Crime -- United States; Criminals -- United States
To begin with, we have to unset anti-social jaws. We may be able to do
that big thing if we go about it like manly men, realizing that everything
in life is relative; and that a fellow may have tricked himself into
crime, yet be far from a by-choice criminal. Positively, we shall not do
so with a "billy" and billingsgate. Neither can we coddle and pad a man to
reformation. That will ensue upon nothing less than his changed habit of
thought and action; and that will usually initiate, if at all, out of
acquired knowledge and skill, from which to build or rebuild self-respect.
(5) Man correctional institutions throughout with men whose characters are
unassailable, who example and suggest only that which is above reproach,
who are naturally fitted to discourage the offense without discouraging
the offender, and who instinctively dive deeply for compassion; but, who
cannot be "faked" readily by criminal cunning, nor brought to a compromise
with it.
Between such men and flippant "good-mixers" who set sail for untroubled
waters and the lump sum; also between such men and "soulless politicians
who gamble with dice loaded with human hearts," drive wedges that triflers
and stricksters cannot loosen.
(6) It will repay the States, handsomely, to establish criminological
schools basically equipped for practical instruction, backed by elementary
courses in anthropology and mental therapeutics. The chiefs of staffs of
such schools should be men well advanced in years, and of proven worth
which comprehends the practice and theory of a work great and grave as any
to which man lends hand and brain. They should be "well advanced in
years," because one must have dealt first hand in their midst for the
better part of a life time with true criminals ere he shall have dug to
their ulterior designs and visioned their more refined crooks and curves.
Choice of chiefs of staffs should bear but incidental relation to
diplomas--medical or other. While ability to prescribe for a prisoner
physically, or to probe him psychologically, is a valuable asset, it does
not, by any manner of means, postulate the stature of an all-purpose
criminologist.
For example: a graduated general practicioner and psychic expert holds two
blocks of the reform pyramid; yet only two, neither of which is the
key-block. That does not reside in ability to tell off the bones of the
human frame, nor to trace to subconscious impulsion; but in capacity to
fit all the blocks of a delicately-poised structure and make them
function in harmony, close to the maximum of efficiency, for a common
purpose. Thereof, weight of influence must be carefully weighed,
confounding of magnitudes avoided, and contact of extremes religiously
discouraged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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