The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-05-18
:yeness as a result Of which crimes
re frequently committed.
Ill Health Factor in Crime.

disease. one finds among criminals a
very high percentage of l~ll-healtn.
OF one hundred egro prisoners IN
Fulton county Jail, Atlanta, twenty
two were physically defective, being
diseased or MANNED. OF one thousand
youthful offenders in Chicago. IN
thirty-three per cent some sort OF
physical defect or abnormal condition
could fairly be regarded as a contrib
uting causative factor in the delin-
ouency, and in five per cent, as the
major factor.
Tarde, the eminent jurist and critic
of Lombroso, says, that the delin-
uuent is before everything a sick
man. Further statistics and expert
opinion need not be marshalled to
prove that the criminal is, as a rule,
an unhealthy person. But what is
| the causal connection between his i'll
health and his anti-social conduct?
| Wherein does his physical condition
stimulate or create a riminal ten
denCy?
AS a Minor Factor
AS a direct cause of crime physical
ill-health may be regarded as a min
or factor. That is, seldom does one
| commit an offense solely because he
is sick. 1t is doubles true that the
i%rritability incident to ill-health often
/ causes one to commit crimes of pas
| sion or violence. 1t is difficult for
one to be rational under p~rovocation
when his head or eyes are %throbbing
with pain or his body burning with
fever. The pessimism of Carlyle's
writings has been charged up to.his
chronic dyspepsia. Dyspepsia may as
will ave made criminals Of men
weaker and less disciplined. I have
already referred to the toXemia Of
syphilis as exciting it's victims to
commit crime. Other chrome dis
eases also produce toxins. 1t is said,
for instance, that some Of the finest
writing by Robert Louis Stevenson
was done under the direct stimulus
OF tuberculosis toxin. Who knows
but that toxins like the mes that
stimulated Stevenson to write so we'll
may have excited other men to com.
NIT dastardly crimes!
Produces Poverty.
But leaving such hypothesis which
can never be reduced to mathemati-
ground when he asserts that physical
ill-health does produce conditions
which, in turn, produce crime. PhySi-
cal il-health produces poverty, and
poverty is the direct cause of crime
In a study of seven thousand cases II
was found that oyer twenty-five pei
cent Of the poverty was directly
traceable to sickness or death in the
family. From thirty to forty pei
, cent of the criminal offenders com
NIT offenses under the direct stimu'
lus Of want. All statistics of crime
s show that the prison population in
9 creases during hard times.
8 Birth to Large Brood of Crime.
Physical il-health also encourage
e the use Of matchmaking drugs an,
e they in turn give birth to a larg
9 brood OF crimes. zone suffering from
a chronic disease finds temporary re
lief in medicines containing narcotic
and soon becomes addicted to a.
n over-mastering habit. Mild drug
are superseded by stronger ones~an
a the victim is soon an opium or CO
caine fiend. After habitual use c
e opium or it's alkaloids there is a de
" teriOration Of character, a lack {
d moral sense and of self control. wit
a diminution or total loss Of energ
n violation, and this lack may re
n suit in paralysis of the will. Whe
,e deprived Of the drug there is an il
Is ritability of temper, and finally thel
l. is nothing at which the victim wi
to stop to obtain a supply; lying, bet
re ging, thieving, prostitution are. a.
IS, cording to their ideas, j~ustifiable. G,
e. caine addiction particularly is mari
al ed by inveterate lying, not as in tt
s. case Of morphine upon topics col
e. nected with the habit, but also {
he other subjects, and often when IL
truth would be to their advantag
1t is significant, but not sutprisin
ng that one-ffth of the negro crirnina
IT Of Winston-Salem who have be,
of tried ten times or more have be,
m charged at some time in their care
ng with having in possession or with SCI
hit ing cocaine.
n Excuse For Vagrancy.
PhySlcal Ill-health produces
ny, gives an excuse for vagrancy. V
-er grancy has been made a crime by st
ne tute and itself fosters other Grim
rly on the principle that the Devil fin
lu- something for idle hands to do. T
no sick man is naturally disinclined
~ enter into competition with the w
'ti- man and, if he does, is soon forced
Of the wall. Crowded out upon t
les streets. he feels that society ow
Ok him a living of which it is cheat
its him and which he must get by f;
~ Il -, - ~ 49, 4>1 I:-