Criminality and economic conditions

Part 2 / Book 2 — CHAPTER VI.

Henry P. (Henry Pomeroy) Horton translation

PATHOLOGICAL CRIMES.

So far we have been examining crime in its relation to the economic and social environment. We have not been able to discover the existence of individual factors; the celebrated formula, “crime = individual factor + social factor,” has been shown to be incorrect if we are seeking for the causes of crime instead of asking why a certain individual has become a criminal. The conclusion obtained by sociology is the same as that arrived at in anthropology by authors like Manouvrier, Baer, and Näcke.

We might leave the matter here, for we have come to a field other than that of sociology. However, one more question presents itself. To what extent are the economic system and its consequences the cause of these maladies? It is plain that this important question belongs in a work on sociology. We shall accordingly attempt to answer it briefly with the aid of competent authorities.

First of all, we note that heredity plays a great part in these maladies. The authors who have taken up the subject agree. It has been remarked that:

First, the inheritance of defects is not inevitable; degenerate parents may have sound children, though the chances are not very great.

In speaking of heredity we come to the first relation between the diseases in question and the social environment, since, in our present society, human reproduction is intimately bound up with the economic life. A person who is diseased but rich is often in a position to marry and procreate, while he would have had a smaller chance if sexual selection alone had been effective. On the other hand many well and strong individuals are prevented at present from establishing a family, since they lack the means to support it.

A second harmful kind of selection in our present society is found in the effect of militarism, which takes the strongest individuals, decimates them in time of war, or returns them to society weakened and diseased, while the weak have the greater chance to procreate.

In the third place, the ignorance of the harmful effects for humanity of the reproduction of degenerates is one of the principal reasons why degeneracy is so frequently present. This ignorance is great in the well-to-do classes, and naturally greater still among the poor. It is often repeated, and with truth, that man takes great care to improve his live stock by selection but takes none whatever in the matter of his own race; the weak and the diseased continue to reproduce themselves to the detriment of all society. The lack of all feeling of responsibility, natural to our intensely individualistic society, also contributes its share toward bringing to birth so many unhappy creatures for whom it would have been better if they had never existed.

Further, the cares and restlessness consequent upon the uncertainty of life may be causes of the weakening of the nervous system and the origin of a neurosis.

We have come now to the end of our remarks upon the social and economic causes of degeneracy. Although they are plainly not the only ones, yet it is certain that their part in the etiology of degeneracy is very important, and even preponderating.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · However, when one is trying to determine the cause of crime by sociology, certain cases are at times met with that cannot be explained in th Note 2 · One thing more before we ask ourselves what this individual factor is. As many authors have remarked, it very often happens that, even in th Note 3 · What, then, is the nature of this individual factor? It is especially the Italian school that has busied itself with this problem, and in do Note 4 · Anthropologists also are strongly opposed to this hypothesis. In his article, “De geboren misdadiger” (the born-criminal) Professor Jelgersm Note 5 · After this beginning the Italian school put forth another explanation, to which it attached the more importance as the hypothesis of atavism Note 6 · Among those disordered and degenerate, some individuals588 have tendencies not found in others (such as the desire to kill for the sake of k Note 7 · Second, the disease of the parents is not always transmitted as such to the child, but the child may be predisposed to this same disease or Note 8 · If we ask how it happens that one individual or another is degenerate, we must answer that very often this degeneracy is due to heredity, ei Note 9 · What are at present the principal characteristics of the relation between degeneracy and the present economic system with its consequences? Note 10 · These unfavorable circumstances must be more precisely defined, therefore. We shall divide them into four great groups.592 Note 11 · First. The material condition of the poor classes. “To be well,” says Dr. Toulouse, “one must be sufficiently fed, must clothe himself accor Note 12 · In the first place the poor classes are badly and insufficiently fed, and as a consequence grow weak, and the children born to them are infe Note 13 · In the second place, unsanitary dwellings and insufficient clothing are the cause of all sorts of diseases, especially tuberculosis, which i Note 14 · In the third place, the long duration and intensity of the work forced upon the proletariat also contribute to degeneracy. For each individu Note 15 · The harmful consequences of long working hours make themselves felt especially in the trades which are already dangerous to health, like tho Note 16 · The present economic system has also led to the work of women and children, and consequently to an important cause of the degeneration of th Note 17 · Finally, when an individual of this class falls sick his restoration to health may be hindered by the lack of care and medical assistance an Note 18 · Second. The condition of the well-to-do classes. Most of the causes producing degeneracy in the poor classes do not appear among the well-to Note 19 · In the active part of the bourgeoisie, among the manufacturers, merchants, etc., the case is different. They are constantly absorbed in the Note 20 · The opinion of the celebrated alienist Maudsley is also very interesting; he says: “Perhaps one, and certainly not the least, of the ill eff Note 21 · We could cite a number of other competent authorities to prove that the present economic system exacts from those who direct production also Note 22 · Third. Syphilis. Aside from the fact that this malady is very probably the cause of general paralysis,608 it takes its place among the impor Note 23 · This would not be the time to speak of syphilis as a cause of degeneracy, if the extension of this malady were not intimately bound up with Note 24 · As a social cause of the great extension of syphilis it is well to point out the profound ignorance of the extent and the danger of venereal Note 25 · Fourth. Alcoholism. Alcoholism undoubtedly belongs to the very important causes of degeneracy. There are few questions upon which competent Note 26 · It must still further be observed, that the very frequent adulteration of alcohol leads to especially harmful consequences;616 and that alco