All we can tell about the man whom we are pleased to call a criminal, is
that he had a poor equipment and met certain influences, motives and
conditions, called environment, on his journey. We know that at a given
time the journey has reached a certain point; it has met disaster or
success, or most likely indifference. At a certain point he has reached
a prison or is waiting for the hangman to tie a noose around his neck.
Is heredity responsible? We know of many who apparently started out with
an equipment no better. These may be business men and congressmen and
deacons in the church. While we do not know and cannot know the trend
and relative strength of the instincts in the various machines or the
emotions that these and the whole equipment produced, apparently an
equipment as poor as that of the criminal has met success, or at least
kept its possessor out of jail. Was it then his environment? We have
known men placed in the same environment, perhaps a brother, conquering
difficulties and bringing success from what seemed to promise certain
defeat. Why did one fail where the other conquered? Was it the "will"
that caused one to be the "captain of his soul"? What then is the
"will" and who gave the weak will to one and the strong will to another?
And, if each was born with a certain "will" or the capacity to make a
certain "will", who then is responsible for the result? Or, does the
word "will" mean anything, as usually applied?
All we can tell is that a certain equipment met a certain environment,
and the result was early disaster. A change of even the slightest factor
of environment might have saved the victim from hanging, so that he
could die a respectable and peaceful death from tuberculosis or cancer.
After all, the inevitable tragedy that in some form marks the end is not
so important as the sensations and experiences that one meets on the
road. Life is hopeless and colorless indeed if these experiences are
chosen for the wayfarer and the sensations are enforced or denied, as
the case may be. Nothing recompenses the individual for the denial of
his chance to follow his own path.
XXVIII
INDUSTRIALISM AND CRIME
It was not until about the middle of the eighteenth century that the
desire for the creation and accumulation of property began to rule the
world. Up to that time such small amounts of property as man needed or
coveted had either been produced in a simple manner by himself or taken
in the easiest way.
This new passion has made a large part of the modern criminal code. A
world of warriors, religious zealots and pastoral people could not
readily adapt themselves to the change. Criminal codes were lengthened;
methods of getting property and keeping it were provided for, and other
ways condemned. It must be obvious that it was not easy for man with his
age-old machine, his inherited institutions and his ancient folk-ways,
to adjust himself rapidly to the change. New conditions and laws created
new criminals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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