Criminal Sociology

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Criminal Sociology

by Enrico Ferri

March, 1996 [Etext #477]

Project Gutenberg's Etext of Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri

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CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY

BY ENRICO FERRI PROFESSOR OF CRIMINAL LAW DEPUTY IN THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT, ETC.

PREFACE.

The following pages are a translation of that portion of Professor Ferri's volume on Criminal Sociology which is immediately concerned with the practical problems of criminality. The Report of the Government committee appointed to inquire into the treatment of habitual drunkards, the Report of the committee of inquiry into the best means of identifying habitual criminals, the revision of the English criminal returns, the Reports of committees appointed to inquire into the administration of prisons and the best methods of dealing with habitual offenders, vagrants, beggars, inebriate and juvenile delinquents, are all evidence of the fact that the formidable problem of crime is again pressing its way to the front and demanding re-examination at the hands of the present generation. The real dimensions of the question, as Professor Ferri points out, are partially hidden by the superficial interpretations which are so often placed upon the returns relating to crime. If the population of prisons or penitentiaries should happen to be declining, this is immediately interpreted to mean that crime is on the decrease. And yet a cursory examination of the facts is sufficient to show that a decrease in the prison population is merely the result of shorter sentences and the substitution of fines or other similar penalties for imprisonment. If the list of offences for trial before a judge and jury should exhibit any symptoms of diminution, this circumstance is immediately seized upon as a proof that the criminal population is declining, and yet the diminution may merely arise from the fact that large numbers of cases which used to be tried before a jury are now dealt with summarily by a magistrate. In other words, what we witness is a change of judicial procedure, but not necessarily a decrease of crime. Again, when it is pointed out that the number of persons for trial for indictable offences in England and Wales amounted to 53,044 in 1874-8 and 56,472 in 1889-93, we are at a loss to see what colour these figures give to the statement that there has been a real and substantial decrease of crime. The increase, it is true, may not be keeping pace with the growth of the general population, but, as an eminent judge recently stated from the bench, this is to be accounted for by the fact that the public is every year becoming more lenient and more unwilling to prosecute. But an increase of leniency, however excellent in itself, is not to be confounded with a decrease of crime. In the study of social phenomena our paramount duty is to look at facts and not appearances.

But whether criminality is keeping pace with the growth of population or not it is a problem of great magnitude all the same, and it will not be solved, as Professor Ferri points out, by a mere resort to punishments of greater rigour and severity. On this matter he is at one with the Scotch departmental committee appointed to inquire into the best means of dealing with habitual offenders, vagrants, and juveniles. As far as the suppression of vagrancy is concerned the members of the committee are unanimously of opinion that ``the severest enactments of the general law are futile, and that the best results have been obtained by the milder provisions of more recent statutes.'' They also speak of the ``utter inadequacy of the present system in all the variety of detail which it offers to deter the habitual offender from a course of life which devolves the cost of his maintenance on the prison and the poorhouse when he is not preying directly on the public.'' The committee state that they have had testimony from a large number of witnesses supporting the view that ``long sentences of imprisonment effect no good result,'' and they arrive at the conclusion 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 and administrative preventives, —Prisoners' Aid Societies, —Education and crime, —Popular entertainments and crime, —Physical education as a remedy for crime, —To diminish crime its causes must be eliminated, —The aim and scope of penal substitutes, —Difficulty of applying penal substitutes, —Difference between social and police prevention, —Limited efficacy of punishment, —Summary of conclusions.

CHAPTER III.

PRACTICAL REFORMS

Criminal sociology and penal legislation, —Classification of punishments, —The reform of criminal procedure, —The two principles of judicial procedure, —Principles determining the nature of the sentence, —Present principles of penal procedure a reaction against mediaeval abuses, —The ``presumption of innocence,'' —The verdict of ``Not Proven,'' —The right of appeal, —A second trial, —Reparation to the victims of crime, —Need for a Ministry of Justice, — Public and private prosecutors, —The growing tendency to drop criminal charges, —The tendency to minimise the official returns of crime, —Roman penal law, —Revision of judicial errors, —Reparation to persons wrongly convicted, — Provision of funds for this purpose, —Reparation to persons wrongly prosecuted, —Many criminal offences should be tried as civil offences, —The object of a criminal trial. II. The crime and the criminal, —The stages of a criminal trial, — The evidence, —Anthropological evidence, —The utilisation of hypnotism, —Psychological and psycho-pathological evidence, —The credibility of witnesses, —Expert evidence, —An advocate of the poor, —The judge and his qualifications, — Civil and criminal judges should be distinct functionaries, —The student of law should study criminals, —Training of police and prison officers, —The status of the criminal judge, —The authority of the judge. III. The jury, —Origin of the jury, —Advantages of the jury, —Defects of the jury, —The jury as a protection to liberty, —The jury and criminal law, —Juries untrained and irresponsible, — Numbers fatal to wisdom, —Defects of judges, —Difference between the English and Continental jury, —Social evolution and the jury, —The jury compared to the electorate, —How to utilise the jury. IV. Existing prison systems a failure, —Defects of existing penal systems, —The abuse of short sentences, —The growth of recidivism, —Garofalo's scheme of punishments, —Von Liszt's scheme of punishments, —The basis of a rational system of punishment, —The indeterminate sentence, —Flogging, —The indefinite sentence for habitual offenders, —Van Hamel's proposals as to sentences, —The liberation of prisoners on an indefinite sentence, —The supervision of punishment, —Conditional release, —Good conduct test in prisons, —Police supervision, — Indemnification of the victims Of crime, —The duty of the State towards the victims of crime, —Defensive measures must be adapted to the different classes of criminals, —Uniformity of punishment, —The prison staff, —Classification of prisoners, —Prison labour. V. Asylums for criminal lunatics, —The treatment of insane criminals, —Crime and madness, —Classification of asylums for criminal lunatics, —The treatment of born criminals, —The death penalty, —Extension of the death penalty, —Inadequacy of the death penalty, —Imprisonment for life, —Transportation, — Labour settlements, —Establishments for habitual criminals, —Criminal heredity, —Incorrigible offenders, — Cumulative sentences, —Uncorrected or incorrigible criminals, —Cellular prisons, —Solitary confinement, —The progressive system of imprisonment, —The evils of cellular imprisonment, —The cell does not secure separation, — Costliness of the cellular system, —Labour under the cellular system, —Open-air work the best for prisoners, —The treatment of habitual criminals, —The treatment of occasional criminals, —The treatment of young offenders, — Futility of short sentences, —Substitutes for short sentences, —Compulsory work without imprisonment, —Conditional sentences, —Conditional sentences in Belgium, —Conditional sentences in the United States, —Objections to conditional sentences, —When the conditional sentence is legitimate, — The treatment of criminals of passion, —Conclusion.

INTRODUCTION.

THE POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINAL LAW.

During the past twelve or fourteen years Italy has poured forth a stream of new ideas on the subject of crime and criminals; and only the short-sightedness of her enemies or the vanity of her flatterers can fail to recognise in this stream something more than the outcome of individual labours.

A new departure in science is a simple phenomenon of nature, determined in its origin and progress, like all such phenomena, by conditions of time and place. Attention must be drawn to these conditions at the outset, for it is only by accurately defining them that the scientific conscience of the student of sociology is developed and confirmed.

The experimental philosophy of the latter half of our century, combined with human biology and psychology, and with the natural study of human society, had already produced an intellectual atmosphere decidedly favourable to a practical inquiry into the criminal manifestations of individual and social life.

To these general conditions must be added the