Crime: its causes and remedy

Chapter I. Introductory

§ i. In the course of an address on " Punishment and Reformation," delivered at the London meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, in 1862, Sir Thomas Chambers, then Common Sergeant of London, gave utterance to the following thoughtful remarks : " Reasoners and moralists may dispute, yet philanthropists need not delay to act, and the problems insoluble by argument may be settled conclusively by practice. It may be (I rather in cline to that opinion) that the State has nothing to do with the individual except in his bearing on the welfare of society, that any interference with him on other than public grounds is objectionable, and that this doctrine is applicable both to those who obey and those who infringe the laws. Hence in dealing with offenders, we are to proceed en tirely upon the assumption that our treatment of them is to be of a nature determined exclusively on public, and not at all on personal considera- CRIME. tions ; that no result is to be aimed at which will terminate in themselves.

The final object in our systems of penal discipline, as in all our other social arrangements, is the good of the community, — its deliverance from some evil or inconvenience, or its attainment of some substantive good. In the case of our criminals, the end sought in our mode of dealing with them, whatever it be, is the repression of crime — the diminishing the number both of offences and offenders. This is the matter in which the State has a direct interest, and which the State may strive at securing. What is the best means to be adopted for that purpose ? then becomes the subject of inquiry. What apparatus, or agency, or machinery, is most likely to thin the ranks and lessen the activity of the criminal classes ? That point is not to be determined by any consideration of what is good for them for their own sakes, but of what is good for the society of which they are the pests.

To do them good is not the final aim, but to benefit the public. To secure for those who have broken the law and become subject to penalties some personal advantage is not, I think, a legitimate object of public law, though of private Christian benevolence it may be a plain obligation." In these words the learned Sergeant has clearly and forcibly stated the fundamental proposition (it might almost be called an axiom) upon which any satisfactory discussion of the crime problem must be based. If criminals, in the execution of their nefarious designs, and in the gratification of their passions, injured themselves only, the State would INTRODUCTORY. 3 have no right to interfere ; although, as Sir Thomas Chambers observes, individuals, whether Christian or other, would be quite justified in taking such action in the matter as seemed them good, and to be imposed upon them by their own private moral code, provided always that no other citizen's liberty was infringed by such action.

This proposition ought to be self-evident, but it has not always been by any means universally admitted, and there are probably some who would dispute its truth even now. Mr. Jonathan Dymond puts the question,1 " Why is a man who commits an offence punished for the act ? Is it for his own advantage, or for that of others, or for both ? " To which question he makes reply — " For both, and primarily for his own," but gives no very satisfactory reason for this conclusion. Since, then, the proposition that the State is justified in interfering with criminals only in so far as the welfare of the State requires it is not so obvious that the mere statement of it compels universal assent, it may be well to give briefly some of the grounds upon which its truth has been asserted. Some writers on social economy have spoken of a civil contract or agreement between the individuals of a community, by which their relations to one another are defined.

But no such contract is found in nature ; at the time when men first com bined themselves into communities they must have been far too rude and simple to understand what was meant by private and public rights or obliga tions ; they must have felt instinctively that in 1 "Essays on the Principles of Morality," 1886, p. 391. CRIME. 4 combination they could better protect themselves against all kinds of enemies, could hunt with greater success than if isolated, and no doubt the feeling of companionship was pleasing. There was thus no formal agreement, and any man to whom the society in which he found himself was distasteful might withdraw himself from it ; but if he attempted to molest his former associates they would naturally treat him as an enemy. Later, with increasing civilization and a more complex moral code, larger restrictions and obligations were laid upon each individual, tacitly imposed and tacitly accepted.

But the modern society has imperceptibly developed out of the primitive one ; no written agreement between its components exists, and each man must, as in the early days of the community, be held free to accept or reject the conditions of membership. The state of membership is, however, so advantageous that nearly every man complies willingly with the necessary conditions in order to obtain the ac companying benefits ; but he might, if he chose, withdraw, and no one has any moral right to for bid his doing so ; if, however, after having with drawn himself from the Society, he proceeds to inflict any damage upon the Society in the aggre gate, or upon any of its component individuals, he places himself in the position of one of those enemies for defence against which the associated community was originally formed ; and the Govern ment, as the agent of the Society, is bound to take the necessary steps to protect its members from damage.

Criminals are such persons as are here INTRODUCTORY. 5 spoken of, and are thus to be dealt with by the State because they have become public enemies, menacing the security and prosperity of the State ; but the State could not, on this view of the matter, take cognisance of any private action of the individual which ended completely in himself. § 2. We must then in our investigations bear this first principle in mind, and inquire what course will bring the greatest sum of advantage to the State. We must also endeavour to trace the many indirect effects by which our action may be fol lowed, for a measure which may seem sure to at once produce a desired result, may be attended by so many indirect evil consequences as to more than counterbalance the advantages which accrue from it. This is a consideration which is unfortunately often overlooked, and the result of this carelessness or ignorance on the part of legislators is seen in the very large number of Acts of Parliament which are repealed after having been but a short time in operation, on account of their failing to produce the benefit which was expected of them.

It is necessary in all things to count the cost, and an article or effect, which is in itself most desirable, may not be worth the price asked for it. The course which, other things being equal, will lead to the best results, may involve so much expense of time or money, and may cause indirectly so much inconvenience, as to induce us to follow some other course by which we shall attain a result, absolutely less advantageous, but relatively more so, because less costly. But in discussing methods for dealing with criminals, direct results CRIME. only have, as a rule, been compared, while the question of cost has hardly been glanced at, al though no satisfactory reason can be found for departing in this particular case from the common sense mode of procedure. The State wishes to erect a line of telegraph connecting places many miles apart, and it is a question what metal the telegraph wires shall be made of.

The best con ductor of electricity is silver ; any person un acquainted with the technicalities of electrical engineering, and looking no further than this fact, might therefore suppose that silver would of course be employed, but if he ventured to express such an opinion he would be laughed at. Why ? Because the cost of silver more than countervails its supe riority in conducting power ; copper is very nearly as good, and much cheaper ; but even copper is rarely used for telegraphic purposes on account of its price. Low down in a list of metals arranged in the order of their conductivity we find iron, having an electrical resistance six times as great as that of silver and copper, and y7et this is the metal which is almost universally used for this purpose ; though far inferior to others, it will per form efficiently what is required of it, and at a price which more than compensates for its infe riority in other respects.

The same rule applies in all cases, and the most desirable method of pro cedure is that in which the balance of advanta geous over disadvantageous results is the greatest possible. § 3. In applying this principle to the question of the treatment of criminals, as well as to other INTRODUCTORY. 7 social questions, the words cost and price are not to be restricted to their more ordinary meaning of money value, or the pecuniary sacrifice necessary for attaining a given object of desire ; but are to embrace all the deductions from general wellbeing which may indirectly follow from any given course of action, money being of course included as the means whereby wellbeing may be purchased, but in the case which we have to consider it will be found to be an almost negligeable quantity. For the sums which are dishonestly obtained from pro ductive members of the community by the criminal classes in order to their own maintenance must be so vast, that the most expensive system of criminal procedure which we could devise would be scarcely likely to be a greater burden upon the State, and, if the system were an efficient one, we should on the whole be gainers thereby.

The number of habitual criminals and suspected persons at large, known to the police, was, in the year 1884-5, 30,252, a large proportion of whom doubtless live at the expense of the State, preying continually upon it like a swarm of locusts. Clearly, however, of two systems equal in all other respects, but un equal in pecuniary cost, the most economical is to be preferred. But the factors which go to produce or to diminish crime are so complex that probably no two solutions of the problem which deals with these factors can be found differing only in respect of money expenditure, and many other considera tions will have to be weighed. § 4. In the discussion of these numerous and subtle considerations great care must be exercised CRIME. 8 that the judgment be not warped by mere sentiment. Certain steps which it may be proved necessary to take for the advantage of society may perhaps press harshly upon individuals, and the instinct of compassion possessed by every humane man may make it difficult for us to rigorously pursue what we know to be the right course ; or again, we may be urged to perform some action of which the immediate effect will be the alleviation of individual distress, but which may entail indirect and remote consequences far more injurious and painful than the distress relieved.

In all questions, therefore, which affect society it is our duty to endeavour to trace and to weigh every result, direct and indirect, however remote, which our action could have. A large number of people who call themselves philanthro pists, and who have studied social science in a very superficial manner or not at all, are very apt to neglect this duty, and to allow themselves to be influenced in the main by the most excellent, when not ill-timed, feelings of generosity, compas sion, mercy, and the like. They perceive only the immediate consequence of their actions, of many of which, could they but foresee the long and complex chain of effects, they would be appalled. How thankful must we be that the course of the Universe has not been directed by an almighty philanthropist of the unphilosophic sort !

Suppose that instead of the fittest surviv ing and the weak going to the wall, the strong, the swift, the thrifty, the acute had been continually handicapped in order to keep in existence a INTRODUCTORY. 9 crowd of weak, of stupid, of vicious, of thriftless creatures, would, as now, the earth be peopled by animals most marvellously suited for existing and propagating their species under the particular conditions in which each finds itself ? Would the human race have attained even to its present pitch of civilization ? Nay, would the human race be in existence at all ? It may well be doubted. And now that man, under the stern laws of inexorable Nature, has reached a com paratively high stage of development, a number of well-meaning, but short-sighted persons, are put ting into practice theories which, if carried out on a sufficiently large scale, must check human pro gress, if it did not even convert the present slow forward movement into a retrograde one. § 5 But in striving to avoid sentiment we must be careful not to go to the other extreme, and act with harshness and brutality.

Draconian legislation has ever failed of its effect ; and especially must it do so in a free country, in which a wrong-doer is fairly and openly tried by his fellows. For any circumstance which drives public opinion into sympathy with the accused, and into hostility to the Government, will tend to defeat the ends of justice ; and a savage criminal code will have such an effect. We have already experienced this state of things in England, when hanging was the penalty for the most trifling delinquencies, and when the consequent frequent refusal of juries to convict compelled an alteration to be made in the law. It must, in fact, be remembered that our only right to deal as we CRIME. 10 please with another man's person or property arises from his having acted in such a way as to damage or menace the persons and property of orderly members of society ; and our action is limited by this consideration to taking such pre cautions as may guard the community from those attacks, but must not be inspired by a desire for vengeance and retaliation.

It is indeed highly pre sumptuous for man to take the law thus into his own hands, and to tell a fellow human-being that because he has committed such and such acts he must therefore undergo such and such penalties. We know that if any of Nature's laws are disregarded inevitable punishment follows, and that if any creature does anything that is really wrong, and absolutely immoral, somebody will certainly suffer for it ; but not, according to our views, always the right person. The doubt may per haps suggest itself to the mind of a thinking man whether our views on the subject are neces sarily correct, and whether the State is likely to mend matters by interfering ; but as a conclusion in the negative would certainly not recommend itself to the majority of people, who care nothing for the reasoning by which a result is established, but only inquire whether that result is in harmony with their preconceived ideas, it is useless to carry the speculation further; what we have to do there fore is, assuming the right of the State to deal with criminals, to determine how we may minimize the ill effects of crime, and, if possible, prevent it altogether.

The lines on which we must proceed for the attainment of the first of these objects are INTRODUCTORY. 11 laid down by the consideration to which attention has just been directed, namely, that, whatever infringement of the moral law may have occurred, a definite and corresponding amount of suffering must ensue for somebody, and all that it is open to us to attempt is to cause this suffering to fall upon the proper person, that is, according to our ideas, the person by whom the moral law has been transgressed. But we shall probably find that no machinery which we can devise for this purpose will, in the language of mechanics, have an efficiency of so large a value as unity ; in other words, when wrong has been done, by no con trivance shall we be able to prevent the com munity sustaining loss, therefore our principal object must be to get rid of crime altogether.

Before we can be in a position to say what means are best fitted for accomplishing this result, we must have a clear idea as to the causes of crime, which question therefore we will first pro ceed to investigate.

Chapter II. An Inquiry Into The Causes Of Crime

" Felix qtti potuit rerum cognoscere causas.' Virgil, Georgic II, 490. § 1. It is commonly supposed that ignorance is an important cause of crime, and after trying numerous and costly experiments in criminal procedure, from the most brutal and barbarous to some which are comparatively humane, without obtaining any appreciable improvement, we are now enthusiastically convinced that education is the magic wand which is to convert criminals into honest men, and are spending millions a year with that desirable object. The School Board is the power that is to regenerate the world, and as the low-bred boy passes each successive " standard," he will cast yet another shell of pristine depravity, and emerge a pure and innocent being. The believers in the marvellous regenerative power of education are not actuated by mere faith, nor even solely by a priori reason ing; they appeal with great confidence to statistics.

At the meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, at Bristol in 1869, " Mr. T. W. Saunders, Recorder of Bath, read a paper on ' The Influence of Education in Diminishing Crime.' He showed the necessity of education among the working classes, . . . and that crimes are more and more being confined to the ignorant. In the year 1856 86 per cent, of our criminals could neither read nor write, or could only do so imperfectly ; whilst in 1868 this percentage had increased to 96. Looking at the educated portion of our criminals, the percentage who could read and write well was 5^ per cent. in 1856, which percentage had, in 1868, dwindled down to 3. He thought it was a very gratifying fact that only three of every hundred criminals should be educated persons ; and that it proved education to be a sort of insurance against criminality."1 Excellent!

Why, then, do we longer delay, and reason and ponder as though the question were one of infinite difficulty ? We see from the passage just cited that it is simplicity itself, and all we need to do is to turn all our prisons into schools, arrest every illiterate man, teach him to read and write, and crime will fade away like a mirage in the desert. The proportion of illiterate and partially illiterate to educated criminals is the same now as it was in 1868, according to the statement of Mr. Saunders. The figures are thus given in "Judicial Statistics," 1885, part I., p. xxxvii. : ' Transactions, p. 269. CRIME. 14 1885-6. i884-5- 1876-7- Neither read nor write 28-9 30-0 33-2 Read, or read and write imperfectly 67-3 657 62-9 Read and write well 3"5 3'8 3'8 Not ascertained 0-3 0-5 cri IOO'O IOO'O IOO'O It will be noticed that these figures remain very constant, and therefore are probably not merely accidental, but depend upon some law ; the ques tion is, is that law such as Mr. Saunders and many others have stated ?

It has often been said that statistics can be made to prove anything ; this is not true ; but it is true that statistics, carefully manipulated by a clever man, or clumsily and loosely put together by a thoughtless one, may appear to the superficial inquirer to prove what they don't really prove at all. A striking example of this is given by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his " Study of Sociology." He says,1 "A few years ago Dr. Stark published the results of comparisons he had made between the rates of mortality among the married and among the celibate ; showing, as it seemed, the greater healthfulness of married life. Some criti cisms made on his argument did not seriously shake it ; and he has been since referred to as having conclusively proved the alleged relation. More recently I have seen quoted from the Medical Press aud Circular the following summary of results supposed to tell the same tale " M. Bertillon has made a communication on ' " Study of Sociology," 1884, p. 93. this subject to the Brussels Academy of Medi cine, which has been published in the Revue Scientifique.

From 25 to 30 years of age the mortality per 1,000 in France amounts to 6'2 in married men, io-2 in bachelors, and 21 "8 in widows. In Belgium from 7 per 1,000 among married men, the number rises to 8*5 in bachelors, and 24-6 in widows. . . The result of all the calculations is that from 25 to 30 years of age the mortality per 1,000 is 4 in married men, 10*4 in bachelors, and 22 in widows." Mr. Herbert Spencer then points out that this remarkable result can be readily explained with reference to the selective influence of marriage. It is clear that the strongest and most healthy men are the most likely to get married, and that consequently we should natu rally expect the mortality among them to be lower than that of bachelors among whom remain all whose ill-health debars them from matrimony.

We may learn from this instance that in dealing with statistics it is necessary to look beneath the surface and endeavour to discover the true relation ship existing between the figures stated. It is found by observation that it more often rains when the barometer is low than when it is high, but only ignorant people conclude therefrom that the state of the weather is an actual effect of the fluctuations of the mercury column ; we know that both are effects of the same cause, and this must warn us, when investigating phenomena with which we are less familiar, not to confound the post hoc. with the proptcr hoc. Let us then apply this principle to the present CRIME. inquiry, viz., what is the relation of ignorance to crime ? and let us consider whether there is any reason to suppose that crime and ignorance are connected in some other relation than that of cause and effect.

A very slight consideration will show us that there is such a connection. For it is clear that those boys, who when they should be at school are playing truant for the purpose of robbing orchards and taking birds' nests, and who idle away their boyhood in the company of rough and vicious companions, playing pitch and toss and becoming familiar with vice, will grow up ignorant and degraded ; and from such it is that the criminal classes are recruited. The same inherited tendencies which lead a man into criminal courses make study and con tinuous applications of all kinds irksome to him, and ensure his remaining in ignorance. If there fore we knew nothing further we should reason from this that the criminal classes must contain a far larger proportion of uneducated men than the rest of the nation, and we need not be at all sur prised to find that such is in fact the case.

Could we devise a workable scheme for so changing the habits and proclivities of these unfortunate beings we should find that with the refinement of their taste would come a state of mind fitted to receive education and to profit by it. No one can be a firmer believer in the advantages of education than I am, but I am sure that its efficacy as a reforming agent has been much exaggerated by certain enthusiasts ; before the refining and elevating in fluence of education can be brought to bear the soil must be prepared to receive it, and the attempt to reform a degraded and brutal man by education of the intellect alone would be as absurd as to endeavour to make a steam engine out of iron not yet smelted and purified from the ore. § 2. What then are the causes of crime ? At the Birmingham meeting of the National Associa tion for the promotion of Social Science, held in 1868, the Rev. H. Letsom Elliot, M.A., gave the following table which he had compiled from the results of personal observation, and which helps us to answer the question just stated.

On glancing over this table we are at once 3 umb er examined, \ the occasion ol last offence had 'ho on the been First Convictions supposed to be traceable to Indicl :ed. Sumr Conlarily 'icted. Total. M, F. j M. F. . Bad company a. Acquaintances made inl the street, workshop, or \ home, &c I b. Acquaintances made in\ the public house, dancing L saloon, &c J :. Drink ;. Poverty .. Opportunity ;. Want of Principle ;. Bad Temper '. Immorality or Wantonness !. Incapacity and Imbecillity .. ). Other causes 126 69 43 11 O 13 6 7 11 32 74 25 126 25 35 5 5i 12 6 73 7 23 10 2 7 34 11 18 250 IOI 205 33 44 7 4 3 13 52 77 67 96 39 11 4 12 2 1 o 15 102 Total 353 88 432 127 IOOO CRIME. struck by the number of those whose fall was owing to bad company and to drink. On the first of these two heads Mr. Elliot spoke thus : " Bad company is the master-cause of crime ; especially of that which is most serious in a social point of view.

The great majority of professional thieves have been engaged in a criminal career almost from infancy, and have originally fallen, not from the promptings of hunger, not from any special dishonesty, not from any peculiar moral obliquity, but simply from the influence of bad example ; or, it may be, from direct instruction in crime, at an age when they were scarcely capable of discerning between their right hand and their left. Of the 1,000 prisoners examined by me, 395 had been convicted before they were out of their 'teens.' They were led into crime from precisely the same motives that have kept those who now hear me from such a career. The examples of those older than themselves, the influence of associates, the love of standing well in the estimation of others — these are the causes which, whether for good or evil, determine the career of every man."

This is a result which cannot surprise any one who knows anything of the life of the children of the poor in the large towns. Uncared for by their parents, and even encouraged to prowl about the streets for the purpose of begging, or getting in anyway whatever something to assist in " keeping the pot boiling," they are thrown, at an age when their character is not yet formed and their nature plastic, into constant companionship with other unfortunates who, but a year or two before, were as themselves, but who, having become corrupted, now proceed to corrupt others in their turn. There is thus, as it were, a pestilence in the social community, a most infectious disease of a terrible character, and while medical science has dis covered vaccination and the treatment of M. Pasteur for prevention of dreadful diseases of the body, moral therapeutics still looks helplessly on while new centres of infection are being continually formed to keep active in perpetuity the still more noxious diseases of the mind.

Certainly, when a man has been smitten by this dreadful pestilence, some feeble attempt is made at a cure, though, as I shall show, with no remarkable amount of success; but the centres of infection are left undisturbed to propagate corruption in widen ing circles. At present we only put into action the machinery of the law when the mischief has been done, but make no attempt to eradicate the origin of the evil. So far is this from being the case that even in our prisons, which should be hospitals for the relief of the morally unsound, we mix together haphazard those who are but slightly affected with cases of the most dangerous character; the disease spreads in the very hospital itself, and a man may go forth worse than when he entered. One who had good opportunities for observing thus expresses his opinion on this point.

" The two classes should be kept as much as possible distinct, and men undergoing punishment for first offences should on no account be mixed up with hardened and confirmed rogues. I speak from experience. Not only have I become ac- CRIME. 20 quainted with more of what is bad and evil, together with the schemes and dodges of profes sional thieves and swindlers, during the four years I ' served the Queen for nothing ' than I should have done in fifty years outside prison walls ; but had I been a man of naturally dishonest tendencies, I might have fallen into temptation, swal lowed the bait, and have formed alliances for a future life of villainy and crime." x Our object in the present chapter being merely to endeavour to trace out the causes of crime, we must leave for the present the consideration of the means of coping with this great evil, and now pass on to the second of the chief causes brought under our notice by Mr. Elliot's list. § 3.