The new system in each case, both for Local and Convict Prisons, furnishes a remarkable example in the application of what may be called the new spirit in the Prison Administration of this country,i.e., the cordial and harmonious co-operation between official and voluntary effort, which experience shows every day to be not only the best, but the only effective method for dealing with the problem of the discharged prisoner.
An important change has recently been made in the machinery of the Central Organization of Aid Societies. Prior to 1917, the central representation of Aid Societies had been by means of a Committee of the Reformatory and Refuge Union, known as the Central Committee of Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies. The Reformatory and Refuge Union had, in the early 'sixties, warmly taken up the question of aid-on-discharge, and, by its energy and initiative, had become the principal instrument for the organization of Societies dealing with short-sentenced prisoners. In 1878, soon after the passing of the Prison Act, an important conference of Aid Societies was convened by the Union, at which a Committee was appointed having generally for its purpose to extend the operations of Aid Societies, as well as to maintain existing Societies and to increase their efficiency. This historicalconnection with the Reformatory and Refuge Union remained till the present time, and of late years, the Central Committee, under the able direction of its Chairman, Lord Shuttleworth, has rendered valuable service in calling attention to various reforms by means of conferences invoked, from time to time, in different centres. There had, however, been manifested of late years a growing desire on the part of many Societies for some change in the central organization, which should have the effect of strengthening the Executive function of the Central body, so that its influence might be extended and advantage taken of its large common stock of experience for the investigation of new methods of development. The Chairman of the Royal Aid Society, Mr. F.P. Whitbread, acting in agreement with the representatives of some of the leading Societies, proposed a scheme for the establishment of such a Central Executive body, to meet periodically for discussion, and with power to appoint sub-Committees to enquire, and report, and advise as to the adoption of improved methods of relief for the various categories of prisoners of both sexes. The new body, known as the Central Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, was formally instituted by general consent at the beginning of 1918, Mr. Whitbread being elected Chairman of the Central Executive Committee, and the Commissoners were invited to nominate three members to serve on the Executive. The new system is only a variation of that hitherto pursued; but its effect will be to bring a more direct influence on the various Societies, all of whom will be represented on the Executive. In this way not only uniformity of procedure, but an agreed policy in the pursuit of a common purpose, is likely to result. It is only the complement and the fulfilment of the public-spirited and beneficent work undertaken in the beginning by the Reformatory and Refuge Union, acting through the Committee of 1878, and to that body must be given the credit not only for pioneer work in originating the system of aid-on discharge in this country, but for the growth of public interest and zeal in the development of this particular branch of social work, to which the recent change of methods bears witness.
During recent years, the work of Aid Societies has been extended to the assistance of the wives and families of men undergoing imprisonment, and the steps taken will insure that, in future, no deserving case will be overlooked, and the suffering that has been endured by hundreds of innocent women and children will become a thing of the past. Various agencies have rendered assistance in making the necessary inquiries, chief among them being the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Church Army, and the Charity Organization Society.
Owing to the War, no general effect has yet been given to the powers taken by Section 7 of the Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914, to subsidise a society for the care and control of persons under the age of 21, being either on Probation, or placed out on licence from a Borstal Institution or Reformatory or Industrial School, or under supervision within the meaning of Section 1 (3) of the same Act (vide page 82). As President of the newly-constituted Central Committee of Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies, I recently took the opportunity of appealing for the establishment of a National Society for the Prevention of Crime and for the Protection of the Young Offender. All these categories of young persons named are now being attended to by different Agencies or persons, the same agent often acting for different classes, though not under the same authority. Such a National Society, though not interfering with liberty of action of each, would co-ordinate the whole, and such exchange of voluntary service might be of the greatest benefit, and would provide the rallying point for all forces, both secular and religious, now occupied in the task of rehabilitating those who have fallen under the ban of the criminal law.
So far, I have dealt only with "Patronage," as applied to Convict and Local Prisons. There are two other categories of prisoners who are dealt with on discharge in a different way,i.e., those discharged under the Prevention of Crime Act, 1908 (a) from Borstal Institutions (referred to in a former chapter): (b) from Preventive Detention.
The Gratuity System still remains in force for boththese classes, its object being, in the former case, that the inmate should have a smallpéculeat his disposition, which, taken in conjunction with such assistance as the Borstal Association are able to give, may furnish material help towards his reinstatement; and, in the latter, where a prisoner may be awarded 1d., 2d., or 3d., for every working day according to the nature of work, and skill, and industry displayed. The money thus gained may be spent, either in purchasing certain articles in the canteen, or be sent to a member of his family: if accumulated, it would, in the event of conditional licence, be paid over on the prisoner's behalf to the authorities of the Central Association to be expended in such way as they may think fit for his benefit.
The Gratuity System also remains in force for those young prisoners who are treated under the "Modified" Borstal System in Local Prisons, as before explained, the object being not only to provide a stimulus for labour and good conduct, but to furnish means for material aid on discharge in cases considered by the Borstal Committee operating at each Prison, for the purpose of the reinstatement of these lads in honest industry. Moreover, they are not entitled to earn remission in the same way as are other prisoners under the provisions of the Prison Act, 1898. It is because ordinary prisoners have enjoyed this privilege since 1898 that it was found possible to abolish the Gratuity System for them, the necessary stimulus for industry with good conduct being provided for by the hope of remission of sentence, which experience shows to be more effective for the purposes of discipline than the fear of losing any portion of the money to which they may have become entitled under the Progressive Stage System.
For many years prior to the War, statistics of recidivism had indicated, at least so far as serious crime tried on indictment was concerned, that the mass of criminality was being confined to one set of people, who were slowly passing to the later age categories, and leaving a reduced number to take their place. The Tables printed below show the remarkable decline in recidivism that has takenplace, especially since the War. A large proportion of this decrease may doubtless be credited to the extraordinary growth of "Patronage", or aid-on-discharge, which has taken place during the last quarter of a century. For many years past, the Borstal Association has been successful in reclaiming over 70 per cent. of the lads, 16-21, released to its care; and among hardened convicts, the Central Association is able to furnish remarkable figures. In their report for 1914-15 they showed that since its foundation in 1911 the following numbers of discharged convicts had passed through its hands each year:—1,147, 878, 761, and 792. Of this body, the numbers still out of prison on the 1st April, 1915 were 527, 474, 449, and 662 respectively. Of those discharged during 1914-15 the numbers in the "Star," "Intermediate" and "Recidivist" classes were, respectively, 77, 187, and 528. The number reconvicted in each category was 2, 21, and 107. As we pass, therefore, from the "Star," or First Offender category, the difficulty of successful after-care becomes manifest; thus, while only two First Offenders were reconvicted, the reconvictions in the case of "Intermediates" and "Recidivists" were 11 and 20 per cent. respectively. It is clear, however, from the Annual Report of the Association, that they are far from being dismayed by what must be, in many cases, a hopeless struggle with this resisting mass of recidivism. They look forward, and with good reason, to the hope that lies in the future,viz:—that what they describe as "the stage army of recidivist outlaws" will be steadily and permanently reduced in Convict Prisons, not only in consequence of a better system of after-care, which, under new methods, now awaits the convict on his first discharge from penal servitude, but as the certain result of concentration of effort on the young, or adolescent offender. To find work for 366 out of 792 discharged convicts is by itself striking evidence of the vigour, method, and real zeal which characterizes the work of the Association; to be able to report that 662 of these men were known to be satisfactory at the end of the year furnishes proof of a work which must, from the character and antecedents of these cases, be extremely difficult and unpromising, andshows that the men must have been the subject of much careful shepherding.
About ten years have elapsed since the formation of the Central Association, and since that date the actual number of persons convicted on indictment withsix or moreprevious convictions has fallen by 80 per cent. In 1910, there were 1,066 prisoners convicted who had previously served a sentence of penal servitude, while in 1918 there were only 297. A great reduction has also taken place in the number of male convicts classified as Recidivist after reception into prison. Prior to 1911, the number frequently exceeded 900 annually, while in 1918 it was only 191.
The following tables show (a) the actual fall that has taken place in the numbers sentenced on indictment who had been previously convicted, and (b) the decrease in the number of male convicts classified as recidivist:—
(a)
(b) Classification of Male Convicts received into Convict Prisons.
CHAPTER XV.
THE MEDICAL SERVICE.
No account of the English Prison System would be complete without reference to the place and duty of the Medical Officer in the daily administration of a Prison. The English law requires that a Medical Officer shall be appointed to each prison. The appointment is made by the Secretary of State on the recommendation of the Prison Commissioners, and office is held subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. Great care is taken in selecting suitable men with high medical qualifications, and who are possessed of proved tact and discretion; a practical knowledge of insanity is also requisite. As the size of the prison varies very considerably, in the smaller prison the Medical Officer is generally a medical practitioner residing in the vicinity of the prison, who devotes a part only of his time to prison duties: at least one visit daily is required. In the larger prisons one or more medical men are appointed, whose whole time is at the service of the Commissioners, the senior appointments being filled by promotion from the junior rank. The prisons are frequently visited by a Medical Inspector who not only supervises and advises the Medical Officers, but forms a link with the whole of the Medical Staff, thus tending to standardize the medical work carried out in prisons. He is also available to visit and report on any individual prisoner when any difficulty arises necessitating special inquiry. He works under the Medical Commissioner, who represents the medical side of the service on the Prison Board, and deals with the administration of the Department.
The mere enumeration of his statutory duties reveals the great and varying responsibility imposed upon the Medical Officer:—examination on reception and discharge; visitation of the sick and those under punishment; the sanitary condition of the buildings; ventilation; food; water; clothing and bedding:—all these things are combined inthe daily round. He classifies prisoners for labour according to their physical fitness. He carefully notes the effect of imprisonment on the mental or physical state of prisoners, and advises when, in his opinion, life or reason is likely to be endangered by the continuance of imprisonment, and it is satisfactory to record that no abuse of this great responsibility has occurred since the prisons were taken over by the State in 1878. He takes under special observation any case where he has reason to suspect that the mental state is becoming impaired or enfeebled by imprisonment, and carefully notes any sign of incipient insanity. The health of the prison officers and their families, and the sanitary condition of their quarters are also his special concern.
It is a striking testimony to the skill and care with which these duties are performed that, with receptions in a normal year, we will say, of 200,000 persons, and with some 15,000 serious cases treated annually in hospital, of both sexes, and some 25,000 under continuous medical treatment for seven days or over, the death-rate in prison should be generally less than ·50 per 1,000 receptions.
Our prisons have been described by a high medical authority as among the best sanatoria in England. This praise is well deserved, but it does not mean that illness is rare or only trivial, but that the skill, industry, and patience of the medical staff, operating in healthy sanitary conditions, equipped with modern knowledge and resource in dealing with the great variety of disease, which diagnosis on reception, or individual care during detention, reveals, is effective in maintaining a high standard of general health with a comparatively low death-rate, so far as prison conditions admit a comparison with the general death-rate of England and Wales.
For instance heart disease, pneumonia, and phthisis claim a regular roll of victims, though, in most cases, death would be due to chronic complaints in old, or prematurely old persons, with broken-down constitutions.
The incidence of infectious disease in prisons has, for some years past, been remarkably low. In a prison community, any illness of an infectious character is naturally viewed with great apprehension, and is alwaysmade the subject of strict inquiry—the danger of infection being, of course, very great when so many persons are daily received and brought into association at chapel, exercise, labour, &c. Against this danger, the chief prophylactic must be in the exact and unerring skill of the Medical Officer, who is able to detect symptoms on reception which, unless detected, might spread an epidemic throughout the prison. Thus, at the time of the small-pox epidemic of 1902, it was due to the precautions taken that, with few exceptions, this highly infectious disease was prevented from spreading. When the epidemic of enteric fever raged at Lincoln in 1905, not a single case occurred in the prison, though prisoners were being received daily from various parts of the city. Erysipelas is disease which is not uncommon in prisons in the early days of imprisonment. Prisoners are not infrequently received with cut hands and other wounds in a neglected or septic condition, and with a probable predisposition to the disease arising from a weak or unhealthy physical condition. Isolation, and the usual precautions, however, generally prevent the disease, which has a tendency to recur, from spreading.
Deaths from phthisis average from ten to twenty a year. It is very rare indeed for the disease to manifest itself for the first time during imprisonment, but is already existing on reception, and more often than not in a far advanced condition. It had been observed that for the ten years ending 1901, there had been an average death-rate of 16·7 from this cause, and in that year, special instructions were issued for the segregation and special treatment of tubercular disease. Cases were to be treated in the most airy cells, with southern aspect, and special precautions taken with regard to the provision of spittoons, disinfection of clothing, utensils, fumigation of cells, &c. To carry out the spirit of these instructions necessarily entails much circumspection and good-will on the part of all concerned, both officers and patients. The effect of these regulations is not easy to discern in Local, or short-sentence, prisons, owing to the fugitive character of the population, but in convict, or long-sentence, prisons, where the conditions incident toimprisonment are operative over a sufficiently long period, evidence may be found as to the measure of the effect of prison life on this particular disease. An inquiry made in 1906-7 shows that the death-rate from phthisis among males (cases very rarely occur among females) sentenced to penal servitude (i.e.not less than three years) was 1·38 per 1,000 of the daily average population. Previously to the regulations of 1901, the mortality was nearly double, amounting to 2·00 per 1,000. Since 1901, also, another cause has been operating towards a decline in the amount of tubercular disease,i.e., the more generous prison dietary of that year, with an increase in the proportion of fatty elements.
Inquiries made at the time of the appointment of the Royal Commission to inquire into the prevalence of Venereal disease in 1913 showed that of the receptions into prison during the six months between November and April 1914, 64,023 males and 17,161 females were received into prison. Of the males 1·58 per cent., and of the females, 1·98 were found to be suffering from some form of venereal disease. Full advantage is taken of the modern methods of treatment, and practically at all the larger prisons there is a clinic. Where facilities do not exist in the smaller prisons, prisoners are treated at an outside clinic, or transferred to a prison where there is one.
Medical Officers also have very important duties and responsibilities in connection with the feeding of prisoners. Prison dietaries in this country have always been prescribed by Statute, but these definite prescriptions—what a prisoner shall eat and drink—are always subject to the moderating discretion of a Medical Officer. Formerly, the prison dietary was regarded as an element of penal discipline. Sir J. Graham, when Home Secretary, had repudiated this principle as long ago as 1843, but the Secretary of State of those days had no power to enforce his views on the local Justices, who gave effect to the popular idea that the ordinary prison diet might properly be regarded as an instrument of punishment. It must not be supposed, however, that the elimination of the penal element necessarily connotes an attractiveness ofprison fare. This is not the case; but the difficulties of framing a dietary which shall be sufficient and not more than sufficient, for the varying needs of many thousands of human beings of different ages and physique is admittedly very great.
The dietary of 1900 has, at least, removed one grave reproach against the system,viz:—that prisoners habitually, and almost invariably, lost weight. Under the old dietary, no less than 80 per cent. of prisoners engaged on hard labour for a month or less lost weight. The progressive improvement of dietary scale, proportioned to length of sentence, has been effective in mitigating the ill-effects arising from the application of the principle of punitive diet as a part of the sentence of imprisonment.
The skill and care of the medical staff would, however, be less positive in its results but for the sanitary condition of the interior of prisons, which has, for many years past, engaged the closest attention. Great improvements have taken place of late years in the construction of hospitals, and in the ventilation of halls and of cells, and in the reconstruction of drains on the most up-to-date lines. Formerly, the gas-lights, which are now in the corridors, were inside the cell—in many cases, naked lights,—an objectionable system from a sanitary point of view, and affording an easy means for mischief or self-destruction, while giving inadequate light for reading or working. It is not only with regard to artificial light that progress has been made. The opaque window glass excluding the light of day, and the hermetically closed window are now only memories of the past. All these things of late years have had the effect of improving the sanitary condition of prisons and the health of prisoners, and have, no doubt, contributed to the remarkable bill of health which our prisons present.
But it is not only with the physical state of prisoners and the sanitation of prisons that the medical staff is concerned. The prison Medical Officer has justly acquired a reputation as an expert in mental disease. Although a practical acquaintance with lunacy is expected of a candidate for the Medical Service, it is owing to the exceptional opportunities afforded for diagnosis of thevarying and often peculiar mental states of prisoners that he is expected, and is able, to give an expert opinion, not only in the grave cases where sanity is in question, but also in those difficult and doubtful cases of mental defectiveness which are continually occurring in every mode and degree. Especially is great importance attached to the opinion of the Medical Officer of prisons as that of an unbiassed expert witness on the mental condition of cases charged with a capital offence. The growing practice of the Courts to remand for medical observation in prisons when any doubt exists as to the state of mind, has the desired result of preventing the commitment to prison of persons who would be certified to be insane almost as soon as received. Thus, twenty years ago the number certified insane after reception into prison was a little over one per cent. of the total receptions. To-day it is about half that number.
It is, however, with regard to a class of prisoner, who, for want of a more precise and descriptive term, is designated "mental defective", that the Medical Officer is called upon to exercise all his vigilance and powers of diagnosis. There are persons who cannot be deemed sufficiently irresponsible as to warrant certification, but who, from obvious mental deficiency, cannot be considered fit subjects for penal discipline. In 1901, a special treatment was established for this class in local and in convict prisons. The effect of the new regulations was largely to increase the rôle and responsibility of Medical Officers in controlling the daily routine in respect of food, labour, and punishment. It was about this time that the question of the best method of dealing with mentally defective persons, other than those certified under the Lunacy and Idiots Acts, came prominently before the public, and a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the matter. At the same time, an attempt was made to ascertain the number of persons in prison who, on account of mental defect, were deemed unfit for ordinary penal discipline. Medical Officers were requested to note down for six months the number of persons received into their respective prisons who, in their opinion, were of such a low order of intelligence aswould be likely, by want of normal self-control, to get into mischief, or commit crime. The result was that 3 per cent. of both sexes of the total number of prisoners received were shown to fall within this category. Writing on this subject in 1912, Sir Herbert Smalley, until lately the Head of the Prison Medical Service, states:—
"The number of prisoners who are mentally defective is the subject of the very widest difference of opinion. There are some who would have us believe that all prisoners are mentally affected, in fact they urge that the mere fact of their committing crime is a proof of this. There are others, who, whilst not going this length, yet put the number at a very high figure. One well known writer recently alleged in the daily press that probably 40 per cent. of our criminals are mentally defective. A well known alienist writing to the "Times" some years ago stated that at least 20 per cent. of all police court cases belonged to the class of mental defectives. The Medical Investigators appointed by the Royal Commission for the care and control of the feeble-minded, after visiting several prisons and having seen some 2,553 prisoners, estimated the number as mentally defective at 10·28 per cent. This is again a higher rate than is generally returned by the prison authorities as the number of mentally defective persons amongst the prison population (irrespective of those certifiably insane who are obviously unfit to be at large),viz., 3 per cent.
"Here at once is a wide divergence of opinion and the reason for the great discrepancy is that so much depends on the view that is taken as to the degree of mental deficiency which justifies an individual being regarded as "Feeble-minded." There is no hard and fast line of demarcation, as has been asserted, between feeble-mindedness and sanity, any more than there is between a great many cases of insanity and sanity; from the normal down to the lowest idiot, or dement, it is only the question of degree of deficiency of mental power. This was pointed out by the Departmental Committee on Defective and Epileptic Children as far back as 1898."
"One of the Medical Investigators of the Royal Commission alleges that "the higher grade aments" aresometimes not recognised by the prison authorities, who are apt to think a man who works well and behaves well in prison must be normal. There is some truth, no doubt, in this, for in prison there is strict and close supervision, there is the daily routine and the absence of "stress," "alcohol" and "temptation," to which people are subject in the outer world; moreover, in many cases, their time in prison is very short and their true mental condition is masked by the condition in which they are received (as, for instance, under the influence of drink and deprivation) so that the medical officer very naturally hesitates before reporting them feeble-minded."
The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, came into operation on the 1st April 1914. It provides for three forms of supervision for defectives,viz:—State Institutions for defectives of dangerous or violent propensities, Certified Institutions, and Guardianship. The last named can be ignored in considering criminal defectives.
When the Act came into force there were no State Institutions, and the accommodation in Certified Institutions was totally inadequate to meet the needs of the situation. A State Institution was secured towards the end of 1914, but was almost immediately handed over to the War Office. Little, or nothing, could be done in the way of provision of further accommodation, State or otherwise, during the continuance of the Great War, and, as a result, very few criminal defectives could be dealt with. Since the termination of hostilities, a State Institution for male and female defectives has been established, and further institutional accommodation provided, and it is hoped that in the near future full provision will be made for dealing with all defectives, guilty of criminal offences, who are certifiable under the Act.
From 1st April 1914 to 31st March 1919, 871 cases were certified under the Act, the total receptions into local prisons for this period being 376,000,i.e., 2·3 per 1,000 receptions. The prisoners certified in prison do not comprise the whole number of cases of criminal defectives dealt with, as Courts have power under the Act to send such defectives direct to Institutions, instead of to prison, and, as the working of the Act becomes more stabilised,advantage is taken of this power to an increasing extent.
But even so, there is a considerable discrepancy between the defectives dealt with under the Act and the official ante-Act estimate, which was considerably greater, and this is mainly due to the strict requirement of the Act that the defect must have existed from birth or from early age. Here at once a large number of prisoners regarded as mentally defective, forming 30 per cent. of the whole, were excluded from the operation of the Act owing to the fact that the mental defect from which they were suffering,e.g., senility, alcoholism, arose from causes operating later in life. Again, of the number of prisoners whose mental defect was regarded as of congenital origin, 77 per cent. were over 25 years of age, thus making it difficult to obtain proof of the existence of the defect from early age, without which a certificate cannot be given.
But the Mental Deficiency Act, limited as it is in its scope, and disappointing in its results, is a pioneer piece of legislation of considerable importance. Many Voluntary Associations and other bodies in this country interested in its administration are advocating an extension of its provisions, and I think we can anticipate with every confidence the time, to which the prison reformer has so long looked forward, when those unhappy persons, who through mental affliction drift inevitably into criminal courses, are removed from prison surroundings to the more appropriate atmosphere of institutions where they can remain under proper care and control.
The operation of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, and the discharge from Naval and Military Hospitals of numbers of men suffering from mental and physical disabilities arising out of the war, have accentuated the already growing interest shown by Justices, and others engaged in the administration of the Criminal Law, as to whether the means hitherto taken for dealing with persons committing offences are the best and most humane which could be adopted. The opinion has been growing in intensity for some years that mental and physical disabilities may largely contribute to the commission of crime, and that it is the duty of the community to investigatethoroughly such causes, when they exist, to determine whether they are beyond the ability of the individual to control, whether they do not limit wholly, or in part, the responsibility for the commission of the offence, and to what extent they should be taken into account in determining the question of punishment: and whether some form oftreatment, rather thanpunishment, by imprisonment, cannot be devised, which shall be more scientific, efficacious and humane.
The Justices of the City of Birmingham, early in 1919, took action and approached the Prison Commissioners in the matter and asked that a whole-time Medical Officer might be appointed to the Prison, and that portions of the hospitals, on both the male and female side, might be entirely partitioned off from the rest of the Prison and adapted for the reception of persons on remand whose mental condition appeared such as to require investigation.
Effect has been given to the recommendations of the Justices and, at the time of writing, the scheme has been in operation for some 12 months with valuable results. The Medical Officer of the Prison works in the closest co-operation with the Justices and no person, in whose case there is any suspected mental element, is sentenced to imprisonment until after full investigation of his condition of mind and all other avenues of dealing with the case have been exploited. The "Birmingham" experiment, as it is termed, has aroused great interest throughout the country and an extention to other centres, in a modified form, has already resulted.
The institution of the Borstal System has given a new and additional importance to the rôle of the Medical Officer, who plays an important part in the daily administration of these Institutions. From the medical point of view, the system commends itself more particularly by its insistence on the influences which promote sound physical development. Special inquiries made by the Medical Staff in 1903 and 1907 furnish positive proof of the physical inferiority of the adolescent criminal, 16-21, relatively to the free population, notably in height and weight. These inquiries furnish a striking argument in favour of the soundness of theprinciples on which the Borstal System, as explained in a previous chapter, has been established.
The foregoing observations merely indicate generally the direction in which the manifold activities of the Medical Prison Service are exercised. I have laid stress on the part played in the discernment and investigation of mental disorder. That the question of guilt is identical with the question of mental soundness is a commonplace not only with those who seek to analyse by scientific inquiry the mysterious and subtle working of the human mind, but with those who, working in the name of humanity, are forced by personal observation, unaided by science, to the conclusion that many whom the law strikes are not fully responsible for their actions, and are not justly punished. In the United States of America, where science and humanity march hand-in-hand in exploring prisons and places of punishment, and in surveying the whole field of crime, we find that practical steps have been taken by the establishment of criminal laboratories, as at Chicago and Boston, to classify offenders, especially the young, according to the nature and degree of their mental capacity for distinguishing right from wrong. There is nothing so elaborate as this in England, but this is not because public opinion is not keenly alive to the importance of the medical aspect of cases, but because it would not be disposed to admit that the causes of a criminal act are discoverable by physical observation, or by the precise research of a criminal or clinical laboratory. It would be the duty, and the pride, of any civilized State to maintain a high standard of medical work in Prisons: it is a question whether the establishment of criminal laboratories does more than illustrate the practical benefits to be derived from good and thorough medical work in prisons, and whether experimental psychology, with its instruments of precision for testing the human mind, is a really effective auxiliary for the Court of Law in deciding guilt. It may be of value, as a supplementary aid to such diagnosis as a conscientious Medical Officer would apply, and it could be used as a means to support and justify opinion, but it cannot, by itself, be a substitute for other methodsof observation. Though public opinion in England is increasingly sensitive to degrees of responsibility, as affecting punishment of crime, it would be more disposed to place its faith in a medical man having experience of mental disease than in the conclusions drawn from the employment of the precise methods of experimental psychology alone. It is disposed to take the view expressed by no less an authority than Dr. Binet, which is to the effect that the complex phenomena of human action cannot be expressed in a few terse formulas,—"c'est de la littérature: ce n'est pas de la science." He inclines to the view that the essential characteristic of normal man is in thedirectionof choice. The want of direction is due to a disorderedmoralnature. Of this moral degeneracy little is known. The subjective valuation of the alienist cannot in practical life be the test of responsibility—the Judge, as representing 'common sense,' must decide.
At the same time, it recognizes the enormous value of preventive medicine in relation to the detection of mental disorder in its earliest stages. Sir George Newman, in his recent work "An Outline of the Practice of Preventive Medicine" lays great stress upon this point. He states: "Here, as elsewhere, we must seek to begin at the beginning. An understanding of eugenic principles and practice, a new aptitude and alertness in the physician, a new type of clinic, special hospital and institution—"early treatment centres"—a system of "voluntary boarders" in approved homes and institutions, a wider education of the public in what causes and constitutes mental incapacity, a larger apprehension of the meaning of self-control—all this is necessary if we would prevent mental disease. It is obvious that such a policy raises many questions of science, law and administration. But the experience of the war and of our colleagues in America (at the Phipps clinic at Baltimore and the psychiatric hospital at Boston) all points in one direction, namely, the practicability of establishing suitable psychiatric clinics in this country for dealing with early cases of mental and nervous disorder."
In order that the whole-time staff of the prison medicalservice should be kept fully acquainted with modern developments in medicine and surgery, a system of "study-leave" was inaugurated in 1909, whereby a certain number each year take up a post-graduate course at the large hospitals. Special leave is allowed for the purpose, and the Commissioners pay the fees. Each officer chooses his own course of study, subject to the approval of the Medical Commissioner, due regard being paid to the special requirements of the prison service.
The nursing of sick prisoners is carried out by officers of the hospital staff, except in the smaller prisons where, for the present, outside nurses are engaged. The male officers are selected from candidates who have had nursing experience in the Royal Army Medical Corps or in Institutions, and they undergo a course of training in prison nursing and hospital duties at the invalid convict station at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, before appointment to the hospital staff. As regards the female officers, these have, in the past, been officers trained in the larger female prison hospitals, but the question of securing more fully trained nurses for female prisons is now under consideration. With this object in view, a Voluntary Advisory Nursing Board has been established consisting, for the most part, of distinguished members of the medical and nursing professions to advise the Commissioners in formulating a scheme for a prison nursing scheme, and the Board will, it is hoped, be a useful auxiliary to the administration for this purpose in the future.
CHAPTER XVI.
A CRIMINOLOGICAL INQUIRY IN ENGLISH PRISONS.
An attempt has lately been made in this country to apply scientific method to the study of criminal man. A vast amount of data relating to the personal condition, social estate, and penal histories of "convicts" (i.e., men sentenced to penal servitude for three years and upwards) has been co-ordinated and amplified by physical measurements, by details of personal and family history, and by description of physical and mental qualities. An examination in respect of all or some of these points of 3,000 men, taken without selection from those undergoing penal servitude in English Convict Prisons, has formed the basis of this inquiry.
Of this large number of sets of observations, which were made by the Medical Officers of the Convict Prisons, Dr. Goring contributed considerably more than half, and to him was entrusted the onerous task of tabulating the material of the whole. With the assistance and advice of Professor Karl Pearson, Dr. Goring was enabled to carry out this work which he has achieved with remarkable patience and ability. The main intention of this investigation at the outset was to obtain accurate information whereby the many hypotheses advanced by different schools of criminology, and especially the Italian Schools, might be confirmed or refuted. But the scope of the work grew, perhaps inevitably, beyond its original purpose, and now includes not only an analysis of the physical and mental condition of convicts, but also many data for speculations on very difficult and contentious questions as to the relative influence of "heredity,""environment," &c., on the genesis of 'criminals' generally.
Dr. Goring's complete and elaborate Report, entitled "The English Convict—a Statistical Study," has been published by the Government in an official Blue-Book. It appears now as Dr. Goring's own work, carried out by a special method, and the conclusions arrived at are his own. I do not propose to attempt to criticise either his method or his conclusions, being aware that such an attempt would involve discussion of some matters on which there is much difference of scientific opinion.
This work is, as far as I know, the first essay made in any country to arrive at results on criminology by the strict application of what is known as the biometrical method of statistical treatment of recorded observations. Whatever its merits or demerits may be, it at least marks an epoch in the history of criminological studies. In the pages which follow, I endeavour to present in a more simple and popular form, and, as far as possible, in his own words, an abstract of Dr. Goring's views, and of the results to which his general inquiry has led him. Students of Criminology must turn to the original volume itself for a detailed exposition of the whole case which the author so ably presents.
The postulate of the "Positive" School, with which the name of the celebrated Professor Lombroso will always be associated, is that crime or criminality is a morbid or pathological state akin to disease, or, in other words, an abnormal state, due to certain physical or mental defects, made manifest by certain stigmata or "tares physiologiques"—the result either of inherited defect or reversion to atavistic type, or in short, that there is "a criminal type"i.e., a race of beings predestined to criminal acts, against whom any system of punishment would be futile, as by nature such beings would not be amenable to the deterrent influences of penal law. This theory—of which the logical result would be either elimination of the unfit, or the translation into the province of medicine of all legal procedure—has failed to command general assent or approval. Like all half-truths, it is extremely dangerous, for it is, of course, thefact that morbid conditions are associated, to a certain degree, with crime, and, like all sensational dogmas, based on untested observation, it affected the public imagination, prone to believe that the criminal is a sort of "bogey-man"—the stealthy enemy of peaceful persons, ever ready to leap in the dark. This uneasy feeling encouraged the idea that the criminal was a class by himself—an abnormal being, the child of darkness, without pity and without shame, and with the predatory instincts of a wild beast. Thus gradually the common belief has taken root that there is a criminal type, and that it is persons of this particular brand or species who commit crime, and go to Prison. This belief is what Dr. Goring calls the great "superstition" of the day, which stands in the way of Prison reform, which darkens counsel in dealing with crime, which renders rehabilitation difficult, and which stifles and discourages the zeal of the philanthropist, to whom the "criminal" is a man of like passions with himself, and amenable to the same influences; and not predestined to crime and anti-social conduct, from which no human effort could save him.
The peculiarity of the Lombrosian doctrine was in the attempt made by it to "stamp a preconceived idea with the hall-mark of science; to support anà prioriconception of 'abnormality' by an alleged scientific method of investigation;" but the methods of Lombroso were scientific only in name. He sought to solve those infinite and delicate relations which exist in all human or social conditions byobservationalone. He brought much acumen, a great diligence, and imagination to the examination of the subject, but his field of observation was limited. If criminality were a morbid state, with signs comparable to those of disease, observation alone would suffice; but, in fact, there are no characteristics, physical or mental, peculiar to criminals, which are not shared by all people. It is common to speak of poverty, drink, neglect, &c., as the "causes" of crime; but such a causation can only be established by the statistical method of averaging large numbers, with the view of proving that the tendency to anti-social conductis, in fact, associated with the personal, economic, and social condition of an individual. "The science of statistics," says Dr. Goring, "is essentially a science of method; and, as applied to criminal man, it may be described as a system of methods whereby comparison, based on a strict anthropometrical survey of the different sets of individuals, may be effective in providing legitimate, simple, and intelligible description of the criminal, and of crime, and of the fundamental inter-relationships of criminality."
The author of the work approaches his inquiry with an open mind regarding the commonà prioribelief that all men are morally and mentally equal, in the absence of definite pathological cause. This belief is common to all ages. In early days, anti-social conduct was regarded as a sin against the light,i.e., against the teaching of religion and the word of God. The punishment of crime was, therefore, an affair for the ecclesiastical tribunals. The distinction between sin and crime evolved but slowly, and the lay punishments of the Classical Schools were largely affected by the religious law. Later, the anti-social man was regarded as a pathological product—the victim of disease; and it is one of the fashions of to-day to regard him as 'a social product'—the victim of adverse social environment.
All these conceptions are regarded as due to a fixed conventional idea that there was a 'normal' man, who led a good life, and an 'abnormal' man who led a bad life, and this misconception is held to have stood in the way of a scientific view of the nature of criminal man. "Scientifically," according to Dr. Goring, "we can only divide men into 'normal' and 'abnormal' when there is some qualitative difference. 'Normal' is the outcome of the natural laws of existence. This becomes 'abnormal' only when supplanted by some pathological process. Normal never 'merges' into the abnormal,e.g., the natural ranges of vesicular breathing, of normal temperature, of folly, and want of control, never merge into the morbid ranges of pneumonic breathing, fevers and madness. The qualities that have to be considered in relation to crime are not 'abnormal' qualities, butqualities common to all humanity. Law-breakers are not a special breed of human beings differingqualitativelyfrom those who keep the law: any difference there may be between these two human classes is of degree only and not of kind: and, similarly, law-breaking is not different in quality from all other forms of anti-social conduct for which men are not punished, even if they are found out: yet here again there is a vast range of difference indegree. And that is why statistical methods are necessary for the scientific study of the criminal. For only by measurement can difference of degree be evaluated; and statistics is merely a refined instrument for making measurements."
The word 'criminal,' strictly-speaking, only designates the fact that an individual has been imprisoned: that he has committed a crime. The object of this inquiry is to determine whether certain constitutional, as well as environmental, factors play a part in the production of the criminal act. It is impossible to state dogmaticallyà prioriwhat these factors are, or which of them prevail in the determination of a given act, but it is lawful to assume from the phenomenon of crime that there is a hypothetical character of some kind, a constitutional proclivity, either mental, moral or physical, present, to a certain degree, in all individuals, but so potent in some as to determine for them the fate of imprisonment.
This hypothetical character which, in the absence of a better term, Dr. Goring provisionally calls "the criminal diathesis," is described as a "normal" character, possessed to some extent by all normal people whose differences are of degree only, and not of kind. It is a highly complex unanalysable character which, founded upon, and resulting from, a combination of qualities, some, perhaps inconceivably minute, is best described as a "make-up" comparable to the domesticated or wild "make-up" amongst animals, or to the human "make-up" whereby the sociable being is distinguished from the recluse. Nobody would suppose the gregarious tendency, or the impulse to lead a solitary existence, to be a simple primary quality—a so-called unit character—peculiar to the category it represents; and, similarly, criminality is nota simple heritable entity—a primary instinct to evil, for instance, as Lombroso imagined it to be: it is rather a resultant quality springing from many social and anti-social tendencies, which together form the criminal or non-criminal "make-up" called the "criminal diathesis." It is the degree to which a man is thus "made-up" as a criminal or non-criminal which determines eventually the fate of imprisonment: consequently, the intensity of criminal diathesis is measured by conviction or non-conviction, and by frequency of conviction for crime; and the main object of this inquiry has been to find out the extent to which this "criminal diathesis," as measured by criminal records, is associated with environment, training, stock, and with the physical attributes of the criminal. To this examination, the "biometric" method, under the guidance of its distinguished exponent Professor Karl Pearson, has been applied.
Although only those gifted with high mathematical powers could have originated the minute and abstruse symbolical reasoning at the source of the methods whereby the inter-relationship of these phenomena have been measured and calculated, yet the application of these methods, and of the formulæ which have now been provided, are open to any intelligent worker who has knowledge of arithmetic and of simple mathematics, and the computer's zeal for precision and accuracy. If the results do not command general acceptance, they are fruitful of new ideas, which, by further elaboration, may possibly furnish more light on the problem of crime, and may aid in the direction of administrative methods. At least they furnish an extraordinary example of what industry, and skill, and research, can accomplish in a domain where science, in the past, has asserted itself but slightly.
The question of the existence of a criminal type is regarded as essentially anthropometrical,i.e., it can only be solved by the statistical analysis of a large series of measurements. Anthropometry has, of course, been used as an instrument by criminologists, but its strict application demands more than the crude contrast of mean values which is the most that has been hitherto attempted: in addition to the means, it insists thatprobable errors should be also calculated and recorded; that a measure of the variability of each series of measurements should be obtained; and that, in every case, effects upon measurement due to differentiation in age, stature, intelligence, &c., of the contrasted populations under measurement should be also estimated and allowed for.
Having, by means of a comparison with regard to thirty-seven representative physical attributes of criminals, distinguished (1) by their conviction for different orders of crime,e.g., thefts, assault, arson, sexual offences, and frauds, (2) by their frequency of reconviction, and (3) by the length of their imprisonment, established the conclusion that criminals are not physically differentiated because they are criminals, but because of difference in age, stature, intelligence, &c., our author proceeds to a comparison between statistics of criminals, as a class, and of the non-criminal public. The absence of any comparative data with regard to many of the physical characters of the law-abiding classes is, of course, fatal to any precise demonstration, but a comparison of the head-length, -breadth, -height, -index, and -circumference in convicts is made with similar statistics of a set of undergraduates of Oxford, Cambridge, and Aberdeen Universities, and of the London University College Staff, with the result that prison inmates, as a whole, approximate closer in head-measurement to the Universities generally than do students of different Universities conform with each other in this regard, and that from a knowledge only of an undergraduate's cephalic measurement, a better judgment could be given as to whether he were studying at an English or Scottish University, than a prediction could be made whether he would eventually become a University Professor, or a convicted felon.
Similar comparison with the general Hospital population and with soldiers (118 non-commissioned officers, and men of the Royal Engineers) establishes a similar conclusion that, so far as head-measurements are concerned, the criminal, and the hospital patient, and the soldier cannot be differentiated.
Next, comparison with some seventeenth centuryskulls, recently discovered while excavations were being made in Whitechapel, leads to the interesting conclusion that there is a close agreement between correlation values obtained from measurements of English skulls 300 years old, and those calculated from the cephalic-diameters of English convicts alive to-day. And a detailed comparative analysis of head-length and -breadth statistics brings against a current theory, respecting the anomalous conformation of the criminal's head, the following fact: that amongst 200 criminals, the head of only one will be genuinely anomalous—a proportion less than has been found amongst Scottish insane people, and probably much the same as would be found in any section of the law-abiding healthy community.
Comparison with respect to hair and eye colour, nose conformation, deafness, left-handedness, tattooing, of such data as are available, illustrates the absence of any marked peculiarity in the case of criminals, and, lastly, a comparison of the head-contours of 800 convicts with those of 118 Royal Engineers, according to a plan invented by Professor Pearson for comparing skull-contours, demonstrates with great precision that, so far from criminals as a class being differentiated or stigmatized by low and receding foreheads, by projecting occiputs, by asymmetry, and by sugar-loaf, dome-shaped, and other peculiar forms of heads, the agreement between the contrasted types is so remarkable, and the differences so trifling, that at least in this respect no ground can be said to exist for the popular belief that criminal tendency can be inferred from the shape of a man's head. From all these comparisons, pursued strictly according to the biometric method of which I have only attempted to give the outline, Dr. Goring draws his conclusion that "no evidence has emerged confirming the existence of a physical criminal type, such as Lombroso and his disciples have described. The data show that physical differences exist between different kinds of criminals, precisely as they exist between different kinds of law-abiding people. But, when allowance is made for a certain range of probable variation, and when they are reduced to a common standard of age, stature, intelligence, class,&c., these differences tend entirely to disappear. The results nowhere confirm the evidence, nor justify the allegations, of criminal anthropologists. They challenge their evidence at almost every point. In fact, both with regard to measurements and the presence of physical anomalies in criminals, the statistics present a startling conformity with similar statistics of the law-abiding classes. The final conclusion we are bound to accept until further evidence, in the train of long series of statistics, may compel us to reject or to modify an apparent certainty—our inevitable conclusion must be thatthere is no such thing as a physical criminal type."
But although no physical type peculiar to criminals can be demonstrated, certain physical differences in criminals have emerged, and it is in the examination of these differences that Dr. Goring attempts to establish a theory of criminality more simple and reasonable than that which refers them to the presence of a definite criminal type. From a comparison of the stature and weight of the general population, published in 1882 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, he shows that, (apart from differences due to class differentiation,) in physique, as measured by stature and weight, criminals, with the exception of those convicted of fraud, are markedly differentiated from the non-criminal sections of the community. This physical inferiority, however, must not be associated with any condition of degeneracy, atavism, or other defect, mental or physical, originating spontaneously, but all the evidence points to the truth of the theory that these bodily conditions are "selective factors" determining, to some extent, conviction for crime. It may be imagined that as good physique determines occupation, so a bad physique predisposes to a criminal career. It also facilitates arrest by the Police, and apprehensions are considerably fewer than offences committed. It is, too, generally observed that persons of good physique are less irascible and prone to violence, and the case of the incendiary would show that a weakly man has recourse to a mean act from motives of revenge, not being capable of an act requiring physical force. "Fraudulents," it is true, are not selectedfor crime, for they resemble, in weight and stature, the law-abiding public; but they are an exceptional case, which, while destructive of a theory of degeneracy, is not necessarily inimical to the theory that physique selects crime. Dr. Goring does not deny that there is a possibility that this physical inferiority may tend to become an inbred characteristic of the criminal classes, the convicted fathers having sons who inherit their diminutive stature, and thus, in course of time, an inbred differentiation of the criminal classes might result. That this may be so is illustrated by statistics, which show that industrial and reformatory school children are consistently on the average one inch shorter in stature, and several pounds less in weight, than any other class of school-children of the same age in the United Kingdom. Nothing more than this can be conceded to the Lombrosian School. The only fact at the basis of criminal anthropology is that thieves, and burglars, and incendiaries (i.e., about 90 per cent. of all criminals) are markedly differentiated from the general population in stature and body-weight. There is no other scientific foundation than this for the extravagant doctrines of the "Positive" School.
It is also held by Dr. Goring that there is no such thing as a "mental criminal type." It is not denied that marked unlikeness of mental characters exists between criminal groups, as it does between different sections of the law-abiding community; but the point emphasised is that this unlikeness is associated not with a differentiation in criminal tendency, but with the criminal's differentiation in general intelligence or mental capacity, which, according to the nature of his crime, varies enormously:e.g., the percentage of actual mental defectives convicted of stack-firing is 53, of rape 16, of stealing 11, of manslaughter 5, whereas amongst persons convicted of embezzlement, forgery, and other forms of fraud, the percentage is practically zero. The recent Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, from an enumeration of defectives in sixteen representative districts of the British Isles, estimated that ·46 per cent. of the whole population of England and Wales are mentally defective; a similar enumeration in prisons, casual wards,shelters, etc., revealed 10·28 per cent. of mental defects. Dr. Goring contends that it is clear from this that criminals, as well as showing wide differences amongst themselves, are also, as a class, highly differentiated in mental capacity from the law-abiding classes. Mental defectives, it is argued, unlike the insane and pathological imbeciles, are not a special class of human beings, and they are chiefly distinguished from other normal persons by their low level of general intelligence. The term mental deficiency, as applied to convicts, as well as connoting a mind of inferior capacity, in many cases implies also an unbalanced mind,i.e., a mind whose equilibrium is easily disturbed by the preponderance of extreme degrees of objectionable and dangerous qualities, such as impulsiveness, excitability, passionate temper, &c. These qualities are held to be not "morbid" but "natural," being shared in some degree by persons of all mental grades. The measure of general intelligence among criminals bears also a striking relation to their occupational class. Thus, if we examine, say, 1,000 cases of conviction for crime, we should find that the percentage of mentally defective criminals varied from 6 to 35, accordingly as the offender belonged to the professional, commercial, artizan, or labouring class,—the actual percentages for all crime in each class being 6, 15, 26, and 35, respectively. Probably, in the opinion of Dr. Goring, the chief source of the high relationship between weak-mindedness and crime resides in the fact that the criminal thing, which we call "criminality," and which leads to the perpetration of many, if not most, anti-social offences to-day, is notinherent wickedness, but natural stupidity. The striking characteristic of 90 per cent. of offences is their incredible stupidity, and, moreover, it is probable that the commonly alleged causes of crime, such as alcoholism and epilepsy, are not more than accidental associations with crime, themselves depending upon the high degree of relationship which is admitted to exist between defective intelligence and crime.
So far then, the conclusion is that English criminals are selected by a physical condition and by a mental constitution which are independent of each other: thatthe one significant physical association with criminality is a generally defective physique, and that the one vital, mental constitutional factor in the etiology of crime is defective intelligence.
The question of the respective influence of heredity and environment is next considered by Dr Goring. The family histories of 1,500 convicts are examined, and two important relations are demonstrated (1) that the percentage of criminal offspring increases progressively according to whether neither parents, the mother only, the father only, or both parents are criminal: (2) that the percentage of criminal offspring becomes steadily greater as the age of the children increases from 14 to 23. With regard to age, the interesting fact results that the mean age of criminal enlistment is 22, with a deviation of nine years; and 14 to 32 may be regarded as the age when the chance of inherited criminal disposition is most likely to reveal itself—the modal age at first conviction is about 19.
It appears also that the probabilities of conviction are greatly increased when a brother has been convicted, and the greatest intensity of the fraternal, as well as of the paternal association, occurs in families tainted by the crimes of stealing and burglary,i.e., the taint of habitual and professional criminality. But though the tendency for crime to recur in families already criminally tainted is an indisputable statistical fact, it is not in itself a fact of heredity. It may be due to contagion within the corrupted home into which a criminal is born. The solution of the question as to which of the two influences, heredity or contagion, is predominant, cannot be determined by observation alone—there are numberless instances pointing one way or the other—it can only be determined by a statistical examination of family statistics, where the possible influence of each factor has been eliminated. The high degree of association between criminality in husband and wife would, at first sight, seem to furnish proof of the influence of contagion, it being a relation where heredity can be eliminated, but when it can be shown that every other married female criminal is the wife of a criminal husband, and that four out of everyfive alcoholic wives have alcoholic husbands, the theory of contagion gives way to a theory of 'associative or selective' mating among criminals, due to the universal tendency prevailing in every department of life, of like to mate with like. So again, if we eliminate contagion,i.e., if we examine crimes in the perpetration of which parental example would not play an important part, such as arson, damage, or sexual offences, the parental correlation is found to be greater than in stealing or burglary, when the influence of parental example would be likely to have most effect. The result arrived at is that the criminal diathesis, revealed by the tendency to be convicted and imprisoned for crime, is inherited at much the same rate as are other physical and mental qualities and pathological conditions in man, and that the influence of parental contagion is, on the whole, inconsiderable, relatively to the influence of inheritance, and of mental defectiveness, which are by far the most significant factors discovered in the etiology of crime.
Other environmental factors which are commonly alleged as the 'causes' of crime,e.g., illiteracy, alcoholism, poverty, etc., are examined statistically, so far as the data at the disposal of the author furnish ground for valid scientific conclusion.
These alleged causes are, in reality, nothing more than the co-existence of associated phenomena, and until such association is analysed by statistical methods, causation, in the strict scientific sense, cannot be demonstrated. Thus, to take a general instance: poverty and illiteracy are often described as the 'causes' of crime, but as more than a third of the population of Great Britain belongs to the class of general labourers, who are presumably both poor and illiterate, such a statement can mean no more than that there is a more frequent association of criminal acts with persons living on a low rather than on a high economic scale. The exact numerical measure of the association can only be obtained by elaborate statistical comparison, the data for which are not in existence.
As a matter of fact, a statistical comparison of the penal records of convicts reveals the startling fact that if there be any relation between a convict's education andthe frequency of his convictions for crime, it is that those who have received no schooling are the least frequently convicted, and that the worst penal records are of those who have passed through reformatory and industrial schools. Again, if we take alcoholism—it is the fact that deaths from alcoholism are twice as frequent among prisoners as in the general population (26 per 1,000 as against 12 per 1,000), from which it might be inferred that alcoholism is specially associated with the committing of crime. But the incidence of two statistical facts does not, of itself, determine which of the two is antecedent to the other. Does the alcoholist tend to become criminal, or the criminal tend to become alcoholic? Or is the relation of alcoholism to crime due to the fact that both have a common antecedent in defective intelligence? The employment of the correlative tables would seem to point conclusively to the fact that this antecedent is defective intelligence. If a comparison is made of the mean degrees of intelligence of alcoholic and temperate convicts, it appears that there is a pronounced differentiation of intelligence in favour of the latter, and that the mental grade of alcoholic convicts is lower by a half than that of alcoholics in the general population. Apart from offences connected with personal violence, where there is a direct association with inebriety, alcoholism cannot strictly be regarded as a cause of crime, and the general conclusion would seem to be that adverse environment is related much more intimately to the intelligence of convicts than it is to the nature of their crimes, or to the degree of their recidivism. Again, if we examine the relation of occupation to criminality, it appears that crime is related much more closely to the opportunity which a particular occupation offers than to the economic scale of living which it suggests: thus, sailors, miners, and labourers are relatively free from association with the acquisitive offences, for which, from the special facilities afforded by their occupation, clerks, shop-keepers, and persons engaged in commerce are disproportionately selected; and this proclivity to fraud in all its forms is distributed equally through all these classes, the professional and the upper classes providing nearly their proportional share of thieves. Four per cent. of persons in the general population belong to the professional classes: the number of convicted thieves belonging to this class is three per cent. As ninety-five per cent. of all offences are of an acquisitive kind, it is difficult to sustain the point that poverty is a cause of crime.
Dr. Goring is led to the conclusion that there is not any significant relationship between crime and what are popularly believed to be its "causes", and that crime is only to a trifling extent the product of social inequalities or adverse environment, and that there are no physical, mental, or moral characteristics peculiar to the inmates of English Prisons: that one of the principal determinants of crime is "mental defectiveness," and as this is a heritable condition, the genesis of crime must to this extent be influenced by heredity.
Putting aside the part played by the different circumstances affecting criminal man, biologically and otherwise, and without subscribing to the different views and doctrines which, in the opinion of the author, result from the inquiry, the broad and general truth which appears from this mass of figures and calculations is that the "criminal" man is, to a large extent, a "defective" man, either physically or mentally, or, is unable to acquire the complex characters which are essential to the average man and so is prone to follow the line of least resistance. This truth may not be new or startling. It is advanced now by Dr. Goring as a truth which is scientifically demonstrable and so commanding respect and possessing a value which would not belong to statements based on purely empirical observation. This result may be regarded as modest and even disproportionate to the labour involved, but it is worthy of attainment, for much is gained everywhere and especially in the realm of penology, when definite ideas as to the nature of the problems dealt with are substituted for vague notions, or even illusions, as to the nature of the criminal: notions which, in the absence of detached and scientific inquiry, undertaken, as this has been, from a single-minded desire to search out what is true, may have their origin in two quite contrary sources,viz.: an undue pity for theoffender or an undue desire to be revenged on him.