Crime: Its Cause and Treatment

by Clarence Darrow

Nature in her own way is a eugenist. By her slow processes she is continually wiping out the unfit and adapting man to the environment where he must live. Perhaps by saving too many of the unfit man is more or less interfering with the processes of Nature, and it may be that the interference with her method of work is bad. But Nature is mindful of this tendency and if it is not in accordance with the profoundest laws of being, Nature will have her way in spite of man's meddling. Any change that can be brought about by selective mating must come by natural processes aided by the education of each individual through a closer study of the origin and evolution of life. This must leave everyone free to do his own selecting, rather than to trust it to the state. Society can do much toward giving man an environment which will more or less be adjusted to his heredity. To give him a heredity that will conform to his environment is quite another thing and probably must be kept practically free from the theories, vagaries and experiments of man. It would seem so absurd and dangerous as not to be worth discussing except for the fact that the movement, both for sterilizing and some degree of control of mating has already gone far in some of the states. There is no limit that fanaticism or hatred will respect.

No doubt the popular opinion that in some way crime and pauperism are inherited has been strengthened by the literature concerning the family that has been given the name of "The Jukes." The first extensive study of this family was made by Richard L. Dugdale, who was connected with the New York Prison Association. It was first published in 1877 and may almost be regarded as the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the scientific study of crime in America.

Mr. Dugdale was evidently a careful student, an honest investigator and a humane man. Strange to say, deductions have been freely and carelessly made from his book, which the investigations do not warrant, and against which he carefully cautioned the reader. No one can examine Mr. Dugdale's book without being impressed with the quiet unassuming modesty and worth of the author, and yet in the hands of those who have so often carelessly and unscientifically generalized from his studies, it has possibly brought more harm than good.

The book covers investigations made by Dugdale between 1850 and 1870, a period in which little was known about the laws that govern inheritance, and necessarily, much evidence was pure hearsay without the data of careful investigation at hand. The case, however, does show a surprising number of criminals, paupers, harlots and misfits, descending from their original ancestor. From time to time further investigation has brought the history of the family down to 1918.

The ancestor with whom the investigation begins was born some time between 1720 and 1740. In the report the original is called "Max." He has been described as a "hunter and fisher," "a hard drinker," "not fond of work," fairly intelligent and leaving no record of crime. He probably left behind a large family, some of whom were legitimate and some illegitimate. The family came from a barren, rocky, lake region in New York and several generations grew up in the vicinity. The only industry was rough work like quarrying stone, logging and the like. Later a manufacturing plant was located in the region. The Jukes early got a bad name in the small community. Even when they wanted to find employment it was hard to get a job. They were socially ostracized and individually boycotted. The region was poor, and for the most part the family grew up in poverty. Often several members of a family lived in one room and slept on the floor indiscriminately, regardless of sex. For several generations few of them wandered far from the ancestral home. The locality was one that naturally came to be the resort of the poor and the outcast; these are always driven to the cheapest and most barren land. Whether the community was related by blood or not, the residents would almost inevitably be of the same class. Rich people cluster closely together for association and fellowship. The poor and wretched do the same. Common observation in city and country shows that this is inevitable. It comes from deeper and more fundamental laws than human statutes. It is born of the gregarious instinct and fostered and developed by economic law.

In the main, lax habits grow from surroundings and association. The tendency of all human beings is to revert to the primal. It is only association that keeps the individual units up to the tension that civilization expects and demands. Every community shows many examples of this inevitable tendency. Nature is constant; civilization spasmodic. Especially with sex relations, conditions are the chief factor. Nature knows little or nothing of the regulations fixed by society and custom. Poverty and wretchedness reach outward through a community and by association between the old and the young pass down the generations. Nothing but a complete change of environment can counteract the inevitable tendency. When social classes arise and the cleavage is clear and established, no great effort is made by the superior members to aid the inferior. In fact they are almost invariably left to themselves. Poverty and wretchedness are not transmitted in the blood, but in the environment.

It is not many years since physicians and communities believed that tuberculosis was inherited. In all communities there were instances of this dread disease spreading out through families and down the generations. It required the sacrifice of many lives and the careful investigation of scientists to discover that tuberculosis was the result of germs, generally accompanied by an impoverished system. These germs were transferred by close association and lack of sanitary conditions. It is as easy to transmit shiftlessness, idleness and lax habits as disease.

Dugdale's figures of delinquency in the Jukes family are doubtless much too high. A large percentage of facts was gained from gossip and hearsay about those long since dead. The details show that many crimes charged were not even proved, others were evidently not crimes, and in any small community suspicion would rest upon a member of this family who was accused. Then too, the poor in court and out have a hard time defending themselves. They are frequently convicted when accused. The evidence in regard to the subnormal and defective is still less satisfactory. Without close examination and thorough tests, illiteracy generally passes as subnormality. Very few of the subjects were submitted to a careful test. It is at least probable that this family was not much different from the other families who lived in like circumstances in the community.

Dugdale's original examination covered 709 cases out of about 1200 that were supposed to be living at the time. Of this number, 180 are put down as having received institutional and outdoor relief. The criminals and offenders are put down at 140. Habitual thieves convicted and unconvicted are listed at 60. Common prostitutes are put down at 50.

After Dugdale's investigation the family, from industrial and other conditions, became scattered and spread out over many states. A record has lately been made of the descendants of this family, the later record showing much improvement in the stock. This must be due to environment. It seems fairly certain that with time and opportunity, it will not much longer be a marked family.