The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-02-22
The Ccnealogy of Crime.


the criminal classes? We do not ask
whether our institutions of justice, corrcc-
ton, aud public charity are we'll adjusted to
the interests OF honest, law-abidng citizens
but are the claims of habitual criminals dis
tlnctly recognized and fairly met?
That the most invctcrate offender has
some rights which society must respect is
an accepted truth which has borne fruit in
the tcmpcring of penal legislation; but the
public conscience has not been awakened
to the duty OF sitting crime in its inception.
OF reforming the wrong docr and preventing
the transmission Of vicious tendencies to
another generation. How far these prob
lens are from solution is scarcely known
beyond the circle of those who have
been led to examine closely the work
ing of punitive institutions. We are
told by Signor BELTRANI-ScALIA, Inspector
of Prisons in Italy that until we shall have
studied crime in its perpetrators and in all
its relations and aspects we shall never be
able to discover the best means to prevent
or correct II, nor can we say that penal
science has made any great progress. And,
summing up the history Of pcnitentiary re-
form for the last half century, he adds that
the study of the prisoner himself is the
most urgent need still felt. So, too, the
Prison Association Of New York, society
which can point 10 n long term OF service,
Is constrained to pronounce the entire ma
chincry of punitive and reformatory cstab-
lishments In this State. not so much an out
come Of the wisdom Of our generation. as the
cumulative framework of popular negli-
gcncc. ignorance, and incapacity.
The Prison Association has undertaken to
supply, in some degree, our want of informa-
tion respecting the original sources and
prevcntablc causes Of crime. In report
which it has lately published We have the
results Of an inquiry instituted by one of
its members into the agencies and crcum-
stances which determine the growth Of
criminal character. The specific object OF
study seems TO have been remarkable
family, or rather tribe of offenders, dcsig
mated in the report as The Jules," which
for nearly a century has inhabited one OF
the central counties of this State The in
vestigation is carried back for some five or
six generations and the number Of persons
whose biographies are here condensed and
collatcd Is not less than seven hundred. The
facts are arranged in the order of their
occurrence, ond the age given at which they
took place, so chat the relative Importance
Of inherited tendency and Of immediate in
fluences may be- measured. Before directing
attention to some OF the deductions drawn
from these data, we may mention that The
Jukcs" are not an exceptional race, but
that analogous families may be found in
every county OF this State, and for that
reason an exhaustive analysis Of this par
ticular lineage must be accounted extremely
valuable.
Hcrcdity and environment are the two
parallels between which the whole question
of crime and its treatment stretches, and
the objective point Of the inquiry was to de-
terminc the respective shares OF those agcn-
cics in the evolution Of the criminal charac-
ter. The answer should help to fix the i'm
its Of effective effort ia the work Of amend
ing vicious lives, and, further, indicate some
OF the automatic methods which the organ-
zation Of society sets in motion, and which,
without this design In view, nevertheless
have the effect of changing criminal careers
into useful ones And 1t is pointed out by
the report that such spontaneous social ac-
tivtie7 may suggest MODELS to he followed
in dealing with the dcpraycd and dependent
CLASSES eeheraiiy'
lhe lessons TO be deduced from study
OF Inc Jukes are priely lhese' Inc most
general ana potent cause poth OF crime ana
pauper17m Is The hablI oil RIGHTEOUSNESS, with
It's complement OF oaslardy ana lts resultant
ol neglected ana mlseducated childhood III
appears however, that crime chichy ioliows
the maze ilheS' the corr'latiVe III ichia's
p'lng the wee Oh prostitution AZ compared
with paupcrlsm' crime Is iouhd 10 he an IN
dlcatloh oil Visor ana with true criminals
paup'rlsIh occurs eNher III on age OF III
chlldhood, mt IS not syhchrohons WIN the