Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-02-07
Home Atmosphere
Has Considerable
Influence on Crime
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for a long time to verify it's theory
OF punishment with appalling unsuc-
cessful result.
What then is the answer to the
solution Of anti-social behavior which
is so ghoulishly epitomized in crime?
Is it our centurieS-Old eXtirpatiOn OF
the criminal via rope, gibbet and
electric chair? Is brutal steel-barred
incarceration a protection for society
against the ravages Of the anger de-
mented gun-wielder? If so the world
would have been rid of crime CEN
turtles ago because we have punished
since the dawn Of time. Even If we
had caught ten per cent of the army
of crime. Then what shall we do?
It seems to me the real problem
is the eradication of the propensities
causes of anti-social behavior should
be the first step. What causes the
human being to pull a trigger, to
drive knife, to fail out with doubled
fists, to crash a bar over another's
skull, to drop poison into another's
blood stream-to bring death violent
ly to a fellow human being? Why
does he or she do that?
First, to my mind, is the inability
to rule the emotion Of anger. Or in
other words,-emotional instability.
Belligerent, human-hating personality.
A predominating characteristic OF
hair-trigger quarrelsCmeness. Hatred
of one or both of the parents. Tn
comfortable anger looms so large as
prime causal agent in murder that
Arthur Train, former New York City
prosecutor says During the seven
year period l refer to, our nation re-
ported 62,S12 murders. Eighty per
cent of these murders and manslaugh-
ters resulted mainly out of anger"
And Doctor Oliver states: 1.-The MUIR
derer is overwhelmed by anger"
Well then, what is anger? l can
answer in no better words than Doc
tor Adler's, Anger is an effect which
is the veritable epitome of the striv-
| ing for power and domination. The
effect of anger signifies an almost
complete negation of the social feel
ing The striving for domination is
so bitterly expressed that the death
of an opponent becomes easily con-
ceivable. We must designate all
irascible, discordant, acrimonious and
angry individuals as enemies of So
ciety and enemies of life"
Thus we begin to realize that the
majority of murders are not com
mitted by those who are resisting
arrest, defending themselves or by
those utterly insane. Anger is the
stimulator to homicide. Most of the
murderers kill in the crimson erup-
ton Of anger.
What then gives the anger emotion
so predominant a control in a human
being? A certain amount is natural
But this chronic hating, lashing and
destroying anger that can SO often
earth, human life. What has pro-
duced it's precedence over all the 9th
er emotions? What inflated and in.
creased its sphere beyond bounds?
Environment. Psychopathic hered
ity.
How so?
Discord in the home, conflict, quar-
rel and parents striving for power
over the children, or the absolutisn
of autocratic tyranny in the home
Children, thirsty for affection, drink
ing the cess-pool waters of parenta
discord. There are the poisoned
waters which spawn forth the mon
ster of hate and anger. Like the but
on the fruit tree-deny it the sun
light and its wholesome goodness
turns to death dealing acidulity. Be
cause we can't see the emotions a
we can the outer body we don't thinl
upon the appalling tragedies we foste
when we quarrel when we domin ate
when we insist upon selfish god-al
mighty self-importance upon earth.
Crime is the illigitimate child O