Criminality and economic conditionsBonger, Willem Adriaan
General
Criminality and economic conditions
Bonger, Willem Adriaan
Crime -- Economic aspects
“V. And then crime, like poverty, ignorance, prostitution, and
immorality in general, will have ended its unhappy tyranny over the
human race.”
—It is not certain that an adherent of scientific socialism would agree
that these theses are entirely accurate; for example, the second, that
the bad economic condition of the population is the cause of crime—for
the expression “economic condition” has here too limited a meaning,
namely that of poverty, misery, etc. In place of this he would rather
make use of the expression, “mode of production.” It is this which, in
the last analysis, rules the whole social life, according to the
Marxists.—
The first chapter of Professor Ferri’s work, bearing the title of “la
genesi sociale e individuale del delitto”, begins by remarking that the
socialists blame society as the cause of all evils, including poverty
and crime. On the one hand, they do this because of their “strategy of
propaganda”, on the other hand it is a reaction against the extreme
individualism which sprang from the French Revolution. They generally
pay no attention to individual factors, or perhaps recognize them in
part, but attribute their origin to society also. Between these two
extremes is to be found criminal sociology, which says that the causes
of crime are manifold.
According to the author there are three groups of the factors of crime:
the anthropological or individual factors, the cosmic or physical
factors, and the social factors. Since many authors, wholly or
partially, share this view, which constitutes an attack against the
very foundation of the idea of the social origin of crime, we will
examine it here fully.
We take from “Sociologie criminelle”, where this doctrine is best set
forth, the following statement of it. “Every crime is the resultant of
individual, physical, and social conditions.” [105] The individual
factor is, according to the author, the most important, the primordial
factor, so to speak, for he says: “The social environment gives form to
the crime; but this has its origin in an anti-social biological
constitution (organic or psychic).” [106] The factors pointed out are
the following:
“The anthropological factors, inherent in the person of the criminal,
are the first condition of crime, and divide themselves into three
subclasses, according as the person of the criminal is looked at from
an organic, psychic, or social point of view.
“The organic constitution of the criminal constitutes the first
subclass of anthropological factors and includes all the anomalies of
the skull, brain, viscera, sensibility, reflex activity, and all bodily
characteristics in general, such as physiognomy, tattooing, etc.
“The psychical constitution of the criminal includes anomalies of
intelligence and feeling, especially of the moral sense and the
peculiarities of the criminal dialect and literature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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