Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-01-09
CRIME AND CRIMINALS
And Some Of Their Habits and Queer
Characteristics.

No one who has had access to the
newspapers during the past year, can
have failed TO note the alarming nun
bar of crimes being daily committed.
There are doubtless many causes which
have consrired to increase the crime
ratio, ard to try to discover and to
remedy them. is we'll worth the con-
sideration 'Cf everyone who hasthe well
fare of his nation at heart. 1t seems
TO the writer that, in the large major
ity cf cases, the present modes of pun
ishment serve rather to increase than
to Lessen the amount of crime.
That the ratio of crime to population
and morality constantly increase. all
reliable Statistics show. During the
single decade from 1882 to 1892 the
population increased twenty per cent.
and homicides four hundred per cent
But, it is not prudent to rely Oh -ta..-
tics; for statistical cr!nc mar 20 -
creaaed or decreased bV the stptu e idN
at any time, and there arc cDUnt!e.>
crimes committed which are never 81.
covered. 1t is therefore necessary to
go beck of mere figures to the facts
themselves, and thereby try to find
how the present modes OF punishment
really affect the amount of crime.
THE CRIMINAL.
Who is the criminal? How does he
differ from the normal man? He is
defined as one who commits crime
punishable b. law as the result of an
evil impulse which ought to have been
controlled, the controlling powers be-
ing the judgment and will. At once
the question ARISES, does he POSSESS =
will indecendent to act and to guide
him.
The editor of the "Monist' says that
"a will Is free if unrestrained from act
ing according to its nature" Accept
ing this definition. it may still be
asked may not .hil nature determine
his actins and thus deprive him of the
fre6IIoIm of his will Certainly his ma
ture will govern his actions. If a
mans character is known and the sur
IourGlrgs in which he is placed, it can
be fCretold what he win do The num-
Der Of crimes which will be committed
next year can be computed with accur-
acy. Yet, after all, it cannot be proved
that in the wOrsst case the impulse and
tendencies, whether inherited or not,
were absolutely lmmCdifiable by the
individual Thus, as Prof Dewey, of
Chicago University says" it is logi-
cal determiniSm and not an external
pre-Getenminigm, and with HysloD it
must be agreed that Those inherited
tendencies which seem to control the
fate of the individual circumscribe
responsibility mere than the will"
The conditions upon which response
bility depends are a capacity for moral
knowledge and the extent of that
Knowledge, so it must be considered
what are the capacities of the criminal
for moral knJwleldge.
CaeJaro Lombroso. the founder of
criminology, and the best authority on
the subject, has found by careful study
and experiment THAT the action of ex-
/ ternal things on the body of the Grim
inal does mot result in the mental i'm
pressions or the feelings common TO
the moral man, i. e. their sensibility is
weaker than it should be. More than
fifty per cent of criminals are color
blind, the majority are deaf in the left
ear and are left+handed. They can
endure severe physical suffering and
pain. The greater number do not
blush and they blush least who are
guilty of the heaviest crimes. 1t is evil
dent from this inSensibllity of sight,