FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
21. Is assisted immigration an evil?
22. Can immigrants be redistributed effectively by governmental agencies?
23. Should we retain the literacy test as part of our immigration policy?
24. At the present time many aliens journey across the Atlantic only to find that, for various reasons, they cannot be admitted to this country. How might the resulting disappointment and loss of time and money be avoided?
CHAPTER XXI
CRIME AND CORRECTION
228. THE NATURE OF CRIME.—A crime is an act which is punishable by law because it is considered injurious to the community. If the average man were a hermit, living entirely alone, his actions would affect only himself, and he would be subjected to little or no control by any community. But the average man is a member of a highly civilized community, and what he does, or what he fails to do, often profoundly affects other individuals. Members of the community therefore agree upon standards of conduct, to which individuals must conform. [Footnote: Where democracy does not exist, or is only partially developed, laws may be imposed upon the group from without. In such a country as the United States, however, legal standards of conduct are preeminently the result of mutual agreements, freely entered into.] It is the failure to conform to these standards which constitutes a crime, and which entails punishment by law.
What constitutes a crime depends, of course, upon the level of civilization reached by a community, and upon the interpretation which it places upon right conduct. A deed considered heroic in one age may be considered a crime in a later century. In the days of chivalry, for example, it was sometimes considered heroic to rob or even kill wicked nobles in order to distribute their wealth to the poor. At the present time, of course, such acts would constitute a crime.
229. THE CAUSES OF CRIME.—The causes of crime are so various and so complex that their accurate classification is impossible. But some light may be thrown upon the subject if we think of crime as influenced by economic, social, personal, and political factors.