Criminality and economic conditions

At the National Conference of Criminal Law and Criminology, held in Chicago, at Northwestern University, in June, 1909, the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology was organized; and, as a part of its work, the following resolution was passed:

“Whereas, it is exceedingly desirable that important treatises on criminology in foreign languages be made readily accessible in the English language, Resolved, that the president appoint a committee of five with power to select such treatises as in their judgment should be translated, and to arrange for their publication.”

The Committee appointed under this Resolution has made careful investigation of the literature of the subject, and has consulted by frequent correspondence. It has selected several works from among the mass of material. It has arranged with publisher, with authors, and with translators, for the immediate undertaking and rapid progress of the task. It realizes the necessity of educating the professions and the public by the wide diffusion of information on this subject. It desires here to explain the considerations which have moved it in seeking to select the treatises best adapted to the purpose.

For the community at large, it is important to recognize that criminal science is a larger thing than criminal law. The legal profession in particular has a duty to familiarize itself with the principles of that science, as the sole means for intelligent and systematic improvement of the criminal law.

Two centuries ago, while modern medical science was still young, medical practitioners proceeded upon two general assumptions: one as to the cause of disease, the other as to its treatment. As to the cause of disease,—disease was sent by the inscrutable will of God. No man could fathom that will, nor its arbitrary operation. As to the treatment of disease, there were believed to be a few remedial agents of universal efficacy. Calomel and blood-letting, for example, were two of the principal ones. A larger or [xii]smaller dose of calomel, a greater or less quantity of bloodletting,—this blindly indiscriminate mode of treatment was regarded as orthodox for all common varieties of ailment. And so his calomel pill and his bloodletting lancet were carried everywhere with him by the doctor.

Nowadays, all this is past, in medical science. As to the causes of disease, we know that they are facts of nature,—various, but distinguishable by diagnosis and research, and more or less capable of prevention or control or counter-action. As to the treatment, we now know that there are various specific modes of treatment for specific causes or symptoms, and that the treatment must be adapted to the cause. In short, the individualization of disease, in cause and in treatment, is the dominant truth of modern medical science.

The same truth is now known about crime; but the understanding and the application of it are just opening upon us. The old and still dominant thought is, as to cause, that a crime is caused by the inscrutable moral free will of the human being, doing or not doing the crime, just as it pleases; absolutely free in advance, at any moment of time, to choose or not to choose the criminal act, and therefore in itself the sole and ultimate cause of crime. As to treatment, there still are just two traditional measures, used in varying doses for all kinds of crime and all kinds of persons,—jail, or a fine (for death is now employed in rare cases only). But modern science, here as in medicine, recognizes that crime also (like disease) has natural causes. It need not be asserted for one moment that crime is a disease. But it does have natural causes,—that is, circumstances which work to produce it in a given case. And as to treatment, modern science recognizes that penal or remedial treatment cannot possibly be indiscriminate and machine-like, but must be adapted to the causes, and to the man as affected by those causes. Common sense and logic alike require, inevitably, that the moment we predicate a specific cause for an undesirable effect, the remedial treatment must be specifically adapted to that cause.

Thus the great truth of the present and the future, for criminal science, is the individualization of penal treatment,—for that man, and for the cause of that man’s crime.

Now this truth opens up a vast field for re-examination. It means that we must study all the possible data that can be causes of crime,—the man’s heredity, the man’s physical and moral [xiii]make-up, his emotional temperament, the surroundings of his youth, his present home, and other conditions,—all the influencing circumstances. And it means that the effect of different methods of treatment, old or new, for different kinds of men and of causes, must be studied, experimented, and compared. Only in this way can accurate knowledge be reached, and new efficient measures be adopted.

All this has been going on in Europe for forty years past, and in limited fields in this country. All the branches of science that can help have been working,—anthropology, medicine, psychology, economics, sociology, philanthropy, penology. The law alone has abstained. The science of law is the one to be served by all this. But the public in general and the legal profession in particular have remained either ignorant of the entire subject or indifferent to the entire scientific movement. And this ignorance or indifference has blocked the way to progress in administration.

The Institute therefore takes upon itself, as one of its aims, to inculcate the study of modern criminal science, as a pressing duty for the legal profession and for the thoughtful community at large. One of its principal modes of stimulating and aiding this study is to make available in the English language the most useful treatises now extant in the Continental languages. Our country has started late. There is much to catch up with, in the results reached elsewhere. We shall, to be sure, profit by the long period of argument and theorizing and experimentation which European thinkers and workers have passed through. But to reap that profit, the results of their experience must be made accessible in the English language.

The effort, in selecting this series of translations, has been to choose those works which best represent the various schools of thought in criminal science, the general results reached, the points of contact or of controversy, and the contrasts of method—having always in view that class of works which have a more than local value and could best be serviceable to criminal science in our country. As the science has various aspects and emphases—the anthropological, psychological, sociological, legal, statistical, economic, pathological—due regard was paid, in the selection, to a representation of all these aspects. And as the several Continental countries have contributed in different ways to these various aspects,—France, Germany, Italy, most abundantly, but the others each its share,—the effort was made also to recognize the different contributions as far as feasible. [xiv]

The selection made by the Committee, then, represents its judgment of the works that are most useful and most instructive for the purpose of translation. It is its conviction that this Series, when completed, will furnish the American student of criminal science a systematic and sufficient acquaintance with the controlling doctrines and methods that now hold the stage of thought in Continental Europe. Which of the various principles and methods will prove best adapted to help our problems can only be told after our students and workers have tested them in our own experience. But it is certain that we must first acquaint ourselves with these results of a generation of European thought.

In closing, the Committee thinks it desirable to refer the members of the Institute, for purposes of further investigation of the literature, to the “Preliminary Bibliography of Modern Criminal Law and Criminology” (Bulletin No. 1 of the Gary Library of Law of Northwestern University), already issued to members of the Conference. The Committee believes that some of the Anglo-American works listed therein will be found useful.

[xv]

By Edward Lindsey.

Any adequate study of the phenomena of crime and of the criminal must take into account the economic phase—must consider the subject matter of the study from the economic standpoint; for while few will follow the socialist theorists in the controlling importance they assign to the economic factors of social life it is nevertheless manifest that these factors are powerful elements in the totality of social conditions and must be given due consideration in the survey of all societal phenomena, including that of crime. The work selected to represent this viewpoint in the Modern Criminal Science Series is that of one of the younger criminalists—an able and thorough study of the effect of economic conditions on crime and distinguished by the extensive and critical use made of a wide range of statistical data.

William Adrian Bonger, the author of the work here translated, of Amsterdam, Holland, is a Dutch Publicist, a pupil of Professor Van Hamel, well known as one of the founders of the International Union of Penal Law and the most eminent of Dutch students of criminology. He was born at Amsterdam, September 6, 1876, and received the degree of Doctor in Law from the University of Amsterdam in June, 1905. The first part of the present work, which consists of a survey, with copious extracts and critical comments, of the previous literature upon the subject of the relation of crime to economic conditions is a revision of a thesis originally presented at the University.

Dr. Bonger is also the author of “Religion and Crime: A Criminological Study”; Leiden, 1913, and numerous articles in Dutch and German periodicals. Among these are the following in “Nieuwe Tijd” (The New Age), a well-known Dutch socialist review: “An Apology for War”, a critical review of “Die Philosophie des Krieges” [xvi]by Professor Steinmetz (1908); “Capital and Income in the Netherlands” (1910); “Marxism and Revisionism” (1910); “Crime and Socialism: A Contribution to the Study of Criminality in the Netherlands” (1911); and “Religion and Irreligion in the Netherlands” (1911). Two noteworthy contributions to “Neue Zeit” are “Cesare Lombroso” in Vol. XXVIII, number one (1910), and “Verbrechen und Sozialismus: Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Studium der Kriminalität im Deutschland” in Vol. XXX, number two (1912). In 1912 also appeared “The Social Factors of Crime and their Significance in Comparison with the Individual Causes” in Vol. XXIII of the “Tijdschrift voor Strafrecht”, the only Dutch journal of criminal law.

In the first part of this work, instead of stating in his own language the views expressed in the previous literature on the subject Dr. Bonger has by extracts from the various authors given us their opinions in their own language, adding brief critical comments of his own. The second part contains Dr. Bonger’s own discussion of the phenomena of crime based upon an unusually thorough collection of statistical data and the elaboration of his views. In the selection of authors from whom he quotes Dr. Bonger shows his sympathy with the social philosophy of socialism which appears as well in the exposition of his own explanation of criminality; but the facts which he collects together with the evidence on which they rest are so explicitly set forth and his own conclusions so carefully distinguished that the value of the study is not diminished even for those who are not disposed to accept his social philosophy.

Dr. Bonger sees clearly that the concept of crime is a social and not a biological one. It is the social value or harmfulness of acts or conduct that is involved in the concept and if we use terms that have a predominantly biological connotation such as “normal” or “abnormal”, we must be careful to distinguish that use as referring to a social standard or we will be in danger of a confusion of thought. That some of the acts which society has classed as crimes may be deemed pathological is incidental; it is not on this account that they are termed crimes but because they are socially detrimental. That some of the individuals who have committed crimes may be called “abnormal” is incidental; it is not because of this that they are classified as criminals. That the economic factor has a large influence in connection with that kind of conduct the social significance of which stamps it as criminal the author abundantly shows. The extent to which this is the case and the extent to which the economic conditions involved are inherent in our present social organization are [xvii]matters on which there will be difference of opinion with the author. Dr. Bonger’s expressed belief that his main positions will be received without sympathy in this country we venture to think will not prove to be well founded. On the contrary so clearly has he set them forth and so well has he supported them that they can hardly fail of appreciation. If this work serves to some extent as a corrective to a too prevalent tendency toward a confusion of thought between biological and social concepts and standards in the study of human conduct—and especially that kind of conduct which we have deemed so socially detrimental as to brand as crime—its inclusion in this series will be amply justified.

Warren, Pa.
February 26, 1916. [xix]

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.

If, in order to materially reduce the quantum of crime, it is necessary to change the economic basis upon which modern society rests and reorganize it “based upon the community of the means of production”, [xxii]then the outlook for an early diminution in the volume of crime may not be overly encouraging. Such a change in the economic basis of society is hardly to be expected otherwise than as the result of the slow process of social evolution. Progress in this respect has not been perceptibly rapid since Moses gave to the world the Book of Deuteronomy. Many abuses of our present economic system, however, may be modified or abolished without waiting for or conceding the necessity of the change which the eminent scholar holds is fundamental.

Again, in conclusion, let me reiterate that the value of Dr. Bonger’s work does not depend upon an agreement with all the views of the author. The book will bring to the American reader a depth and breadth of view most valuable to the administrators of criminal law and to those interested in the wider field of general social progress.

Carson City, Nevada,
February 18, 1916. [xxiii]

This translation is based upon the Amsterdam edition of 1905, but the translator has been furnished by the author not only with special notes for the American edition, but also with the latest corrections to the French text. Dr. Bonger has also furnished a revised bibliography, and kindly wrote the American preface in English. In the translation some slight condensation of the work has been made, with the approval of the committee, by the omission of a few passages of a parenthetical nature, in quotations and notes. The very valuable bibliographical notes have been retained intact. Grateful acknowledgment is due to the Editorial Committee for suggestions as to some difficult legal terms, and to Mr. Georgio de Grassi for assistance in the translation of Italian passages.

Henry P. Horton.

Ithaca, N.Y.,
September, 1914. [xxv]