New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-02-05
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
AN ESSAY ON CRIME

=
CRIME. It's Nature, Causes, Treatment and Preyen
ton. By Sanford NJ. Green. 12mo, PIP. 34o'
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.
II it cannot be said that Judge Green throws much
new light upon his very difficult subject, he certainty
has written thoughtful book upon lines sufficiently
advanced to give it special value as compendium OF
modern opinions upon the causes, treatment and pre-
:. vention OF crime. In considering some VI ''oSo
causes such as that frghtfn agency, intemperahce'
the author relies too much upon the preventive eh-
sacy of legislation and little upon the modl-
cation of the environment. SEEING too, that nc Is
fully alive TO the Importance of heredy and parental
influences in producing the love OF drink, he might
have been expected TO realize the utility Oh copW-
q kory prohibition refornatory agency neither
does he allow weight enough to the effects OF poverty
both physical and moral in promoting intemperance'
No one who has carefully studied the lives OF inc
poorer classes In centres Of population can have failed
10 recognize the almost grotesQue nadequacy ana IN
appropriateness Of most OF the reasoning on the Whoe
Question Neither is it Of the least use to argue from
high moral grounds concerning that class OF crime
which may be said TO be the normal element OF thoSc
who have been bred in Its atmosphere, and to whom
All that more fortunate people have been taught 10
consider right and proper and necessary Is ana
fiema by the very conditions of their existence.
The part which suffering plays in the production ol
i1teperance and crime has indeed never been fairly
represented and consequently the real nature Oh Ic
struggles Of the poor fas been generally misconceed'
confidence I'm the common educational agencies inc
fact being that Intellectual cultivation by no means
necessarily tends TO ethical progress, but frequently
rather sharpens and stimulates evil propehslt'es.
Moreover &c pcrinently observes, the DonhueS VI
crime are vague II choose to eXcluGe rom con-
sdeTaton all wrong doing not expressly piohloeu "
the laws we shall at cOnfound all moral STANDARDS
and fall into n line of vain cant and hypocrisy. For
the wrong men do to one another is never measured
by penal legislation: and more direct ana positive III
equity is often committed within than WlthOut uho
criminal law Many man who o1t"aruIy occupies
a perfectly respectable place in the community
owes his prosperity TO acts far more hagltl0us ana
franght with far wider injury to his neghbors thah
ean be charged upon most convetS in the penentary
so long as what we call civilization fails to condemn
these anomalies, Just so long must all attempts 10
define and classify crime on the basis OF the criminal
law be worse than useless.
Judge Green appears TO have perceived thls III d
martial way but he has yielded too much 10 ue
ouoting temptation, and result is that his book
contains medley of the opinions Of Others and less
thon enough of his own conclusions. lt needs also 10
lie observed that no treatise crime can DC 10 cur
lcation which does not take to account inc injuries
done to tho various classes and elements OF every
society by each other. No true idea can be lau VI
crime for example, until the relations Of the habual
criminal TO the community he preys upon are stated
with candor and inpartality, If there arc obligations
ignored on the one SIDE so there are on the otler.
No man can doubt, to take illustration close at
hand that the people of this city Of New-lorK nave
directly fostered and encouraged the rankest dishonesty
in their municipal politics by their own prolonged
and most discreditabc apathy and indifference. Con-
siderations of this kind apply to the Whole subject
of crime, and to omit them in treating OF 1t Is 10
break the force of the discussion Judge Green's
volume is in this respect not in advance Oh inc
average position 1t recognizes the existence OF what
may be called non-statltory crime but it does not
deal with its relation to statutory crime. This work
which needs doing and we should like TO sec 1t under
taken by some bold and brOad-mlnded writer.