The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-20

tellect, or consciousness; emotion that is. +.
impulse to act; and will, that is, action
itself. No two persons are alike in the
| strength or weakness of one or the other
of these forces. To take the view that
consciousness of the wrongfulness or il
legality of an act at the time of its COM
initial makes the offender responsible
for 1t and legally sane. is inconsistent
with the well founded knowledge of men,
| tai functions which we now possess. Con-
duct is not dependent chiefly on knowl-
edge, but much more on impulse or emo
| ton, and will capable or incapable of
| controlling and directing impulse in a way
to harmonize with knowledge, that is con-
sciousness.
I 1t is just because of this compiexity of
function that so many different kinds of
crimes are committed and SO many dif-
ferent types of criminals exist. In spite
of all the study that has been given to
these questions It is impossible to account
for these abnormalIties of conduct by the
oretical consideration of their nature SO
far as brain structure is concerned. Too
! little is known, too little can be known,
of what constitutes complex brain func-
ton. But 1t can be confidently asserted
that in a criminal we are dealing with a
mentally abnormal person, a sick person.
as we'll as an offender against the laws
of the society in which that person lives
laws to which perfectly sane or we'll per-
| sons have no difficulty in conforming.
| If this is true. any method of dealing
with the offender which contains an ele-
ment of punishment is unjust to him and
also illogical. 1t is likewise unjust and
| Illogical from the point of view of the
protection of society; for the idea of pun
ishment necesstates fitting the punish
ment to the crime and not to the crim-
inal. When the allotted punishment is
completed, the criminal, unchanged, is set
free. Society has the right to protection,
the individual the right to justice: but the
only real Justice for the person who is in
error is the attempt to correct the condi-
tion which caused him to err.
| Does punishment do this7 Have crimes
decreased ir>the aggregate or In the indi-
vidual case because of the customary PEN
alties imposed for them? Statistics ac-
! cording to DIR. Wright, do not warrant
any such assumption. What, then, Is
the remedy? Are we to abolish prisons
and penalties and. taking the fatalistic
view that all crime is ineurable. shut up
all offenders in asylums for the remainder
| of their lives? Adjustment of punish-
rent is certainly called for and is grad
ually coming as the prison is changed into
a house for correction and custody, into
a colony for abnormal peopie-where they
may live as nearly normal a life as is pos
sible for each and every one of them,
where their individual characteristics and
capacities are studied and their lives ar
ranged accordingly. The same change has
already occurred in the methods of deal
| ing with the obviously insane. II these
methods are worth while in the case of
the chronically insane. they are still more
50 in the reatment of criminal offenders
who, though mentally ABNORMAL, are, in
| the majority of instances, amenable to
much greater Improvement in habits of
thinking, feeling and acting.