What is required--The case of the minor offenders--The incidence of fines--The prevention of drunkenness--Clubs-- Probation of offenders--Its partial application--Defects in its administration--The false position of the probation officer--Guardians required--Case of young girl--The plea of want of power--Old and destitute offenders--Prison and poorhouse 311-328 CHAPTER X THE BETTER WAY The offender who has become reckless--If not killed they must be kept--The failure of the institution--Boarding out--At present they are boarded out on liberation, but without supervision--Guardians may be found when they are sought for--The result of boarding out children--The insane boarded out--Unconditional liberation has failed-- Conditional liberation with suitable provision has not been tried--No system of dealing with men, but only a method--No necessity for the formation of the habitual offender--The one principle in penology 329-339 INDEX 343-348 PART I THE STUDY OF THE CRIMINAL THE CRIMINAL & THE COMMUNITY CHAPTER I THE CRIMINAL AND THE CRIMINOLOGISTS Classification of criminals--The treatment of the criminal not a medical but a social question--Technical differences between crimes and offences--Changes in the law--Vice and crime--The beginner in crime--Common characters of the "criminal class"--Atrocious crimes exceptional--So-called scientific studies of the criminal--How figures mislead--Composite photographs and averages--Estimate of character from physical examination--Causal relationship to crime of these characters. People were never more anxious to reform their neighbours than they are in our day. Everyone admits the widespread existence of misery, degradation, and destitution; and many seem to think that the presence of these evils is a modern phenomenon. Any man who has reached middle age and who has lived and worked among the masses of the people knows better. The evils are not new, but their widespread recognition is. For ages the few have been the governors of the many, and the governed have neither had the means nor the ability to communicate with their rulers and with one another. In our day the ends of the earth have been brought together by the invention of the engineer, and the schoolmaster has been abroad among the people. The writer reaches a larger contemporary audience, and the message of the speaker is carried over a greater area than was ever before possible. Whether this has been wholly an advantage may be questioned; but there can be no doubt that things that were hidden have been made manifest, and one result has been that laws and institutions which our fathers accepted have been placed on their trial.