Fifth. According to the author there are certain circumstances which may lead to the commission of a crime, but the true cause of crime is to be found in the absence or weakness of the instinct of honesty. That there exists such an “instinct of honesty” is one of numerous assertions made by Garofalo for which he produces no proof, and, in accordance with the general opinion of sociologists, I class it among the most profound errors. A moral disposition is innate in man, and varies greatly with individuals, but moral concepts—for example, that it is forbidden to steal—are certainly not innate. The very way in which Garofalo puts the question is wrong; we must not set the circumstances that have influenced a man at a certain moment over against an innate quality of honesty (fictitious besides) but must examine all the conditions which have influenced his innate moral disposition through the whole of his life, as well as his environment at a given moment.
To say that the influence of environment cannot be great, because persons well brought up sometimes commit crimes, is very superficial. Upon this point there is something deeper and more important to be said.—
III.
E. Ferri.
In order to present Professor Ferri’s views, I shall analyze “Socialismo e criminalità” and a passage connected with our subject, taken [[100]]from “Sociologia criminale.”[16] This analysis will be more detailed than that of most of the other authors, since in reality the opinion of Professor Ferri is the synthesis of the opinions of many other authorities. For this reason and others it is of the highest importance.
“Socialismo e criminalità” is a polemic work directed in part against “Il delitto e la questione sociale” of Turati, and in part as Professor Ferri himself says in “Socialismo e scienza positiva”, against socialism as far as that involves the revolutionary method and the concomitant “nebulous romanticism.”
In his “Preliminari” the author gives some definitions of socialism; combats socialism of every kind, declares it to be unscientific, and sets in opposition to it sociology, which is entirely scientific.[17] We pass over this part of the work in silence, since it has little importance for our subject, and turn our attention to the end of the “Preliminari”, where the author gives an exposition of the ideas which the socialists, according to him, have about crime:
“I. The origin of the phenomenon of crime is to be found in society as at present constituted.
“II. More especially, the economic disorder of the population caused by the unjust inequality of individuals and classes, is the cause of every other disorder, moral or intellectual, and therefore of crime also.