Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1875-05-20
From the Scientific Americana
The Chain of Criminal EntaiIment


fer thirty years, the New York State
Prison Association concludes Tin its
annual report, just presented to the
Legislature) that to reduce the erimi.
nal classes and break up entailmens
of the evils of pauperism and crime,
(which defy remedies and curative
discipline in adult lives" two things
are specially required, namely to sever
the links in the chain of such entailed
evils. and to instruct, train and save
all the children.
To nse homely saying, it is saving
at the spigot and wasting at the Bung
to attempt the repression of crime sole
ly through action upon adult criminals.
So long as the chain of criminal en-
tailment is unbroken, the most search
ing and rigorous police system possi-
BILE is powerless to purge the commun.
ity of evil acts and evil tendencies.
The judgments of the association
are sound, so far as they go; but they
do not go far enough. It is easy to
point out the necessity ofsevering the
chain ofcriminal entailment: the ques-
ton remains: How is it to be done?
No one remedy will suffice for so
complicated a disease of the social sys-
TEN. The structure of the chain is
triple, and each element demands spec
ial treatment. The first clemens is
heredity. The parents crime is the
child's inheritance, not absolutely, but
as rule; and the chances against the
proper moral development oftheprog-s
eny of the vicious are so overwhelm-
ing that it were better for the world
were such children never born.
The second element is miseducation.
By conscious teaching or unconscious
example, the criminal classes are con.
tinually corrupting the honest and con.
taminating the pure. The child of vir
tue may thus become a monster of vice
and the head of a line of evil doers
The third element is what we may
call moral atayism. Constitutional
virtue is the product of long culture,
the fruit of moral habits, covering
many generations. Yet, as in herds of
blooded stock there will be an occas-
Eional reversion to the primitive type,
so in good families there will now and
then arise children in. whose moral
composition the barbarism of remote
ancestry strangely dominates. Instead
Of being heirs of all the ages, such un-
! fortunates inherit only savagery.
What the causes and conditions of
| such reversions are, no one knows,
though the fact is painfully patent in
the 'Fblack sheep" which aff1ict so
many domestic flocks, boys and girls
who turn out badly in spite of virtu-
Gus parentage and the most careful ed
ucation. Time alone can cut off oil
dry up this source of crime.
The means for preventing the pro
duction Of criminals by education OIL
example are twofold. The careful
training of all children in habits of in
dustry and virtue, and the rigid seclus
ion of all offenders against the public
veal. AS the community now compel:
the absolute retirement from public in
tercourse Of all persons afflicted with
malignant infectious diseases, so in
time, we believe, the morally diseased
!, will be insulated, not for punishment
but as necessary precaution agains
the corrupting of others; measur
that will be made possible by the rela
tive rarepess of crime wien the mos
SOuLCC VI -l1CIOOll
airy ransmission-shall have bee
dried up
t Herein lies the great problem ofpris
} on management, to insolate the eyi
t disposed so as to prevent depreciation
, against the life and property of th
law abiding and the moral purity G
youth, while making the criminal class
| es self-supporting and, at the sam
time, furthering so far as possible, thei
. reclamation to paths ofvirtue. On thes
e points the views OF the associatiol
! show an encouraging progress towar
) what we have heretofore styled tn
= scientific treatment of criminals.
) Touching hereditary crime, the sug
B., gestions of the association are pallis
/ tive merely. Given children born wit
: a criminal bias, the best thing undoub
t edly is to counteract, so far as may /
1 their evil tendencies by proper trair
ing in childhood and moral surround
It ings in later years. So far, so good
It but the time has come when proven
l. i've measures also should be consiC
h cred. Is it possible to lessen the nun
} Der of the inheritors of crime -compe
V ling organizations by making the
generation less frequent? In plaint
re words, can the community preveI
n known criminals from completing I'll
It chain of criminal entailment?
l. x, male, and Y, female, are col
le victed criminals, come of criminal pa
Y. entage In all human probability the
a children will be criminals. Has Il
IS community any right to allow the fl
kV1r TO l,o Of sfh fhnin Ia
m Gus progeny? We say, No, no mo
9, than they should be allowed to erect
is house or build dam in such away
cl to imperil life and property ten yea
l- hence. That the resultant evils can
l f: prevented in the one case as surely
Is in the other (not absolute, but We
o largely, we are confident. The que
t, ton is: Which of the several pos
e BILE ways of doing it is most consiste
le with our modern views of what is ju
D. and profitable? -..-.
of The summary execution of crimi
re ais of every grade would soon put
o. end to hereditary crime; so too wou
Sc the Spartan custom of killing all So
Of picious or undesirable infants. E
its these remedies are so horrible, so O
n noxiOus to our moral sentiments a
ty sense of justice, that they are not
be be thought OF. Two other metho
Ip. remain: To seta part all crimin
s; permanently, in communities or Co
gs nies, with the sexes separated, as lept
a are treated in the Sandwich Islands
to eliminate their power of propoe
ton, as suggested in our article on
in generation of the wicked
,ol So long as the criminal classes T;
ut so numerous, their insulation is be!
-as with many difficulties. The crime co
I'm mitted, not the character or mo
wv needs of tn e criminal determine
m period of his seclusion. To sever I