Criminal Sociology

by Enrico Ferri

CHAPTER III.

PRACTICAL REFORMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Criminal sociology and penal legislation, 143—Classification of punishments, 144—The reform of criminal procedure, 145—The two principles of judicial procedure, 147—Principles determining the nature of the sentence, 147—Present principles of penal procedure a reaction against medi<ae>val abuses, 147—The ``presumption of innocence,'' 148—The verdict of ``Not Proven,'' 149—The right of appeal, 151—A second trial, 151—Reparation to the victims of crime, 152—Need for a Ministry of Justice, 153— Public and private prosecutors, 154—The growing tendency to drop criminal charges, 155—The tendency to minimise the official returns of crime, 156—Roman penal law, 156—Revision of judicial errors, 158—Reparation to persons wrongly convicted, 158— Provision of funds for this purpose, 160—Reparation to persons wrongly prosecuted, 161—Many criminal offences should be tried as civil offences, 162—The object of a criminal trial, 163. II. The crime and the criminal, 164—The stages of a criminal trial, 165— The evidence, 166—Anthropological evidence, 166—The utilisation of hypnotism, 168—Psychological and psycho-pathological evidence, 168—The credibility of witnesses, 168 Expert evidence, 169—An advocate of the poor, 172—The judge and his qualifications, 172— Civil and criminal judges <p xii>should be distinct functionaries, 173—The student of law should study criminals, 174—Training of police and prison officers, 174—The status of the criminal judge, 175—The authority of the judge, 176. III. The jury, 177—Origin of the jury, 178—Advantages of the jury, 179—Defects of the jury, 180—The jury as a protection to liberty, 182—The jury and criminal law, 184—Juries untrained and irresponsible, 186— Numbers fatal to wisdom, 188—Defects of judges, 193—Difference between the English and Continental jury, 194—Social evolution and the jury, 196—The jury compared to the electorate, 197—How to utilise the jury, 198. IV. Existing prison systems a failure, 201—Defects of existing penal systems, 201—The abuse of short sentences, 202—The growth of recidivism, 203—Garofalo's scheme of punishments, 204—Von Liszt's scheme of punishments, 206—The basis of a rational system of punishment, 207—The indeterminate sentence, 207—Flogging, 210—The indefinite sentence for habitual offenders, 211—Van Hamel's proposals as to sentences, 212—The liberation of prisoners on an indefinite sentence, 213—The supervision of punishment, 213—Conditional release, 215—Good conduct test in prisons, 216—Police supervision, 216— Indemnification of the victims Of crime, 217—The duty of the State towards the victims of crime, 222—Defensive measures must be adapted to the different classes of criminals, 225—Uniformity of punishment, 225—The prison staff, 227—Classification of prisoners, 227—Prison labour, 228. V. Asylums for criminal lunatics, 230—The treatment of insane criminals, 232—Crime and madness, 234—Classification of asylums for criminal lunatics, 237—The treatment of born criminals, 238—The death penalty, 239—Extension of the death penalty, 243—Inadequacy of the death penalty, 245—Imprisonment for life, 246—Transportation, 248— Labour settlements, 249—Establishments for habitual criminals, 250—Criminal heredity, 251—Incorrigible offenders, 252— Cumulative sentences, 253—Uncorrected or incorrigible criminals, 254—Cellular prisons, 256—Solitary confinement, 257—The progressive system of imprisonment, 257—The evils of cellular imprisonment, 260 —The cell does not secure separation, 262— Costliness of the cellular system, 263—Labour under the cellular system, 264—Open-air work the best for prisoners, 265—The treatment of habitual criminals, 266—The treatment of occasional <p xiii>criminals, 267—The treatment of young offenders, 268— Futility of short sentences, 268—Substitutes for short sentences, 269—Compulsory work without imprisonment, 271 —Conditional sentences, 271—Conditional sentences in Belgium, 273—Conditional sentences in the United States, 275—Objections to conditional sentences, 276—When the conditional sentence is legitimate, 282— The treatment of criminals of passion, 282—Conclusion, 284.