Warren, Pa.
February 26, 1916. [[xix]]
INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME.
By Frank H. Norcross.[1]
Dr. Bonger’s work—“Criminality and Economic Conditions”—will arrest the attention of students of criminology, sociology and kindred subjects. In it, also, the political economist may delve with profit.
The eminent scholar and author in his preface to the American edition expresses the conviction that his “ideas about the etiology of crime will not be shared by a great many readers of the American edition,” and, also, “that the book is sure to meet with many disapproving critics on this side of the ocean.” The distinguished author may be agreeably disappointed in the number of American readers who will agree in a large measure with his conclusions as to the causes of crime generally. I am inclined to think that the remedy which Dr. Bonger proposes is more apt to elicit controversy than the correctness of his diagnosis. The great value of Dr. Bonger’s work to Americans, however, will be independent of the number of readers who concede the force of his reasoning or accept the logic of his conclusions. Disagree with the author’s conclusions as the reader may and its value to the reader will not be impaired. One cannot take issue with the conclusions of a scholar based on study and research, without an exercise of processes of the mind valuable to the reader, and probably so to others. From the right quantity and quality of criticism comes the truth. One of the most valuable portions of Dr. Bonger’s work will be found in his own criticisms of the writings of other European authors, particularly those comprising the so-called Italian and French schools.
“Criminality and Economic Conditions” is the nearest approach to an exhaustive treatment of the question of the agencies productive of crime which has thus far been published in this country. The [[xx]]work is a result of great study and research, and little existing data can have been overlooked. Agree or not with the conclusions of the author, doubt the force of his reasoning if one will, nevertheless, such reasoning and conclusions have their basis in statistics and data furnished, from which other reasoning or conclusions may be formed if the reader thinks the author’s conclusions are not supported by the facts.
Whether existing economic conditions are fundamentally wrong, and crime is but the natural concomitant of a false economic basis upon which society is organized, is a controversial question which is so forcefully presented by the author that the reader must concede that his views have been presented by a master.
Dr. Bonger’s thesis, doubtless, will have the effect of increasing the number of Americans who regard environment as the greatest contributory cause of crime and who place heredity or innate criminality in a subordinate position, though many may continue to regard these matters as of greater importance than the author attributes to them. The author does not hesitate to express his contempt for the theory recently espoused by some Americans that “sterilization” may be an effective method of reducing the “army of criminals.” “One should be inclined to ask,” he says, “if the advocates of ‘sterilization’ have never heard of Australia, where a considerable number of inhabitants have descended from the worst of criminals and where yet the rate of criminality is low.” The Australian might reply that this is not a fair test, for at the time England was transporting so many of her criminals to Australia, the English criminal code was so drastic that “the worst of criminals” constituted but a small per cent of those who became its victims. But this observation does not militate against the correctness of the Doctor’s observation that “sterilization” is “as useful as the efforts to stop with a bottle a brook in its course.” If the advocates of “sterilization” are wrong in their theory, it is only illustrative of the fact that we Americans have been so busy developing a new country that, until very recent years, we gave no thought to the immense problem of the causes of crime, or attempted to apply to the subject any sort of intelligent, to say nothing of scientific, consideration. When at last it dawned upon a few of the American people that the cost in dollars and cents of dealing with our crime problem, to say nothing of the incidental economic waste, exceeded a billion dollars annually, or, as Professor Münsterberg in one of his books forcibly puts it: “that this country spends annually five hundred millions of dollars more on fighting the existing crime [[xxi]]than on all its works of charity, education, and religion”,—it began to be considered worth while to study this tremendous social problem with a view, if possible, of improving conditions. Those who investigated the subject found little in the way of statistics or reliable data upon which to base a study of conditions with a view of applying remedies. Some few had written upon various phases of the subject. It was not, however, until the organization of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology in 1909 that intelligent direction along practical lines was given to a study by Americans of this great social and economic problem. The Journal of the Institute was the first periodical of its kind published in the English language. In Continental Europe a number of such journals were being published and many students of the problem had contributed valuable works upon different phases of the subject. The American Institute has deemed the quickest way for Americans to become abreast of the best modern thought on criminal law and criminology, is to make available for American readers the best scientific thought of European writers, hence, “The Modern Criminal Science Series,” of which Dr. Bonger’s work becomes one of the most valuable volumes.
Until very recent years, most American judges and prosecuting attorneys gave little thought to the underlying causes of crime. It was the general assumption that courts and court officers had performed their full functions when the guilt or innocence of a defendant had been determined and he was discharged or committed to some penal institution. Here again little thought was given to the one incarcerated other than to hold and generally to exploit him until by law he was entitled to be discharged. Those whose province it was to get men into prison and those whose duty it was to keep them in custody gave little attention to the question whether the convict was a better or a worse unit of society when he came out than when he entered upon a prison term. Even less thought was given to the more important question—why so many commit crime at all. If normal human beings under normal conditions do not commit crime, then crime is evidence of the abnormal, either in the person or in the condition. If this is a correct hypothesis, then the administration of criminal law must to a greater degree in the future than in the past be predicated upon a comprehension and due consideration of this fact.