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TITLE: CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY
AUTHOR: ENRICO FERRI
EBOOK: E01634 (O'Briens Book Cellar)

CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY

BY
ENRICO FERRI
PROFESSOR OF CRIMINAL LAW
DEPUTY IN THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT, ETC.

PREFACE.

The following pages are a translation of that portion of Professor
Ferri's volume on Criminal Sociology which is immediately
concerned with the practical problems of criminality.  The Report
of the Government committee appointed to inquire into the
treatment of habitual drunkards, the Report of the committee of
inquiry into the best means of identifying habitual criminals, the
revision of the English criminal returns, the Reports of
committees appointed to inquire into the administration of prisons
and the best methods of dealing with habitual offenders, vagrants,
beggars, inebriate and juvenile delinquents, are all evidence of
the fact that the formidable problem of crime is again pressing
its way to the front and demanding re-examination at the hands of
the present generation.  The real dimensions of the question, as
Professor Ferri points out, are partially hidden by the
superficial interpretations which are so often placed upon the
returns relating to crime.  If the population of prisons or
penitentiaries should happen to be declining, this is immediately
interpreted to mean that crime is on the decrease.  And
yet a cursory examination of the facts is sufficient to show that
a decrease in the prison population is merely the result of
shorter sentences and the substitution of fines or other similar
penalties for imprisonment.  If the list of offences for trial
before a judge and jury should exhibit any symptoms of diminution,
this circumstance is immediately seized upon as a proof that the
criminal population is declining, and yet the diminution may
merely arise from the fact that large numbers of cases which used
to be tried before a jury are now dealt with summarily by a
magistrate.  In other words, what we witness is a change of
judicial procedure, but not necessarily a decrease of crime. 
Again, when it is pointed out that the number of persons for trial
for indictable offences in England and Wales amounted to 53,044 in
1874-8 and 56,472 in 1889-93, we are at a loss to see what colour
these figures give to the statement that there has been a real and
substantial decrease of crime.  The increase, it is true, may not
be keeping pace with the growth of the general population, but, as
an eminent judge recently stated from the bench, this is to be
accounted for by the fact that the public is every year becoming
more lenient and more unwilling to prosecute.  But an increase of
leniency, however excellent in itself, is not to be confounded
with a decrease of crime.  In the study of social phenomena our
paramount duty is to look at facts and not appearances.

But whether criminality is keeping pace with the growth of
population or not it is a problem of great magnitude all
the same, and it will not be solved, as Professor Ferri points
out, by a mere resort to punishments of greater rigour and
severity.  On this matter he is at one with the Scotch
departmental committee appointed to inquire into the best means of
dealing with habitual offenders, vagrants, and juveniles.  As far
as the suppression of vagrancy is concerned the members of the
committee are unanimously of opinion that ``the severest
enactments of the general law are futile, and that the best
results have been obtained by the milder provisions of more recent
statutes.''  They also speak of the ``utter inadequacy of the
present system in all the variety of detail which it offers to
deter the habitual offender from a course of life which devolves
the cost of his maintenance on the prison and the poorhouse when
he is not preying directly on the public.''  The committee state
that they have had testimony from a large number of witnesses
supporting the view that ``long sentences of imprisonment effect
no good result,'' and they arrive at the conclusion that to double
the present sentences would not diminish the number of habitual
offenders.  In this conclusion they are at one with the views of
the Royal Commission on Penal Servitude, which acquiesced in the
objection to the penal servitude system on the ground that it
``not only fails to reform offenders, but in the case of the less
hardened criminals and especially first offenders produces a
deteriorating effect.''  A similar opinion was recently expressed
by the Prisons Committee presided over by Mr. Herbert Gladstone. 
As soon as punishment reaches a point at which it makes
men worse than they were before, it becomes useless as an
instrument of reformation or social defence.

The proper method of arriving at a more or less satisfactory
solution of the criminal problem is to inquire into the causes
which are producing the criminal population, and to institute
remedies based upon the results of such an inquiry.  Professor
Ferri's volume has this object in view.  The first chanter, on the
data of Criminal Anthropology, is an inquiry into the individual
conditions which tend to produce criminal habits of mind and
action.  The second chapter, on the data of criminal statistics,
is an examination of the adverse social conditions which tend to
drive certain sections of the population into crime.  It is
Professor Ferri's contention that the volume of crime will not be
materially diminished by codes of criminal law however skilfully
they may be constructed, but by an amelioration of the adverse
individual and social conditions of the community as a whole. 
Crime is a product of these adverse conditions, and the only
effective way of grappling with it is to do away as far as
possible with the causes from which it springs.  Although criminal
codes can do comparatively little towards the reduction of crime,
they are absolutely essential for the protection of society. 
Accordingly, the last chapter, on Practical Reforms, is intended
to show how criminal law and prison administration may be made
more effective for purposes of social defence.

                                        W. D. M.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE DATA OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY 
Origin of Criminal Sociology, --Origin of Criminal Anthropology,
--Methods of Criminal Anthropology, --Relation between Criminal
Anthropology and Criminal Sociology, --Criminal Anthropology
studies the organic and mental constitution of the criminal, --
The criminal skull and brain, --Criminal physiognomy, --Physical
insensibility among criminals, --Criminal heredity, --Criminal
psychology, --Moral insensibility among criminals, --The
criminal mind.  II. The data of criminal anthropology only
applies to the habitual or congenital criminal, --The occasional
and habitual criminal, --Comparison between the criminal and
non-criminal skull, --Anomalies in the criminal skull, --The
habitual criminal, --The crimes of habitual criminals, --The
criminal type confined to habitual criminals, --The proportion
of habitual criminals in the criminal population, --Forms of
habitual criminality, --Forms of occasional criminality, --
Classification of criminals, --Criminal lunatics, --Moral
insanity, --Born criminals, --Criminals by acquired habit,
--Criminal precocity, --Nature of juvenile crime, --Relapsed
criminals, --Precocity and relapse among criminals, 
--Criminals of passion, --Occasional criminals, --Differences
between the occasional and the born criminal, --Criminal types shade
into each other, --Numbers of several classes of criminals, --
Value of a proper classification of criminals, --A fourfold
classification.

CHAPTER II.

THE DATA OF CRIMINAL STATISTICS

Value of criminal statistics, --The three factors of crime, --
Anthropological factors, --Physical factors, --Social factors,
--Crime a product of complex conditions, --Social conditions
do not explain crime, --Effects of temperature on crime, --
Crime a result of biological as well as social conditions, --The
measures to be taken against crime are of two kinds, preventive
and eliminative, --The fluctuations of crime chiefly produced by
social causes, --Steadiness of the graver forms of crime, --
Effect of judicial procedure on criminal statistics, --Crimes
against the person are high when crimes against property are low,
--Is crime increasing or decreasing?  --Official optimism in
criminal statistics, --Density of population and crime, --
Conditions on which the fluctuations of crime depend, --
Quetelet's law of the mechanical regularity of crime, --The
effect of environment on crime, --The effect of punishment on
crime, --The value of punishment is over-estimated, --
Statistical proofs of this, --Biological and sociological
proofs, --Crime is diminished by prevention not by repression,
--Legislators and administrators rely too much on repression,
--The basis of the belief in punishment,--Natural and legal
punishment, --The discipline of consequences, --The
uncertainty of legal punishment, --Want of foresight among
criminals, --Penal codes cannot alter invincible tendencies,
--Force is no remedy, --Negative value of punishment. 
II. Substitutes for punishment, --The elimination of the causes
of crime, --Economic remedies for crime, --Drink and crime,
--Drunkenness an effect of bad social conditions, --Taxation
of drink, --Laws against drink, --Social amelioration a 
substitute for penal law, --
Social legislation and crime, --Political amelioration as a
preventive of crime, --Decentralisation a preventive, --
Legal and administrative preventives, --Prisoners' Aid
Societies, --Education and crime, --Popular entertainments
and crime, --Physical education as a remedy for crime, --To
diminish crime its causes must be eliminated, --The aim and
scope of penal substitutes, --Difficulty of applying penal
substitutes, --Difference between social and police prevention,
--Limited efficacy of punishment, --Summary of conclusions.

CHAPTER III.

PRACTICAL REFORMS 

Criminal sociology and penal legislation, --Classification
of punishments, --The reform of criminal procedure, --The
two principles of judicial procedure, --Principles
determining the nature of the sentence, --Present principles of
penal procedure a reaction against mediaeval abuses, --The
``presumption of innocence,'' --The verdict of ``Not Proven,''
--The right of appeal, --A second trial, --Reparation to
the victims of crime, --Need for a Ministry of Justice, --
Public and private prosecutors, --The growing tendency to drop
criminal charges, --The tendency to minimise the official
returns of crime, --Roman penal law, --Revision of judicial
errors, --Reparation to persons wrongly convicted, --
Provision of funds for this purpose, --Reparation to persons

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