Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-22
URGED TO KEEP
PRISON SUNDAY
MINISTERS MUST WAKE TO
GRAVITY OF PROBLEM
Reform League Recounts Services
Rendered by Science and Calls
on Pulpit to Asert
Itself

The Cosmopolitan magazine has just
concluded a series of articles by Har-
old Bolce pointing out the discrepancy
between pulpit teachings, of all de-
nominations, and the doctrines now
being disseminated from the scientific
chairs of our American universities. An
immense discussion has sprung up, ana
since progress invariably profits by
discussion much good is certain TO re-
suit.
The Prison Reform league in this let
ter desires to show that from similar
investigation as to the views on GRIM
inology held, respectively, by the
church and modern scientists, an even
greater, more serious and more inter-
esting conflict would arise. This work
some one must take up, for crime ana
the treatment of criminals are so in
terwoVen with modern life that the
sitting of the true from the false fac-
tors in the problem cannot be delayed
without imminent peril to the human
race. Science within the last genera
tion has hAen most eloquent on this
subject. che pulpit, which is begin
ming to wrestle more and more with
the tangles of actual life as conducted
on this planet, must learn to hold its
own in this particular controversy il
it is to maintain its influence.
Science claims today that II mas
brought Into existence a positive school
of criminology founded on exact data
and answering the requirements of
Justice because true to ascertained
facts. 1t claims that 1t has studied
carefully these three things: Crime,
the criminal and the means best cal
culated for social self-defense. Thus
at the outset it eliminates the entire
philosophy of revenge, for it views
man not as he ought to be, but as he
is, the product of a past environment
beyond the control of the individual
now living, and of a present environ
ment which it is the part of intelll-
gence to improve. 1t holds that-we
quote from Enrico Ferris Criminal
Sociology'-"since the natural roots
of crime spring not only from the in
dividual organism, but also, in large
measure, from its physical and social
environment, correction of the indi-
vidual is not sufficient to prevent re-
lapse if we do not also, to the best of
our ability, reform the social environ
ment."
Crime, nevertheless, in the view of
the scientific school, springs largely
from the individual organism. Thus
the entire blame is not cast on the
present. Poverty the unfavorable en-
Vironment now existing, has much to
do with crime. but not everything. Just
as Charles Darwin was careful to point
the inherited organic structure was the
most potent of all factors, so Crimi-
nological science emphasizes the fact
that there is such being as "the Grim
inal man." the defective abnormality
whose instincts are 'congenitally anti
social. Every scientific work on Grim
inology lays stress on this and but
tresses the assertion with elaborate
proof.
Criminals Classified
1t is, we think, a fair statement of
the case to say that the modern school
of scientific criminology discriminates
between "a the born criminal, whose
tendencies are naturally anti-social and
with whom relapse is the rule rather
than the exception; CD the criminal by
contracted habit, embracing that large
class with which the power of resist
ing temptation is defective and which
degenerates after having been in Jail;
go the criminal of passion, who, al
though otherwise normal is the victim
of neurotic weakness, and (4) the oc-
casional criminal, whose fall is due
rather to external causes than to inter-
nal tendencies.
We believe the judgment of prison
wardens as given in numerous public
addresses, and that of lawyers and
others whose avocations and expert
ences have given them an insight into
prison life, would indorse this classi-
fication.
1t will be observed that the forego-
ing is not at ali a sentimental view
or one that lends itself to gushing gen.
eralizations. on the contrary, it pro-
fesses to be something of far greater
social value; an approximation, at
least, to the truth, reached by impair
tiah observation of diligently cOllated
data. AS Krohne says Statistical
information is the first condition of
success in opposing the armies of
crime, for 1t discharges the same funC-
tion as the intelligence department in
war" And it is the declaration of
the modern school that it had it's ori-
gin in the observations of English Jail
surgeons; that for its views on the
influence of physical and social envi-
ronment-the climatic and economic
factors-it relies on statistical data,
and for individual propensities on the
facts brought to light by biology and
psychology. Diseased constitutions in
herited from defective ancestors; or
ganic malformatiOns which Lead in
particular, TO so many sexual crimes;
all these streams that go to swell the
current OF the great river Of crime
have been carefully explored and
mapped out by modern science.
Hatred Proved Futile
This body of knowledge, so labor
iously acquired, and the conclusions
to which it leads, constitute an enor-
nous addition TO the sum of human
wisdom. To prove that hatred of the
criminal-with mob violence, Iynching,
capital punishment and all the brood
of brutality to which hatred gives
births futile surely is to strike a
powerful blow on the side Of mercy.
But, although mercy is the virtue to
which the church by all her earlier
traditions stands pledged, it is precisely
at this point that the divergence be-
tween the scientific and the theological
schools becomes most apparent.
Obviously every crime must be one
of two things; the act of a free indi-
vidual will or the natural effect Of
natural causes. The scientific school
holds to the latter view Ferri, whom
we quote again as a typical authority,
SCOTS at the first of these two ideas.
He declares that at is impossible to
give a scientific eXplan9 tion of a crime
Cor indeed of any other action of man
or brute) unless it is considered as the
product of particular organic and
physical constitution, acting in a par
ticular physical and social environ
ment." In q word, effect follows
cause; criminal acts follow criminal
breeding conditions. Society must pro-
tect itself against the Individual; but
to froth over him in anger, as many
judges do when imposing sentence, and,
above all, to release him from prison
worse than when he entered, is absurd.
If this is the position Of science, what
is that of the church? BY its tradi-
tions, as we have said, it is bound to
the side of mercy. "I was in prison
and ye visited me-" NO utterance OF