In the first chapter of his “Il delitto e la questione sociale”, the author shows that among the numerous misfortunes from which the proletariat suffers, this must be reckoned, that it is almost exclusively from its ranks that criminals are recruited. “The criminal tribute is the almost exclusive privilege of one social class. And as the bourgeoisie has so far thought out no better plan than to oppose the degradation of crime with another degradation called punishment, it has come about that to the monopoly of the criminal tribute is added, for the poor, the monopoly of the penal tribute.”2 [211]

After having spoken, in the following chapter, of “free will”, Dr. Turati gives his attention to an opinion of Dr. Lelorrain, who says that we must modify man if we wish to make criminality disappear or decrease. Dr. Turati objects that it is exceedingly difficult to change man, and that there is an easier and more effective way, namely to change society. In a society where everything is bad, where the exploitation of one by the other is the rule, where the enjoyment of some goes on at the detriment of others, and this under the protection of the law—in such a society there is a perpetual incitement to crime. It is the ideal of socialism to create a society in which crime shall be neither necessary nor advantageous. However short its duration, the colony of New Lanark founded by Owen, is one of the best proofs of the correctness of this idea. In a society formed in accordance with this socialistic ideal, crime would appear only exceptionally, by atavism, for example, and would cease to be a general and always threatening danger.

“The social penal question is a question above all of social transformation.” Many objections have been made to this statement. The school of Lombroso and Ferri sets up in opposition its theory of the triplex character of the factors of crime; cosmic, individual, and social. When society is so modified that the interests of the individual are identical with those of the community, it would be only one part of crime that would disappear; one could not, for example, prevent an extraordinary heat from causing crimes against morals.

According to Dr. Turati it is not impossible to refute this objection, though it may be difficult to do so. In the first place Ferri recognizes the social causes as more important than the other two put together. He estimates that the number of persons driven to crime by social reasons (passion and occasion) is more than 60%; the others (insane or half-insane criminals, born-incorrigibles, and habituals) form a minority, then. But among these there are many criminals by habit, who were not born as such, but have become such from force of circumstances. Dr. Turati estimates that from 70% to 75% of criminals have come to commit their crimes from social causes. When we take account further of the fact that about 18% of the prisoners are insane, the number of real criminals who have become such from other than social causes is reduced to 10% at the most.

According to Dr. Turati the physical and anthropological factors exert an influence upon the form, but not upon the nature, of the crime. Further, these three causes are present in every crime, but [212]almost no crime would be committed without the social cause. It is this last that is always the predominant factor. When it is removed, then, the other two are reduced to zero. The facts have proved this. Owen’s colony was not made up of peculiar material, and the physical surroundings were neither better nor “more honest” than any other. Nevertheless, crime was unknown there. But the author furnishes still further proofs in support of his thesis that physical and anthropological causes amount to nothing in comparison with social causes, which in turn are dependent upon economic conditions. With the exception of crimes committed by the propertied class, which are in general the result of excessive cupidity, or a commercial uneasiness, and which will “ipso facto” disappear without any doubt when once society is otherwise organized, the greatest contingent of criminals is furnished by the class of non-possessors. Now all the physical influences, such as climate, act upon the two classes in the same way, nor are there anthropological differences between the two classes, yet the difference between them as regards criminal tendencies is great. It is the social factors, then, that explain the difference.

However, another observation must be made here. Ferri cites in a mass, as social factors, the increase of population, emigration, public opinion, customs, etc. But when we examine and classify these factors minutely, it becomes clear that in reality they are based upon economic conditions alone.

However, this observation is not applicable to “criminals by passion”, since in their case the influence of the environment appears to be but weak. Lombroso estimates that they form 5% of all criminals, and Ferri is of the opinion that it is only 5% of those who commit crimes against persons who are criminals by passion.

One of the anthropological causes of crime is “man”, and one of the cosmic causes is “the universe.” But neither has anything to do with crime as such. Otherwise the air we breathe and the food that we eat would be causes of crime. On the contrary, it is the organization of society that is the cause of crime, and physical and anthropological influences are only conditions. (Speaking scientifically we do not separate causes and conditions, but this is the common usage.) If the causes ceased to exist the conditions would have no further importance.

Next, Dr. Turati treats of certain kinds of crime. First, crimes against property. As almost every criminologist will admit, these crimes are intimately connected with the unequal division of property. “But,” an opponent will object, “it is not possible, by means [213]of social institutions, to change cosmic influences, such as a low temperature, or the failure of the crops, both of which cause an increase of the crimes against property.” Those who are of this opinion forget, however, that a man does not become criminal because he is cold, but he who is cold becomes criminal only if society neglects to provide for the needs born of the cold.

The influence of society is not seen so distinctly when crimes against persons are in question. Nevertheless it is very great; the economic conditions of our day work in two ways, through poverty on the one side, and injustice on the other. Poverty injures not only the physique but also the morals of a man, since it leaves him in ignorance and grossness, and does not develop his moral sentiments. And then it is harder to bear the evils caused by society than those caused by nature. In the second place, economic inequality stifles the sense of justice in man, since it accustoms him to this inequality. “The law is equal for all”, is only a phrase, for all are not socially equal.

One of the most wide-spread objections to the proposition that crimes spring from social conditions is that if an improvement in these conditions leads to a decrease of the crimes against property, the crimes against persons increase. This is urged by Ferri, among others, as one of the most effective arguments against Turati and his partisans. But against this may be urged another fact brought out by Ferri, namely that while crime is increasing, it is becoming less intense and less brutal. We see clearly, then, that it is possible to have a powerful counter-determinant to the tendency to commit crimes against persons, i.e. education.

As to sexual crimes, they increase when the food supply increases. This is the cause: sexual needs have a direct relation to nutrition. An increase of the sexual needs, however, has nothing to do with criminality. It is only the social organization that changes these needs that have become more intense, into crimes, by subordinating the satisfaction of them to economic considerations. There are, besides, other social causes, like bad housing etc., that lead the proletariat to commit the crimes in question.

The author then points out the enormous influence of the abuse of alcohol upon criminality, the causes of this abuse being also found in the social organization.

Another argument of Ferri’s must be refuted, i.e. that Turati and his followers attach too much weight to education. Notwithstanding the equality in the education of two brothers, says Ferri, one becomes a scamp and the other a hero. To which the author replies that we [214]can say with just as good right, thanks to education the brother of a scamp becomes a hero.

But in speaking of education Ferri has in mind that of the bourgeoisie, which is in opposition to morality, and can consequently have but little influence. From the day when the state of society shall have become sound, and the interests of all taken to heart, morality can be in harmony with reality.

“The true, all-inclusive penal substitute is the equal diffusion, so far as is socially possible, of well-being and education, of the joys of love and thought.”