The New York Tombs Inside and Out! / Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the Present. A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America's Most Famous Prison.

by John Josiah Munro

Scientific writers on penology of recent times have divided the criminal into many parts for the purpose of analyzing the natural causes that have led to his downfall and the treatment best calculated to bring about his restoration.

One of the grave defects, in the study of criminal law, is that while the lawyer ransacks the Code in an effort to save or punish the wrongdoer, the criminal’s moral nature is entirely ignored. This is certainly not right. We firmly believe that the best possible way of reaching a correct solution of the mysterious dualism which confronts us in our study of criminal character, is to find out not only his early habits, but what he is in his normal and abnormal conditions, and how his delusions can be removed.

But there are criminals and criminals. Some indeed are born into criminal lives from infancy, aided by the laws of heredity, while others become criminals on the impulse of the moment and for months or years, run a wild career of wrong doing, but afterwards change the course of their conduct, and become useful members of society. Of course the only kind of reformation that becomes permanent is the kind that changes the man inside and out. Others like the twig that is bent, remain crooked all their lives. Nor does imprisonment improve such people to any great extent. Harsh treatment may subdue the animal passions but will not change his higher nature.

We do not believe that God brands any man as the victim of an unavoidable destiny, nor does He compel him to live a criminal life against his will. The fact is each law breaker is the victim of his own depraved will and is what he wants to be.

The twentieth century crook in forgery, burglary, safe cracking and swindling studies the situation so carefully that in two-thirds of the cases he is able to “beat” the law. A greenhorn crook is sure to leave traces behind him but an expert never. The twentieth century crook uses an automobile and naphtha launch so as to disappear with his “loot” to parts unknown. When he travels at home or abroad, he patronizes the most expensive hotels, the dearest express trains, and only the best accommodations on ocean steamers. Expert crooks as a rule travel in pairs.

Under the head of Criminal Anthropology we are called upon to study the criminal’s anatomy, social and moral habits and temperaments. But the strangest thing about him is that though he may be physically and mentally normal—just as other men are—he is abnormal morally. We must always remember, however, that while we consider the criminal scientifically, his disease is entirely moral. Nor has the average criminal any peculiarities that are not common to the rank and file of other men in every walk of life. His head and his heart and his brain are like those of other men and he shows the marks of human folly just as men do who never saw the inside of a jail.

As a rule the criminal is largely a creature of circumstances; often too lazy to work and unwilling to resist the common temptations of life, he simply drifts. He takes to crime as an easy way of making a living and often believes that the fates are against him, as an excuse for his wrong-doing, or perhaps he has a foolish delusion that there is something heroic in criminality.

Crime is defined as a violation of a human law enacted by the state in its own defense, and the criminal is the one who wilfully breaks that law and makes himself amenable to it.

The most noted authority in our day on crime and criminals is Lombroso, the Italian penologist, who has made a thorough study of the subject. In describing the criminal we find there is a freshness of detail to whatever he says, and he writes like one familiar with the subject. Lombroso rightly contends that criminals must be dealt with, not according to the way that society views the crime, but according to the circumstances and conditions that have led to it, and our laws must be changed to meet the new conditions. “Penal repression,” says Lombroso, “should be based on social utility scientifically demonstrated; instead of studying law books, we should study the criminal. It is doubtless true the criminal, as a rule, has feeble cranial capacity, a heavy developed jaw, large orbital capacity, projecting superciliary ridges, an abnormal and symmetrical cranium, a scanty beard or none, or an abundance of hair, projecting ears and frequently a crooked or flat nose. Criminals are sometimes subject to Daltonism or left-handedness, their muscular force is feeble and alcoholic and epileptic degeneration exists among them to a large extent. Their nerve centres are frequently pigmented. They blush with difficulty. Their moral degeneracy corresponds to their physical make up. Their criminal tendencies are manifested in infancy by onanism, cruelty, inclination to steal, excessive vanity and impulsive character. The criminal in a large number of cases is lazy, cowardly, not susceptible to remorse, without foresight, fond of tattooing. His handwriting is peculiar, his signature is complicated and adorned with flourishes. His slang is widely diffused, abbreviated and full of archaisms.”

Before we leave the subject it would be well to say that naturally the criminal is the product of anomalous conditions of long standing that have worked themselves into the moral fibre of his being. After many years the criminal has come to bear the distinguishing peculiarities of crime which mark him as a man among men. So that to-day with all our advanced civilization, the criminal stands midway, as Lombroso remarks, “Between the savage and the lunatic.”