Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-31
WE MUST PROTECT CRIMINAL
FROM SOCIETY,"" SAYS SCHOLAR
Psychiatrist Declares 10000 Years of
Punishment Proves Failure of Pain
as Deterrent to Crime.
The prisoners are forever plotting re-

The prisoners are forever plotting re-
venge.
Words can't describe what emotions
go on in the mind Of a man confined
in prison." he. said Every factor in
the prison surrounding is against arous-
ing feelings of penitence. Sometimes
sexual offenders are penitent in prison,
but for more complicated intra- psychic
reasons. Generally the man leaves
prison with feelings of hate and re-
venge. With everything thought out
for him, normal life denied him and
the assumption made that he has no
feelings, he generally leaves prison on
lower intellectual and emotional level
than when he entered"
Some improvement would be brought
about, he said, by a prison industrial
system where everything done would be
for the benefit of the worker
His thesis that crime is the direct
result of conditioning" DR.. Karpman
said, is supported by the Specifcity of
crime. For example, some men only
rob post offices. Such men could not
be induced to pick pockets. Some only
rob trains and nothing could induce
them to take up HOUSEKEEPING.
Resentment Natural Reaction.
Punishment is justified, he said, only
when the criminal Is convinced of the
wrongness of his acts, but even then, he
holds, resentment instead of penitence
is the natural reaction.
DR.. Karpman took a fling at the
well meaning prison chaplain, whose
advice, he said. is often worse in its
effects than the condition it is in
tended to correct. When one talks to
a prisoner about moral behavior, he
said, the man is so consumed with
hatred that he only pretends to listen.
But" retorted Mr.. Hankin, who fol-
lowed DR.. Karpman, society is in
danger of being detroyed by the crimi-
nal. never understood that prison
was intended to be a pleasant place.
Would you have society discard the
methods adopted for its protection for
10000 years?"
"Yes," replied DR.. Karpman, "for So
ciety has just as consistently failed for
10000 years"
All Criminals Insane.
Every criminal is insane. I make
no exceptions. If criminality and in
sanity be separate entities, why do
criminals show such large percentage
of insanity? They show ten times as
much as any other class of persons"
Then the psychiatrist defined the
criminal as one who, through some
emotional drive, runs counter in his be-
havior to the accepted social standard.
But" he said, 81 think the lawyer
who abuses his client is a criminal and
insane. 1 think the physician who
overcharges his patient Is in the same
class. I don't think there is a human
being living who hasn't committed some
criminal act, but he may not have been
caught at it."
Crime May Be Normal.
DR.. w. I. Thomas, noted sociolopist.
maintained that the sociological point
Of view is not that the criminal Is abb
normal, but that crime is a normal de-
velopment from certain environments.
Thus, he said, In one area of Chicago
so per cent Of the boys are taken to
juvenile court every year, while another
area furnishes none at ALL Thus. he
said, crime becomes simply a part of
social behavior pattern. Among
some tribes a boy who didn't steal
would not be a proper boy.
The adult gang of Chicago" he
said. displays a separate culture lust
as the Quaker displays a separate Gull
ture. Stealing Is as natural an act as
Well-doing in a religious environment.
The criminal is the result Of group for
nation Of codes. In this case the boy
who didn't steal might be called psy-
chopathic."