Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-08-15
New Modes OF Crime.

1t is particularly fortunate for society
that crime is not progressive and that
criminals are not inventive. In so far
as regards the method and device of
their occupation the professionally
dangerous classes are among the most
conservative classes. If this we're not
so society would be in a much more
perilous predicament than it is, for
set of alert and inventive criminals,
opposed to set of stupid detectives,
would make havoc compared to which
the present casual and aimless ravages
upon the security of property and the
sanctity of life would look like incon-
siderable trifes. As it is, the detective
walks in rut of narrow routine, even
when he means to do his business and
catch criminals, and the criminal, lucki-
ly for the detective and for us, walks
in a rut of 1outine quite as narrow.
Accordingly, professional thief, work
ing in his vocation according to its ira
ditions in workmanlike manner, can
commonly be caught by the profes-
sional detective. A thief or murderer
working by inspiration, and not by
routine, battles the detective and gets
free. Accordingly any new mode which
crime takes on is thing to be most
anxiously and carefully watched, for
until it has become recognized crimi-
nal art, having it's own laws and tradi-
tions, it may be carried to almost any
lengths under the very noses of the
police.
It is in this view of the case that the
two new species of crimes which have
just broken out in Boston and in Phila-
delphia are of such painful and press
ing moment to us. 1t is true that the
boy Pomeroy, who in old times would
have been said to be possessed Of a
devil, is in our newer dialect described
as the victim of morbid impulse. It is
by no means true, however, that he is
on that account to be treated as an iso-
lated phenomenon, with which the COM
munity has no further business than to
hand it over to the psychologists for
analysis. Statistics show that although
what may be called the amount of
"morbid impulse existing in any
community may be constant quantity
which can neither be added to nor di-
minished by any efforts which society
can make with regard to it, the direc
tion it will take, and the lengths to
which it will work itself out are de.
pendent on a variety of circumstances.
The fear of punishment may have
weight in repressing morbid impulse,
and it is well established how great al
effect the force of example may have in
the expression of it. The weIl-known
story that the authorities in Paris were
once compelled to close the towers ot
Notre Dame by reason of the number
of suicides who had taken to jumping
from them shows how the initiative i'm
pulse may lead large numbers of peo.
pie to prefer the most painful ssand hor
rible mode of death. We do not say
that the wretched Pomeroy ought to be
hanged, but we do say that an exam
plary punishment inflicted upon hin
may deter many wretches like him from
repeating his atrocities, and that very
heavy responsibility rests upon those
!, who let him loose, after he had proved
his unftness to control himself.
The next Philadelphian phase o.
} crime ought to be much more manage
able, as the effects of it, if the outbreak
of it is not terribly repressed ant
punished, will be much more widely
calamitous. The ease with which the
, crime OF kidnapping can be committed
the tremendous power with many, per
haps most, parents, power far create,
than that of personal duress, which i
gives the kidnapper over his victim
needs only impunity in one or two in
! stances to be added in order to make
, this the commonest kind of crime. 1t il
, shameful and almost unbearable tt
think that the police of Philadelphia
, have not yet been able to lay thei
hands upon men who are carrying OF
negotiations in perfect publicity will
an afflicted father for the restoration O.
his child. The "morbid impulse
, toward getting money without work
: which exists more or less in the vas
majority of men, needs only the quick
| ening of one or two examples of sue
: cess and impunity in that bad art tx
tempt into this new mode of it yer,
formidable minority of men. Thu
whole effort of the Philadelphia polio,
; ought to be to stamp out this nev
| crime. AS it is in effect new crime tht
| perpetrators of it could not complain i
: new punishment were applied to it
} more adequate to its atrocity than an.
: the statute book contains Yorl
! WOrLd