The Positive School of Criminology - Enrico Ferri

The
Positive
School
of
Criminology
THREE
LECTURES
Given
at
the
University
of Naples,
on
April 22,
23
and
24, 1901
By
ENRICO
FERR1
Translated
by
ERNEST UN
TERM
ANN
E>80
Chicago
Charles
H.
Kerr &
Company
1913
H\|
H
COPYRIGHT
1906
BY
CHARLES
H. KERR & COMPANY
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
I.
MY FRIENDS:
When,
in the turmoil of
my daily
occu-
pation,
I received an
invitation,
several
months
ago,
from several hundred students
of this famous
university,
to
give
them a
brief
summary,
in short
special
lectures,
of
the
principal
and fundamental conclusions of
criminal
sociology,
I
gladly accepted,
because
this invitation fell in with two ideals of mine.
These two ideals are
stirring my
heart and
are the secret of
my
life. In the first
place,
this invitation chimed with the ideal of
my
personal
life,
namely,
to diffuse and
propa-
gate among my
brothers the scientific
ideas,
which
my
brain has
accumulated,
not
through
any
merit of
mine,
but thanks to the
lucky
prize
inherited from
my
mother in the lot-
tery
of life. And the second ideal which
this
invitation called
up
before
my
mind's
vision was this: The ideal of
young peo-
5
334461
THE POSITIVE
SCHOOL
pie
of
Italy,
united in morals and intellectual
pursuits, feeling
in their social lives the
glow
of a
great
aim. It would matter little wheth-
er this aim would
agree
with
my
own ideas or
be
opposed
to
them,
so
long
as it should be
an ideal which would lift the
aspirations
of
the
young people
out of the fatal
grasp
of
egoistic
interests. Of
course,
we
positivists
know
very
well,
that the material
require-
ments of life
shape
and determine also the
moral and intellectual aims of human con-
sciousness. But
positive
science declares the
following
to be the
indispensable requirement
for the
regeneration
of human ideals; With-
out an
ideal,
neither an individual nor a col-
lectivity
can
live,
without it
humanity
is
dead or
dying.
For it is the fire of an ideal
which renders the life of each one of us
pos-
sible,
useful and fertile. And
only by
its
help
cart each one of
us,
in the more or less
short course of his or her
existence,
leave be-
hind traces for the benefit of
fellow-beings.
The
invitation extended to me
proves
that
the students of
Naples
believe in the
inspiring
existence of such an ideal of
science,
and are
anxious to learn more about ideas with which
the
entire world of the
present day
is occu-
pied,
and whose
life-giving
breath enters
6
OF CRIMINOLOGY
even
through
the windows of the
dry
court-
rooms,
when their doors are closed
against
it.
Let us now
speak
of this new
science,
which
has become known in
Italy by
the name of
the Positive School of
Criminology.
This
science,
the same as
every
other
phenomenon
of scientific
evolution,
cannot be
shortsighted-
ly
or
conceitedly
attributed to the
arbitrary
initiative of this or that
thinker,
this or that
scientist. We must rather
regard
it as a
..***'
natural
product,
a
necessary phenomenon,
in!
the
development
of that sad and somber de-
partment
of science which deals with the
'
disease of crime. It is this
plague
of crime
which forms such a
gloomy
and
painful
con-
trast with the
splendor
of
present-day
civili-
zation. The
19th
century
has won a
great
victory
over
mortality
and infectious diseases
by
means of the masterful
progress
of
phy-
siology
and natural science. But while con-
tagious
diseases have
gradually
diminished,
we see on the other hand that moral diseases
are
growing
more numerous in our so-called
civilization. While
typhoid
fever,
smallpox,
cholera and
diphtheria
retreated before the
remedies which
enlightened
science
applied by
means of the
experimental
method,
removing
7
THE POSITIVE
SCHOOL
their concrete
causes,
we see on the other hand
that
insanity,
suicide and
crime,
that
painful
trinity,
are
growing apace.
And this makes
it
very
evident that the science which is
prin-
cipally,
if not
exclusively, engaged
in
study-
ing
these
phenomena
of social
disease,
should
feel the
necessity
of
finding
a more exact
diagnosis
of these moral diseases of
society,
in order to arrive at some effective and more
humane
remedy,
which should more victo-
riously
combat this somber
trinity
of in-
sanity,
suicide and crime.
The science of
positive criminology
arose
in the last
quarter
of the
19th
century,
as a
result of this
strange
contrast,
which would
be
inexplicable,
if we could not discover his-
torical and scientific reasons for its existence.
And it is indeed a
strange
contrast that
Italy
should have arrived at a
perfect
theoretical
development
of a classical school of crim-
inology,
while there
persists,
on the other
hand,
the
disgraceful
condition that crimin-
ality
assumes dimensions never before observed
in this
country,
so that the science of crim-
inology
cannot stem the tide of crime in
high
and low circles. It is for this
reason,
that
the
positive
school of
criminology
arises out
of the
very
nature of
things,
the same as
8
OF CRIMINOLOGY
every
other line of science. It is based on
the conditions of our
daily
life. It would
indeed be conceited on our
part
to claim that
we,
who are the
originators
of this new
science and its new
conclusions,
deserve alone
the credit for its existence. The brain of
the scientist is rather a sort of electrical ac-
cumulator,
which feels and assimilates the
vibrations and heart-beats of
life,
its
splendor
and its
shame,
and derives therefrom the con-
viction that it must of
necessity provide
for
definite social wants. And on the other
hand,-
it would be an evidence of intellectual short-
sightedness
on the
part
of the
positivist
man
of
science,
if he did not
recognize
the his-
torical
accomplishments,
which his
predeces-
sors on the field of science have left behind as
indelible traces of their
struggle against
the
unknown in that brilliant and irksome do-
main. For this
reason,
the adherents of the
positive
school of
criminology
feel the most
sincere reverence for the classic school of
criminology.
And I am
glad today,
in ac-
cepting
the invitation of the students of Na-
ples,
to
say,
that this is another reason
why
their invitation was welcome to me. It is now
16
years
since I
gave
in this same hall a lec-
ture on
positive criminology,
which was then
9
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
in its initial
stages.
It was in
1885,
when
I had the
opportunity
to outline the first
principles
of the
positive
school of crimin-
ology,
at the invitation of other students,
who
preceded you
on the
periodic
waves of
the intellectual
generations.
And the re-
newal of this
opportunity gave
me so much
moral satisfaction that I could not under
any
circumstances decline
your
invitation. Then
too,
the
Neapolitan
Atheneum has maintained
the
reputation
of the Italian mind in the
19th
century,
also in that science which even
foreign
scientists admit to be our
specialty,
namely
the science of
criminology.
In
fact,
aside from the two terrible books of the
Digest,
and from the
practical criminologists
of the Middle
Ages
who continued the
study
of
criminality,
the modern world
opened
a
glorious page
in the
progress
of crim-
inal science with the modest little book of
Cesare Beccaria. This
progress
leads from
Cesare
Beccaria,
by way
of Francesco Car-
rara,
to Enrico Pessina.
Enrico Pessina alone remains of the two
giants
who concluded the
cycle
of classic
school of
criminology.
In a lucid moment
of his scientific
consciousness,
which soon re-
verted to the old abstract and
metaphysical
10
OF CRIMINOLOGY
theories,
he announced in an
introductory^
statement in
1879,
that criminal
justice
would
-
have to
rejuvenate
itself in the
pure
bath of
the natural sciences and substitute in
place
of abstraction the
living
and concrete
study
of facts.
Naturally every
scientist has his
function and historical
significance;
and we
cannot
expect
that a brain which has arrived
at the end of its career should turn towards
a new direction. At
any
rate,
it is a
sig-
nificant fact that this most renowned
repre-
sentative of the classic school of
criminology
should have
pointed
out this need of bis
special
science in this same
university
*f Na-
ples,
one
year
after the
inauguration
of the
positive
school of
criminology,
that he should
have looked forward to a time when the
study
of natural and
positive
facts would set to
rights
the old
juridical
abstractions. And
there is still another
precedent
in the
history
of this
university,
which makes scientific
propaganda
at this
place very agreeable
for
a
positivist.
It is that six
years
before that
introductory
statement
by
Pessina,
Giovanni
Bovio
gave
lectures at this
university,
which
he
published
later on under the title of "A
Critical
Study
of Criminal Law." Giovanni
Bovio
performed
in this
monograph
the func-
11
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
tion of a
critic,
but the historical time of his
thought prevented
him from
taking part
in
the construction of a new science.
However,
he
prepared
the
ground
for new
ideas,
by
pointing
out all the rifts and weaknesses of
the old
building.
Bovio maintained that
which
Gioberti, Ellero, Conforti,
Tissot had
already
maintained,
namely
that it is
impos-
sible to solve the
problem
which is still the
theoretical foundation of the classic school
of
criminology,
the
problem
of the relation
between
punishment
and crime. No
man,
no
scientist,
no
legislator,
no
judge,
has ever
been able to indicate
any
absolute
standard,
which would enable us to
say
that
equity
de-
mands a definite
punishment
for a definite
crime. We can find some
opportunistic
ex-
pedient,
but not a solution of the
problem.
Of
course,
if we could decide which is the
gravest
crime,
then we could also decide on
the heaviest sentence and formulate a descend-
ing
scale which would establish the relative
fitting proportions
between crime and
pun-
ishment. If it is
agreed
that
patricide
is the
gravest
crime,
we meet out the heaviest sen-
tence,
death or
imprisonment
for
life,
and
then we can
agree
on a
descending
scale of
crime and on a
parallel
scale of
punishments.
12
OF CRIMINOLOGY
But
the
problem begins right
with
the
first
'
stone
of the
structure,
not with the succeed-
ing steps.
Which
is the
greatest penalty
proportional
to the crime of
patricide?
Neither
science,
nor
legislation,
nor moral
consciousness,
can offer an absolute standard.
Some
say
: The
greatest penalty
is death.
Others
say
:
No,
imprisonment
for life. Still
others
say:
Neither
death,
nor
imprisonment
for
life,
but
only imprisonment
for a time.
And if
imprisonment
for a time is to be the
highest penalty,
how
many years
shall it last
thirty,
or
twenty
-five,
or ten?
No man can set
up any
absolute standard
in this matter. Giovanni Bovio thus ar-
rived at the conclusion that this internal con-
tradiction in the science of
criminology
was
the inevitable fate of human
justice,
and that
this
justice, struggling
in the
grasp
of this
internal
contradiction,
must turn to the civil
law and ask for
help
in its weakness. The
same
thought
had
already
been illumined
by
a
ray
from the
bright
mind of
Filangieri,
who died all too soon. And we can derive
from this fact the historical rule that the most
barbarian conditions of
humanity
show a
prevalence
of a criminal code which
punishes
without
healing;
and that the
gradual prog-
18
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
ress of civilization will
give
rise to the
op-
posite conception
of
healing
without
punish-
ing.
Thus it
happens
that this
university
of
Naples,
in which the illustrious
representative
of the classic school of
criminology
realized
the
necessity
of its
regeneration,
and in which
Bovio foresaw its
sterility,
has
younger
teach-
ers now who
keep
alive the fire of the
posi-
tivist
tendency
in criminal
science,
such as
Penta, Zuccarelli,
and
others,
whom
you
know. Nevertheless I feel that this
faculty
of
jurisprudence
still lacks
oxygen
in the
study
of criminal
law,
because its
thought
is
still influenced
by
the
overwhelming authority
of the name of Enrico Pessina. And it is
easy
to understand that
there,
where the ma-
jestic
tree
spreads
out its branches towards
the blue
vault,
the
young plant
feels de-
prived
of
light
and
air,
while it
might
have
grown strong
and beautiful in another
place.
The
positive
school of
criminology,
then,
was born in our own
Italy through
the
singu-
lar attraction of the Italian mind toward the
study
of
criminology
;
and its birth is also due
to the
peculiar
condition of our
country
with
its
great
and
strange
contrast between the
OF CRIMINOLOGY
theoretical doctrines and the
painful
fact of
an ever
increasing criminality.
The
positive
school of
criminology
was
inaugurated by
the work of Cesare
Lombroso,
in 1872.
From 1872 to 1876
he
opened
a
new
way
for the
study
of
criminality by
dem-
onstrating
in his own
person
that we . must
first understand the criminal who
offends,
be-
fore we can
study
and understand his crime.
Lombroso studied the
prisoners
in the various
penitentiaries
of
Italy
from the
point
of view
of
anthropology.
And he
compiled
his
studies in the
reports
of the Lombardian In-
stitute of Science and
Literature,
and
pub-
lished them later
together
in his work
"Criminal Man." The first edition of this
work
(1876)
remained almost
unnoticed,
either because its scientific material was
meager,
or because Cesare Lombroso had not
yet
drawn
any general
scientific
conclusions,
which could have attracted the attention of
the world of science and law. But simultane-
ously
with its second edition
(1878)
there
appeared
two
monographs,
which constituted
the
embryo
of the new
school,
supplement-
ing
the
anthropological
studies of Lombroso
with conclusions and
systematizations
from
the
point
of view of
sociology
and law. Raf-
15
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
faele Garofalo
published
in the
Neapolitan
Journal of
Philosophy
and Literature an es-
say
on
criminality,
in which he declared that
the
dangerousness
of the criminal was the
criterion
by
which
society
should measure the
function of its defense
against
the disease
of crime. And in the same
year,
1878,
I took
occasion to
publish
a
monograph
on the de-
nial of free will and
personal responsibility,
in which I declared
frankly
that from now on
the science of crime and
punishment
must
look for the fundamental facts of a science of
social defense
against
crime in the human
and social life itself. The simultaneous
pub-
lication of these three
monographs
caused a
stir. The teachers of classic
criminology,
who had taken
kindly
to the recommendations
of Pessina and
Ellero,
urging
them to
study
the natural sources of
crime,
met the new
ideas with
contempt,
when the new methods
made a determined and radical
departure,
and became not
only
the
critics,
but the zeal-
ous
opponents
of the new theories. And this
is
easy
to understand. For the
struggle
for
existence is an irresistible law of
nature,
as
well for the thousands of
germs
scattered to
the winds
by
the
oak,
as for the ideas which
grow
in the brain of man. But
persecutions,
16
OF CRIMINOLOGY
calumnies, criticisms,
and
opposition
are
pow-
erless
against
an
idea,
if it carries within it-
self the
germ
of truth.
Moreover,
we should
look
upon
this
phenomenon
of a
repugnance
in the
average
intellect
(whether
of the or-
dinary
man or the
scientist)
for all new ideas
as a natural function. For when the brain
of some man has felt the
light
of a new
idea,
a
sneering
criticism serves as a touch-
stone for it. If the idea is
wrong,
it will
fall
by
the
wayside;
if it is
right,
then crit-
icisms,
opposition
and
persecution
will cull
the
golden
kernel from the
unsightly
shell,
and the idea will march
victoriously
over
everything
and*
everybody.
It is so in all
walks of life in
art,
in
politics,
in science.
Every
new idea will rouse
against
itself nat-
urally
and
inevitably
the
opposition
of the
accustomed
thoughts.
This is so
true,
that
when Cesare Beccaria
opened
the
great
his-
toric
cycle
of the classic school of criminol-
ogy,
he was assaulted
by
the critics of his
time with the same indictments which were
brought against
us a
century
later.
When Cesare Beccaria
printed
his book on
crime and
penalties
in 1774> under a false
date and
place
of
publication, reflecting
the
aspirations
which
gave
rise
to
the
impending
17
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
hurricane of the French
revolution;
when he
hurled himself
against
all that was barbarian
in the mediaeval laws and set loose a storm
of enthusiasm
among
the
encyclopedists,
and
even some of the members of
government,
in
France,
he was met
by
a wave of
opposition,
calumny
and accusation on the
part
of the
majority
of
jurists, judges
and
lights
of
philosophy.
The abbe Jachinei
published
four volumes
against
Beccaria,
calling
him
the
destroyer
of
justice
and
morality, simply
because he had combatted the tortures and
the death
penalty.
The
tortures,
which we
incorrectly
ascribe
to the mental
brutality
of the,
judges
of those
times,
were but a
logical consequence
of the
contemporaneous
theories. It was felt that
in order to condemn a
man,
one must have
the
certainty
of his
guilty,
and it was said
that the best means of
obtaining
this cer-
tainty,
the
queen
of
proofs,
was the confes-
sion of the criminal. And if the criminal de-
nied his
guilt,
it was
necessary
to have re-
course to
torture,
in order to force him to a
confession which he withheld from fear of the
penalty.
The torture
soothed,
so to
say,
the
conscience of the
judge,
who was free to con-
demn as soon as he had obtained a confes-
18
OF CRIMINOLOGY
sion. Cesare Beccaria
rose with others
against
the torture.
Thereupon
the
judges
and
jurists protested
that
penal justice
would
be
impossible,
because it could not
get any
information,
since a man
suspected
of a crime
would not confess his
guilt voluntarily.
Hence
they
accused Beccaria of
being
the
protector
of robbers and
murderers,
because he wanted
to abolish the
only
means of
compelling
them
to a
confession,
the torture. But Cesare
Beccaria had on his side the
magic power
of
truth. He was
truly
the electric accumulator
of his
time,
who
gathered
from its atmos-
phere
the
presage
of the
coming
revolution,
the
stirring
of the human conscience. You
can find a similar illustration in the works of
Daquin
in
Savoy,
of Pinel in
France,
and of
Hach Take in
England,
who strove to
bring
about a revolution in the treatment of the
insane. This
episode
interests us
especially,
because it is a
perfect
illustration of the
way
traveled
by
the
positive
school of
criminology.
The insane were likewise considered to blame
for their
insanity.
At the dawn of the 19th
century,
the
physician
Hernroth still wrote
that
insanity
was a moral sin of the
insane,
because "no one becomes
insane,
unless he for-
19
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
sakes the
straight path
of virtue and of the
fear of the Lord."
And on this
assumption
the insane
were
locked
up
in horrible
dungeons,
loaded down
with
chains,
tortured and
beaten,
for lo!
their
insanity
was their own fault.
At that
period,
Pinel advanced the revolu-
tionary
idea that
insanity
was not a
sin,
but
a disease like all other diseases. This idea
is now a
commonplace,
but in his time it revo-
lutionized the world. It seemed as
though
this innovation
inaugurated by
Pinel would
overthrow the world and the foundations of
society.
Well,
two
years
before the storm-
ing
of the Bastile Pinel walked into the sani-
tarium of the
Salpetriere
and committed the
brave act of
freeing
the insane of the chains
that
weighed
them down. He demonstrated
in
practice
that the
insane,
when freed of
their
chains,
became
quieter,
instead of cre-
ating
wild disorder and destruction. This
great
revolution of
Pinel,
Chiarugi,
and oth-
ers,
changed
the attitude of the
public
mind
toward the insane. While
formerly insanity
had been
regarded
as a moral
sin,
the
public
conscience,
thanks to the
enlightening
work
of
science,
henceforth had to
adapt
itself to
the truth that
insanity
is a disease like all
20
OF CRIMINOLOGY
others,
that a man does not become insane
because he wants
to,
but that he becomes in-
sane
through hereditary
transmission and the
influence of the environment in which he
lives,
being predisposed
toward
insanity
and be-
coming
insane under the
pressure
ftf circum-
stances.
The
positive
school of
criminology
accom-
plished
the same revolution in the views
concerning
the treatment of criminals that
the above named men of science
accomplished
for the treatment of the insane. The
gen-
eral
opinion
of classic criminalists and of the
people
at
large
is that crime involves a moral
guilt,
because it is due to the free will of the
individual who leaves the
path
of virtue and
chooses the
path
of
crime,
and therefore it
must be
suppressed by meeting
it with a
proportionate quantity
of
punishment.
This is
to this
day
the current
conception
of crime.
And the illusion of a free human will
(the
only
miraculous factor in the eternal ocean of
cause and effect
)
leads to the
assumption
that
one can choose
freely
between virtue and
vice. How can
you
still believe in the exis-
tence of a free
will,
when modern
psychology
armed with all the instruments of
positive
modern
research,
denies that there is
any
free
21
THE POSITIVE
SCHOOL
will and demonstrates that
every
act of a
human
being
is the result of an interaction
between the
personality
and the environment
of man?
And how is it
possible
to
cling
to that ob-
solete idea of moral
guilt, according
to which
every
individual is
suposed
to have the free
choice to abandon virtue and
give
himself
up
to crime ? The
positive
school of
criminology
maintains,
on the
contrary,
that it is not the
criminal who
wills;
in order to be a criminal
it is rather
necessary
that
the individual
should find himself
permanently
or trans-
itorily
in such
personal, physical
and moral
conditions,
and live in such an
environment^
which become for him a chain of cause and ef-
fect,
externally
and
internally,
that
disposes
him toward crime. This is our
conclusion,
which I
anticipate,
and it constitutes the vast-
ly
different and
opposite
method,
which the
positive
school of
criminology employes
as
compared
to the
leading principle
of the clas-
sic school of criminal science.
In this
method,
this essential
principle
of
the
positive
school of
criminology
>
you
will
find another reason for the
seemingly
slow
advance of this school. That is
very
nat-
ural. If
you
consider the
great
reform car-
OF CRIMINOLOGY
ried
by
the ideas of Cesare Beccaria into the
criminal
justice
of the Middle
Age, you
will
see that the
great
classic school
represents
but a small
step
forward,
because it leaves the
penal justice
on the same theoretical and
practical
basis which it had in the Middle
Age
and in classic
antiquity,
that is to
say,
based on the idea of a moral
responsibility
of the individual. For
Beccaria,
for Car-
rara,
for their
predecessors,
this idea is no
more nor less than that mentioned in books
47 and 48 of the
Digest:
"The criminal is
liable
to
punishment
to the extent that he is
morally guilty
of the crime he has com-
mitted." The entire classic school
is,
there-
fore,
nothing
but a series of reforms.
Capi-
tal
punishment
has been abolished in some
countries,
likewise
torture, confiscation,
cor-
poral punishment.
But nevertheless the im-
mense scientific movement of the classic
school has remained a mere reform.
It has continued in the
19th
century
to
look
upon
crime in the same
way
that the
Middle
Age
did: "Whoever commits murder
or
theft,
is alone the absolute arbiter to de-
cide whether he wants to commit the crime or
not." This remains the foundation of the
classic school of
criminology.
This
explains
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
why
it could travel on its
way
more
rapidly
than the
positive
school of
criminology.
And
yet,
it took half a
century
from the time of
Beccaria,
before the
penal
codes showed
signs
of the
reformatory
influence of the
classic school of
criminology.
So that it has
also
taken
quite
a
long
time to establish it
so well that it became
accepted by general
consent,
as it is
today.
The
positive
school of
criminology
was born in
1878,
and
although
it does not stand for a mere reform of the
methods of criminal
justice,
but for a com-
plete
and fundamental transformation of
criminal
justice
itself,
it has
already gone
quite
a distance and made considerable con-
quests
which
begin
to show in our
country.
It is a fact that the
penal
code now in force
this
country represents
a
compromise,
so
far as the
theory
of
personal responsibility
is
concerned,
between the old
theory
of free
will and the conclusions of the
positive
school
which denies this free will.
You can find an illustration of this in the
eloquent
contortions of
phantastic logic
in the
essays
on the criminal code written
by
a
great
advocate of the classic school of
criminology,
Mario
Pagano,
this admirable
type
of a scien-
tist and
patriot,
who does not lock himself
up
OF CRIMINOLOGY
in the
quiet egoism
of his
study,
but feels the
ideal of his time
stirring
within him and
gives
up
his life to it. He has written three lines
of a
simple nudity
that reveals
much,
in which
he
says
: "A man is
responsible
for the crimes
which he commits
; if,
in
committing
a
crime,
his will is half
free,
he is
responsible
to the
extent of
one-half;
if one-
third,
he is re-
sponsible
one-third." There
you
have the
uncompromising
and absolute classic the-
orem. But in the
penal
code of
1890,
you
will find that the famous article 45 intends
to base the
responsibility
for a crime on the
simple
will,
to the exclusion of the free will.
However,
the Italian
judge
has continued to
base the exercise of
penal justic
on the
sup-
posed
existence of the free
will,
and
pre-
tends not to know that the number of sci-
entists
denying
the free will is
growing.
Now,
how is it
possible
that so terrible an
office as that of
sentencing
criminals re-
tains its
stability
or
vacillates,
according
to whether the first who denies the exist-
ence of a free will
deprives
this function
of its foundation?
Truly,
it is said that this
question
has
been too difficult for the new Italian
penal
code.
And,
for this
reason,
it was
thought
25
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
best to base the
responsibility
for a crime
on the idea that a man is
guilty simply
for
the reason that he wanted to commit the
crime
;
and that he is not
responsible
if he
did not want to commit it. But this is an
eclectic
way
out of the
difficulty,
which set-
tles
nothing,
for in the same code we have
the rule that
involuntary
criminals are also
punished,
so that
involuntary killing
and
wounding
are
punished
with
imprisonment
the same as
voluntary
deeds of this kind.
We have heard it said in such cases that
the result
may
not have been
intended,
but
the action
bringing
it about was. If a
hunter shoots
through
a
hedge
and kills
.
or wounds a
person,
he did not intend to
kill,
and
yet
he is held
responsible
because
his first
act,
the
shooting,
was
voluntary.
That
statement
applies
to
involuntary
crimes,
which are committed
by
some
posi-
tive act. But what about
involuntary
crimes
of omission? In a
railway
station,
where
the movements of trains
represent
the
daily
whirl of traffic in
men,
things,
and
ideas,
every
switch is a delicate instrument which
may
cause a derailment. The
railway
man-
agement places
a switchman on
duty
at this
delicate
post.
But in a moment of
fatigue,
26
OF CRIMINOLOGY
or because he had to work
inhumanly long
hours of
work,
which exhausted all his nerv-
ous
elasticity,
or for other
reasons,
the
switchman
forgets
to set the switch and
causes a railroad
accident,
in which
people
fire killed and wounded. Can it be said that
he intended the first act?
Assuredly
not,
for he did not intend
anything
and did not
do
anything.
The hunter who fires a shot
has at least had the intention of
shooting.
But the switchman did not want to
forget
(for
in that case he would be
indirectly
to
blame)
;
he has
simply forgotten
from sheer
fatigue
to
do
his
duty
;
he has had no in-
tention
whatever,
and
yet you
hold him re-
sponsible
in
spite
of all that! The funda-
mental
logic
of
your reasoning
in this case
corresponds
to the
logic
of the
things.
Does
it not
happen every day
in the administra-
tion of
justice
that the
judges forget
about
the neutral
expedient
of the
legislator
who
devised this relative
progress
of the
penal
code,
which
pretends
to base the
responsi-
bility
of a man on the neutral and naive
criterion of a will without freedom of will?
Do
they
not follow their old mental habits
in the administration of
justice
and
apply
the
obsolete criterion of the free
will,
which
27
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
the
legislator thought
fit to abandon? We
see, then,
as
a
result of this
imperfect
and
insincere innovation in
penal legislation
this
flagrant
contradiction,
that the
magistrates
assume the existence of a free
will,
while
the
legislator
has decided that it shall not
be assumed.
Now,
in science as well as
in
legislation,
we should follow a direct and
logical
line,
such as that of
the classic
school or the
positive
school of
criminology.
But whoever thinks he has solved a
problem
when he
gives
us a solution which is neither
fish nor
fowl,
comes to the most absurd and
iniquitous
conclusions. You see what
hap-
pens every day.
If to-morrow some
beastly
and
incomprehensible
crime is
committed,
the
conscience of the
judge
is troubled
by
this
question:
Was the
person
who committed
this crime
morally
free to act or not? He
may
also invoke the
help
of
legislation,
and
he
may
take
refuge
in article
46,*
or in
*
Article 46: "A
person
is not
subject
to
punish-
ment,
if at the moment of his deed he was in a
mental condition which
deprived
him of conscious-
ness or of the freedom of action. But if the
judge
considers it
dangerous
to
acquit
the
prisoner,
he
has to transfer him to the care of the
proper
authorities,
who will take the
necessary precau-
tions.
' '
28
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
that
compromise
of article
47,
f
which ad-
mits a
responsibility
of one-half or one-
third,
and he would decide on a
penalty
of
one-half or one-third.
All this
may
take
place
in the case of a
grave
and
strange
crime. And on the other
hand,
go
to the
municipal
courts or to the
police
courts,
where the
magic
lantern of
justice
throws its
rays upon
the nameless
human
beings
who have stolen a bundle of
wood in a hard
winter,
or who have
slapped
some one in the face
during
a brawl in a
f
Article 47: "If the mental condition mentioned
in the
foregoing
article was such as to
considerably
decrease the
responsibility,
without
eliminating
it
entirely,
the
penalty
fixed
upon
the crime com-
mitted is reduced
according
to the
following
rules:
"I. In
place
of
penitentiary, imprisonment
for
not less than six
years.
"II. In
place
of the
permanent
loss of civic
rights,
a loss of these
rights
for a
stipulated
time.
"III. Whenever it is a
question
of a
penalty
of more than twelve
years,
it is reduced to from
three to ten
years;
if of more than six
years,
but
not more than
twelvej
it is reduced
to from one
to five
years;
in other
cases',
the reduction is to
^be one-half of the
ordinary penalty.
"IV. A fine is reduced to one-half.
"V. If the
penalty
would be a restriction of
per-
sonal
liberty,
the
judge may
order the
prisoner
to a
workhouse,
until the
proper
authorities ob-
ject,
when the remainder of the sentence is carried
out in the usual manner."
29
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
saloon. And if
they
should find a defend
ing lawyer
who would demand the
appoint-
ment of a medical
expert,
watch the
recep-
tion he would
get
from the
judge.
When
justice
is
surprised by
a
beastly
and
strange
crime,
it feels the entire foundation of its
premises shaking,
it halts for a
moment,
it
calls in the
help
of
legal
medicine,
and re-
flects before it sentences. But in the case
of those
poor
nameless
creatures,
justice
does not
stop
to consider whether that mi-
crobe in the criminal world who steals under
the influence of
hereditary
or
acquired
de-
generation,
or in the delirium of chronic
hunger,
is not
worthy
of more
pity.
It
rather
replies
with a
mephistophelian grin
when he
begs
for a humane
understanding
of his case.
It is true that there is now and then in
those halls of
justice,
which remain all too
frequently
closed to the
living
wave of
pub-
lic
sentiment,
some more
intelligent
and
.serene
judge
who is touched
by
this
painful
understanding
of the actual human life.
Then he
may,
under the
illogical
conditions
of
penal justice,
with its
compromise
be-
tween the exactness of the classic and that
of the
positive
school of
criminology,
seek
OF CRIMINOLOGY
for some
expedient
which
may
restore him
to
equanimity.
In
1832,
France introduced a
penal
in-
novation,
which seemed to
represent
an ad-
vance on the field of
justice,
but which is
in
reality
a denial of
justice:
The
expe-
dient of
extenuating
circumstances. The
judge
does not ask for the advice of the
court
physician
in the case of some forlorn
criminal,
but condemns him without a word
of rebuke to
society
for its
complicity.
But
in order
to
assuage
his own conscience he
grants
him
extenuating
circumstances,
which
seem a concession of
justice,
but
are,
in
reality,
a denial of
justice.
For
you
either
believe that a man is
responsible
for his
crime,
and in that case the concession of
extenuating
circumstances is a
hypocrisy;
or
you grant
them in
good
faith,
and then
you
admit that the man was In circum-
stances which reduced his moral
responsi-
bility,
and
thereby
the
extenuating
circum-
stances become a denial of
justice.
For if
your
conviction
concerning
such circum-
stances were
sincere,
you
would
go
to the
bottom of them and examine with the
light
of
your
understanding
all those
innumerable
conditions which contribute toward those ex-
31
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
tenuating
circumstances. But what are those
extenuating
circumstances?
Family
condi-
tions? Take it that a child is left alone
by
its
parents,
who are swallowed
up
in
the whirl of modern
industry,
which over-
throws the laws of nature and forbids the
necessary
rest,
because steam
engines
do
not
get
tired and
day
work must be followed
by night
work,
so that the
setting
of the
sun is no
longer
the
signal
for the laborer
to
rest,
but to
begin
a new shift of work.
Take it that this
applies
not alone to
adults,
but also to human
beings
in the
growing
stage,
whose muscular
power may yield
some
profit
for the
capitalists.
Take it that even
the
mother,
during
the
period
of sacred
maternity,
becomes a
cog
in the
machinery
of
industry.
And
you
will understand that
the child must
grow up,
left to its own re-
sources,
in the filth of
life,
and that
ita
history
will be inscribed in criminal sta-
tistics,
which are the shame of our so-called
civilization.
Of
course,
in this first lecture I cannot
give you
even a
glimpse
of the
positive
re-
sults of that modern science which has
, studied the criminal and his environment
instead of his crimes. And I
must,
there-
OF CRIMINOLOGY
fore,
limit
myself
to a few hints
concerning
the historical
origin
of the
positive
school
of
criminology.
I
ought
to tell
you
some-
thing concerning
the
question
of free will.
But
you
will understand that such a mo-
mentous
question,
which is
worthy
of a
deep study
of the
many-sided physical,
moral,
intellectual
life,
cannot he summed
up
in a few short words. I can
only say
that the
tendency
of modern natural sci-
ences,
in
physiology
as well as
psychology,
has overruled the illusions of those who
would fain
persist
in
watching psychological
phenomena merely
within themselves and
think that
they
can understand them with-
out
any
other means. On the
contrary, pos-
itive
science,
backed
by
the
testimony
of
anthropology
and of the
study
of the en-
vironment,
has arrived at the
following
con-
clusions: The admission of
a
free will is
out of the
question.
For if the free will
is but an illusion of our internal
being,
it
is not a real
faculty possessed by
the human
mind. Free will would
imply
that the human
will,
confronted
by
the choice of
making
voluntarily
a certain
determination,
has the
last decisive word under the
pressure
of
circumstances
contending
for and
against
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
this decision
;
that it is free to decide for
or
against
a certain course
independently
of internal and external
circumstances,
which
play upon
it,
according
to the laws of cause
and effect.
Take it that a man has insulted me. I
leave the
place
in which I have been in-
sulted,
and with me
goes
the
suggestion
of
forgiveness
or of murder and
vengeance.
And then it is assumed that a man has
his
complete
free
will,
unless he is influ-
enced
by
circumstances
explicitly
enumer-
ated
by
the
law,
such as
minority; congeni-
tal deaf
-muteness,
insanity,
habitual drunk-
enness
and,
to
a
certain
extent,
violent
pas-
sion. If a man is not in a condition men-
tioned in this
list,
he is considered in
pos-
session of his free
'will,
and if he murders
he is held
morally responsible
and there-
fore
punished.
This illusion of a free will has its source
in our inner
consciousness,
and is due
solely
to the
ignorance
in which we find ourselves
concerning
the various motives and different
external and internal conditions which
press
upon
our mind at the moment of decision.
If a man knows the
principal
causes which
determine a certain
phenomenon,
he
says
OF CRIMINOLOGY
that this
phenomenon
is inevitable. If he
does not know
them,
he considers it as an
accident,
and this
corresponds
in the
phys-
ical field to the
arbitrary phenomenon
of
the human will which does not know whether
it shall decide this
way
or that. For in-
stance,
some of us were of the
opinion,
and
many
still
are,
that the
coming
and
going
of
meteorological phenomena
was accidental
and could not be foreseen. But in the
meantime,
science has demonstrated that
they
are likewise
subject
to the law of cau-
sality,
because it discovered the causes which
enable us to foresee their course. Thus
weather
prognosis
has made wonderful
prog-
ress
by
the
help
of a network of tele-
graphically
connected
meteorological
sta-
tions,
which succeeded in
demonstrating
the
connection between cause and effect in the
case of
hurricanes,
as well as of
any
other
physical phenomenon.
It is evident that
the idea of
accident,
applied
to
physical
nature,
is unscientific.
Every physical phe-
nomenon is the
necessary
effect of the causes
that
determined it beforehand. If those
causes are known
to
us,
we have the con-
viction that that
phenomenon
is
necessary,
is
fate, and,
if we do not know
them,
we
35
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
think it is accidental. The same is true
of human
phenomena.
But since
we do
not know the mternal and external causes
in the
majority
of
cases,
we
pretend
that
they
are free
phenomena,
that is to
say.
that
they
are not determined
necessarily by
their causes. Hence the
spiritualistic
con-
ception
of the free will
implies
that
every
human
being,
in
spite
of the fact that their
internal and external conditions are nec-
essarily predetermined,
should be able to
come to a deliberate decision
by
the mere
fiat of his or her free
will,
so
that,
even
though
the sum of all the causes demands
a
no,
he or she can decide" in favor of
yes,
and vice versa.
Now,
who is there that
thinks,
when
deliberating
some
action,
what
are the causes that determine his choice?
We can
justly say
that the
greater part
of
our actions are determined
by
habit,
that
we make
up
our minds almost from, cus-
tom,
without
considering
the reason for or
against.
When we
get up
in the
morning
we
go
about our
customary
business
quite
automatically,
we
perform
it as a function
in which we do not think of a free will.
We think of that
only
in unusual and
grave
cases,
when we are called
upon
to make
36
OF CRIMINOLOGY
some
special
choice,
the so-called
voluntary
deliberation,
and then we
weigh
the rea-
sons for or
against;
we
ponder,
we hesitate
what to do.
Well,
even in such
cases,
so
little
depends
on our will in the delibera-
tions which we are about to take that if
any
one were to ask us one minute before
we have decided what we are
going
to
do,
we should not know what we were
going
to
decide. So
long
as we are
undecided,
we cannot foresee what we are
going
to
decide;
for under the conditions in which
we live that
part
of the
psychic process
takes
place
outside of our consciousness.
And since we do not know its
causes,
we
cannot tell what will be its effects.
Only
after we have come to a certain decision can
we
imagine
that it was due to our volun-
tary
action. But
shortly
before we could
not
tell,
and that
proves
that it did not
depend
on us alone.
Suppose,
for
instance,
that
you
have decided to
play
a
joke
on a
fellow-student,
and that
you carry
it out.
He takes it
unkindly.
You are
surprised,
because that is
contrary
to his habits and
your expectations.
But after a while
you
learn that
your
friend had received bad
news from home on the
preceding morning
37
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
and was therefore not in a condition to feel
like
joking,
and then
you say:
"If we had
known that we should not have decided to
spring
the
joke
on him." That is
equiva-
lent to
saying
that,
if the balance of
your
will had been inclined toward the
deciding
motive of
no,
you
would have decided no
;
but not
knowing
that
your
friend was dis-
tressed and not in his habitual frame of
mind,
you
decided in favor of
yes.
This
sentence: "If I had known this I should
not have done that" is an
outcry
of our in-
ternal
consciousness,
which denies the ex-
istence of a free will.
On the other
hand,
nothing
is created
and
nothing destroyed
either in matter or
in
force,
because both matter and force are
eternal and indestructible.
They
transform
themselves in the most diversified
manner,
but not an atom is added or taken
away,
not one vibration more or less takes
place.
And so it is the force of external and in-
ternal circumstances which determines the
decision of our will at
any given
moment.
The idea of
a
free
will, however,
is a de-
nial of the law of cause and
effect,
both in
the field of
philosophy
and
theology.
Saint
Augustine
and Martin Luther furnish irre-
38
OF CRIMINOLOGY
futable
theological arguments
for the de-
nial of a free will. The
omnipotence
of
God is irreconcilable with the idea of free
will. If
everything
that
happens
does so
>ecause a
superhuman
and
omnipotent power
wants it
(Not
a
single leaf falls
to the
ground
without the will
of God).,
how
can
a son murder his father without the
per-
mission and will of God? For this reason
Saint
Augustine
and Martin Luther have
written de servo arbitrio.
But since
theological arguments
serve
only
those who believe in the
concept
of a
god,
which is not
given
to us
by
science,
we
take recourse to the laws which we observe
in force and
matter,
and to the law of
causality.
If modern science has discov-
ered the universal link which connects all
phenomena through
cause and
effect,
which
shows that
every phenomenon
is the result
of causes which have
preceded
it ; if this is
the law of
causality,
which is at the
very
bottom of modern scientific
thought,
then
it is evident that the admission of free
thought
is
equivalent
to
an overthrow of
this
law,
according
to which
every
effect is
proportionate
to its cause. In that
case,
chis
law,
which
reigns supreme
in the en-
39
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
tire
universe,
would dissolve itself into
naught
at the feet of the human
being,
who
would create effects with his free will not
corresponding
to their causes ! It was all
right
to think so at a time when
people
had an
entirely
different idea of human
beings.
But the work of modern
science,
and its effect on
practical
life,
has resulted
in
tracing
the relations of each one of us
with the world and with our fellow
beings.
And the influence of science
may
be seen
in the elimination of
great
illusions which
in former centuries
swayed
this or that
part
of civilized
humanity.
The scientific
thought
of
Copernicus
and Galilei did
away
with
the illusions which led
people
to believe that
the earth was the center of the universe
and of creation.
Take Cicero's book de
Officiis,
or the Di-
vina Commedia of
Dante,
and
you
will find
that to them the earth is the center of crea-
tion,
that the infinite stars circle around
it,
and that man is the
king
of animals: a
geocentric
and
anthropocentric
illusion in-
spired by
immeasurable conceit. But Co-
pernicus
and Galilei came and demonstrated
that the earth does not stand
still,
but that
it is a
grain
of cosmic matter hurled into
40
OF CRIMINOLOGY
blue
infinity
and
rotating
since time un-
known around its central
body,
the sun.
which
originated
from an immense
primi-
tive nebula. Galilei was
subjected
to tor-
tures
by
those who realized that this new
theory
struck down
many
a
religious legend
and
many
a moral creed. But Galilei had
spoken
the
truth,
and
nowadays humanity
no
longer indulges
in the illusion that the
earth is the center of creation.
But men live on illusions and
give way
but
reluctantly
to the
progress
of
science,
in order to devote themselves
arduously
to
the ideal of the new truths which rise out
of the essence of
things
of which mankind
is a
part.
After the
geocentric
illusion had
been
destroyed,
the
anthropocentric
illusion
still remained. On
earth,
man was still
sup-
posed
to be
king
of
creation,
the center of
terrestrial life. All
species
of
animals,
plants
and minerals were
supposed
to be
heated
expressly
for
him,
and to have had
from time immemorial the forms which we
see
now,
so that the fauna and flora
living
on our
planet
have
always
been what
they
are
today.
And
Cicero,
for
instance,
said
that the heavens were
placed
around the
earth and man in order that he
might
ad-
41
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
mire the
beauty
of the
starry
firmament at
night,
and that animals and
plants
were
created for his use and
pleasure.
But in
1856 Charles Darwin came
and,
summariz-
ing
the results of studies that had been
carried on for a
century, destroyed
in the
name of science the
superb
illusion that man
is the
king
and center of creation. He dem-
onstrated,
amid the attacks and calumnies
of the lovers of
darkness,
that man is not the
king
of
creation,
but
merely
the last link
of the
zoological
chain,
that nature is en-
dowed with eternal
energies by
which ani-
mal and
plant
life,
the same as mineral life
(for
even in
crystals
the laws of life are
at
work),
are transformed from the invis-
ible microbe to the
highest
form,
man.
The
anthropocentric
illusion rebelled
against
the word of
Darwin,
accusing
him
of
lowering
the human life to the level of
the dirt or of the brute. But a
disciple
of
Darwin
gave
the
right
answer,
while
propa-
gating
the Darwinian
theory
at the uni-
versity
of Jena. Tt was
Haeckel,
who con-
cluded: "For
my part,
and so far as
my
human consciousness is concerned, I
prefer
to be an
immensely perfected ape
rather
than to be a
degenerated
and debased Adam."
OF CRIMINOLOGY
Gradually
the
anthropocentric
illusion has
been
compelled
to
give way
before the re-
sults of
science,
and
today
the theories of
Darwin have become established
among
our
ideas. 'But another illusion still
remains,
and
science,
working
in the name of
reality,
will
gradually
eliminate
it,
namely
the illu-
sion that the nineteenth
century
has estab-
lished a
permanent
order of
society.
While
the
geocentric
and
anthropocentric
illusions
have been
dispelled,
the illusion of the im-
mobility
and
eternity
of classes still
per-
sists. But it is well
to
remember that in
Holland in the sixteenth
century,
in
Eng-
land in the
seventeenth,
in
Europe
since the
revolution of
1789,
we have seen that free-
dom of
thought
in
science,
literature and
art,
for which the
bourgeoisie fought,
tri-
umphed
over the
tyranny
of the mediaeval
dogma.
And this
condition,
instead of
being
a
glorious
but
transitory stage,
is
supposed
to be the end of the
development
of hu-
manity,
which is henceforth condemned not
to
perfect
itself
any
more
by
further
changes.
This is the illusion which serves
as
a fundamental
argument against
the
posi-
tive school of
criminology,
since it is claimed
that a
penal justice
enthroned on the foun-
43
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
dations of Beccaria and Carrara would be
a
revolutionary heresy.
It is also this illu-
sion which serves as an
argument against
those who draw the
logical consequences
in
regard
to the socialistic future of
humanity,
for the science which takes its
departure
from the work of
Copernicus,
Galilei and
Darwin arrives
logically
at socialism. So-
cialism is but the natural and
physical
transformation of the economic and social
institutions. Of
course,
so
long
as the
g>
centric and
anthropocentric
illusions domi-
nate,
it is natural that the love of
stability
should
impress
itself
upon
science and life.
How could this
living
atom,
which the hu-
man
being
is,
undertake to
change
that
order of
creation,
which makes of the earth
the center of the universe and of man the
center of life? Not until science had in-
troduced the
conception
of a natural forma-
tion and
transformation,
of the solar
sys-
tem,
as well as of the fauna and
flora,
did
the human mind
grasp
the idea that
thought
and action can transform the world.
For this reason we believe that the
study
of the
criminal,
and the
logical consequences
therefrom,
will
bring
about the
complete
transformation of human
justice,
not
only
44
OF CRIMINOLOGY
as a
theory
laid down in scientific
books,
but also as a
practical
function
applied
every day
to that
living
and
suffering por-
tion
of
humanity
which has fallen into
crime. We have the undaunted faith that
the work of scientific truth will transform
penal justice
into a
simple
function of
pre-
serving society
from the disease of
crime,
divested of all relics of
vengeance,
hatred:
K
and
punishment,
which still survive in our
day
as
living
reminders of the barbarian
stage.
We still hear the
"public vengeance"
invoked
against
the criminal
today,
and
jus-
tice has still for its
symbol
a
sword,
which
it uses more than the scales. But a
judge
born of a woman cannot
weigh
the moral
responsibility
of one who has committed
murder or theft. Not until the
experimental
and scientific method shall look for the
causes of that
dangerous malady,
which we
call
crime,
in the
physical
and
psychic
or-
ganism,
and in the
family
and the environ-
ment,
of the
criminal,
will
justice guided
by
science discard the sword which now
descends
bloody upon
those
poor
fellow-
beings
who have fallen victims to
crime,
and
become
a clinical
function,
whose
prime
ob-
ject
^h^ll Ve tcv /'amove Qr lessen in
society
43
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
and individuals the causes
which incite to
crime. Then alone will
justice
refrain from
wreaking vengeance,
after a crime has been
committed,
with the shame of an execution
or the
absurdity
of
solitary
confinement.
On the one
hand,
human life
depends
on
the word of a
judge,
who
may
err in the
case of
capital punishment;
and
society
cannot end the life of a
man,
unless the
necessity
of
legitimate
self-defense demands
it. On the other
hand,
solitary
confinement
came in with the second current of the
classic school of
criminology,
when at the
Same
time,
in which Beccaria
promulgated
his
ideas,
John Howard traveled all over
Europe describing
the unmentionable hor-
rors of mass
imprisonment,
which became a
center of infection for
society
at
large.
Then the classic school went to the other
extreme of
solitary
confinement,
after the
model of
America,
whence we
adopted
the
systems
of
Philadelphia
and
Harrisburg
in
the first half of the nineteenth
century.
Isolation for the
night
is also our
demand,
but we
object
to continuous
solitary
con-
finement
by day
and
night. Pasquale
Man-
cini called
solitary
confinement "a
living
grave,"
in order to reassure the
timorous,
46
OF CRIMINOLOGY
when in the name of the classic
school,
whose
valiant
champion
he
was,
he de-
manded in 1876
the abolition of
capital
punishment.
Yet in his swan
song
he rec-
ognized
that the future would
belong
to
the
positive
school of
criminology.
And
it is this
"living grave" against
which we
protest.
It cannot
possibly
be an act of
human
justice
to
bury
a human
being
in
a narrow
cell,
within four
walls,
to
pre-
vent this
being
from
having any
contact
with "social
life,
and to
say
to him at the
end of his term: Now that
your lungs
are
no
longer
accustomed to
breathing
the
open
air,
now that
your legs
are no
longer
used
to the
rough
roads,
go,
but ta,ke care not
to have a
relapse,
or
your
sentence will be
twice as hard.
t
In
reality, solitary
confinement makes of
a human
being
either a
stupid
creature,
or
a
raving
beast. And "s'io dico il
vero,
I
9
effeto
nol nasconde" if I
speak
the
truth,
the facts will also reveal it for
criminality
increases and
expands,
honest
people
remain
unprotected,
and those who are struck
by
the law do not
improve,
but become ever
more antisocial
through
the
repeated
re-
lapses.
And so we have that contrast which
VT
THE
POSITIVE SCHOOL
I mentioned in the
beginning
of
my
lec-
ture,
that the theoretical side of crim-
inal science is so
perfected,
while criminal
conditions are
painfully
in evidence. The
inevitable conclusion is the
necessity
of a
progressive
transformation of the science
of crime and
punishment.
OF CRIMINOLOGY
II.
We saw
yesterday
in a short historical
review that the classic
cycle
of the science
of crime and
punishment, originated by
Cesare Beccaria more than a
century ago,
was followed in our
country,
some
twenty
Jears
since,
by
the scientific movement of
ihe
positive
school of
criminology.
Let us
see
today
how this school studied the
prob-
lem of
criminality, reserving
for tomorrow
the discussion of the remedies
proposed by
this school for the disease of
criminality.
When a crime is committed in some
place,
attracting public
attention either
through
the
atrocity
of the case or the
strangeness
of the criminal deed for
instance,
one that
is not connected with
bloodshed,
but with
intellectual fraud there are at once two
tendencies that make themselves felt in the
public
conscience. One of them,
pervading
the
overwhelming majority
of individual
consciences,
asks: How is this? What for?
Why
did that man commit such a crime?
This
question
is asked
by everybody
and
49
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
occupies mostly
the attention of those who
do not look
upon
the case from the
point
of view of
criminology.
On the other
hand,
those who
occupy
themselves with criminal
law
represent
the other
tendency,
which
manifests itself when
acquainted
with the
news of this crime. This is a limited
por-
tion of the
public
conscience,
which tries to
study
the
problem
from the
standpoint
of
the technical
jurist.
The
lawyers,
the
judges,
the officials of the
police,
ask them-
selves: What is the name of the crime
committed
by
that man under such circum-
stances? Must it be classed as murder or
patricide, attempted
or
incompleted
man-
slaughter,
and,
if directed
against property,
is it
theft,
or
illegal appropriation,
or
fraud? And the entire
apparatus
of
prac-
tical criminal
justice forgets
at once the
first
problem,
which
occupies
the
majority
of the
public
conscience,
the
question
of the
causes that led to this
crime,
in order to
^devote
itself
exclusively
to the technical side
of the
problem
which constitutes the
juridi-
cal
anatomy
of the inhuman and antisocial
deed
perpetrated by
the criminal.
In these two tendencies
you
have a
pho-
tographic reproduction
of the two schools
50
OF CRIMINOLOGY
of
criminology.
The classic
school,
which
looks
upon
the crime as a
juridical problem,
occupies
itself with its
name,
its
definition,
/
its
juridical analysis,
leaves the
personality
of the criminal in the
background
and re-
members it
only
so far as
exceptional
cir-
cumstances
explicitly
stated in the law books
refer to it : whether he is a
minor,
a deaf-
mute,
whether it is a case of
insanity,
whether he was drunk at the time the crime
was committed.
Only
in these
strictly
de-
fined cases does the classic school
occupy
itself
theoretically
with the
personality
of
the criminal. But
ninety
times in one hun-
dred these
exceptional
circumstances do not
exist or cannot be shown to
exist,
and
penal
justice
limits itself to the technical defini-
tion of the fact. But when the case comes
up
in the criminal
court,
or before the
jurors, practice
demonstrates that there is
seldom a discussion between the
lawyers
of
the defense and the
judges
for the
purpose
of
ascertaining
the most exact definition of
the
fact,
of
determining
whether it is a case
of
attempted
or
merely projected
crime,
of
finding
out whether there are
any
of the
juridical
elements defined in this or that
article of the code. The
judge
is rather
51
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
face to face with the
problem
of ascertain-
ing why,
under
t
what
conditions,
for what
reasons,
the man has committed the crime.
This is the
supreme
and
simple
human
prob-
lem. But hitherto it has been left to a more
or less
perspicacious,
more or less
gifted,
empiricism,
and there have been no scien-
tific
standards,
no methodical collection of
facts,
no observations and
conclusions,
save
those of the
positive
school of
criminology.
This school alone makes an
attempt
to solve
in
every
case of crime the
problem
of its
natural
origin,
of the reasons and conditions
that induced a
man to commit such and such
a crime.
For
instance,
about
3,000
cases of man-
slaughter
are
registered every year
in
Italy.
Now,
open any
work
inspired by
the classic
school of
criminology,
and ask the author
why
3,000
men are the victims of man-
slaughter every year
in
Italy,
and how it
is that there are not sometimes
only
as
many
as,
say,
300
cases,
the number committed in
England,
which has
nearly
the same num-
ber of inhabitants as
Italy
;
and how it is
that there are not sometimes
300,000
such
cases in
Italy
instead of
3,000?
It is useless to
open any
work of clas-
52
OF CRIMINOLOGY
sical
criminology
for this
purpose,
for
you
will not find an answer to these
questions
in them. No
one,
from Beccaria to Car-
rara,
has ever
thought
of this
problem,
and
they
could not have asked
it,
consider-
ing
their
point
of
departure
and their
method. In
fact,
the classic
criminologists
accept
the
phenomenon
of
criminality
as an
accomplished
fact.
They analyze
it from
the
point
of view of the technical
jurist,
without
asking
how this criminal fact
may
have been
produced,
and
why
it
repeats
itself in
greater
or smaller numbers from
year
to
year,
in
every country.
The
theory
of
a
free
will,
which is their
foundation,
excludes the
possibility
of this scientific
question,
for
according
to it the crime is
the
product
of the fiat of the human will.
And if that is admitted as a
fact,
there is
nothing
left to account for. The man-
slaughter
was
committed,
because the crim-
inal wanted
to
commit
it;
and that is all
there is to it. Once the
theory
of a free
will is
accepted
as a
fact,
the deed
depends
on the
fiat,
the
voluntary
determination,
of
the
criminal,
and all is said.
But
if,
on the other
hand,
the
positive
school of
criminology
denies,
on the
ground
53
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
of researches in scientific
physiological psy-
chology,
that the human will is free and
does not admit that one is a criminal be-
cause he wants to
be,
but declares that a
man commits this or that crime
only
when
he lives in
definitely
determined condition;
of
personality
and environment which in-
duce him
necessarily
to act in a certain
way,
then alone does the
problem
of the
origin
of
criminality begin
to be submitted
to
a
preliminary analysis,
and then alone
does criminal law
step
out of the narrow and
arid limits of technical
jurisprudence
and
become a true social and human science in
the
highest
and noblest
meaning
of the word.
It is vain to insist with such stubbornness
as that of the classic school of
criminology
on
juristic
formulae
by
which the distinc-
tion between
illegal appropriation
and
theft,
between fraud and other forms of crime
against property,
and so
forth,
is deter-
mined,
when this method does not
give
to
society
one
single
word which would throw
light upon
the reasons that make a man
a criminal and
upon
the efficacious
remedy
by
which
society
could
protect
itself
against
criminality.
It is true that the classic school of crim-
54
OF CRIMINOLOGY
inology
has likewise its
remedy against
crime
namely, punishment.
But this is the
only remedy
of that
school,
and in all the
legislation inspired by
the theories of that
school in all the countries of the civilized
world there is no other
remedy against
crime but
repression.
But Bentham has said:
Every
time that
punishment
is inflicted it
proves
its ineffi-
cacy,
for it did not
prevent
the committal
of that crime.
Therefore,
this
remedy
is
worthless. And a
deeper study
of the cause
of crime demonstrates that if a man does
not commit a certain
crime,
this is due to
entirely
different
reasons,
than a fear of
the
penalty, very strong
and fundamen-
tal reasons which are not to be found
in the threats of
legislators.
^These
threats
r
if nevertheless carried out
by police
and
prison keepers,
run counter to those con-
ditions. A man who intends to commit
a
crime,
or who is carried
away by
a violent
passion, by
a
psychological
hurricane which
drowns his moral
sense,
is not checked
by
threats of
punishment,
because the volcanic
eruption
of
passion prevents
him from re-
flecting.
Or he
may
decide to commit a
crime after due
premeditation
and
prepara-
55
THE POSITIVE
SCHOOL
tion,
and in that case the
penalty
is
power-
less to check
him,
because he
hopes
to es-
cape
with
impunity.
All criminals will tell
you unanimously
that the
only thing
which
impelled
them when
they
were
deliberating
a crime was the
expectation
that
they
would
go
scot free. If
they
had had the least
suspicion
that
they might
be detected and
punished they
would not have committed
the crime. The
only exception
is the case
in which a crime is the result of a mental
explosion
caused
by
a violent outburst of
passion.
And if
you
wish to have a
very
convincing
illustration of the
psychological
inefficacy
of
legal
threats,
you
have but to
think of that curious crime which has now
assumed a
frequency
never known to former
centuries,
namely
the
making
of
counterfeit
money.
For since
paper money
from want
or for reasons of
expediency
has become
a substitute of metal coin in the civilized
countries,
the
making
of counterfeit
paper
money
has become
very frequent
in the
nineteenth
century.
Now a
counterfeiter,
in
committing
his
crime,
must
compel
his mind
to imitate
closely
the
inscription
of the
bill,
letter for
letter,
including
that
threatening
passage,
which
says:
"The law
punishes
56
OF CRIMINOLOGY
counterfeiting
. . ." etc. Can
you
see before
your
mind's
eye
a
counterfeiter,
in the act of
engraving
on the stone or the
plate
these words: "The law
punishes
coun-
terfeiting
. . . ?" Others
may ignore
the
penalty
that awaits
them,
but he cannot.
This illustration is
convincing,
for in cases
of other crimes one
may always
assume that
the criminal acted without
thinking
of the
future,
even when he was not in a
transport
of
passion.
But in the case of the counter-
feiter the
very
act of
committing
the crime
reminds him of the threat of the
law,
and
yet
he is
imperturbable
while
perpetrating
it.
Crime has its natural
causes,
which lie
outside of that mathematical
point
called
the free will of the criminal. Aside from
being
a
juridical phenomenon,
which it
,
would be well to examine
by
itself,
every
crime is above all a natural and social
phe-
nomenon,
and should be studied
primarily
as such. We need not
go through
so hard
a course of
study merely
for the
purpose
of
walking
over the razor
edge
of
juristic
definitions and to find
out,
for
instance,
that from the time
Romagnosi
made a dis-
tinction between
incompleted
and
attempted
crime rivers of ink have been
spilled
in the
57
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
attempt
to find the
distinguishing
elements
of these two
degrees
of crime. And
finally,
when the German
legislator
concluded to
make no distinction between
incompleted
and
attempted
crime and to
recognize only
the
completed
crime in his code of
1871,
we
witnessed the
spectacle
of Carrara
praising
that
legislator
for
leaving
that subtile dis-
tinction out of his code. A
strange
conclu-
sion on the
part
of a
science,
which
cudgels
its brains for a
century
to find the marks
of distinction between
attempted
and in-
completed
crime,
and then
praises
the
leg-
islator for
ignoring
it. And another classic
jurist,
Buccellati,
proposed
to do
away
with
the
theory
of
attempted
crime
by simply
defining
it as a crime
by
itself,
or as a
violation of
police
laws! A science which
comes to such conclusions is a science which
moves in
metaphysical
abstractions,
and we
shall see that all these
finespun questions
which abound in classical science lose all
practical
value before the
necessity
of sav-
ing society
from the
plague
of crime.
The method which
we,
on the other
hand,
have
inaugurated
is the
following:
Before
we
study
crime from the
point
of view of
a
juristic
phenomenon,
we must
study
the
58
OF CRIMINOLOGY
causes to which the annual recurrence of
crimes in all countries is due. These are
natural
causes,
which I have classified under
the three heads of
anthropological,
telluric
and social.
Every
crime,
from the smallest
to the most
atrocious,
is the result of the
interaction of these three
causes,
the an-
thropological
condition of the
criminal,
the
telluric environment in which he is
living,
and the social environment in which he is
born,
living
and
operating.
It is a vain
beginning
to
separate
the meshes of this net
of
criminality.
There are still those who
would maintain the one-sided
standpoint
that
the
origin
of crime
may
be traced to
only
one of these
elements,
for
instance,
to the
social element alone. So far as I am con-
cerned,
I have combatted this
opinion
from
the
very inauguration
of the
positive
school
of
criminology,
and I combat it
today.
It
is
certainly easy enough
to think that the
entire
origin
of all crime is due to the un-
favorable social conditions in which the
criminal lives. But an
objective,
methodical,
observation demonstrates that social condi-
tions alone do not suffice to
explain
the ori-
gin
of
criminality, although
it is true that
the
prevalence
of the
influence of social con-
59
THE POSITIVE
SCHOOL
ditions is an incontestable fact in the case
of the
greater
number of
crimes,
especially
of the lesser ones. But there are crimes
which cannot be
explained by
the influence
of social conditions alone. If
you regard
the
general
condition of
misery
as the sole
source of
criminality,
then
you
cannot
get
around the
difficulty
that out of one thou-
sand individuals
living
in
misery
from the
day
of theit* birth
to
that of their death
only
one hundred or two hundred become
criminals,
while the other nine hundred or
eight
hundred either sink into
biological
weakness,
or become harmless
maniacs,
or
commit suicide without
perpetrating any
crime. If
poverty
were the sole
determining
cause,
one thousand out of one thousand
poor ought
to become criminals. If
only
two hundred become
criminals,
while one
hundred commit
suicide,
one hundred end as
maniacs,
and the other six hundred remain
honest in their social
condition,
then
pov-
erty
alone is not sufficient to
explain
crim-
inality.
We must add the
anthropological
anl telluric factor.
Only by
means of these
three elements of natural influence can crim-
inality
be
explained.
Of
course,
the influ-
ence of either the
anthropological
or tel-
60
OF CRIMINOLOGY
luric or social element varies from case to
case. If
you
have a case of
simple
theft,
you may
have a far
greater
influence of
the social factor than of the
anthropological
factor. On the other
hand,
if
you
have a
case of
murder,
the
anthropological
element
will have a far
greater
influence than the
social. And so on in
every
case of
crime,
and
every
individual that
you
will have to
judge
on the bench of the criminal.
The
anthropological
factor. It is
pre-
cisely
here that the'
genius
of Cesare Lom-
broso established a new
science,
because in
his search after the causes of crime he
studied the
anthropological
condition of the
criminal. This condition concerns not
only
the
organic
and anatomical
constitution,
but
also the
psychological,
*
it
represents
the or-
ganic
and
psychological personality
of
the.
criminal.
Every
one of us inherits at
birth,
and
personifies
in
life,
a certain
organic
and
psychological
combination. This constitutes
the individual factor of human
activity,
which either remains normal
through
life,
or becomes criminal or iweane. The anthro-
pological
factor, then,
must not be restrict-
ed,
as some
laymen
would restrict
it,
to the
study
of the form of the skull or the bones
61
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
of the criminal. Lombroso had to
begin
his studies with the anatomical conditions
of the
criminal,
because the skulls
may
be
studied most
easily
in the museums. But
he continued
by
also
studying
the brain
and the other
physiological
conditions of the
individual,
the state of
sensibility,
and the
circulation of matter. And this entire series
of studies is but a
necessary
scientific intro-
J
duction to the
study
of the
psychology
of
the
criminal,
which is
precisely
the one
prob-
lem that is of direct and immediate im-
portance.
It is this
problem
which the law-
yer
and the
public prosecutor
should solve
before
discussing
the
juridical aspect
of
any
crime,
for this reveals the causes which
induced the criminal to commit a crime. At
present
there is no methodical standard for
a
psychological investigation, although
such
an
investigation
was introduced into the
scope
of classic
penal
law. But for this
reason the results of the
positive
school
pen-
etrate into the lecture rooms of the univer-
sities of
jurisprudence,
whenever a law is
required
for the
judicial arraignment
of
the criminal as a
living
and
feeling
human
being.
And even
though
the
positive
school
is not
mentioned,
all
profess
to be
studying
OF CRIMINOLOGY
the material furnished
by
it,
for
instance,
its
analyses
of the sentiments of the crim-
inal,
his moral
sense,
his behavior
before,
during
and after the criminal
act,
the
pres-
ence of remorse which
people, judging
the
criminal after their own
feelings, always
suppose
the criminal to
feel, while,
in
fact,
is is seldom
present.
This is the anthro-
pological
factor,
which
may
assume a
patho-
logical
form,
in which case articles
46
and
47 of the
penal
code remember that there
is such a
thing
as the
personality
of the
criminal.
However,
aside from
insanity,
there are thousands of other
organic
and
psychological
conditions of the
personality
of
criminals,
which a
judge might perhaps
lump together
under the name of extenu-
ating
circumstances,
but which science de-
sires to have
thoroughly investigated.
This
is not done
today,
and for this reason the
idea of
extenuating
circumstances constitutes
a denial of
justice.
This same
anthropological
factor also in-
cludes that which each one of us has: the
race character.
Nowadays
the influence of
race on the destinies of
peoples
and
per-
sons is much discussed in
sociology,
and
there are one-sided schools that
pretend
to
63
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
solve the
problems
of
history
and
society
by
means of that racial influence
alone,
to
which
they
attribute an absolute
importance.
But while there are some who maintain that
the
history
of
peoples
is
nothing
but the
exclusive
product
of racial
character,
there
are others who insist that the social con-
ditions of
peoples
and individuals are alone
determining.
The one is as much a one-
sided and
incomplete theory
as the other.
The
study
of collective
society
or of the
single
individual has resulted in the under-
standing
that the life of
society
and of the
individual is
always
the
product
of the inex-
tricable net of the
anthropological,
telluric
and social elements. Hence the influence of
the race cannot be
ignored
in the
study
of
nations and
personalities, although
it is not
the exclusive factor which would suffice to
explain
the
criminality
of a nation or
an
individual.
Study,
for
instance,
manslaughter
in
Italy,
and,
although you
will find it dif>
ficult to isolate one of he factors of crim-
inality
from the network of the other cir-
cumstances and conditions that
produce
it,
yet
there are such
eloquent
instances of the
influence of racial
character,
that it would
be like
denying
the existence of
daylight
if
64
OF CRIMINOLOGY
one tried to
ignore
the influence of the eth-
nical factor on
criminality.
In
Italy
there are two currents of crim-
inality,
two tendencies which are almost dia-
metrically opposed
to one another. The
crimes due to hot blood and muscle
grow
in
intensity
from northern to southern
Italy,
while the crimes
against property
increase
from south to north. In northern
Italy,
where movable
property
is more
developed,
the crime of theft assumes a
greater
in-
tensity,
while crimes
due
to conditions of
the blood are
decreasing
on account of the
lesser
poverty
and the
resulting
lesser de-
generation
of the
people.
In the
south,
on
the other
hand,
crimes
against property
are
less
frequent
and crimes of blood more fre-
quent.
Still there also are in southern
Italy
certain cases where
criminality
of the blood
is less
frequent,
and
you
cannot
explain
this in
any
other
way
than
by
the influence
of racial character. If
you
take a
geo-
graphical map
of
manslaughter
in
Italy,
you
will see that from the
minimum,
from
Lombardy,
Piedmont,
and
Venice,
the in-
tensity
increases until it reaches its maxi-
mum in the insular and
peninsular
extreme
of the south. But even there
you
will find
65
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
certain cases in which
manslaughter
shows
a lesser
intensity.
For
instance,
the
province
of Benevent is
surrounded
by
other
provinces
which show
a maximum of crimes due to conditions of
blood,
while it
registers
a smaller number.
Naples, again,
shows a
considerably
smaller
number of such cases than the
provinces
surrounding
it,
but it has a
greater
num-
ber of
unpremeditated
cases of
manslaughter.
Messina,
Catania and
Syracuse
have a re-
markably
smaller number of blood crimes
than
Trapani, Girgenti
and Palermo. It
has been
attempted
to claim that this dif-
ference in
criminality
is due to social con-
dition's,
because the
agricultural
conditions
in eastern
Sicily
are less
degrading
than
those of
Girgenti
and
Trapani,
where the
sulphur
mines
compel
the miners to live
miserably.
But we should like to ask the
following question
in
opposition
to this idea:
Why
and in what
respect
are the
agricul-
tural conditions in some
provinces
better
than in others? This condition is
merely
itself a
result,
not a cause of the first
degree.
Since the
theory
of historical
materialism,
which I
prefer
to call economic
determinism,
66
OF CRIMINOLOGY
has demonstrated that
political,
moral and
intellectual
phenomena
are reactions on the
economic conditions of
any
time and
place,
the
attempt
has been made to
interpret
this
theory very narrowly
and to
pretend
that
the economic condition of a nation is a
primary
cause and not determined
by any
other. For
my part,
ever since I have
demonstrated the
perfect
accord between the
Marxian and the Darwinian
theories,
I have
said:
Very
well,
the economic conditions
of
a
nation
explain
its
political,
moral,
in-
tellectual
conditions,
but the economic con-
dition is in its turn the result of other
factors. For
instance,
how can the indus-
trialism of
England
in the nineteenth cen-
tury
be
explained?
Take
away
the coal
mines
(the
telluric
environment),
and
you
could not have the economic conditions of
England
as
they
are. For the economic
conditions are a result of favorable or un-
favorable telluric conditions which are acted
upon by
the
intelligence
and
energy
of a
certain race.
Catania, Messina,
Syracuse,
are in a better economic
condition,
because
they
have better
geographical
conditions
and a
different race
(of
Grecian
blood)
than
the other Sicilian
provinces.
So it is in
67
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
Apulia
and
Naples,
which have likewise a
considerable mixture of Grecian blood. The
northern tourists are still attracted
by
our
art and visit
the
ruins of Taormina or
Pesto,
which are the relics of the Grecian race.
And it is the Grecian blood which
explains
the lesser
frequency
of
bloody
crimes in
those
provinces.
This is therefore
evidently
the influence of the race. And I maintain
that the same fact is due in the
province
of
Benevent to the admixture of
Langobardian
blood. For the
Duchy
of Benevent has had
an influx of
Langobardian
elements since
the seventh
century.
And as we know that
the German and
Anglo-Saxon
race has the
smallest
tendency
towards
bloody
crimes,
the beneficial influence of this racial char-
acter in Benevent
explains
itself. On the
other
hand,
there is much Saracen blood in
the western and southern
provinces
of
Sicily,
and this
explains
the
greater
number of
bloody
crimes there. It is evident that the
organic
character of the inhabitants of that
island,
where
you may
still see the brutal
and barbarian features of the Saracen
by
the side of those of the
blond,
cool and
quiet
Norman,
contains a transfusion of the blood
of diverse races. But it is also true that
68
OF CRIMINOLOGY
wherever a certain race has been
predom-
inant,
there its influence is left behind in
the individual
and collective life.
Let this be
enough
so far as the anthro-
pological
factor of
criminality
is concerned.
There
are, furthermore,
the telluric fac-
tors,
that is to
say,
the
physical
environ-
ment in which we live and to which we
pay
no attention. It
requires
much
philosophy,
said
Rousseau,
to
note the
things
with which
we are in
daily
contact,
because the habitual
influence of a
thing
makes it more difficult
to be aware of it. This
applies
also to the
immediate influence of the
physical
condi-
tions on human
morality, notwithstanding
the
spiritualist prejudices
which still
weigh
upon
our
daily
lives. For
instance,
if it
is claimed in the name of
supernaturalism
and
psychism
that a man is
unhappy
be-
cause he is
vicious,
it is
equivalent
to mak-
ing
a one-sided statement. For it is
just
as true to
say
that
a man becomes vicious
because he is
unhappy.
Want is the stron-
gest poison
for the human
body
and soul.
It is the fountain head of all inhuman and
antisocial
feeling.
Where want
spreads
out
its
wings,
there the sentiments of
love,
of
affection,
of
brotherhood,
are
impossible.
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
Take a
look at the
figures
of the
peasant
in the far-off arid
Campagna,
the little
gov-
ernment
employe,
the
laborer,
the little
shop-
keeper.
When work is
assured,
when
living
is
certain,
though poor,
then
want,
cruel
want,
is in the
distance,
and
every good
sentiment can
germinate
and
develop
in the
human heart. The
family
then lives in a
favorable
environment,
the
parents agree,
the children are affectionate. And when
the
laborer,
a bronzed statue of
humanity,
returns from his
smoky shop
and meets his
white-haired
mother,
the embodiment of half
a
century
of immaculate virtue and heroic
sacrifices,
then he
can, tired,
but assured of
his
daily
bread,
give
room to
feelings
of
affection,
and he will
cordially
invite his
mother to share his
frugal
meal. But let
the same
man,
in the same
environment,
be
haunted
by
the
spectre
of want and lack of
employment,
and
you
will see the moral at-
mosphere
in his
family changing
as from
day
into
night.
There is no
work,
and the
laborer comes home without
any wages.
The
wife,
who does not know how to feed the
children,
reproaches
her husband with the
suffering
of his
family.
The
man,
having
been turned
away
from the doors of
ten
70
OF CRIMINOLOGY
offices,
feels his
dignity
as an honest laborer
assailed in the
very
bosom of his own fam-
ily,
because he has
vainly
asked
society
for
honest
employment.
And the bonds of af-
fection and union are loosened in that fam-
ily.
Its members no
longer agree.
There
are too
many
children,
and when the
poor
old mother
approaches
her
son,
she reads in
his dark and
agitated
mien the lack of ten-
derness and feels in her mother heart that
her
boy, poisoned by
the
spectre
of
want,
is
perhaps casting
evil looks at her and
harboring
the unfilial
thought
: "Better an
open grave
in the
cemetery
than one mouth
more to feed at home!"
It is
true,
that want alone is not suffi-
cient to
prepare
the soil in the environment
of that
suffering family
for the roots of
real crime and to
develop
it. Want will
weaken the love and mutual
respect among
the members of that
family,
but it will not
be
strong enough
alone to arm . the hands
of the man for a matricidal
deed,
unless he
should
get
into a
pathological
mental con-
dition,
which is
very exceptional
and rare.
But the conclusions of the
positive
school
are confirmed in this case as in
any
other.
In order that crime
may develop,
it is nec-
71
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
essary
that
anthropological,
social and .tel-
luric factors should act
together.
We
generally forget
the conditions of the
physical
environment in which we
live,
be-
cause
supernatural prejudice
tells us that
the
body
is a beast which we must
forget
in
order to elevate ourselves into a
spiritual
life. Manzoni could
designate
the Middle
Ages by
the term
"dirty,"
because
they
neglected
the demands of
elementary hy-
giene,
and thus of human
morality.
For
where the
requirements
of our
physical body
are
neglected
or
offended,
there no flower
can bloom. The telluric environment has
a
great
influence on our
physical activity,
by way
of our nervous
system.
We feel
differently disposed, according
to whether a
south or a north wind blows. When Gari-
baldi was on the
Pampas,
he observed that
his
companions
were irascible and
prone
to
violent
quarrels,
when the
Pampero
blew,
and that their behavior
changed,
when this
wind ceased. The
great
founders of crim-
inal
statistics, Quetelet
and
Guerry,
observed
that the
change
of seasons carried with it
a
change
in
criminality.
Sexual crimes are
less
frequent
in winter than in
spring
and
summer. And with reference to this
point
OF CRIMINOLOGY
I have
maintained,
and still
maintain,
that
it is due to the combined effects of
tempera-
ture and social
conditions,
if crimes
against
property
increase in winter. For lack of
employment,
the want of food and
shelter,
intensify
the
misery
and lead to attacks on
property.
On the other
hand,
the cold
by
itself reduces sexual crimes and
personal
assaults. And those who claim that the
longer
intercourse between
people
in sum-
mer time has also a social
influence,
are
also
partly
in the
right.
The most
eloquent
fact in this
respect
was
mentioned
by
Murro,
when he
pointed
out
that this
change
in the
frequency
of
bloody
crimes,
greater
in the warm months than in
winter,
applied
also to
prisoners.
Statis-
tics show that breach of
discipline
is most
frequent
in hot seasons. The social factor
does not enter
there,
because the social life
is there the same in winter and in summer.
This
is, therefore,
a
practical proof
of the
influence of
climate,
and it is re-enforced
by
the fact that delirium and
epilepsy
in in-
sane
asylums
are also more
frequent
in hot
than in cold months. The influence of the
telluric
factors, then,
cannot be
denied,
and
the influence of the social factor intensifies
78
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
it,
as I have
already
shown
by
its most
drastic and characteristic
example,
that of
want. One
can, therefore,
understand that
a
man,
whose
morality
has been shaken
by
the
pressure
of
increasing
want,
may
be
led to commit a crime
against property
or
persons.
It is
certainly quite
evident that economic
misery
has an undeniable influence on crim-
inality.
And if
you
consider,
that about
300,000
criminals are sentenced in
Italy
every year,
180,000
of them for minor
crimes,
and
120,000
for crimes which
belong
to the
gravest
class,
you
can
easily
see
that the
greater part
of them are due main-
ly
to social
conditions,
for which it should
not be so
very
difficult to find a
remedy.
The work of the
legislator may
be
slow,
difficult,
and
inadequate,
so far as the tel-
luric
and
anthropological
factors are con-
cerned. But it could
surely
be
rapid,
effi-
cacious and
prompt,
so far as the social
factors
influencing criminality
are concerned.
We have now demonstrated that crime
has its natural source in the combined in-
teraction of three classes of
causes,
the an-
thropological (organic
and
psychological)
factor,
the telluric
factor,
and the social
74
OF CRIMINOLOGY
factor. And
by
this last factor we must
not
only
mean
want,
but
any
other condition
of administrative
instability
in
political,
moral,
and intellectual
life.
Every
social
condition which makes the
'
life of man in
society
insincere and
imperfect
is a social
factor
contributing
towards
criminality.
The economic factor is in evidence in our
civilization wherever the law of free
compe-
tition,
which is but a form of
disguised
cannibalism,
establishes the rule: Your
death is
my life.
The
competition
of labor-
ers for a limited number of
places
is
equi-
valent to
saying
that those who secure a
living
do so at the
expense
of those who do
not. And this is a
disguised
form of canni-
balism. While it does not devour the com-
petitor
as
primitive
mankind
did,
it
para-
lyzes
him
by
calumnies, recommendations,
protection, money,
which,
secure the
place
for the best
bargainer
and leave the most
honest, talented,
and
self-respecting
to the
pangs
of starvation.
Moreover,
the economic factor exerts its
crime-breeding
influence also under the form
of a
superabundance
of wealth.
Indeed,
in
our
present society,
which is in the down-
ward
stage
of transition from
glorious
bour-
75
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
geois
civilization,
which constituted a
golden
page
of human
history
in the 19th
century,
wealth itself is a source of crime. For the
rich,
who do not
enjoy
the
advantage
of
manual or intellectual
work,
suffer from the
corruption
of leisure and vice.
Gambling
throws them into an
unhealthy
fever;
the
struggle
and race for
money poison
their
daily
lives. And
although
the rich
may keep
out of reach of the
penal
code,
still
they
have
condemned
themselves to a life devoted
to
hypocritical
ceremonies,
which are devoid
of moral sentiment. And this life leads
them to a
sportive
form of
criminality.
To
cheat at
gambling
is the inevitable fate of
these
parasites.
In order to kill time
they
give
themselves
up
to
games
of
chance,
and
those who do not care for that devote them-
,
selves to the
sport
of
adultery,
which in
that class is a
pastime
even
among
the best
friends,
on account of sheer mental
poverty.
And all because man's mind
unoccupied
is
the devil's own
forge,
as the
English poet
says.
We have now
surveyed briefly
the natural
genesis
of
crime,
as a natural social
phen-
omenon,
brought
about
by
the interaction
of
anthropological,
telluric,
and social in-
76
OF CRIMINOLOGY
fluents,
which in
any
determined moment
act
upon
a
personality
standing
on the cross
road of vice and
virtue,
crime and
honesty.
*
This scientific deduction
gives
rise to a
series of
investigations
which
satisfy
the
mind and
supply
it with a real understand-
ing
of
things,
far better than the
theory
that a man is a criminal because he wants
to be.
No,
a man commits crime because
he finds himself in certain
physical
and
social
conditions,
from which the evil
plant
of crime takes life and
strength.
Thus we
obtain the
origin
of that sad human
figure
which is the
product
of the interaction of
those
factors,
an abnormal
man,
a man not
adapted
to the conditions of the social en-
vironment in which he is
born,
so that emi-
gration
becomes an ever more
permanent
phenomenon
for the
greater portion
of
men,
for whom the accident of birth will less
and less determine the course of their future
(ife. And the abnormal man who is below
the minimum of
adaptability
to social life
and bears the marks of
organic degenera-
tion,
develops
either a
passive
or an
aggres-
sive form of
abnormality
and becomes a
criminal.
Among
these abnormal human
beings,
77
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
two
groups
must be
particularly distinguish-
ed.
Limiting
our observations to those who
are true
aggressively
antisocial
abnormals,
that is to
say,
who are not
adapted
to a
certain social order and attack it
by
crimes,
we must
distinguish
those who for
egoistic
or ferocious reasons attack
society by
ata-
vistic forms of the
struggle
for existence
by
committing
socalled common crimes in the
shape
of fraud or
violence,
thereby oppos-
ing
or
abolishing
conditions in which their
fellow
beings may
live. This is the ata-
vistic
type
of criminals which
represents
an
involutionary,
or
retrogressive,
form of ab-
normality,
due to
an arrested
development
or an atavistic reversion to a
savage
and
primitive type.
These constitute the
major-
ity
in the world of criminals and must be
distinguished
from the
minority,
who are
evolutionary,
or
progressive,
abnormals,
that
may
also commit crime in a violent
form,
but must not be confounded with the
others,
because
they
do not act from
egoistic
mo-
tives,
but rebel from altruistic motives
against
the
injustice
of the
present
order.
These altruistic criminals feel the suffer-
ings
and horrors due to the
injustice
sur-
rounding
them and
may go
so far as to
78
OF CRIMINOLOGY
commit
murder,
which must
always
be con-
demned,
but which must not be confounded
with atavistic or
egoistic
murder. Re-
course to
personal
violence is
always
ob-
jectionable
from the
point
of view of
higher
manhood,
which desires that human life
should
always
be held in
respect.
But the
reasons for such a crime are
different,
being
egoistic
in the
one,
and altruistic in the
other case. The
evolutionary
abnormal is
often an instrument of human
progress,
not
in the form of
criminality,
but in that of
intellectual and moral rebellion
against
con-
ditions which are sanctioned
by
laws that
frequently punish
such an
evolutionary
re-
bellion harder than atavistic
crime,
as
they
do in
Russia,
where
capital punishment
has
been abolished for common
crimes,
but re-
tained for
political
violations of the law !
We are
living
in an
epoch
of transition
from the old to the
new,
and
contemporan-
eous
humanity
has an
uneasy
moral con-
science in this critical time. The
ruling
classes are
losing
their clearness of
vision,
so that
they promise
monuments to those
political
murderers who
promoted
their own
historical
victories,
but would condemn like
any
common criminal him who now devotes
79
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
his soul to a
revolutionary
ideal,
would
throw into
prison
the
pioneer
of new human
ideals,
just
as Russia is
excommunicating
the rebel Tolstoi. I mention Leo Tolstoi
advisedly
for the
purpose
of
giving
a
pre-
cise illustration of
my
heterodox
thought
in reference to this
question.
We are
op-
posed
to
any
form of
personal
violence
(with
the sole
exception
of
self-defense),
we cannot
approve
of
any
form of
personal
assault,
no
matter what
may
be its motive.
Therefore we cannot have words of
praise
or excuse for
political
murder,
though
it
may
be
inspired by
altruistic motives. We
can demand that the
legislator
should dis-
tinguish
between the
psychological
sources
of these two forms of
murder,
the
egoistic
and the altruistic form. But we condemn
them
both,
because
they
are inhuman forms
of violence. Ideas do not make victorious
headway by
force of arms. Ideas must be
combatted
by
ideas,
and it is
only by
the
propaganda
of the idea that we can
prepare
humanity
for its future. Violence is
always
a means of
preventing
the sincere and fruit-
ful diffusion of an idea. We do not
say
this
merely
for the abnormals of the lower
classes. We refer with scientific
serenity
80
OF CRIMINOLOGY
also to the
upper
classes,
who would
sup-
press by
violence
every
manifestation of re-
volt
against
the social
iniquities, every
affir-
mation of faith in a better future.
This is the
conception
of our
science,
which thus succeeds in
distinguishing
traits
of character even
among
the
unlucky
and
forlorn
people
of the criminal
world,
while
the classic school of
criminology regards
a
criminal as a sort of abstract and normal
man,
with the
exception
of cases of
minors,
deaf
mutes, inebriates,
and maniacs.
In
fact,
the classic school of
criminology
regards
all thieves as THE
thief,
all mur-
derers as THE
murderer,
and the human
shape disappears
in the mind of the
legis-
lator,
while it
re-appears
before the
judge.
Before the
essayist
and
legislator,
the crim-
inal is a sort of
moving dummy,
on whose
back the
judge may paste
an article of the
penal
code. If
you
leave out of considera-
tion the established cases of
exceptional
and
rare human
psychology
mentioned in the
penal
code,
all other cases serve the
judge
merely
as an excuse to select from the crim-
inal code the number of that article which
will fit the criminal
dummy,
and if he should
paste
404 instead of 407
on its
back,
the
81
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
court of
appeals
would resist
any change
or
numbers. And if this
dummy
came to life
and said: "The
question
of
my
number
may
be
very important
for
you,
but if
you
would
study
all the conditions that com-
pelled
me to take other
people's
things, you
would realize that this
importance
is
very
diagrammatic,"
the
judge
would answer:
"That's all
right
for the
justice
of the
future,
but it isn't now. You are number
404 of the criminal
code,
and after
leaving
this court room with this number
pasted
legally
on
your
back,
you
will receive an-
other
number,
for
you
will enter
prison
as
number 404 and will
exchange
it for
entry
number
1525,
or some
other,
because
your
personality
as a man
disappears entirely
be-
fore the enactment of social
justice!"
And
then it is
pretended
that this
man,
whose
personality
is thus
absurdly ignored,
should
leave
prison
cured of all
degeneration,
and
if he falls back into the
path
of thorns of
his
misery
and commits another
crime,
the
judge simply pastes
another article over the
other,
by adding
number 80 or
81,
which
refer to cases of
relapse,
to number 404 !
In this
way
the classic school of crimin-
ology
came to its unit of
punishment,
which
OF CRIMINOLOGY
it heralded
as its
great progress.
In the
Middle
Ages,
the
diversity
of
punishment
was
greater.
But in the
19th
century
the
classic school of
criminology
combatted dis-
honoring punishment, corporeal punishment,
confiscation,
professional punishment, capi-
tal
punishment,
with its ideal of one sole
penalty,
the
only panacea
for crime and
criminals,
prison.
We
have, indeed,
prohibitory
measures
and fines even
today.
But in substance the
whole
punitive armory
is reduced to
impri-
sonment,
since fines are likewise convertible
into so
many days
or months of
imprison-
ment.
Solitary
confinement is the ideal of
the classic school of
criminology.
But ex-
perience proves
that this
penalty
has as
much effect on the disease of
criminality,
as
the
remedy
of a
physician
would
have,
who
would sit in the door of a
hospital
and tell
every patient seeking
relief: "Whatever
may
be
your
disease,
I have
only
one medi-
cine and that is a decoction of rhubarb.
You have heart trouble?
Well, then,
the
problem
for me is
simply
how
big
a dose
of rhubarb decoction shall I
give you?"
And
measuring
doses of
penalty
is the
foundation of the criminal code. That is so
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
true that this code is in its last
analysis
but
a table of criminal
logarithms
for
figuring
out
penalties.
Woe to the
judge
who makes
a mistakes in
sentencing
'a
19
year
old of-
fender who was drunk when he
sinned,
but
had
premeditated
his deed. Woe to the
judge,
if he misses his calculation in add-
ing
or
subtracting
the
third,
or
sixth,
or
one
half,
corresponding
to the
prescribed
extenuating
or
aggravating
circumstances!
If he makes a
miscalculation,
the court of
appeals
is invoked
by
the
defendant,
and the
inexorable court of
appeals
tells the
judge:
"Figure
this over
again.
You have been
unjust."
The
only question
for the
judge
is this : Add
your
sums and substract
your
deductions,
and the
prisoner
is sentenced to
one
year,
seven
months,
and thirteen
days.
Not one
day
more or less ! But the human
spectator
asks: "If the criminal should
happen
to be reformed before the
expiration
of his
term,
should he be retained in
pri-
son?" The
judge replies:
"I don't
care,
he
stays
in one
year,
seven
months,
and
thirteen
days!"
Then the human
spectator says:
"But
suppose
the criminal should not
yet
be fit
for human
society
at the
expiration
of his
OF CRIMINOLOGY
term?" The
judge replies:
"At the ex-
piration
of his term he leaves
prison,
for
when he has absolved his last
day,
he has
paid
his debt!"
This is the same case as that of the
imag-
inary physician
who
says:
"You have
heart trouble? Then take a
quart
of rhu-
barb decoction and
stay
twelve
days
in the
hospital."
Another
patient says:
"I have
broken
my leg."
And the doctor: "All
right,
take a
pint
of rhubarb decoction and
17
days
in the
hospital."
A third has in-
flammation of the
lungs,
and the doctor
prescribes
three
quarts
of rhubarb decoction
and three months in the
hospital.
"But if
my
inflammation is cured before that time?"
"No
matter,"
says
the
doctor,
"you stay
in
three months." "But if I am not cured of
my lung
trouble after three months?" "No
matter,"
says
the
doctor,
"you
leave after
three months."
To such results have wise men been led
by
a
system
of
penal justice,
which is a
denial of all
elementary
common sense.
They
have
forgotten
the
personality
of the crim-
inal and
occupied
themselves
exclusively
with crime as an abstract
juristic phenome-
non. In the same
manner,
the old
style
85
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
medicine
occupied
itself with disease as
such,
as an abstract
pathological phenomenon,
with-
out
taking
into account the
personality
of
the
patient.
The ancient
physicians
did
not consider whether a
patient
was well or
ill
nourished,
young
or
old,
strong
or
weak,
nervous or fullblooded.
They
cured fever
as
fever,
pleurisy
as
pleurisy.
Modern med-
icine,
on the other
hand,
declares that dis-
ease must be studied in the
living person
of the
patient.
And the same disease
may
require
different
treatment,
if the condi-
tion of the
patient
is different.
Criminal
justice
has taken the same his-
torical course of
development
as medicine.
The classic school of
criminology
is still in
the same
stage,
in which medicine was be-
for the middle of the
19th
century.
It deals
with
theft, murder, fraud,
as such. But that
which claims so much of the attention of
society
has been
forgotten by
the classic
school. For that school has
forgotten
to
study
the
murderer,
the
thief,
the
forger,
and without that
study
their crimes can-
not be understood.
Crime is one of the conditions
required
for the
study
of the criminal. But the same
crime
may require
the
application
of differ-
86
OF CRIMINOLOGY
ent remedies to the
personalities
of different
criminals,
according
to the different an-
thropological
and social conditions of
the various criminals. There is a fundamen-
tal distinction between the
anthropological
and social
types
of
criminals,
whom I have
divided into five
categories,
which are
today
unanimously accepted by
criminalist anthro-
pologists,
since the Geneva
congress
offered
an
opportunity
to
explain
the
misapprehen-
sion which led some
foreign
scientists to be-
lieve that the Italian school
regarded
one
of these
types (the
born
criminal) merely
as
an
organic anomaly.
Just a word
concerning
each one of these
five
types.
The born criminal is a victim of that
which I will call
(seeing
that science has
not
yet
solved this
problem)
criminal neu-
rosis,
which is
very analogous
to
epileptic
neurosis,
but which is not in itself sufficient
to make one a criminal. Our adversaries had
the idea that the mere
possession
of a crook-
ed nose or a
slanting
skull
stamped
a man
as
predisposed by
birth to murder or theft.
But a man
may
be a born
criminal,
that is
to
say,
he
may
have some
congenital degen-
eration which
predisposes
him toward
crime,
87
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
and
yet
he
may
die at the
age
of 80 with-
out
having
committed
any
crime,
because he
was fortunate
enough
to live in an environ-
ment which did not offer him
any tempta-
tion to commit crime.
Again,
are not
many
predisposed
toward
insanity
without ever be-
coming
insane? If the same individual
were to live under unfavorable
conditions,
without
any
education,
if he were to find
himself in
unhealthy
telluric
surroundings,
in a
mine,
a rice
field,
or a miasmatic
swamp,
he would become insane. But if instead of
living
in conditions that condemn him to
lunacy
he were to be under no
necessity
to
struggle
for his
daily
bread,
if he could live
in
affluence,
he
might
exhibit some eccentri-
city
of
character,
but would not cross the
threshold of an insane
asylum.
The same
happens
in
the case of
criminality.
One
may
have a
congenital predisposition
toward
crime,
but if he lives in favorable surround-
ings,
he will live
to the end of his natural
life without
violating any
criminal or moral
law. At
any
rate we must
drop
the
pre-
judice
that
only
those are criminals on whose
backs' the
judge
has
pasted
a number. For
there are
many
scoundrels at
large
who com-
mit crime with
impunity,
or who brush the
88
OF CRIMINOLOGY
edge
of the criminal law in the most re-
pulsive immorality
without
violating
it.
This
misunderstanding
was
explained
at
the
congress
of Geneva
by
the statement
that the interaction of the social and tel-
luric environment is
required
also in the
case of the born criminal. And now we
may
take it for
granted
that
my
classifica-
tion of five
types
is
everywhere accepted.
These are the
following:
The born crim-
inal who has a
congenital predisposition
for
crime;
the insane criminal
suffering
from
some clinical form of mental
alienation,
and
whom even our
existing penal
code had to
recognize;
the habitual
criminal,
that is to
say
one who has
acquired
the habit of crime
mainly through
the ineffective measures em-
ployed by society
for the
prevention
and
repression
of crime. A common
figure
in
our
large
industrial centers is that of the
abandoned child which has to
go begging
from its earliest
youth
in order to collect
an income for the
enterprising
boss of for
its
poor family,
without an
opportunity
to
educate its moral sense in the filth of the
streets. It is
punished
for the first time
by
the law and sent to
prison
or to a reforma-
tory,
where it is
inevitably corrupted.
Then,
89
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
when such an individual comes out of
pris-
on,
he is
stigmatized
as a thief or
forger,
watched
by
the
police,
and if he secures
work in some
shop,
the owner is
indirectly
induced to
discharge
him,
so that he must
inevitably
fall back
upon
crime.
Thus one
acquires
crime as a
habit,
a
product
of social
rottenness,
due to the in-
effective measures for the
prevention
and
repression
of crime. There is furthermore
the occasional
criminal,
who commits
very
insignificant
criminal
acts,
more because he
is led
astray by
his conditions of life than
because the
aggressive energy
of a
degen-
erate
personality impels
him. If he is not
made worse
by
a
prison
life,
he
may
find an
opportunity
to return to a normal life in
society. Finally
there is the
passionate
criminal, who,
like the insane
criminal,
has
received attention from the
positive
school
of
criminology;
which, however,
did not
come to
any
definite conclusions
regarding
him,
such as
may
be
gathered by
means of
the
experimental
method
through study
in
prisons,
insane
asylums,
or in freedom. The
relations between
passion
and crime have so
far been studied on a field in which no solu-
tion was
possible.
For the classic school con-
90
OF CRIMINOLOGY
*
seders such a crime
according
to the
greater
or smaller
intensity
and violence of
passion
and comes to the conclusion that the
degree
of
responsibity
decreases to the extent that
the
intensity
of a
passion
increases,
and vice
versa. The
problem
cannot be solved in this
way.
There are
passions
which
may
rise
s
to the
highest degree
of
intensity
without)
reducing
the
responsibility.
For
instance^
is one who murders from motives of
revenge
a
passionate
criminal who must be excused?
The classic school of
criminology says
"No,"
and for
my part
I
agree
with them.
Francesco Carrara
says:
"There are blind
passions,
and others which are reasonable.
Blind
passions deprive
one of free
will,
reasonable ones do not. Blind and
excusable
passions
are
fear, honor, love,
reasonable and inexcusable ones are
hatred and
revenge."
But how so? I have
studied murderers who killed for
revenge
and who told me that the desire for
revenge
took hold of them like a
fever,
so
that
they
"forgot
even to eat." Hate and
revenge
can take
possession
of a man to such an ex-
tent that he becomes blind with
passion.
The truth is that
passion
must be considered
not so far as its violence or
quantity
are
91
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
concerned,
but rather as to its
quality.
We
must
distinguish
between social and anti-
social
passion,
the one
favoring
the condi-
tions of life for the
species
and
collectivity,
the other
antagonistic
to the
development
of
the
collectivity.
In the first
case,
we have
love,
injured
honor, etc.,
which are
passions
normally
useful to
society,
and aberrations
of which
may
be excused more or less ac-
cording
to individual cases. On the other
hand,
we have inexcusable
passions,
because
their
psychological tendency
is to anta-
gonize
the
development
of
society. They
are
antisocial,
and cannot be
excused,
and
hate and
revenge
are
among
them.
The
positive
school therefore admits that
a
passion
is
excusable,
when the moral sense
of a man is
normal,
when his
past
record is
clear,
and when his crime is due to a social
passion,
which makes it excusable.
We shall see tomorrow what remedies the
positive
school of
criminology proposes
for
each one of these
categories
of
criminals,
in
distinction from the
measuring
of doses of
imprisonment
advocated
by
the classic school.
We have thus exhausted in a short and
general
review the
subject
of the natural
origin
of
criminality.
To sum
up,
crime is
OF CRIMINOLOGY
a social
phenomenon,
due to the interaction
of
anthropological,
telluric,
and social fac-
tors. This law
brings
about what I have
called criminal
saturation,
which means that
every society
has the
criminality
which it
deserves,
and which
produces by
means of
its
geographical
and social conditions such
quantities
and
qualities
of crime as corres-
pond
to the
development
of each collective
human
group.
Thus the old
saying
of Imetelet is con-
firmed: "There is an annual balance of
crime,
which
must be
paid
and settled with
greater regularity
than the accounts of the
national revenue."
However,
we
positivists
give
to this statement a less fatalistic inter-
pretation,
since we have demonstrated that
crime is not our immutable
destiny,
even
though
it is a vain
beginning
to
attempt
to attenuate or eliminate crime
by
mere
schemes. The truth is that the balance of
crime is determined
by
the
physical
and
social environment. But
by changing
the
condition of the social
environment,
which
is most
easily
modified,
the
legislator may
alter the influence of the telluric environ-
ment and the
organic
and
psychic
conditions
of the
population,
control the
greater por-
93
THE POSITIVE
SCHOOL
tion of
crimes,
and reduce them consider-
ably.
It is our firm conviction that a
truly
civilized
legislator
can attenuate the
plague
of
criminality,
not
so much
by
means of the
criminal
code,
as
by
means of remedies
which
are latent in the remainder of the social life
and of
legislation.
And the
experience
of
the most advanced countries confirms this
by
the beneficent and
preventive
influence of
criminal
legislation resting
on efficacious
social reforms.
We
arrive, then,
at this scientific conclu-
sion : In the
society
of the
future,
the nec-
essity
for
penal justice
will be reduced to
the extent that social
justice grows
inten-
sively
and
extensively.
OF CRIMINOLOGY
III.
In the
preceding
two
lectures,
I have
given you
a short review of the new cur-
rent in scientific
thought,
which studies the
painful
and
dangerous phenomena
of crim-
inality.
We must now draw the
logical
con-
clusions,
in
theory
and
practice,
from the
teachings
of
experimental
science,
for the re-
moval of the
gangrenous plague
of crime.
Under the influence of the
positive
methods
of
research,
the old formula "Science for
science's sake" has
given place
to the new
formula "Science for life's sake." For it
would be useless for the human mind to re-
treat into the vault of
philosophical
concen-
tration,
if this intellectual
mastery
did not
produce
as a counter-effect a beneficent wave
of real
improvement
in the destinies of the
human race.
What, then,
has the civilized world to
offer in the
way
of remedies
against
crimin-
ality?
The classic school of
criminology,
being
unable to locate in the course of its
95
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
scientific and historical mission the natural
causes of
crime,
as I have shown in the
pre-
ceding
lectures,
was not in a
position
to deal
in a
comprehensive
,
and
far-seeing
manner
with this
problem
of the
remedy against
criminality.
Some of the classic crimin-
ologists,
such as
Bentham,
Romagnosi,
or
Ellero,
with a more
positive
bent of mind
than
others,
may
have
given
a little of their
scientific
activity
to the
analysis
of this
prob-
lem,
namely
the
prevention
of crime. But
Ellero himself had to admit that "the classic
school of
criminology
has written volumes
concerning
the death
penalty
and
torture,
but has
produced
but a few
pages
on the
prevention
of
criminality."
The historical
j mission of that school consisted in a reduc-
tion of
punishment.
For
being
born on the
eve of the French revolution in the name of
individualism and natural
rights,
it was a
protest against
the barbarian
penalties
of the
Middle
Ages.
Aud thus the
practical
and
glorious
result of the classic school was a
propaganda
for the abolition of the most
brutal
penalties
of the Middle
Ages,
such
as the death
penalty,
torture,
mutilation.
We in our turn now follow
up
the
prac-
tical and scientific mission of the classic
96
OF CRIMINOLOGY
school of
criminology
with a still more noble
and fruitful mission
by adding
to the
prob-
lem of the diminution
of penalties
the
prob-
lem of the diminution
of
crimes. It is
worth more to
humanity
to reduce the num-
ber of crimes than to reduce the dread suf-
ferings
of criminal
punishments, although
even this is a noble
work,
after the evil
plant
of crime has been
permitted
to
grow
in the
realm of life.
Take,
for
instance,
the
phil-
anthropic awakening
due to the
Congress
of
Geneva in the matter of the Red Cross
Society,
for the
care,
treatment and cure
of the wounded in war. However noble and
praiseworthy
this mission
may
be,
it would
be far nobler and better to
prevent
war than
to heal the mutilated and wounded. If the
same zeal and
persistence,
which- have been
expended
in the work of the Red Cross
Society,
had been devoted to the relization
of international
brotherhood,
the
weary
road
of human
progress
would show far better
results.
It is a noble mission to
oppose
the fero-
cious
penalties
of the Middle
Ages.
But it
is still nobler to forestall crime. The clas-
sic school of
criminology
directed its atten-
tion
merely
to
penalties,
to
repressive
mea-
97
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
sures after crime had been
committed,
with
all its terrible moral and material conse-
'
quences.
For in the classic
school,
the rem-
edies
against criminality
have not the social
aim of
improving
human
life,
but
merely
the
illusory
mission of retributive
justice,
meeting
a moral
delinquency by
a corres-
ponding punishment
in the
shape
of
legal
sentences. This is the
spirit
which is still
pervading
criminal
legislation, although
there is a sort of eclectic
compromise
be-
tween the old and the new. The classic
school of
criminology
has substituted for
the old absolutist
conceptions
of
justice
the
eclectic
theory
that absolute
justice
has the
right
to
punish,
but a
right
modified
by
the
interests of civilized life in
present society.
This is the
point
discussed in
Italy
in the
celebrated
controversy
between
Pasquale
Stanislao Mancini and Terencio
Mamiani,
in 1847. This is in substance the
theory
followed
by
the classic
criminologists
who re-
vised the
penal
code,
which
public opinion
con-
siders
incapable
of
protecting society against
the
dangers
of crime. And we have but to look
about us in the realities of
contemporaneous
life in order to see that the criminal code is
(
far from
being
a
remedy against
crime,
that
98
OF CRIMINOLOGY
it remedies
nothing,
because either
premedi-
tation or
passion
in the
person
of the crim-
inal
deprive
the criminal law of all
prohibi-
tory power.
Ttte
deceptive
faith in the effi-
cacy
of criminal law still lives in the
public
mind,
because
every,
normal
man
feels that
the
thought
of
imprisonment
would stand-
in his
way,
if he
contemplated
tomorrow
com-(
mittihg
a
theft,
a
rape,
or a murder. He
feels the bridle of the social sense. And the
criminal code lends more
strength
to it and
holds him back from criminal actions. But
even if the criminal code did not
exist,
he
would not commit a
crime,
so
long
as his
phy-
sical and social environment would not
urge
him in that direction. The criminal code
serves
only
to isolate
temporarily
from social
intercourse those who are not considered
worthy
of it. And this
punishment prevents
the criminal for a while from
repeating
his
criminal deed. But it is evident that the
punishment
is not
imposed
until after the
deed has been done. It is a
remedy
directed
against
effects,
but it does not touch the
causes,
the
roots,
of the evil.
We
may say
that in social life
penalties
have the same relation to crime that medicine
has to disease. After a disease has
developed
99
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
in an
organism,
we have recourse to a
physi-
cian. But he cannot do
anything
else but to
reach the effects in some
single
individual.
On the other
hand,
if the individual and the
collectivity
had
obeyed
the rules of
preven-
tive
hygiene,
the disease would have been
avoided 90 times in
100,
and would have
ap-
peared only
in extreme and
exceptional
cases,
where a wound or an
organic
condition break
through
the laws of health. Lack of
pro-
vidence on the
part
of
man,
which is due to
insufficient
expression
of the forces of the in-
tellect and
pervades
so
large
a
part
of human
life,
is
certainly
to blame for the fact
that
mankind chooses to use belated remedies
rather than to observe the laws of
health,
which demand a
greater
methodical control of
one's actions and more
foresight,
because the
remedy
must be
applied
before the disease
becomes
apparent.
I
say occasionally
that
human
society
acts in the matter of criminal-
ity
with the same lack of
forethought
that
most
people
do in the matter of tooth-ache.
How
many
individuals do not suffer from
tooth-ache,
especially
in the
great
cities? And
yet any
one convinced of the miraculous
power
of
hygiene
could
easily
clean his teeth
every
day
and
prevent
the microbes of tooth rot
100
OF
from
thriving, thereby saving
his teeth fro:n
harm and
pain.
But it is tedious to do this
every day.
It
implies
a control of one's self.
It cannot be done without the scientific con-
viction that induces men to
acquire
this habit.
Most
people say:
"Oh
well,
if that tooth
rots,
I'll bear the
pain."
But when the
night
comes in which
they
cannot
sleep
for tooth-
ache,
they
will swear at themselves for not
having
taken
precautions
and will run to the
dentist,
who in most cases cannot
help
them
any
more.
The
legislator
should
apply
the rules of
social
hygiene
in order to reach the roots of
criminality.
But this would
require
that he
should
bring
his mind and will to bear
daily
on a
legislative
reform of individual and
social
life,
in the field of economics and morals
as well as in that of
administration,
politics,
and
intelligence.
Instead of
that,
the
legis-
lators
permit
the microbes of
criminality
to
develop
their
pathogenic powers
in
society.
When crimes become
manifest,
the
legislator
knows no other
remedy
but
imprisonment
in
order
to
punish
an evil which he should have
prevented.
Unfortunately
this scientific con-
viction is not
yet
rooted and
potent
in the
minds of the
legislators
of most of the civi-
101
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
Hzed
countries,
because
they represent
on an
average
the backward scientific convic-
tions of one or two
previous genera-
tions. The
legislator
who sits in
par-
liament
today
was the
university
student
of 30
years ago.
With a few
very
rare ex-
ceptions
he is
supplied only
with
knowledge
of
outgrown
scientific research. It is a his-
torical law that the work of the
legislator
is
always
behind the science of his time. But
nevertheless the scientist has the
urgent duty
to
spread
the conviction that
Ivygiene
is worth
as much on the field of civilization as it is in
medicine for the
public
health.
This is the fundamental conviction at
which the
positive
school arrives: That
which has
happened
in medicine will
happen
in
criminology.
The
great
value of
prac-
tical
hygiene, especially
of social
hygiene,
which is
greater
than that of individual
hy-
giene,
has been
recognized
after the mar-
velous scientific discoveries
concerning
the
origin
and
primitive
causes of the most dan-
gerous
diseases. So
long
as Pasteur and his
disciples
had not
given
to the world their dis-
covery
of the
pathogenic
microbes of all in-
fectious
diseases,
such as
typhoid
fever,
'cholera,
diphtheria, tuberculosis, etc.,
more or
102
OF CRIMINOLOGY
less absurd remedies were demanded of the
science of medicine. I
remember,
for in-
stance,
that I was
compelled
in
my youth,
during
an
epidemic
of
cholera,
to
stay
in a
closed
room,
in which
fumigation
was car-
ried on with substances
irritating
the bron-
chial tubes and
lungs
without
killing
the
cholera
microbes,
as was
proved
later on. It
was not until the real causes of those infec-
tious diseases were
discovered,
that efficient
remedies could be
employed against
them.
An
aqueduct
given
to a center of
population
like
Naples
is a better
protection against
cholera than
drugs,
even after the disease
has taken root in the midst of the
people
of
Naples.
This is the modern lesson which we
wish to teach in the field of
criminology,
a
field which will
always
retain its
repressive
functions as an
exceptional
and ultimate re-
fuge,
because we do not believe that we shall
succeed in
eliminating
all forms of criminal-
ity.
Hence,
if a crime manifests
itself,
re-
pression
may
be
employed
as one of the rem-
edies of
criminology,
but it should be the
very
last,
not the
exclusively dominating
one,
as it is
today.
It is this blind
worship
of
punishment
which is to blame for the
spectacle
which we
103
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
witness in
every
modern
country,
the
spectacle
that the
legislators neglect
the rules of social
hygiene
and wake
up
with a start when some
form of crime becomes
acute,
and that
they
know of no better
remedy
than an
intensifica-
tion of
punishment
meeted out
by
the
penal
code. If one
year
of
imprisonment
is not
enough,
we'll make it ten
years,
and if an
aggravation
of the
ordinary penalty
is not
enough,
we'll
pass
a law of
exception.
It is
always
the blind trust in
punishment
which
remains the
only remedy
of the
public
con-
science and which
always
works to the de-
triment of
morality
and material
welfare,
be-
cause it does not save the
society
of honest
people
and strikes without
curing
those who
have fallen a
prey
to
guilt
and crime.
The
positive
school of
criminology,
then,
aside from the
greater
value attributed to
daily
and
systematic
measures of social
hy-
giene
for the
prevention
of
criminality,
comes
to
radically
different conclusions also in the
matter of
repressive justice.
The classic
school has for a cardinal
remedy against
crime a
preference
for one kind of
punish-
ment,
namely imprisonment,
and
gives
fixed
and
prescribed
doses of this
remedy.
It is
the
logical
conclusion of retributive
justice
104
OF CRIMINOLOGY
that it travels
by way
of an
illusory purifica-
tion from moral
guilt
to the
legal responsi-
bility
of the criminal and thence on to a cor-
responding
dose of
punishment,
which has
been
previously prescribed
and fixed.
We,
on the other
hand,
hold that even the
surviving
form of
repression,
which will be
inevitable in
spite
of the
application
of the
rules of social
prevention,
should
t
be
widely
different,
on account of the different
concep-
tion which we have of crime and of
penal
justice.
In the
majority
of
cases,
composed
of
minor crimes committed
by people belonging
to the most numerous and least
dangerous
class of occasional or
passionate
criminals,
the
only
form of civil
repression
will be the
compensation of
the victim
for
his loss. Ac-
cording
to
us,
this should be the
only
form
of
penalty imposed
in the
majority
of minor
crimes committed
by people
who are not dan-
gerous.
In the
present practice
of
justice
the
compensation
of the victim for his loss
has become a
laughing
stock,
because this
victim is
systematically forgotten.
The whole
attention of the classic school has been con-
centrated on the
juridical entity
of the crime.
The victim of the crime has been
forgotten,
105
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
although
this victim deserves
philanthropic
sympathy
more than the criminal who has
done the harm. It is
true,
every judge
adds
to the sentence the formula that the criminal
is
responsible
for the
injury
and the costs to
another
authority.
But the
process
of law
puts
off this
compensation
to an indefinite
time,
and if the victim succeeds a few
years
after the
passing
of the sentence in
getting
any
action on the
matter,
the criminal has in
the meantime had a thousand
legal
subter-
fuges
to
get away
with his
spoils.
And thus
the law itself becomes the
breeding ground
of
personal revenge,
for
Filangieri says apt-
ly
that an innocent man
grasps
the
dagger
of
the
murderer,
when the sword of
justice
does
not defend him.
Let us
say
at this
point
that the
rigid ap-
plication
of
compensation
for
damages
should
never be
displaced by imprisonment,
because
this would be
equivalent
to
sanctioning
a real
class distinction. For the rich can
laugh
at
damages,
while the
proletarian
would have to
make
good
a sentence of 1000 lire
by
100
days
in
prison,
and in the meantime the in-
nocent
family
that
tearfully
waits for him
outside,
would be
plunged
into
desperate
straits.
Compensation
for
damages
should
106
OF CRIMINOLOGY
never take
place
in
any
other
way
than
by
means of the labor of the
prisoner
to an
extent
satisfactory
to the
family
of the in-
jured.
It has been
attempted
to
place
this
in an eclectic
way
on our law
books,
but this
proposition
remains a dead letter and is not
applied
in
Italy,
because a stroke of
legisla-
tor's
pen
is not
enough
to
change
the fate of
an entire nation.
These
practical
and efficient measures would
be taken in the case of lesser criminals. For
the
graver
crimes committed
by
atavistic
or
congenital
criminals,
or
by persons inclining
toward crime from
acquired
habit or mental
alienation,
the
positive
school of
criminology
reserves
segregation
for an indefinite
time,
for it is absurd to fix the time beforehand in
the case of a
dangerous degenerate
who has
committed a
grave
crime.
The
question
of indeterminate sentences has
been
recently
discussed also
by
Pessina,
who
combats
it,
of
course,
because the essence of
the classic school of
criminology
is retribu-
tion for a fault
by
means of
corresponding
punishment.
We
might reply
that no human
judge
can use
any
other but the
grossest
scale
by
which to determine whether
you
are
responsible
to the extent of the
whole,
one
107
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
half,
or one third. And since there is no
absolute or
objective
criterion
by
which the
ratio of crime to
.punishment
can be deter-
mined,
penal justice
becomes a
game
of
chance. But we content ourselves
by point-
ing
out that
segregation
for an indefinite time
has so much truth in
it,
that even the most
orthodox of the classic school admit
it,
for
instance in the case of criminals under
age.
Now,
if an indeterminate sentence is a viola-
tion of the
principles
of the classic
school,
I
cannot understand
why
it can be admitted
in the case of
minors,
but not in the case of
adults. This is
evidently
an
expedient
im-
posed by
the
exigencies
of
practical
life,
and
only
the
positive
school of
criminology
can
meet them
by
a
logical systematization.
For
the
rest,
indefinite
segregation,
such as we
pro-
pose
for the most
dangerous
atavistic crim-
inals,
is a measure which is
already
in use for
ordinary
lunatics as well as for criminal lun-
atics. But it
may
be said that this is an ad-
ministrative
measure,
not
a court sentence.
Well,
if
any
one is so fond of formulas as
to make this
objection,
he
may get
all the
fun out of them that he likes. But it is a
fact that an insane
person
who has com-
mitted a crime is sent to a
building
with iron
108
OF CRIMINOLOGY
bars on its
gates
such as
a
prison
has. You
may
call it an administrative
building
or a
penal
institute,
the name is
unessential,
for
the substance alone counts. We maintain that
congenital
or
pathological
criminals cannot
be locked
up
for a definite term in
any
insti-
tution,
but should remain there until
they
are
adapted
for the normal life of
society.
This radical reform of
principles
carries
with it a radical transformation of details.
Given an indeterminate
segregation,
there
should be
organs
of
guardianship
for
per-
sons so
secluded,
for instance
permanent
com-
mittees for the
periodical
revision of sen-
tences. In the
future,
the criminal
judge
will
always
secure
ample
evidence to
prove
whether
a defendant is
really guilty,
for this is the
fundamental
point.
If it is certain that he
has
committed the
crime,
he should either be
excluded from social intercourse or sentenced
to make
good
the
damage, provided
the crim-
inal is not
dangerous
and the crime not
grave.
It is absurd to sentence a man to five or sixr
:
days imprisonment
for some
insignificant
mis-|
demeanor. You lower him in the
eyes
of
;
the
public, subject
him to surveillance
by
the
police,
and send him to
prison
from whence
he will
go
out more
corrupted
than he was
109
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
on
entering
it. It is absurd to
impose segre-
gation
in
prison
for small errors.
Compen-
sation for
injuries
is
enough.
For the
segre-
gation
of the
graver
criminals,
the
manage-
ment must be as scientific as it is now in in-
sane
asylums.
It is absurd to
place
an old
pensioned
soldier or a hardened bureaucrat
at the head of a
penal
institution. It is
enough
to visit one of those
compulsory
human
beehives and to see how a
military discipline
carries a brutal
hypocrisy
into it. The man-
agement
of such institutions must be scienti-
fic,
and the care of their inmates must be
scientific,
since a
grave
crime is
always
a
manifestation of the
pathological
condition of
the individual. In America there are
already
institutions,
such as the Elmira
Reformatory,
where the
application
of the methods of the
positive
school of
criminology
has been
solemnly promised.
The director of the in-
stitution is a
psychologist,
a
physician.
When
a criminal under
age
is
brought
in,
he is
studied from the
point
of view of
physiology
and
psychology.
The treatment serves to
regenerate
the
plants
who,
being young, may
still be
straightened up.
Scientific
therapeu-
tics can do little for
relapsed
criminals. The
present repression
of crime robs the
prisoner
110
OF CRIMINOLOGY
of his
personality
and reduces him to a num-
ber,
either in mass
imprisonment
which cor-
rupts
him
completely,
or in
solitary
confine-
ment,
which will turn him into a
stupid
or
raving
beast.
These methods are also
gradually
introduc-
ed in the insane
asylums.
I must tell
you
a
little
story
to illustrate this. When I was a
professor
in
Pisa,
eight years ago,
I took
my
students to the
penitentiaries
and the
asylum
for the criminal insane in
Montelupo,
as I
always
used to do. Dr.
Algieri,
the director
of this
asylum,
showed us
among
others a
very interesting
case. This was a man of
about
45,
whose
history
was
shortly
the fol-
lowing
: He was
a
bricklayer living
in one of
the cities of Toscana. He had been a
normal and honest
man,
a
very good
father,
until one
unlucky day
came,
in which a brick
falling
from a
factory
broke a
part
of his
skull. He fell down
unconscious,
was
picked
up,
carried to the
hospital,
and cured of his
external
injury,
but lost both his
physical
and moral health. He became an
epileptic.
And the lesion to which the loss of the
normal function of his nervous
system
was
due transformed him from the docile and
even-tempered
man that he had been into a
111
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
quarrelsome
and irritable
individual,
so that
he was less
regular
in his
work,
less moral
and honest in his
family
life,
and was
finally
sentenced for a
grave
assault in a saloon
brawl. He was condemned as a common crim-
inal to I don't know how
many years
of im-
prisonment.
But in
prison,
the
exceptional
conditions of seclusion
brought
on a dete-
rioration of his
physical
and moral
health,
his
epileptic
fits became more
frequent,
his char-
acter
grew
worse. The director of the
prison
sent him to the
asylum
for the insane crimin-
als at
Montelupo,
which shelters criminals
suspected
of
insanity
and insane criminals.
Dr.
Algieri
studied the
interesting
case
and came
to
the
diagnosis
that there was a
splinter
of bone in the man's brain which had
not been noticed in the treatment at the hos-
pital,
and that this was the cause of the
epi-
lepsy
and demoralization of the
prisoner.
He
trepanned
a
portion
of the skull around the
old wound and
actually
found a bone
splinter
lodged
in the man's brain. He removed the
splinter,
and
put
a
platinum plate
over the
trepanned place
to
protect
the brain. The
man
improved,
the
epileptic
fits
ceased,
his
moral condition became as normal as
before,
and this
bricklayer (how
about the free
will?)
112
OF CRIMINOLOGY
was dismissed
from the
asylum,
for he had
given proofs
of normal behavior for about
five or six
months,
thanks to the wisdom of
the doctor who had relieved him of the lesion
which had made him
epileptic
and immoral.
If this
asylum
for insane criminals had not
been in
existence,
he would have ended in a
padded
cell,
the same as another man whom
I and
my
students saw a few
years ago
in the
Ancona
penitentiary.
The
director,
an old
soldier,
said to me:
"Professor,
I shall show
you
a
type
of human beast. He is a man
who
passes
four fifths of the
year
in a
pad-
ded cell." After
calling
six
attendants,
"be-
cause we must be
careful,"
we went to the
cell,
and I said to that director:
"Please,
leave this man to me. I have little faith in
the existence of human beasts.
Keep
the at-
tendants at a distance."
"No,"
replied
the
director,
"my responsibility
does not
permit
me to do that."
But I insisted. The cell was
opened,
and
the man came out of it
really
like a wild
beast with
bulging eyes
and distorted face.
But I met him with a smile and said to him
kindly:
"How are
you?"
This
change
of
treatment
immediately changed
the attitude
of the man. He first had a nervous fit
and
113
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
then broke into tears and told me his
story
with the
eloquence
of
suffering.
He said that
he had some
days
in which he was not mas-
ter of
himself,
but he
recognized
that he
was
good
whenever the attacks of
temper
were
over. Without
saying
so,
he thus invoked the
wisdom of human
psychology
for better
treatment. There is indeed a
physician
in
those
prisons,
but he treats
generally only
the
ordinary
diseases and is not familiar with
special psychological knowledge.
There
may
be
exceptions,
and in that case it is a
lucky
coincidence. But the
prison
doctor has also
his
practice
outside and hurries
through
his
prison
work.,
"They
simulate
'sickness in
order to
get
out of
prison,"
he
says.
And
this will be so all the more that the
physicians
of our time have not sufficient
training
in
psychology
to enable them to do
justice
to the
psychology
of the criminal.
You
must, therefore,
give
a scientific man-
agement
to these
institutions,
and
you
will
then render humane even the treatment of
those
grave
and
dangerous
criminals,
whose
condition cannot be met
by
a
simple compen-
sation of the
injury they
have done to others.
This is the function of
repression
as we
look
upon
it,
an inevitable result of the
posi-
114
OF CRIMINOLOGY
tive data
regarding
the natural
origin
of
crime.
We
believe,
in other
words,
that
repres-
sion will
play
but an
unimportant
role in the
future. We believe that
every
branch of
legislation
will come to
prefer
the remedies of
social
hygiene
to those
symptomatic
reme-
dies and
apply
them from
day
to
day.
And
thus we come to the
theory
of the
prevention
of crime. Some
say
: "It is better to
repress
than to
prevent."
Others
say:
"It is bet-
ter to
prevent
than to
repress."
In order to
solve this conflict we must remember that
there are two
widely
different kinds of re-
pression.
There is the
immediate,
direct em-
pirical repression,
which does not
investigate
the cause of
criminality,
but waits until the
crime is about to be committed. That is
police
prevention.
There is on the other hand a
social
prevention
which has an indirect and
more remote
function,
which does not wait
until crime is about to be
committed,
but lo-
cates the causes of crime in
poverty,
aban-
doned
children,
trampdom,
etc.,
and seeks to
prevent
these conditions
by
remote and in-
direct means. In
Italy, prevention
is anon-
ymous
with arrest. That is to
say, by
re-
pression
is understood
only police repression.
115
*
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
Under these
circumstances,
it is well to take
it for
granted
that some of the
expected
crimes will be carried
out,
for crimes are not
committed at fixed
periods
after first inform-
ing
the
police.
The
damage
done
by
crimi-
nality,
and
especially by political
and social
criminality, against
which
police repression
is
particularly
directed,
will be smaller than
that done
by
the abuse
inseparably
con-
nected with
police power.
In the case of
atavistic
criminality, prevention
does not
mean
handcuffing
of the man who is about to
commit a
crime,
but
devising
such economic
and educational measures in the
family
and
administration as will eliminate the causes of
crime or attenuate
them,
precisely
because
punishment
is less effective than
prevention.
In other
words,
in order to
prevent
crime,
we must have recourse to measures which I
have called "substitutes for
punishment,"
and which
prevent
the
development
of
crime,
because
they go
to the source in order to do
away
with effects.
Bentham narrates that the
postal
service
in
England,
in the 18th
century,
was in the
hands of
stage
drivers,
but this service was
not connected with the
carrying
of
passen-
gers,
as became the custom later. And then
116
OF CRIMINOLOGY
it was
impossible
to
get
the drivers to ar-
rive on
time,
because
they stopped
too often
at the inns. Fines were
imposed, imprison-
ment was resorted
to,
yet
the drivers arrived
late. The
penalties
did not
accomplish any
results so
long
as the causes remained. Then
the idea was conceived to
carry passengers
on the
postal stages,
and that
stopped
the
drivers from
being
late,
because whenever
they
made a
halt,
the
passengers,
who had an
interest in
arriving
on
time,
called the driv-
ers and did not
give
them much time to
linger.
This is an illustration of a
substitute
for
punishment.
Another illustration. In the Middle
Ages,
up
to the eve of our modern
civilization,
piracy
was in
vogue.
Is there
anything
that
was not tried to
suppress piracy?
The
pirates
were
persecuted
like wild beasts. Whenever
they
were
caught they
were condemned to the
most terrible forms of death. Yet
piracy^)
continued. Then came the
application
of
steam
navigation,
and
piracy disappeared
as
by magic.
And
robbery
and
brigandage?
They
withstood the death
penalty
and ex-
traordinary
raids
by
soldiers. And we wit-
ness
today
the
spectacle
of a not
very
serious
contest between the
police
who wants to catch
117
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
a
brigand,
Musolino
;
and a
brigand
who does
not wish to be
caught.
Wherever the woods are not traversed
by
railroads or
tramways, brigandage
carries on
its criminal trade. But wherever railroads
and
tramways
exist,
brigandage
is a form of
crime which
disappears.
You
may
insist on
death
penalties
and
imprisonment,
but as-
sault and
robbery
will
continue,
because it is
connected with
geographical
conditions. Use
on the other hand the instrument of civiliza-
tion,
without
sentencing any
one,
and
brig-
andage
and
robbery
will
disappear
before its
light.
And if human
beings
in
large
indus-
trial centers are herded
together
in tenements
and slum
hotels,
how can a humane
judge
aggravate
the
penalties against
sexual
crimes? How can the sense of shame
develop
among people,
when
young
and old of both
sexes are crowded
together
in the same
bed,
in the same
corrupted
and
corrupting
envir-
onment,
which robe the human soul of
every
noble
spark?
I
might stray pretty
far,
if I were to
continue these illustrations of social
hygiene
which will be the true solution of the
prob-
lem and the
supreme systematic, daily
hu-
mane,
and bloodless
remedy against
the dis-
118
OF CRIMINOLOGY
ease of
criminality.
However,
we have not the
simple
faith that in the near or far future of
humanity
crimes can ever be
wholly
eradi-
cated. Even
Socialism,
which looks forward
to a fundamental transformation of future
society
on the basis of brotherhood and so-
cial
justice,
cannot elevate itself to the ab-
solute and
naive faith that
criminality,
in-
sanity,
and suicide can ever
fully disappear
from the earth. But it is our firm conviction
that the endemic form of
criminality,
insan-
ity,
and suicide will
disappear,
and that
nothing
will remain of them but rare
spor-
adic forms caused
by
lesion or telluric and
other influences.
Since we have made the
great discovery
that
malaria,
which
weighs upon
so
many
parts
in
Italy,
is
dependent
for its trans-
mission on a certain
mosquito,
we have ac-.
quired
the control of malarial
therapeutics^
and are enabled to
protect
individuals and
families
effectively against
malaria. But aside
from this function of
protecting people,
there
must be a social
prevention,
and since those
malarial insects can live
only
in
swampy
districts,
it is
necessary
to
bring
to those un-
reclaimed lands the
blessing
of the hoe and
plow,
in order to remove the cause and do
119
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
away
with the effects. The same
problem
confronts us in
criminology.
In the
society
of the future we shall undertake this work
of social
hygiene,
and
thereby
we shall re-
move the
epidemic
forms of
criminality.
And
(nine-tenths
of the crimes will then
disappear,
so that
nothing
will remain of them but ex-
ceptional
cases. There will
remain,
for in-
stance,
such cases as that of the
bricklayer
which I
mentioned,
because there
may always
be
accidents,
no matter what
may
be the form
of social
organization,
and nervous disorders
may
thus
appear
in certain individuals. But
you
can see that these would be
exceptional
cases of
criminality,
which will be
easily
cured under the direction of
science,
that will
be the
supreme
and beneficent
manager
of in-
stitutes for the
segregation
of those who will
be unfit for social intercourse. The
prob-
lem of
criminality
will thus be solved as far
as
possible,
because the
gradual
transforma-
tion of
society
will eliminate the
swamps
in
which the miasms of crime
may
form and
breed.
If we wish to
apply
these standards to an
example
which
today
attracts the
.attention
of all
Italy
to this noble
city,
if we desire
to
carry
our theories into the
practice
of
120
OF CRIMINOLOGY
contemporaneous
life,
if science is to
respond
to the call of
life,
let us throw a
glance
at
that form of endemic
criminality
known as
the Camorra in this
city,
which has taken root
here
just
as
stabbing affrays
have in certain
centers of
Turin,
and the Mafia in certain
centers of
Sicily.
In the first
place,
we must
not be
wilfully
blind to facts and refuse to
see that the citizens will
protect
themselves,
if social
justice
does not
do
so. And from
that to crime there is but a short
step.
But
which is the
swampy
soil in which this so-
cial disease can
spread
and
persist
like
leprosy
in the collective
organism?
It is the
economic
poverty
of the
masses,
which leads
to intellectual and moral
poverty.
You have
lately
had in
Naples
a
very
for-
tunate
struggle,
which seems to have over-
come one of the
representatives
of the
high
Camorra. But can we believe that the cour-
ageous
work of a few
public
writers has
touched the roots of the Camorra in this
city
?
It
would be
self-deception
to
think so. For
we see that
plants
blossom out
again,
even
after the most destructive hurricane has
passed
over them.
The
healing
of
society
is not so
easy,
that
a collective
plague may
be cured
by
the cour-
181
THE POSITIVE
SCHOOL
ageous
acts
of one or
more individuals. The
process
is much slower and more
compli-
cated. Nevertheless these
episodes
are mile-
stones of
victory
in the onward march of
civilization,
which will
paralize
the histori-
cal manifestations of social
criminality.
Here, then,
we have a
city
in which some
hundred thousand
people
rise
every
morn-
ing
and do not know how to
get
a
living,
who have no fixed
occupation,
because there
is not
enough
industrial
development
to
reach that methodical
application
of labor
which lifted
humanity
out of the
prehistoric
forests.
Truly,
the human race
progresses by
two
uplifting energies
: War and labor.
In
primitive
and
savage society,
when the
human
personality
did not know the check
of social
discipline,
a
military discipline
held
the members of the tribe
together.
But
war,
while useful in
primitive society,
loses its
usefulness more and
more,
because it
carries
within
itself the cancer that
paralyzes
it.
While war
compels
collective
groups
to
submit
to the
co-ordinating discipline
of hu-
man
activity,
it also decreases the
respect
for human life.
The soldier who kills his fel-
low man of a
neighboring
nation
bv a
stroke
of his sword will
easily
lose the
respect
122
OF CRIMINOLOGY
for the life of members of his own social
group.
Then the second educational
energy
interferes,
the
energy
of
labor,
which makes
itself felt at the decisive moment of
prehis-
toric
development,
when the human race
passes
from a
pastoral, hunting,
and nomadic
life into an
agricultural
and settled life. 'This
is the historic
stage,
in which the collective
ownership
of land and instruments of
pro-
duction is
displaced by
communal
property,
family property,
and
finally
individual
prop-
erty. During
these
stages, humanity passes
from individual and isolated labor to collect-
ive, associated,
co-ordinated labor. The re-
mains of the neolithic
epoch
show us the
pro-
gress
of the first
workshops,
in which our an-
cestors
gathered
and fashioned their
primi-
tive tools and arms.
They give
us an idea
of
associated and common
labor,
which then be-
comes the
great uplifting energy,
because,
unlike
war,
it does not
carry
within itself a
disdain or violation of the
rights
of others.
Labor is the sole
perennial energy
of man-
kind which leads to social
perfection.
But if
you
have
100,000
persons
in a
city
like
Naples
who do not
enjoy
the
certainty
and
discipline
of
employment
at methodical and common
labor,
you
need not wonder that the uncer-
123
THE POSITIVE SCHOOL
tainty
of
daily
life,
an illfed
stomach,
and
an anemic
brain,
result in the
atrophy
of all
moral
sentiment,
and that the evil
plant
of
the Camorra
spreads
out over
everything.
The
processes
in the law courts
may
attract
the
fleeting
attention of
public opinion,
of
legislation,
of
government,
to the disease
from which this
portion
of the social
organism
is
suffering,
but mere
repression
will not ac-
complish anything lasting.
The
teaching
of science tells us
plainly
that in such a case of endemic
criminality
so-
cial remedies must be
applied
to social evils.
Unless the
remedy
of social reforms accom-
panies
the
development
and
protection
of
labor;
unless
justice
is assured to
every
mem-
ber of the
collectivity,
the
courage
of this or
that citizen is
spent
in
vain,
and the evil
plant
will continue
to
thrive in the
jungle.
Taught by
the
masterly
and inflexible
logic
of
facts,
we come to the
adoption
of
the scientific method in criminal research and
conclude that a
simple
and uniform
remedy
like
punishment
is not
adequate
to cure such
a natural and social
phenomenon
as
crime,
which has its own natural and social causes.
The measures for the
preservation
of
society
against
criminality
must be
manifold,
com-
OF CRIMINOLOGY
plex
and
varied,
and must be the outcome of
persevering
and
systematic
work on the
part
of
legislators
and citizens on the solid founda-
tion of a
systematic
collective
economy.
Let me take leave of
you
with this
prac-
tical
conclusion,
and
give my
heart freedom
to send to
my
brain a wave of fervent
blood,
which shall
express my enduring gratitude
for the
reception
which
you
have
given
me.
Old in
years,
but
young
in
spirit
and ener-
getic aspiration
to
every high
ideal,
I tender
you my
sincere thanks. As a man and a citi-
zen,
I thank
you,
because these three lectures
have been for me a fountain of
youth,
of
faith,
of enthusiasm. Thanks to them I return to
the other fields of
my daily occupation
with
a
greater
faith in the future of
my country
and of
humanity.
To
you, young Italy,
I
address these words of
thanks,
glad
and hon-
ored,
if
my
words have aroused in
your
soul
one breath which will make
you stronger
and
more confident in the future of civilization
and social
justice.
125
"MEXICO,
or more
properly
DIAZ, challenged
for
barbarity,
does not answer
convincingly."
These
words are
quoted
not from
any revolutionist,
but
from the editorial
page
of one of
the
greatest capi-
talist
newspapers,
the
Chicago
Tribune. The "chal-
lenge"
to which the Tribune refers is
BARBAROUS
MEXICO
BY
JOHN
KENNETH TURNER
"The truth
regarding
the slaves of
Yucatan,
of the
Valle National
and the
Valley
of Death is a
grue-
some,
horrible
story
of wretched human
beings
kid-
naped, whipped
and worked to death in behalf of
Mexican,
American and
European capitalists.
. . .
Around this atrocious
system
of
extracting
dividends
from the bodies of
men,
women and
children,
the
slavers have
organized
a
police, military
and
govern-
ment machine with such efficient auxiliaries as
press
and other
agents
of
publicity
to
keep
the truth from
the world. . . The American
partners
of the Mexican
savage
include the
big press agencies,
American mil-
lionaires who have enormous investments in
Mexico,
and the federal
government
at
Washington.
For a
number of
years
the federal
government
has lent its
police powers
to Diaz in the endeavor to turn Mexi-
can liberals over to the Mexican
hangmen.
"All this and much more is
portrayed
in BARBAR-
OUS MEXICO. It is one of THE books of the
year
just passed
into
history.
It is the
complete story,
part
of which*
appeared
in an eastern
magazine
and
was
suppressed.
The book is
handsomely
bound in
blue cloth and
stamped
in
gold,
and is one of the
most attractive volumes that has come from the
press
of this house in
years."
James Oneal.
357
pages, including
17
pages
of
photographs, $1.50
postpaid.
Charles H. Kerr &
Company
118 W. KINZIE ST. : CHICAGO
IVIMIW
VsinVsULM I
ALL BOOKS ARE
SUBJECT TO RECALL
RENEW BOOKS BY
CALLING 642-3405
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