classes are losing their clearness of vision, so that + they promise monuments to those political murderers who promoted their + own historical victories, but would condemn like any common criminal him + who now devotes his soul to a revolutionary ideal, would throw into + prison the pioneer of new human ideals, just as Russia is + excommunicating the rebel Tolstoi. I mention Leo Tolstoi advisedly for + the purpose of giving a precise illustration of my heterodox thought in + reference to this question. We are opposed to any form of personal + violence (with the sole exception of self-defense), we cannot approve of + any form of personal assault, no matter what may be its motive. + Therefore we cannot have words of praise or excuse for political murder, + though it may be inspired by altruistic motives. We can demand that the + legislator should distinguish between the psychological sources of these + two forms of murder, the egoistic and the altruistic form. But we + condemn them both, because they are inhuman forms of violence. Ideas do + not make victorious headway by force of arms. Ideas must be combatted by + ideas, and it is only by the propaganda of the idea that we can prepare + humanity for its future. Violence is always a means of preventing the + sincere and fruitful diffusion of an idea. We do not say this merely for + the abnormals of the lower classes. We refer with scientific serenity + also to the upper classes, who would suppress by violence every + manifestation of revolt against the social iniquities, every affirmation + of faith in a better future. +</p> +<p> + This is the conception of our science, which thus succeeds in + distinguishing traits of character even among the unlucky and forlorn + people of the criminal world, while the classic school of criminology + regards a criminal as a sort of abstract and normal man, with the + exception of cases of minors, deaf mutes, inebriates, and maniacs. +</p> +<p> + In fact, the classic school of criminology regards all thieves as THE + thief, all murderers as THE murderer, and the human shape disappears in + the mind of the legislator, while it re-appears before the judge. Before + the essayist and legislator, the criminal is a sort of moving dummy, on + whose hack the judge may paste an article of the penal code. If you + leave out of consideration the established cases of exceptional and rare + human psychology mentioned in the penal code, all other cases serve the + judge merely as an excuse to select from the criminal code the number of + that article which will fit the criminal dummy, and if he should paste + 404 instead of 407 on its back, the court of appeals would resist, any + change of numbers. And if this dummy came to life and said: "The + question of my number may be very important for you, but if you would + study all the conditions that compelled me to take other people's + things, you would realize that this importance is very diagrammatic," + the judge would answer: "That's all right for the justice of the future, + but it isn't now. You are number 404 of the criminal code, and after + leaving this court room with this number pasted legally on your back, + you will receive another number, for you will enter prison as number 404 + and will exchange it for entry number 1525, or some other, because your + personality as a man disappears entirely before the enactment of social + justice!" And then it is pretended that this man, whose personality is + thus absurdly ignored, should leave prison cured of all degeneration, + and if he falls back into the path of thorns of his misery and commits + another crime, the judge simply pastes another article over the other, + by adding number 80 or 81, which refer to cases of relapse, to number +</p> +<center> + 404! +</center> +<p> + In this way the classic school of criminology came to its unit of + punishment, which it heralded as its great progress. In the Middle + Ages, the diversity of punishment was greater. But in the 19th century + the classic school of criminology combatted dishonoring punishment, + corporeal punishment, confiscation, professional punishment, capital + punishment, with its ideal of one sole penalty, the only panacea for + crime and criminals, <i>prison</i>. +</p> +<p> + We have, indeed, prohibitory measures and fines even today. But in + substance the whole punitive armory is reduced to imprisonment, since + fines are likewise convertible into so many days or months of + imprisonment. Solitary confinement is the ideal of the classic school of + criminology. But experience proves that this penalty has as much effect + on the disease of criminality, as the remedy of a physician would have, + who would sit in the door of a hospital and tell every patient seeking + relief: "Whatever may be your disease, I have only one medicine and that + is a decoction of rhubarb. You have heart trouble? Well, then, the + problem for me is simply—how big a dose of rhubarb decoction shall I + give you?" +</p> +<p> + And measuring doses of penalty is the foundation of the criminal code. + That is so true that this code is in its last analysis but a table of + criminal logarithms for figuring out penalties. Woe to the judge who + makes a mistake in sentencing a 19 year old offender who was drunk when + he sinned, but had premeditated his deed. Woe to the judge, if he misses + his calculation in adding or subtracting the third, or sixth, or one + half, corresponding to the prescribed extenuating or aggravating + circumstances! If he makes a miscalculation, the court of appeals is + invoked by the defendant, and the inexorable court of appeals tells the + judge: "Figure this over again. You have been unjust." The only question + for the judge is this: Add your sums and subtract your deductions, and + the prisoner is sentenced to one year, seven months, and thirteen days. + Not one day more or less! But the human spectator asks: "If the criminal + should happen to be reformed before the expiration of his term, should + he be retained in prison?" The judge replies: "I don't care, he stays in + one year, seven months, and thirteen days!" +</p> +<p> + Then the human spectator says: "But suppose the criminal should not yet + be fit for human society at the expiration of his term?" The judge + replies: "At the expiration of his term he leaves prison, for when he + has absolved his last day, he has paid his debt!" +</p> +<p> + This is the same case as that of the imaginary physician who says: "You + have heart trouble? Then take a quart of rhubarb decoction and stay + twelve days in the hospital." Another patient says: "I have broken my + leg." And the doctor: "All right, take a pint of rhubarb decoction and + 17 days in the hospital." A third has inflammation of the lungs, and the + doctor prescribes three quarts of rhubarb decoction and three months in + the hospital. "But if my inflammation is cured before that time?" "No + matter," says the doctor, "you stay in three months." "But if I am not + cured of my lung trouble after three months?" "No matter," says the + doctor, "you leave after three months." +</p> +<p> + To such results have wise men been led by a system of penal justice, + which is a denial of all elementary common sense. They have forgotten + the personality of the criminal and occupied themselves exclusively with + crime as an abstract juristic phenomenon. In the same manner, the old + style medicine occupied itself with disease as such, as an abstract + pathological phenomenon, without taking into account the personality of + the patient. The ancient physicians did not consider whether a patient + was well or ill nourished, young or old, strong or weak, nervous or + fullblooded. They cured fever as fever, pleurisy as pleurisy. Modern + medicine, on the other hand, declares that disease must be studied in + the living person of the patient. And the same disease may require + different treatment, if the condition of the patient is different. +</p> +<p> + Criminal justice has taken the same historical course of development as + medicine. The classic school of criminology is still in the same stage, + in which medicine was before the middle of the 19th century. It deals + with theft, murder, fraud, as such. But that which claims so much of the + attention of society has been forgotten by the classic school. For that + school has forgotten to study the murderer, the thief, the forger, and + without that study their crimes cannot be understood. +</p> +<p> + Crime is one of the conditions required for the study of the criminal. + But, the same crime may require the application of different remedies + to the personalities of different criminals, according to the different + anthropological and social conditions of the various criminals. There is + a fundamental distinction between the anthropological and social types + of criminals, whom I have divided into five categories, which are today + unanimously accepted by criminalist anthropologists, since the Geneva + congress offered an opportunity to explain the misapprehension which led + some foreign scientists to believe that the Italian school regarded one + of these types (the born criminal) merely as an organic anomaly. +</p> +<p> + Just a word concerning each one of these five types. +</p> +<p> + The <i>born criminal</i> is a victim of that which I will call (seeing that + science has not yet solved this problem) criminal neurosis, which is + very analogous to epileptic neurosis, but which is not in itself + sufficient to make one a criminal. Our adversaries had the idea that the + mere possession of a crooked nose or a slanting skull stamped a man as + predisposed by birth to murder or theft. But a man may he a born + criminal, that is to say, he may have some congenital degeneration which + predisposes him toward crime, and yet he may die at the age of 80 + without having committed any crime, because he was fortunate enough to + live in an environment which did not offer him any temptation to commit + crime. Again, are not many predisposed toward insanity without ever + becoming insane? If the same individual were to live under unfavorable + conditions, without any education, if he were to find himself in + unhealthy telluric surroundings, in a mine, a rice field, or a miasmatic + swamp, he would become insane. But if instead of living in conditions + that condemn him to lunacy he were to be under no necessity to struggle + for his daily bread, if he could live in affluence, he might exhibit + some eccentricity of character, but would not cross the threshold of an + insane asylum. The same happens in the case of criminality. One may have + a congenital predisposition toward crime, but if he lives in favorable + surroundings, he will live to the end of his natural life without + violating any criminal or moral law. At any rate we must drop the + prejudice that only those are criminals on whose backs the judge has + pasted a number. For there are many scoundrels at large who commit crime + with impunity, or who brush the edge of the criminal law in the most + repulsive immorality without violating it. +</p> +<p> + This misunderstanding was explained at the congress of Geneva by the + statement that the interaction of the social and telluric environment is + required also in the case of the born criminal. And now we may take it + for granted that my classification of five types is everywhere accepted. + These are the following: The <i>born criminal</i> who has a congenital + predisposition for crime; the <i>insane criminal</i> suffering from some + clinical form of mental alienation, and whom even our existing penal + code had to recognize; the <i>habitual criminal</i>, that is to say one who + has acquired the habit of crime mainly through the ineffective measures + employed by society for the prevention and repression of crime. A common + figure in our large industrial centers is that of the abandoned child + which has to go begging from its earliest youth in order to collect an + income for the enterprising boss or for its poor family, without an + opportunity to educate its moral sense in the filth of the streets. It + is punished for the first time by the law and sent to prison or to a + reformatory, where it is inevitably corrupted. Then, when such an + individual comes out of prison, he is stigmatized as a thief or forger, + watched by the police, and if he secures work in some shop, the owner is + indirectly induced to discharge him, so that he must inevitably fall + back upon crime. +</p> +<p> + Thus one acquires crime as a habit, a product of social rottenness, due + to the ineffective measures for the prevention and repression of crime. + There is furthermore the <i>occasional criminal</i>, who commits very + insignificant criminal acts, more because he is led astray by his + conditions of life than because the aggressive energy of a degenerate + personality impels him. If he is not made worse by a prison life, he may + find an opportunity to return to a normal life in society. Finally there + is the <i>passionate criminal,</i> who, like the insane criminal, has + received attention from the positive school of criminology; which, + however, did not come to any definite conclusions regarding him, such as + may be gathered by means of the experimental method through study in + prisons, insane asylums, or in freedom. The relations between passion + and crime have so far been studied on a field in which no solution was + possible. For the classic school considers such a crime according to + the greater or smaller intensity and violence of passion and comes to + the conclusion that the degree of responsibility decreases to the extent + that the intensity of a passion increases, and vice versa. The problem + cannot be solved in this way. There are passions which may rise to the + highest degree of intensity without reducing the responsibility. For + instance, is one who murders from motives of revenge a passionate + criminal who must be excused? +</p> +<p> + The classic school of criminology says "No," and for my part I agree + with them. Francesco Carrara says: "There are blind passions, and others + which are reasonable. Blind passions deprive one of free will, + reasonable ones do not. Blind and excusable passions are fear, honor, + love, reasonable and inexcusable ones are hatred and revenge." But how + so? I have studied murderers who killed for revenge and who told me that + the desire for revenge took hold of them like a fever, so that they + "forgot even to eat." Hate and revenge can take possession of a man to + such an extent that he becomes blind with passion. The truth is that + passion must be considered not so far as its violence or quantity are + concerned, but rather as to its quality. We must distinguish between + social and anti-social passion, the one favoring the conditions of life + for the species and collectivity, the other antagonistic to the + development of the collectivity. In the first case, we have love, + injured honor, etc, which are passions normally useful to society, and + aberrations of which may be excused more or less according to individual + cases. On the other hand, we have inexcusable passions, because their + psychological tendency is to antagonize the development of society. They + are antisocial, and cannot be excused, and hate and revenge are among + them. +</p> +<p> + The positive school therefore admits that a passion is excusable, when + the moral sense of a man is normal, when his past record is clear, and + when his crime is due to a social passion, which makes it excusable. +</p> +<p> + We shall see tomorrow what remedies the positive school of criminology + proposes for each one of these categories of criminals, in distinction + from the measuring of doses of imprisonment advocated by the classic + school. +</p> +<p> + We have thus exhausted in a short and general review the subject of the + natural origin of criminality.—To sum up, crime is a social + phenomenon, due to the interaction of anthropological, telluric, and + social factors. This law brings about what I have called criminal + saturation, which means that every society has the criminality which it + deserves, and which produces by means of its geographical and social + conditions such quantities and qualities of crime as correspond to the + development of each collective human group. +</p> +<p> + Thus the old saying of Imetelet is confirmed: "There is an annual + balance of crime, which must be paid and settled with greater regularity + than the accounts of the national revenue." However, we positivists give + to this statement a less fatalistic interpretation, since we have + demonstrated that crime is not our immutable destiny, even though it is + a vain beginning to attempt to attenuate or eliminate crime by mere + schemes. The truth is that the balance of crime is determined by the + physical and social environment. But by changing the condition of the + social environment, which is most easily modified, the legislator may + alter the influence of the telluric environment and the organic and + psychic conditions of the population, control the greater portion of + crimes, and reduce them considerably. It is our firm conviction that a + truly civilized legislator can attenuate the plague of criminality, not + so much by means of the criminal code, as by means of remedies which are + latent in the remainder of the social life and of legislation. And the + experience of the most advanced countries confirms this by the + beneficent and preventive influence of criminal legislation resting on + efficacious social reforms. +</p> +<p> + We arrive, then, at this scientific conclusion: In the society of the + future, the necessity for penal justice will be reduced to the extent + that social justice grows intensively and extensively. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_3"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<p> </p> +<h2> + III. +</h2> +<p> + In the preceding two lectures, I have given you a short review of the + new current in scientific thought, which studies the painful and + dangerous phenomena of criminality. We must now draw the logical + conclusions, in theory and practice, from the teachings of experimented + science, for the removal of the gangrenous plague of crime. Under the + influence of the positive methods of research, the old formula "Science + for science's sake" has given place to the new formula "Science for + life's sake." For it would be useless for the human mind to retreat into + the vault of philosophical concentration, if this intellectual mastery + did not produce as a counter-effect a beneficent wave of real + improvement in the destinies of the human race. +</p> +<p> + What, then, has the civilized world to offer in the way of remedies + against criminality? The classic school of criminology, being unable to + locate in the course of its scientific and historical mission the + natural causes of crime, as I have shown in the preceding lectures, was + not in a position to deal in a comprehensive and far-seeing manner with + this problem of the remedy against criminality. Some of the classic + criminologists, such as Bentham, Romagnosi, or Ellero, with a more + positive bent of mind than others, may have given a little of their + scientific activity to the analysis of this problem, namely the + prevention of crime. But Ellero himself had to admit that "the classic + school of criminology has written volumes concerning the death penalty + and torture, but has produced but a few pages on the prevention of + criminality." The historical mission of that school consisted in a + reduction of punishment. For being born on the eve of the French + revolution in the name of individualism and natural rights, it was a + protest against the barbarian penalties of the Middle Ages. And thus the + practical and glorious result of the classic school was a propaganda for + the abolition of the most brutal penalties of the Middle Ages, such as + the death penalty, torture, mutilation. We in our turn now follow up the + practical and scientific mission of the classic school of criminology + with a still more noble and fruitful mission by adding to the problem of + the <i>diminution of penalties</i> the problem of the <i>diminution of crimes</i>. + It is worth more to humanity to reduce the number of crimes than to + reduce the dread sufferings of criminal punishments, although even this + is a noble work, after the evil plant of crime has been permitted to + grow in the realm of life. Take, for instance, the philanthropic + awakening due to the Congress of Geneva in the matter of the Red Cross + Society, for the care, treatment and cure of the wounded in war. However + noble and praiseworthy this mission may be, it would be far nobler and + better to prevent war than to heal the mutilated and wounded. If the + same zeal and persistence, which have been expended in the work of the + Red Cross Society, had been devoted to the realization of international + brotherhood, the weary road of human progress would show far better + results. +</p> +<p> + It is a noble mission to oppose the ferocious penalties of the Middle + Ages. But it is still nobler to forestall crime. The classic school of + criminology directed its attention merely to penalties, to repressive + measures after crime had been committed, with all its terrible moral + and material consequences. For in the classic school, the remedies + against criminality have not the social aim of improving human life, but + merely the illusory mission of retributive justice, meeting a moral + delinquency by a corresponding punishment in the shape of legal + sentences. This is the spirit which is still pervading criminal + legislation, although there is a sort of eclectic compromise between the + old and the new. The classic school of criminology has substituted for + the old absolutist conceptions of justice the eclectic theory that + absolute justice has the right to punish, but a right modified by the + interests of civilized life in present society. This is the point + discussed in Italy in the celebrated controversy between Pasquale + Stanislao Mancini and Terencio Mamiani, in 1847. This is in substance + the theory followed by the classic criminologists who revised the penal + code, which public opinion considers incapable of protecting society + against the dangers of crime. And we have but to look about us in the + realities of contemporaneous life in order to see that the criminal code + is far from being a remedy against crime, that it remedies nothing, + because either premeditation or passion in the person of the criminal + deprive the criminal law of all prohibitory power. The deceptive faith + in the efficacy of criminal law still lives in the public mind, because + every normal man feels that the thought of imprisonment would stand in + his way, if he contemplated tomorrow committing a theft, a rape, or a + murder. He feels the bridle of the social sense. And the criminal code + lends more strength to it and holds him back from criminal actions. But + even if the criminal code did not exist, he would not commit a crime, so + long as his physical and social environment would not urge him in that + direction. The criminal code serves only to isolate temporarily from + social intercourse those who are not considered worthy of it. And this + punishment prevents the criminal for a while from repeating his criminal + deed. But it is evident that the punishment is not imposed until after + the deed has been done. It is a remedy directed against effects, but it + does not touch the causes, the roots, of the evil. +</p> +<p> + We may say that in social life penalties have the same relation to crime + that medicine has to disease. After a disease has developed in an + organism, we have recourse to a physician. But he cannot do anything + else but to reach the effects in some single individual. On the other + hand, if the individual and the collectivity had obeyed the rules of + preventive hygiene, the disease would have been avoided 90 times in 100, + and would have appeared only in extreme and exceptional cases, where a + wound or an organic condition break through the laws of health. Lack of + providence on the part of man, which is due to insufficient expression + of the forces of the intellect and pervades so large a part of human + life, is certainly to blame for the fact that mankind chooses to use + belated remedies rather than to observe the laws of health, which demand + a greater methodical control of one's actions and more foresight, + because the remedy must be applied before the disease becomes apparent. + I say occasionally that human society acts in the matter of criminality + with the same lack of forethought that most people do in the matter of + tooth-ache. How many individuals do not suffer from tooth-ache, + especially in the great cities? And yet any one convinced of the + miraculous power of hygiene could easily clean his teeth every day and + prevent the microbes of tooth rot from thriving, thereby saving his + teeth from harm and pain. But it is tedious to do this every day. It + implies a control of one's self. It cannot be done without the + scientific conviction that induces men to acquire this habit. Most + people say: "Oh well, if that tooth rots, I'll bear the pain." But when + the night comes in which they cannot sleep for toothache, they will + swear at themselves for not having taken precautions and will run to the + dentist, who in most cases cannot help them any more. +</p> +<p> + The legislator should apply the rules of social hygiene in order to + reach the roots of criminality. But this would require that he should + bring his mind and will to bear daily on a legislative reform of + individual and social life, in the field of economics and morals as well + as in that of administration, politics, and intelligence. Instead of + that, the legislators permit the microbes of criminality to develop + their pathogenic powers in society. When crimes become manifest, the + legislator knows no other remedy but imprisonment in order to punish an + evil which he should have prevented. Unfortunately this scientific + conviction is not yet rooted and potent in the minds of the legislators + of most of the civilized countries, because they represent on an + average the backward scientific convictions of one or two previous + generations. The legislator who sits in parliament today was the + university student of 30 years ago. With a few very rare exceptions he + is supplied only with knowledge of outgrown scientific research. It is a + historical law that the work of the legislator is always behind the + science of his time. But nevertheless the scientist has the urgent duty + to spread the conviction that hygiene is worth as much on the field of + civilization as it is in medicine for the public health. +</p> +<p> + This is the fundamental conviction at which the positive school arrives: + That which has happened in medicine will happen in criminology. The + great value of practical hygiene, especially of social hygiene, which is + greater than that of individual hygiene, has been recognized after the + marvelous scientific discoveries concerning the origin and primitive + causes of the most dangerous diseases. So long as Pasteur and his + disciples had not given to the world their discovery of the pathogenic + microbes of all infectious diseases, such as typhoid fever, cholera, + diphtheria, tuberculosis, etc, more or less absurd remedies were + demanded of the science of medicine. I remember, for instance, that I + was compelled in my youth, during an epidemic of cholera, to stay in a + closed room, in which fumigation was carried on with substances + irritating the bronchial tubes and lungs without killing the cholera + microbes, as was proved later on. It was not until the real causes of + those infectious diseases were discovered, that efficient remedies could + be employed against them. An aqueduct given to a center of population + like Naples is a better protection against cholera than drugs, even + after the disease has taken root in the midst of the people of Naples. + This is the modern lesson which we wish to teach in the field of + criminology, a field which will always retain its repressive functions + as an exceptional and ultimate refuge, because we do not believe that we + shall succeed in eliminating all forms of criminality. Hence, if a crime + manifests itself, repression may be employed as one of the remedies of + criminology, but it should be the very last, not the exclusively + dominating one, as it is today. +</p> +<p> + It is this blind worship of punishment which is to blame for the + spectacle which we witness in every modern country, the spectacle that + the legislators neglect the rules of social hygiene and wake up with a + start when some form of crime becomes acute, and that they know of no + better remedy than an intensification of punishment meeted out by the + penal code. If one year of imprisonment is not enough, we'll make it ten + years, and if an aggravation of the ordinary penalty is not enough, + we'll pass a law of exception. It is always the blind trust in + punishment which remains the only remedy of the public conscience and + which always works to the detriment of morality and material welfare, + because it does not save the society of honest people and strikes + without curing those who have fallen a prey to guilt and crime. +</p> +<p> + The positive school of criminology, then, aside from the greater value + attributed to daily and systematic measures of social hygiene for the + prevention of criminality, comes to radically different conclusions also + in the matter of repressive justice. The classic school has for a + cardinal remedy against crime a preference for one kind of punishment, + namely imprisonment, and gives fixed and prescribed doses of this + remedy. It is the logical conclusion of retributive justice that it + travels by way of an illusory purification from moral guilt to the legal + responsibility of the criminal and thence on to a corresponding dose of + punishment, which has been previously prescribed and fixed. +</p> +<p> + We, on the other hand, hold that even the surviving form of repression, + which will be inevitable in spite of the application of the rules of + social prevention, should be widely different, on account of the + different conception which we have of crime and of penal justice. +</p> +<p> + In the majority of cases composed of minor crimes committed by people + belonging to the most numerous and least dangerous class of occasional + or passionate criminals, the only form of civil repression will be <i>the + compensation of the victim for his loss</i>. According to us, this should + he the only form of penalty imposed in the majority of minor crimes + committed by people who are not dangerous. In the present practice of + justice the compensation of the victim for his loss has become a + laughing stock, because this victim is systematically forgotten. The + whole attention of the classic school has been concentrated on the + juridical entity of the crime. The victim of the crime has been + forgotten, although this victim deserves philanthropic sympathy more + than the criminal who has done the harm. It is true, every, judge adds + to the sentence the formula that the criminal is responsible for the + injury and the costs to another authority. But the process of law puts + off this compensation to an indefinite time, and if the victim succeeds + a few years after the passing of the sentence in getting any action on + the matter, the criminal has in the meantime had a thousand legal + subterfuges to get away with his spoils. And thus the law itself becomes + the breeding ground of personal revenge, for Filangieri says aptly that + an innocent man grasps the dagger of the murderer, when the sword of + justice does not defend him. +</p> +<p> + Let us say at this point that the rigid application of compensation for + damages should never be displaced by imprisonment, because this would be + equivalent to sanctioning a real class distinction, for the rich can + laugh at damages, while the proletarian would have to make good a + sentence of 1000 lire by 100 days in prison, and in the meantime the + innocent family that tearfully waits for him outside, would be plunged + into desperate straits. Compensation for damages should never take + place in any other way than by means of the labor of the prisoner to an + extent satisfactory to the family of the injured. It has been attempted + to place this in an eclectic way on our law books, but this proposition + remains a dead letter and is not applied in Italy, because a stroke of + legislator's pen is not enough to change the fate of an entire nation. +</p> +<p> + These practical and efficient measures would be taken in the case of + lesser criminals. For the graver crimes committed by atavistic or + congenital criminals, of by persons inclining toward crime from acquired + habit or mental alienation, the positive school of criminology reserves + segregation for an indefinite time, for it is absurd to fix the time + beforehand in the case of a dangerous degenerate who has committed a + grave crime. +</p> +<p> + The question of indeterminate sentences has been recently discussed also + by Pessina, who combats it, of course, because the essence of the + classic school of criminology is retribution for a fault by means of + corresponding punishment. We might reply that no human judge can use any + other but the grossest scale by which to determine whether you are + responsible to the extent of the whole, one half, or one third. And + since there is no absolute or objective criterion by which the ratio of + crime to punishment can be determined, penal justice becomes a game of + chance. But we content ourselves by pointing out that segregation for an + indefinite time has so much truth in it, that even the most orthodox of + the classic school admit it, for instance in the case of criminals under + age. Now, if an indeterminate sentence is a violation of the principles + of the classic school, I cannot understand why it can be admitted in the + case of minors, but not in the case of adults. This is evidently an + expedient imposed by the exigencies of practical life, and only the + positive school of criminology can meet them by a logical + systematization. For the rest, indefinite segregation, such as we + propose for the most dangerous atavistic criminals, is a measure which + is already in use for ordinary lunatics as well us for criminal + lunatics. But it may be said that this is an administrative measure, not + a court sentence. Well, if any one is so fond of formulas as to make + this objection, he may get all the fun out of them that he likes. But it + is a fact that an insane person who has committed a crime is sent to a + building with iron bars on its gates such as a prison has. You may call + it an administrative building or a penal institute, the name is + unessential, for the substance alone counts. We maintain that congenital + or pathological criminals cannot be locked up for a definite term in any + institution, but should remain there until they are adapted for the + normal life of society. +</p> +<p> + This radical reform of principles carries with it a radical + transformation of details. Given an indeterminate segregation, there + should be organs of guardianship for persons so secluded, for instance + permanent committees for the periodical revision of sentences. In the + future, the criminal judge will always secure ample evidence to prove + whether a defendant is really guilty, for this is the fundamental point. + If it is certain that he has committed the crime, he should either be + excluded from social intercourse or sentenced to mate good the damage, + provided the criminal is not dangerous and the crime not grave. It is + absurd to sentence a man to five or six days imprisonment for some + insignificant misdemeanor. You lower him in the eyes of the public, + subject him to surveillance by the police, and send him to prison from + whence he will go out more corrupted than he was on entering it. It is + absurd to impose segregation in prison for small errors. Compensation + for injuries is enough. For the segregation of the graver criminals, the + management must be as scientific as it is now in insane asylums. It is + absurd to place an old pensioned soldier or a hardened bureaucrat at the + head of a penal institution. It is enough to visit one of those + compulsory human beehives and to see how a military discipline carries a + brutal hypocrisy into it. The management of such institutions must be + scientific, and the care of their inmates must be scientific, since a + grave crime is always a manifestation of the pathological condition of + the individual. In America there are already institutions, such as the + Elmira Reformatory, where the application of the methods of the positive + school of criminology has been solemnly promised. The director of the + institution is a psychologist, a physician. When a criminal under age is + brought in, he is studied from the point of view of physiology and + psychology. The treatment serves to regenerate the plants who, being + young, may still be straightened up. Scientific therapeutics can do + little for relapsed criminals. The present repression of crime robs the + prisoner of his personality and reduces him to a number, either in mass + imprisonment which corrupts him completely, or in solitary confinement, + which will turn him into a stupid or raving beast. +</p> +<p> + These methods are also gradually introduced in the insane asylums. I + must tell you a little story to illustrate this. When I was a professor + in Pisa, eight years ago, I took my students to the penitentiaries and + the asylum for the criminal insane in Montelupo, as I always used to do. + Dr. Algieri, the director of this asylum, showed us among others a very + interesting case. This was a man of about 45, whose history was shortly + the following: He was a bricklayer living in one of the cities of + Toscana. He had been a normal and honest man, a very good father, until + one unlucky day came, in which a brick falling from a factory broke a + part of his skull. He fell down unconscious, was picked up, carried to + the hospital, and cured of his external injury, but lost both his + physical and moral health. He became an epileptic. +</p> +<p> + And the lesion to which the loss of the normal function of his nervous + system was due transformed him from the docile and even-tempered man + that he had been into a quarrelsome and irritable individual, so that + he was less regular in his work, less moral and honest in his family + life, and was finally sentenced for a grave assault in a saloon brawl. + He was condemned as a common criminal to I don't know how many years of + imprisonment. But in prison, the exceptional conditions of seclusion + brought on a deterioration of his physical and moral health, his + epileptic fits became more frequent, his character grew worse. The + director of the prison sent him to the asylum for the insane criminals + at Montelupo, which shelters criminals suspected of insanity and insane + criminals. +</p> +<p> + Dr. Algieri studied the interesting case and came to the diagnosis that + there was splinter of bone in the man's brain which had not been noticed + in the treatment at the hospital, and that this was the cause of the + epilepsy and demoralization of the prisoner. He trepanned a portion of + the skull around the old wound and actually found a bone splinter lodged + in the man's brain. He removed the splinter, and put a platinum plate + over the trepanned place to protect the brain. The man improved, the + epileptic fits ceased, his moral condition became as normal as before, + and this bricklayer (how about the free will?) was dismissed from the + asylum, for he had given proofs of normal behavior for about five or six + months, thanks to the wisdom of the doctor who had relieved him of the + lesion which had made him epileptic and immoral. If this asylum for + insane criminals had not been in existence, he would have ended in a + padded cell, the same as another man whom I and my students saw a few + years ago in the Ancona penitentiary. The director, an old soldier, said + to me: "Professor, I shall show you a type of human beast. He is a man + who passes four fifths of the year in a padded cell." After calling six + attendants, "because we must be careful," we went to the cell, and I + said to that director: "Please, leave this man to me. I have little + faith in the existence of human beasts. Keep the attendants at a + distance." "No," replied the director, "my responsibility does not + permit me to do that." +</p> +<p> + But I insisted. The cell was opened, and the man came out of it really + like a wild beast with bulging eyes and distorted face. But I met him + with a smile and said to him kindly: "How are you?" This change of + treatment immediately changed the attitude of the man. He first had a + nervous fit and then broke into tears and told me his story with the + eloquence of suffering. He said that he had some days in which he was + not master of himself, but he recognized that he was good whenever the + attacks of temper were over. Without saying so, he thus invoked the + wisdom of human psychology for better treatment. There is indeed a + physician in those prisons, but he treats generally only the ordinary + diseases and is not familiar with special psychological knowledge. There + may be exceptions, and in that case it is a lucky coincidence. But the + prison doctor has also his practice outside and hurries through his + prison work. "They simulate sickness in order to get out of prison," he + says. And this will be so all the more that the physicians of our time + have not sufficient training in psychology to enable them to do justice + to the psychology of the criminal. +</p> +<p> + You must, therefore, give a scientific management to these institutions, + and you will then render humane even the treatment of those grave and + dangerous criminals, whose condition cannot be met by a simple + compensation of the injury they have done to others. +</p> +<p> + This is the function of repression as we look upon it, an inevitable + result of the positive data regarding the natural origin of crime. +</p> +<p> + We believe, in other words, that repression will play but an unimportant + role in the future. We believe that every branch of legislation will + come to prefer the remedies of social hygiene to those symptomatic + remedies and apply them from day to day. And thus we come to the theory + of the prevention of crime. Some say: "it is better to repress than to + prevent." Others say: "It is better to prevent than to repress." In + order to solve this conflict we must remember that there are two widely + different kinds of repression. There is the immediate, direct empirical + repression, which does not investigate the cause of criminality, but + waits until the crime is about to be committed. That is police + prevention. There is on the other hand a social prevention which has an + indirect and more remote function, which does not wait until crime is + about to be committed, but locates the causes of crime in poverty, + abandoned children, trampdom, etc, and seeks to prevent these + conditions by remote and indirect means. In Italy, prevention is + anonymous with arrest. That is to say, by repression is understood only + police repression. Under these circumstances, it is well to take it for + granted that some of the expected crimes will be carried out, for crimes + are not committed at fixed periods after first informing the police. The + damage done by criminality, and especially by political and social + criminality, against which police repression is particularly directed, + will be smaller than that done by the abuse inseparably connected with + police power. In the case of atavistic criminality, prevention does not + mean handcuffing of the man who is about to commit a crime, but devising + such economic and educational measures in the family and administration + as will eliminate the causes of crime or attenuate them, precisely + because punishment is less effective than prevention. +</p> +<p> + In other words, in order to prevent crime, we must have recourse to + measures which I have called "substitutes for punishment," and which + prevent, the development of crime, because they go to the source in + order to do away with effects. +</p> +<p> + Bentham narrates that the postal service in England, in the 18th + century, was in the hands of stage drivers, but this service was not + connected with the carrying of passengers, as became the custom later. + And then it was impossible to get the drivers to arrive on time, + because they stopped too often at the inns. Fines were imposed, + imprisonment was resorted to, yet the drivers arrived late. The + penalties did not accomplish any results so long as the causes remained. + Then the idea was conceived to carry passengers on the postal stages, + and that stopped the drivers from being late, because whenever they made + a halt, the passengers, who had an interest in arriving on time, called + the drivers and did not give them much time to linger. This is an + illustration of a substitute for punishment. +</p> +<p> + Another illustration. In the Middle Ages, up to the eve of our modern + civilization, piracy was in vogue. Is there anything that was not tried + to suppress piracy? The pirates were persecuted like wild beasts. + Whenever they were caught they were condemned to the most terrible forms + of death. Yet piracy continued. Then came the application of steam + navigation, and piracy disappeared as by magic. And robbery and + brigandage? They withstood the death penalty and extraordinary raids by + soldiers. And we witness today the spectacle of a not very serious + contest between the police who wants to catch a brigand, Musolino; and + a brigand who does not wish to be caught. +</p> +<p> + Wherever the woods are not traversed by railroads or tramways, + brigandage carries on its criminal trade. But wherever railroads and + tramways exist, brigandage is a form of crime which disappears. You may + insist on death penalties and imprisonment, but assault and robbery will + continue, because it is connected with geographical conditions. Use on + the other hand the instrument of civilization, without sentencing any + one, and brigandage and robbery will disappear before its light. And if + human beings in large industrial centers are herded together in + tenements and slum hotels, how can a humane judge aggravate the + penalties against sexual crimes? How can the sense of shame develop + among people, when young and old of both sexes are crowded together in + the same bed, in the same corrupted and corrupting environment, which + robs the human soul of every noble spark? +</p> +<p> + I might stray pretty far, if I were to continue these illustrations of + social hygiene which will be the true solution of the problem and the + supreme systematic, daily humane, and bloodless remedy against the + disease of criminality. However, we have not the simple faith that in + the near or far future of humanity crimes can ever be wholly eradicated. + Even Socialism, which looks forward to a fundamental transformation of + future society on the basis of brotherhood and social justice, cannot + elevate itself to the absolute and naive faith that criminality, + insanity, and suicide can ever fully disappear from the earth. But it is + our firm conviction that the endemic form of criminality, insanity, and + suicide will disappear, and that nothing will remain of them but rare + sporadic forms caused by lesion or telluric and other influences. +</p> +<p> + Since we have made the great discovery that malaria, which weighs upon + so many parts in Italy, is dependent for its transmission on a certain + mosquito, we have acquired the control of malarial therapeutics and are + enabled to protect individuals and families effectively against malaria. + But aside from this function of protecting people, there must be a + social prevention, and since those malarial insects can live only in + swampy districts, it is necessary to bring to those unreclaimed lands + the blessing of the hoe and plow, in order to remove the cause and do + away with the effects. The same problem confronts us in criminology. In + the society of the future we shall undertake this work of social + hygiene, and thereby we shall remove the epidemic forms of criminality. + And nine-tenths of the crimes will then disappear, so that nothing will + remain of them but exceptional cases. There will remain, for instance, + such cases as that of the bricklayer which I mentioned, because there + may always be accidents, no matter what may be the form of social + organization, and nervous disorders may thus appear in certain + individuals. But you can see that these would be exceptional cases of + criminality, which will be easily cured under the direction of science, + that will be the supreme and beneficent manager of institutes for the + segregation of those who will be unfit for social intercourse. The + problem of criminality will thus be solved as far as possible, because + the gradual transformation of society will eliminate the swamps in which + the miasma of crime may form and breed. +</p> +<p> + If we wish to apply these standards to an example which today attracts + the attention of all Italy to this noble city, if we desire to carry our + theories into the practice of contemporaneous life, if science is to + respond to the call of life, let us throw a glance at that form of + endemic criminality known as the Camorra in this city, which has taken + root here just as stabbing affrays have in certain centers of Turin, and + the Mafia in certain centers of Sicily. In the first place, we must not + be wilfully blind to facts and refuse to see that the citizens will + protect themselves, if social justice does not do so. And from that to + crime there is but a shot step. But which is the swampy soil in which + this social disease can spread and persist like leprosy in tin + collective organism? It is the economic poverty of the masses, which + lends to intellectual and moral poverty. +</p> +<p> + You have lately had in Naples a very fortunate struggle, which seems to + have overcome one of the representatives of the high Camorra. But can we + believe that the courageous work of a few public writers has touched the + roots of the Camorra in this city? It would be self-deception to think + so. For we see that plants blossom out again, even after the most + destructive hurricane has passed over them. +</p> +<p> + The healing of society is not so easy, that a collective plague may be + cured by the courageous acts of one or more individuals. The process is + much slower and more complicated. Nevertheless these episodes are + milestones of victory in the onward march of civilization, which will + paralyze the historical manifestations of social criminality. Here, + then, we have a city in which some hundred thousand people rise every + morning and do not know how to get a living, who have no fixed + occupation, because there is not enough industrial development to reach + that methodical application of labor which lifted humanity out of the + prehistoric forests. Truly, the human race progresses by two uplifting + energies: War and labor. +</p> +<p> + In primitive and savage society, when the human personality did not know + the check of social discipline, a military discipline held the members + of the tribe together. But war, while useful in primitive society, loses + its usefulness more and more, because it carries within itself the + cancer that paralyzes it. +</p> +<p> + While war compels collective groups to submit to the co-ordinating + discipline of human activity, it also decreases the respect for human + life. The soldier who kills his fellow man of a neighboring nation by a + stroke of his sword will easily lose the respect for the life of + members of his own social group. Then the second educational energy + interferes, the energy of labor, which makes itself felt at the decisive + moment of prehistoric development, when the human race passes from a + pastoral, hunting, and nomadic life Into an agriculture and settled + life. This is the historic stage, in which the collective ownership of + land and instruments of production is displaced by communal property, + family property, and finally individual property. During these stages, + humanity passes from individual and isolated labor in collective, + associated, co-ordinated labor. The remains of the neolithic epoch show + us the progress of the first workshops, in which our ancestors gathered + and fashioned their primitive tools and arms. They give us an idea of + associated and common labor, which then becomes the great uplifting + energy, because, unlike war, it does not carry within itself a disdain + or violation of the rights of others. Labor is the sole perennial energy + of mankind which leads to social perfection. But if you have 100,000 + persons in a city like Naples who do not enjoy the certainty and + discipline of employment at methodical and common labor, you need not + wonder that the uncertainty of daily life, an illfed stomach, and an + anemic brain, result in the atrophy of all moral sentiment, and that the + evil plant of the Camorra spreads out over everything. The processes in + the law courts may attract the fleeting attention of public opinion, of + legislation, of government, to the disease from which this portion of + the social organism is suffering, but mere repression will not + accomplish anything lasting. +</p> +<p> + The teaching of science tells us plainly that in such a case of endemic + criminality social remedies must be applied to social evils. Unless the + remedy of social reforms accompanies the development and protection of + labor; unless justice is assured to every member of the collectivity, + the courage of this or that citizen is spent in vain, and the evil plant + will continue to thrive in the jungle. +</p> +<p> + Taught by the masterly and inflexible logic of facts, we come to the + adoption of the scientific method in criminal research and conclude that + a simple and uniform remedy like punishment is not adequate to cure such + a natural and social phenomenon as crime, which has its own natural and + social causes. The measures for the preservation of society against + criminality must be manifold, complex and varied, and must be the + outcome of persevering and systematic work on the part of legislators + and citizens on the solid foundation of a systematic collective economy. +</p> +<p> + Let me take leave of you with this practical conclusion, and give my + heart freedom to send to my brain a wave of fervent blood, which shall + express my enduring gratitude for the reception which you have given me. + Old in years, but young in spirit and energetic aspiration to every high + ideal, I tender you my sincere thanks. As a man and a citizen, I thank + you, because these three lectures have been for me a fountain of youth, + of faith, of enthusiasm. Thanks to them I return to the other fields of + my daily occupation with a greater faith in the future of my country and + of humanity. To you, young Italy, I address these words of thanks, glad + and honored, if my words have aroused in your soul one breath which will + make you stronger and more confident in the future of civilization and + social justice. +</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10580 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |