This translation is based upon the Amsterdam edition of 1905, but the translator has been furnished by the author not only with special notes for the American edition, but also with the latest corrections to the French text. Dr. Bonger has also furnished a revised bibliography, and kindly wrote the American preface in English. In the translation some slight condensation of the work has been made, with the approval of the committee, by the omission of a few passages of a parenthetical nature, in quotations and notes. The very valuable bibliographical notes have been retained intact. Grateful acknowledgment is due to the Editorial Committee for suggestions as to some difficult legal terms, and to Mr. Georgio de Grassi for assistance in the translation of Italian passages. Henry P. Horton. Ithaca, N.Y., September, 1914. CRIMINALITY AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. The resolution of the “Committee on Translations of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology” to include my book “Criminalité et conditions économiques” among the European works, that were assigned for translation was welcomed by me with gladness. The fact that the difference of language is an obstacle for many to become acquainted with a book, is for its author very disagreeable. This was also the reason which obliged me to publish my work not in my own but in the French language. I am fully convinced that my ideas about the etiology of crime will not be shared by a great many readers of the American edition. As far as I can see, in the English-speaking countries the causes of criminality are sought in man himself rather than in his surroundings. Heredity, too, is considered there of great importance. Hence the attempts to reduce the army of criminals by so-called “sterilization.” Against this point of view my book is in sharp opposition; I consider it one of the most fatal errors. There was a time in Europe when it was thought with Lombroso that crime was rooted in man himself; the progress of sociology has shown more and more clearly that the roots are found outside man, in society. There is nothing more variable than man! That heredity plays a great part on the scene of criminality has never been proved. Have the advocates of “sterilization”, one should be inclined to ask, never heard of Australia, where a considerable number of the inhabitants are descended from the worst of criminals, and where yet the rate of criminality is low? The army of prostitution has been for a great many centuries by far more “sterile” than the army of criminals can ever be made, and yet prostitution is not decreased; the increase and decrease of this phenomena is ruled by social factors. In short, the effect of “sterilization” seems to me as useful as the efforts to stop with a bottle a brook in its course, as Manouvrier once called it. On the other hand I beg the adherents of the individualistic theory of