Criminal Sociology | Page 4

that to double the present sentences
would not diminish the number of habitual offenders. In this conclusion
they are at one with the views of the Royal Commission on Penal
Servitude, which acquiesced in the objection to the penal servitude
system on the ground that it ``not only fails to reform offenders, but in
the case of the less hardened criminals and especially first offenders
produces a deteriorating effect.'' A similar opinion was recently
expressed by the Prisons Committee presided over by Mr. Herbert
Gladstone. As soon as punishment reaches a point at which it makes
men worse than they were before, it becomes useless as an instrument
of reformation or social defence.
The proper method of arriving at a more or less satisfactory solution of
the criminal problem is to inquire into the causes which are producing
the criminal population, and to institute remedies based upon the results
of such an inquiry. Professor Ferri's volume has this object in view. The
first chanter, on the data of Criminal Anthropology, is an inquiry into
the individual conditions which tend to produce criminal habits of mind
and action. The second chapter, on the data of criminal statistics, is an
examination of the adverse social conditions which tend to drive certain
sections of the population into crime. It is Professor Ferri's contention
that the volume of crime will not be materially diminished by codes of
criminal law however skilfully they may be constructed, but by an
amelioration of the adverse individual and social conditions of the
community as a whole. Crime is a product of these adverse conditions,
and the only effective way of grappling with it is to do away as far as
possible with the causes from which it springs. Although criminal
codes can do comparatively little towards the reduction of crime, they
are absolutely essential for the protection of society. Accordingly, the
last chapter, on Practical Reforms, is intended to show how criminal
law and prison administration may be made more effective for purposes
of social defence.

W. D. M.
CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.
THE DATA OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY Origin of Criminal
Sociology, --Origin of Criminal Anthropology, --Methods of Criminal
Anthropology, --Relation between Criminal Anthropology and
Criminal Sociology, --Criminal Anthropology studies the organic and
mental constitution of the criminal, -- The criminal skull and brain,
--Criminal physiognomy, --Physical insensibility among criminals,
--Criminal heredity, --Criminal psychology, --Moral insensibility
among criminals, --The criminal mind. II. The data of criminal
anthropology only applies to the habitual or congenital criminal, --The
occasional and habitual criminal, --Comparison between the criminal
and non-criminal skull, --Anomalies in the criminal skull, --The
habitual criminal, --The crimes of habitual criminals, --The criminal
type confined to habitual criminals, --The proportion of habitual
criminals in the criminal population, --Forms of habitual criminality,
--Forms of occasional criminality, -- Classification of criminals,
--Criminal lunatics, --Moral insanity, --Born criminals, --Criminals by
acquired habit, --Criminal precocity, --Nature of juvenile crime,
--Relapsed criminals, --Precocity and relapse among criminals,
--Criminals of passion, --Occasional criminals, --Differences between
the occasional and the born criminal, --Criminal types shade into each
other, --Numbers of several classes of criminals, -- Value of a proper
classification of criminals, --A fourfold classification.


CHAPTER II.

THE DATA OF CRIMINAL STATISTICS
Value of criminal statistics, --The three factors of crime, --
Anthropological factors, --Physical factors, --Social factors, --Crime a
product of complex conditions, --Social conditions do not explain
crime, --Effects of temperature on crime, -- Crime a result of biological
as well as social conditions, --The measures to be taken against crime
are of two kinds, preventive and eliminative, --The fluctuations of
crime chiefly produced by social causes, --Steadiness of the graver
forms of crime, -- Effect of judicial procedure on criminal statistics,
--Crimes against the person are high when crimes against property are
low, --Is crime increasing or decreasing? --Official optimism in
criminal statistics, --Density of population and crime, -- Conditions on
which the fluctuations of crime depend, -- Quetelet's law of the
mechanical regularity of crime, --The effect of environment on crime,
--The effect of punishment on crime, --The value of punishment is
over-estimated, -- Statistical proofs of this, --Biological and
sociological proofs, --Crime is diminished by prevention not by
repression, --Legislators and administrators rely too much on
repression, --The basis of the belief in punishment,--Natural and legal
punishment, --The discipline of consequences, --The uncertainty of
legal punishment, --Want of foresight among criminals, --Penal codes
cannot alter invincible tendencies, --Force is no remedy, --Negative
value of punishment. II. Substitutes for punishment, --The elimination
of the causes of crime, --Economic remedies for crime, --Drink and
crime, --Drunkenness an effect of bad social conditions, --Taxation of
drink, --Laws against drink, --Social amelioration a substitute for penal
law, -- Social legislation and crime, --Political amelioration as a
preventive of crime, --Decentralisation a preventive, -- Legal