Introduction The world is reeling with crime from people of all lifestyles. Crime takes a variety of perspectives, but the bottom line is that the criminal justice systems of nations all over the world are staggering under the weight of staggering crime rates. Crime has been part of humanity since time immemorial; however, this aspect does not make it desirable by any means, as it does not form part of the virtues that societies inculcate in the young generation on its way to adulthood (Moehling and Piehl 750). In the past, scholars have studied crime from different angles to establish its tenets coupled with whether it can be stereotypically linked to a particular group of people such as a race, community, or clan. Debates have raged on for many decades with protagonists linking groups of people to crime and antagonists discrediting such links. In this respect, in 1901, the Boston Sunday Globe posed the following question, “Is the Italian more prone to violent crime than any other race?” and several individuals of Italian origin responded to the question. This essay sets out to examine the arguments of two individuals, viz. Rev. Fr. Abaldus Da Rieti and Dr. Joseph Santosuosso to find out who among them made a valid point. Rev. Fr. Abaldus Da Rieti Vs Dr. Joseph Santosuosso The history of associating criminal activities with a particular race dates back to the 19 th century. During this period, the European continent was well on its development path. This aspect implies that the societies that existed within cities and rural localities of the European nations were already well organized and the idea of civilization was not farfetched. Violent crime must have been part of these societies for purposes of property defense through weapons to the extent of killing potential thieves (Calvanese and Colosimo 157). Rev. Fr. Abadus Da Rieti’s position on the question that was posed stems from a logical argument, which is systematically elaborated to make one to understand ‘the Italian’ based on the author’s own understanding of the question. He divided and sub-divided the native Italians on their respective ancestral origins. He described the general characteristics of the sub-divisions of the Italians generally portraying them as law abiding and useful citizens (Da Rieti 30). He even went ahead to point out the geographical locations of the various subdivisions of the Italian race. Rev. Fr. Da Rieti goes to great depths to describe the true Italian countenance in a manner that clearly helps the reader to visualize a true Italian (Da Rieti 30). From this move, it is clear that all this pain is taken to alienate the ‘true Italian’ from the blame of having a predisposition to violent crime. He aims at achieving this goal by creating an atmosphere in which the reader can develop a feeling that indeed the committer of violent crime is not the true Italian. From the argument, one can deduce that the committer of violent crime is a half cast from Italians and non-Italians or simply the non-Italian inhabitants of Italy. The defensive position taken by Rev. Fr. Rieti becomes more evident when he further defends the non-true Italian by finding a scapegoat in liquor (Da Rieti et al. 30). A