Chapter

     I. What is crime? 
    II.  Purpose of punishment
   III.  Responsibility for crime
    IV.  Environment
     V. Adjusting heredity and environment
    VI.  Psychology of criminal conduct
   VII.  The criminal
  VIII.  The female criminal
    IX.  The juvenile criminal
     X. Homicide
    XI.  Sex crimes
   XII.  Robbery and burglary
  xiii.  Man as A predatory animal
   XIV.  Crimes against property
    XV.  Attitude of the criminal
   XVI.  The law and the criminal
  XVII.  Repealing laws
 XVIII.  Is crime increasing? 
   XIX.  Medical experts
    XX.  Punishment
   XXI.  Effect of punishment on others
  XXII.  Evolution of punishment
 XXIII.  Capital punishment
  XXIV.  Stigmata of the criminal
   XXV.  The good in criminals
  XXVI.  The defective and insane
 XXVII.  Social control
XXVIII.  Industrialism and crime
  XXIX.  War and crime
   XXX.  Civilization and crime
  XXXI.  The convict
 XXXII.  Isolation and sterilization
XXXIII.  Crime, disease and accident
 XXXIV.  Luck and chance
  XXXV.  Pardons and paroles
 XXXVI.  Remedies

INDEX

CRIME

ITS CAUSE AND TREATMENT

I

What is crime?

There can be no sane discussion of “crime” and “criminals” without an investigation of the meaning of the words.  A large majority of men, even among the educated, speak of a “criminal” as if the word had a clearly defined meaning and as if men were divided by a plain and distinct line into the criminal and the virtuous.  As a matter of fact, there is no such division, and from the nature of things, there never can be such a line.

Strictly speaking, a crime is an act forbidden by the law of the land, and one which is considered sufficiently serious to warrant providing penalties for its commission.  It does not necessarily follow that this act is either good or bad; the punishment follows for the violation of the law and not necessarily for any moral transgression.  No doubt most of the things forbidden by the penal code are such as are injurious to the organized society of the time and place, and are usually of such a character as for a long period of time, and in most countries, have been classed as criminal.  But even then it does not always follow that the violator of the law is not a person of higher type than the majority who are directly and indirectly responsible for the law.