Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Efficient Causes of Crime
Crime, then, is more than a mere accompaniment of de fective mind. It is the natural outgrowth of faulty mental processes. This doubtless accounts for the fact that punish ment can not cure the criminal, nor even deter others from committing crimes. It is foolish to insist that punishment deters the criminal even from repeating his crimes. Surely there is no fact more clearly proven to the criminologist than this one. Institutions of punishment only serve to augment the anti-social attitude of the criminal and to return him to society even determined to perpetrate more daring crimes than he had known before. Statistics from investigators the world over call our attention to the fact that crime among us is increasing at a very rapid rate. Treatment, not punish ment, is what is needed, intelligent, sympathetic and scientific treatment under the best conditions and by the best advised scientists that can be secured for the work. This is not a call for the introduction of sentimentality; there are indications in many quarters that we have too much of the maudlin already. Warden Francis insists that the great est menace to our progress in institution affairs today is the long-haired man and the short-haired woman, and he is right.
Instead of indulging in expressions of sentimental regard for the unfortunate offenders, society should rather give herself to the most careful investigation of those tolerated and even encouraged practices which everywhere are shown to be those agencies that contribute to the perpetuity and to the multiplication of the criminal class.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
