There are other criminals who do not come from the class I have described, but the habitual visitor to criminal courts knows that they are very few.  Of the others, some are born of parents who could care for them and have done their best and yet, in spite of this, they have repeatedly been entangled in the law; these are often the only ones of a large family who have not lived according to the rules of the game.  They are different from the other members of the family.  For the most part they have some specific congenital defect, or an unstable system that prevents the correct registration of the experiences that produce safe habits, or makes them unable to withstand temptation or suggestion.

Everyone knows how easy it is, especially for children, to react to suggestion.  The whole life of a child is a response to suggestion.  This is about all there is to education.  Even older men constantly and readily yield to suggestion.  The results gained by quack doctors, lightning-rod agents, promoters and dealers in oil stocks, mining stocks and an endless number of other stocks, show that the right kind of suggestion is bound to produce results.  The dressing of the windows of department stores and the writing of catchy advertisements are a constant recognition of the power of suggestion.  So well known is this weakness of human character that schools of salesmanship are regularly organized and promoted to teach the art of getting victims to part with money for things they do not want or need.

Every right-feeling person does everything in his power to educate the child.  He is ever watchful through the child’s youth and early manhood to equip him with the capacity to make a living.  He seeks to build up around him and within him the strongest kind of habits and beliefs.  He carefully teaches the child that the only way to live is to observe all the rules laid down by experience and custom, so that he may not react to the temptations that life holds out at every step.  Every wise person feels almost certain that if his children are reared without education, without discipline, without training or opportunities, they will almost inevitably swell the ranks of the criminal classes.  And it is especially certain that if one of his children is defective or has an unstable nervous system, such a child should never be left without protection and care.

There are professional criminals of a different grade, like the forger and the confidence man.  Both of these have generally had some education and a fair degree of intelligence, and have had some advantages in life.  The forger, as a rule, is a bookkeeper or an accountant who grows expert with the pen.  He works for a small salary and sees nothing better.  He grows familiar with signatures.  Sometimes he is a clerk in a bank and has the opportunity to study signatures; he begins to imitate them, often with no thought of forging paper.  He does it because it is an art and probably the only thing he can do