Does heredity account for one quality more than another?--Impossibility of forecasting the conduct of others--Do criminals breed criminals?--The fit and the unfit--Unequal endowments--Ability and position--Inherited faculties and social pressure--Crime the result of wrongly directed powers--Original sin and heredity--Heredity behind everything 18-23 CHAPTER III INSANITY AND CRIME Insanity and responsibility--Removal of the insane from prison--Crime resulting from insanity--Case of theft--Of embezzlement--Of fire-raising--Insanity and murder charges--The result of an act not a guide to the nature of the act--Observation of prisoners charged with certain offences--Insanity as a result of misconduct--Cases--The mentally defective--Cases 24-40 CHAPTER IV PHYSICAL DEFECTS AND CRIME Physical defects beget sympathy--Rarely induce crime--May cause mental degeneration--Case of jealousy and murder 41-43 CHAPTER V THE STUDY OF THE CRIMINAL The reliability of prisoners' statements--Deceit or misunderstanding?--Frankness and knowledge required on the part of the investigator--The prisoner's statement should form the basis of enquiry--Information and help obtained from former friends--The diffusion of knowledge so obtained--The prevention of crime and the accumulation of knowledge 44-48 PART II COMMON FACTORS IN THE CAUSATION OF CRIME CHAPTER I DRINK AND CRIME Drink commonly accredited with the production of crime-- Minor offences usually committed under its influence-- Drink a factor in the causation of most crimes against the person--Double personality caused by drink--Drunken cruelty--Drunken rage--Assaults on the drunken--Sexual offences--Child neglect--Mental defect behind the drunkenness of some offenders--Malicious mischief and theft--Drunken kleptomania--The professional criminal and drink--Thefts from the drunken--Amount of crime not in ratio to amount of drinking in a district--The vice existent apart from crime, in the country--And in the wealthier parts of the city--Drunkenness and statistics-- Summary 51-66 CHAPTER II POVERTY, DESTITUTION, OVERCROWDING, AND CRIME