A Plea for the Criminal Being a reply to Dr. Chapple's work: 'The Fertility of the Unfit', and an Attempt to explain the leading principles of Criminological and Reformatory Science

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Title: A Plea for the Criminal

Being a reply to Dr. Chapple's work: 'The Fertility of the

Unfit', and an Attempt to explain the leading principles

of Criminological and Reformatory Science

Author: James Leslie Allan Kayll

Release Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #28632]

Language: English

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DEDICATED

TO MANY KIND FRIENDS.

A PLEA FOR THE CRIMINAL.

BEING A REPLY TO DR. CHAPPLE'S WORK:

THE FERTILITY OF THE UNFIT,

AND

AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE LEADING

PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINOLOGICAL &

REFORMATORY SCIENCE.

By

THE REV. J. L. A. KAYLL,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF

THE HOWARD ASSOCIATION.

INVERCARGILL!

W. Smith, Commercial Printer, Temple Chambers, Esk Street.

MCMV.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME.

CONTENTS

Chapter I.

INTRODUCTION.

This little book presents an appeal to society to consider its criminals with greater charity and with more intelligent compassion. No other plea is advanced than that the public mind should rid itself of all prejudices and misunderstandings, and should make an honest endeavour to understand what the criminal is, why he is a criminal and what, notwithstanding, are his chances in social life.

The criminal has a claim to be understood just as well as any other creature. It is not necessary that his sympathisers should shut their eyes to the fact that he is capable of shocking crime, that he is often an ungrateful wretch that will bite the hand that feeds him and that among his ranks are to be found the most depraved specimens of humanity that the mind can conceive. A failure to recognize these facts is actually a failure to do justice to his cause. Notwithstanding the hideous history that he may have to unfold, he does ask to be understood.

The majority of people take a most prejudiced view of the criminal's case. They will read the account of some fearful outrage or the details of a disgraceful divorce suit with absolutely no interest what ever in the persons concerned but only for the sake of the morbid satisfaction which such reading gives them. A glance at the sentence will draw forth from them the exclamation that the wretch got no more than he deserved or that he didn't get half enough. This simply indicates that society as a whole has made very little real progress in the manner in which it regards its criminals. The old barbaric idea of revenge is still the dominant one and any scheme for the betterment of the criminal, even if it should give unmistakeable signs that it will accomplish his absolute reform, is carefully investigated to see whether it provides for a sufficient degree of penal suffering. Suffering which is of an entirely penal nature, has very little deterrent value and absolutely no reformative value whatever. And yet our refined and educated men and women will read the accounts of crimes and, in their own minds, sentence the actors to five, ten, fourteen or twenty years; even death, as if criminals were so used to this sort of thing that they thought no more of it than their self-chosen judges would if deprived of a day's sport or disappointed over a ball.

But, as an ex-member of the Justice Department said to me, do you know what the wretch has done? Yes, I do know what he has done, and I know him personally and well, and I know of what he is capable and such knowledge brings with it the conviction that society commits a greater crime than that which he has committed when it undertakes to punish him for his offence upon a principle of pure vengeance.

Vengeance is mine, saith the Almighty, I will repay. Society is not God any more than is the individual, so that by acting in the collective capacity no additional plea of justification may be advanced.

The endeavour of this book will be to show that the best interests of society are not served by the infliction of punishments which are essentially penal but by the accomplishment of the reform of the criminal. This latter process is for the criminal himself, infinitely more severe than the former, but it inflicts a pain which raises the man to a higher level; it is purgatorial, and not one which, being penal, leaves him a greater enemy to mankind than ever.

The criminal is not excused for his wrong-doing, he is not regarded as an automaton, but simply as a creature of capabilities and possibilities which require the intelligent sympathy of his fellows in order that they may be properly developed.

There are many persons who regard the reform of the criminal as an absolutely hopeless task and a waste of time to think over; they advocate his extermination. They would fling back to the Creator His own work as having, in their judgment, proved worthless, even mischievous.

Dr Chapple is astounded that the existence, or at least the birth, of defectives should be allowed. It is, he says, due in a large measure to the tide of Christian sentiment which is to-day in full flood. The Christian does at least recognize that of every defective God says, take this child and nurse it for Me, but to speak of Christian sentiment being at its flood-tide to-day is surely not the speech of one who professes much belief in the future of Christianity.

Dr Chapple preaches a Gospel for the defective, and his banner is the skull and cross-bones! Christian sentiment when at its flood-tide will have swept away all such emblems. In replying to Dr Chapple, I have endeavoured to show that his proposal touches but the fringe of the problem, and even there after an unscientific and immoral manner. There is room for a measure of surprise that Dr Chapple should have undertaken to write his book with such a scant knowledge of the facts as they really are.

In presenting this little book to the public, the author does so with the hope that it may tend to restore the confidence in human nature that Dr Chapple has somewhat weakened, but also in some measure to inspire society towards greater collective ameliorative effort, in which our full confidence may unhesitatingly be placed. The author hopes that the criminal, a subject of patient study for the last ten years, will be seen in a somewhat new light. Criminologists declare the criminal to be seven-eighths of an average man. May society find in itself the ability and good-will to contribute the other eighth!

Small as this volume is, it has required many communications with the old world, and the author's thanks are due to many students engaged upon the study of this science in England and in the United States, and who have rendered him valuable assistance. Also, the assistance of many kind friends in New Zealand is gratefully acknowledged, and particularly that of Mr Alfred Grant, without whose aid the preparation of these sheets for the press would have been an almost impossible task.

Chapter II.

THE CRIMINAL.

The popular mind draws little or no distinction between criminals. In it there exists the idea of a criminal caste, all the members of which are prepared to commit any and every act of a criminal nature. In the popular mind, although it is just a question whether a man is bad enough to commit the greater crimes, yet thieves, violators, swindlers, forgers and murderers are all assumed to fall into the same category. In one sense they do, that is, that they are all anti-social beings, or rather they all possess certain anti-social qualities; but as soon as we proceed further we find that there exists a very great distinction in criminals. Criminals are first classified according to the motive of their crime. This classication ranges them under five different headings, the political criminal, the occasional criminal, the criminal of passion, the instinctive criminal, and the habitual criminal or recidivist.

Again they are classified, according to the nature of their crime, into thieves, robbers, violators, assassins, murderers, swindlers, etc. These again are sub-classified, e.g., thieves are classified as housebreakers, those who rob with violence, those who use weapons, those who rob from the person, and those who break safes. Murderers may also be classified according to the nature of their murderous instinct, illustrated by the instrument of destruction that they employ, whether it be the knife, firearms, poisons or other means, and again a classification exists between those who commit murder themselves and those who employ agents. All these classifications are entirely different, and although some criminals may range under more than one heading, yet it is generally the case that a criminal adopts both a certain form of crime and also a particular method for carrying it into execution.

The Political Criminal.—This man's offence is not against morality but against the governmental institutions of the country. He holds advanced ideas upon matters of government and upon the constitution of society, and in his attempt to propagate these he becomes a political criminal. The political criminal, as distinguished from all other criminals, never commits violence, his morals may even approach perfection; but he holds ideas, ideas which are not acceptable to the government under which he lives.

The despotic rule of the Oriental countries is most favourable to the production of the political criminal: Russia and Germany are not without their representatives. Occasionally bands of political criminals are formed, and then, in the midst of demonstrations, unpremeditated violence may be committed. The Stundists and the Young Turkish Party are examples.

The Occasional Criminal.—Economic conditions are generally responsible for the production of the occasional criminal. His crime is committed in order to satisfy his present wants. In him the sensual instincts may not be stronger than usual, and the social element, though weaker than usual, need not be absent. Weakness is the chief characteristic of the occasional criminal. When circumstances are not quite favourable he succumbs to temptation. (The Criminal, p. 18.) The occasional criminal is clearly a subject for educational treatment. He needs to cultivate greater power of self-control, to strengthen his moral sense, and above all to be thoroughly equipped for the battle of life. Imprisonment will frequently ruin him and be the cause of his becoming a confirmed or habitual criminal.

The Criminal of Passion.—He is generally of considerable culture and of keen moral sensibility. His crime proceeds from a sense of righteous indignation which, for the moment, completely blinds him. Personal insults cannot disturb his calm, but the sight of a child being abused or a defenceless one being attacked, will so infuriate him that he may even commit murder. Premeditation is never present, he acts under the powerful inspiration of the moment, and his crime is an isolated event quite unconnected with his conduct in general.

The Insane Criminal.—Insane persons who commit criminal acts, show rather a variation of insanity than of criminality. It would be more exact to describe them as criminal lunatics than as insane criminals. Two classes exist, a fact which is often overlooked, for there are both criminal-lunatics and insane-criminals. In the first case, criminality is the product of insanity, but in the second case insanity is the product of criminality. Not an hereditary product in either case, but a product resulting from a cause within the person's mental or moral self.

The pronounced lunatic, the incapable, irresponsible person whose actions are beyond his power to understand or control, is regarded by society as a being too dangerous to be at large. Of him we do not here speak to any extent, he is too well recognized. It should always be borne in mind, however, that he commits crime because he is a lunatic, and that although his confinement is absolutely necessary, yet there is no warrant whatever that it should be made penal in character.

Although it is not possible in a work of this kind to deal largely with the subject, the writer would urge upon the notice of society and upon the special notice of jurists that there are a number of persons whose crimes should excite for them the greatest sympathy instead of, as is the case, the greatest detestation. Men there are who, perfectly sane in the ordinarily accepted sense, and who have not only a clear conception of the immorality of their conduct, but also an intense abhorrence and shame for it, find themselves performing the most revolting acts under influences that are absolutely irresistible. The sensualist has no justification, but our laws are excessively cruel in their dealings with this class to which allusion is made. To be brief, no man charged with sadism (lust-murder) pederasty or the related crimes, should have his case made public until a most complete diagnostic examination (including