I shall not enter here into a discussion of what part, if any,
environment played in the shaping of the lives of these individuals, for
several reasons, chief among which, however, is the fact that I have not
had the opportunity of investigating thoroughly the environmental
conditions in which they grew up and am therefore unable to evaluate
properly this phase of the question. The fact, however, that my cases
were culled from various sources and that the anomalous traits
manifested by them were already present at an age when environment could
hardly have had any lasting influence upon them, leads me to believe
that it is heredity that is responsible for the major portion of this
anomalous product. However, we shall leave this question to the decision
of the practical eugenists. Personally I fully believe that we are
dealing here with a type in which heredity plays an important rôle. I
fully believe that these individuals were always the same as they are
now and that the probabilities are that they will always remain so.
Assuming then, for the moment, that we are correct, the question
arises:--"Has society dealt with these individuals in a proper manner?"
This question must be answered decidedly in the negative. I will not
enter here into an extensive discussion of a system of penology which
might be specifically applicable to this class of individuals. I can
only agree fully with the current opinions of eminent criminologists on
this subject.
At the 1911 Congress of Criminology and Anthropology at Cologne, the
following resolution among others was adopted:--"Hardened and
professional criminals, recidivists, who present a great danger to
society must be deprived of their liberty for as long a time as they are
dangerous to the mass. Their liberty should be as a general rule,
conditional."
Archibald Hopkins, Esq., has been recently quoted by Gault as
follows:--"The Head of Scotland Yard, in London, said not long ago that
nine-tenths of the serious crimes there were committed by men who had
served one or more terms of imprisonment and who might be regarded as
belonging permanently to the criminal class. His judgment was that if
they could be eliminated from such a situation, violation of the law
would be diminished to less than a third of what it has been. Why cannot
this be done? Let the Courts be clothed with power, after two or more
offenses, in its discretion, to pronounce a man incorrigible, who shall
be sentenced for life, to whom no pardon shall issue. By an arrangement
between the general government and the states, a colony could be
established, say in the Island of Guam, where escape would be
impossible, and where, under military guard, convicts could be made to
earn their own living. Surely society has the right to protect itself
from these incorrigibles, who are released only to prey on it again.
They also are the class who rapidly produce their kind, and at present
society puts no obstacle in the way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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