Crime -- United States; Criminals -- United States
Broadly speaking, the "conclusion" is correct; but observe that it fights
the companion question, tooth and nail. First off, the average man does
not carry the handicap of congenital predisposition to thieve, as do most
of instinctive thieves. As a "twig," he was not "bent" and "inclined" that
way. Secondly, "other men" had not "lived under the same conditions"; so
the positive case is at once cleared of the cardinal hypothesis. And
thirdly, since the criminal of the class indicated "is a man whose
faculties are not well balanced"; and since "Just as the twig is bent the
tree's inclined," he has at least two-fold limited excuse for his oblique
thoughts and deeds, likewise claim upon our commiseration.
Examples of the kind given could be multiplied indefinitely; indeed, it is
the exception to come upon socio-criminological writing that will stand
up, even under large-lens analysis.
Thoughtless plungers, with their half-baked opinions, we have a'plenty;
idiosyncratics are, of course, irrepressible, since like the true
criminal, "their faculties are not well balanced"; the self-seeking
advertiser never misses a throw no matter how cheap; purse-packing
politicians play the penological game for the "rake off"; hectic
emotionalists berate those who do not see with eyes blind to the wide-open
machinations of criminal malingerers; kindergarten panaceas are seriously
advanced as means by which to stop death-dealing bandits; and a dash of
the seasoning of the conglomerate mess is done by every dilettante who has
worried through the like of Freud's "dream" stuff.
It wouldn't occur to a bookkeeper that he could remove his coat and weld a
better joint than can a blacksmith; nor to a lawyer that he could lay
brick to line with a journeyman mason; but any man or woman who has
fondled a fetich of reform, backed by the most casual knowledge of, and
contact with criminals, has been cock sure of call to draw plans and
specifications for seasoned criminologists to follow.
Therefore the game of penology has attracted and held very few big men,
who have refused a vocation in which one must constantly adjust, then
readjust, to the dissonant tinkling of little bells, rung by individuals
who cannot be brought to listen for the fundamental tones of reform. And
therefore puerile, patch-quilt prison methods, with rivalry between
single-seeing cults as to which could place the greatest emphasis on
bizarre banalities.
"All of true force is silent." If you know baseball to its vitals, sit in
the grand stand and test out that truism; observe there how the mouthy
"fan" will miscall the turn, both on the player and the play. Observe,
also, how the real student of the game is too busy following the finesse
of the general play around the whole circuit, to be led into a Dervish
dance over outstanding features. And observe that while "stars" may
"twinkle," it is the evenly-balanced team, and team work that nails the
pennant to the staff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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