Читать книгу 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 онлайн

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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.”