New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-09-13
CRlMlN0l0Gf
A German Specialists Study Of
the Problem.

CRIME AND ITS REPRESSION. BY
Gustav Aschaffenburg. Translated by
Adalbert Albrecht with an editorial
preface by Maurice Parmelee and an
introduction by Arthur {. Train. The
Modern Criminal Science Series, Vol. VI.
svo PIP. xviii, 33l. Boston: Little.
Brown * Co.
The increasing value of the series OF
| translations of treatises on crime by
leading foreign criminologists to which
| this work belongs has been repeatedly
! pointed out in these columns in reviews
of its earlier volumes. The series as
whole so far as il has gone, is a
treasure house Of data and a warning
against hasty deductions. In fact, its
contributors are perhaps Of greatest
service in proving how little Of a sci
ence in the exact term Of the word
criminology is as yet how much re-
| mains TO be done before even an APP
proximate understanding Of the causes
Of crime can be attained, and how
many as yet only dimly perceived fac
tors will have to he taken into consid-
Grafton in a campaign for its eradica-
ton, or even It's prevention.
The author Of Crime and Its Re-
preston" Gustav Aschaffenburg, is
professor Of psychiatry in the Cologne
Academy OF Practical Medicine and an
acknowledged authority on the study
| OF crime. The chief value Of his work
{ lies perhaps in its suspicion of Stats
| tics. especially of international COM
I parative statistics. and in its refusal to
! deal with theories instead Of facts.
! Certain conclusions held in common by
all crimrologists of modern times may
be accepted, at least provisorily, as
exact; Professor Aschaffenburg shares
them. But even here his is the word
Of caution, of greater discrimination.
especially when he comes to consider
punishment and IT'S purpose, about
which no uniform theory has been
formulated as yet Here he LAYS most
stress upon the execution Of the SEN
tence.
This book was primarily written for
German criminologists, and deals
chiefly with German social and eco
nomic conditions and with German
! psychology. 1t is for this reason, for
( instance, that gambling as cause Of
crime is only incidentally dealt with.
Poverty is the first cause, Professor
hschaffenburg holds. but he continues:
As soon as a period of prosperity sets
In another source gushes out with In
creased force-alcoholism and its conse-
quences. But the criminals who sit in
the dock at these two times are not the
same AT every turn of the social bal
ance q number OF individuals slip over
board and sink into the depths Of crime
One thing is common to them all-the
lack OF sufficient power OF resistance
against temptation.
Thus the author approaches the
psychology Of crime, which IL the spe-
cialty of the German school of crlmi-
nology. as its anthropology is that Of
Italy and its social aspect that Of
Lombroso's memory a greater measure
o. respect than is customary now
adays. He admits q small measure OF
| truth in the Italians theory Of physi-
sible to make even the slightest use of
the existence of physical marks of de-
generation TO tip the scale in case Of
questionable guilt. Tattooing, upon
which Lombroso laid so much stress in
bis study of the born criminal" means
nothing at all, according TO Professor
Aschaffenburg, except in the case Of
sexual crime. And here we come upon
one Of those instances Of this students
| clear reasoning powers in which the
book abounds. In the course OF his re-
searches into this subject Of tattoolng.
which. according to Lombroso. indi
Gates reversion TO the savage type,
our author was struck by the recur-
renee of certain devices. The fact that
the same words occurred aga in and