Criminal Sociology | Page 4

similar opinion was recently expressed by the Prisons Committee presided over by Mr. Herbert Gladstone. As soon as punishment reaches a point at which it makes men worse than they were before, it becomes useless as an instrument of reformation or social defence.
The proper method of arriving at a more or less satisfactory solution of the criminal problem is to inquire into the causes which are producing the criminal population, and to institute remedies based upon the results of such an inquiry. Professor Ferri's volume has this object in view. The first chanter, on the data of Criminal Anthropology, is an inquiry into the individual conditions which tend to produce criminal habits of mind and action. The second chapter, on the data of criminal statistics, is an examination of the adverse social conditions which tend to drive certain sections of the population into crime. It is Professor Ferri's contention that the volume of crime will not be materially diminished by codes of criminal law however skilfully they may be constructed, but by an amelioration of the adverse individual and social conditions of the community as a whole. Crime is a product of these adverse conditions, and the only effective way of grappling with it is to do away as far as possible with the causes from which it springs. Although criminal codes can do comparatively little towards the reduction of crime, they are absolutely essential for the protection of society. Accordingly, the last chapter, on Practical Reforms, is intended to show how criminal law and prison administration may be made more effective for purposes of social defence.
W. D. M.
CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.
THE DATA OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY Origin of Criminal Sociology, --Origin of Criminal Anthropology, --Methods of Criminal Anthropology, --Relation between Criminal Anthropology and Criminal Sociology, --Criminal Anthropology studies the organic and mental constitution of the criminal, -- The criminal skull and brain, --Criminal physiognomy, --Physical insensibility among criminals, --Criminal heredity, --Criminal psychology, --Moral insensibility among criminals, --The criminal mind. II. The data of criminal anthropology only applies to the habitual or congenital criminal, --The occasional and habitual criminal, --Comparison between the criminal and non-criminal skull, --Anomalies in the criminal skull, --The habitual criminal, --The crimes of habitual criminals, --The criminal type confined to habitual criminals, --The proportion of habitual criminals in the criminal population, --Forms of habitual criminality, --Forms of occasional criminality, -- Classification of criminals, --Criminal lunatics, --Moral insanity, --Born criminals, --Criminals by acquired habit, --Criminal precocity, --Nature of juvenile crime, --Relapsed criminals, --Precocity and relapse among criminals, --Criminals of passion, --Occasional criminals, --Differences between the occasional and the born criminal, --Criminal types shade into each other, --Numbers of several classes of criminals, -- Value of a proper classification of criminals, --A fourfold classification.


CHAPTER II.
THE DATA OF CRIMINAL STATISTICS
Value of criminal statistics, --The three factors of crime, -- Anthropological factors, --Physical factors, --Social factors, --Crime a product of complex conditions, --Social conditions do not explain crime, --Effects of temperature on crime, -- Crime a result of biological as well as social conditions, --The measures to be taken against crime are of two kinds, preventive and eliminative, --The fluctuations of crime chiefly produced by social causes, --Steadiness of the graver forms of crime, -- Effect of judicial procedure on criminal statistics, --Crimes against the person are high when crimes against property are low, --Is crime increasing or decreasing? --Official optimism in criminal statistics, --Density of population and crime, -- Conditions on which the fluctuations of crime depend, -- Quetelet's law of the mechanical regularity of crime, --The effect of environment on crime, --The effect of punishment on crime, --The value of punishment is over-estimated, -- Statistical proofs of this, --Biological and sociological proofs, --Crime is diminished by prevention not by repression, --Legislators and administrators rely too much on repression, --The basis of the belief in punishment,--Natural and legal punishment, --The discipline of consequences, --The uncertainty of legal punishment, --Want of foresight among criminals, --Penal codes cannot alter invincible tendencies, --Force is no remedy, --Negative value of punishment. II. Substitutes for punishment, --The elimination of the causes of crime, --Economic remedies for crime, --Drink and crime, --Drunkenness an effect of bad social conditions, --Taxation of drink, --Laws against drink, --Social amelioration a substitute for penal law, -- Social legislation and crime, --Political amelioration as a preventive of crime, --Decentralisation a preventive, -- Legal and administrative preventives, --Prisoners' Aid Societies, --Education and crime, --Popular entertainments and crime, --Physical education as a remedy for crime, --To diminish crime its causes must be eliminated, --The aim and scope of penal substitutes, --Difficulty of applying penal substitutes, --Difference between social and police prevention, --Limited efficacy of punishment, --Summary of conclusions.


CHAPTER III.
PRACTICAL REFORMS
Criminal sociology and penal legislation, --Classification of punishments, --The reform of criminal procedure, --The two principles of judicial procedure, --Principles determining the nature of the sentence,