CRIME AS A PROFESSION: HOW TO ABOLISH IT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9565, 22 October 1892, Page 5 (Supplement)

CRIME AS A PROFESSION: HOW TO ABOLISH IT.

Upon the above subject the St. James' Gazette has the following : — It is only in recent years that light has been thrown on the criminal problem. 0 Wo are not alluding _to the theories about the shape ?f criminals' heads brought forward L ingenious _ gentlemen who call themselves psychologists, morphologists, crauioloeisU or some other impressive name. Such speculations may ba all very well as an amusement but they have at present no practical oeanng and do not seem likely to have any. The useful knowledge that ha= been acquired about criminals conies torn another quarter, and is due to the observation or taeir habits by the criminal police It should oe remembered that a department designed to deal specially and systematically with prime and criminals has only existed m this country about 14 years, and not much longer anywhere else. The organisation has not yet reached the limits of possiole development; but compared with former efforts, it has acquired a very considerable grasp of the criminal problem Increased familiarity with the anti-social classes has brought, and still brings out more and more clearly the fact that the vast majority of offences against property, and incidentally a large proportion of those against the person, are the worn of a comparatively small class which practises crime as. a profession. The CJerkenwell aftair which occurred a few months ago is a case m point. A gang of burglars was apprehended, and on the premises a great quantity of stolen property was found. Articles were identified in connection with 87 separate burglaries, while a large proportion of the stuft was not identified at all lulling this mto consideration, and allowing xor other cases in which the proceeds had been already got rid of, we may fairly reckon that those livo or six men represented not less than 120 burglaries. Similar cases are constantly cropping up on a smaller scale. The man who committed one crime is always turning out to be the man who committed several others. Here is a case Iran the papers of the 13th o?. August — A mau named Stevens, who, after a lone career of crime, was convicted oE a series ot burglaries at the Nottingham Assizes has since his incarceration made an interesting confession"—to wib, another burglary In France the wonderfully perfect system of ldentißcation has demonstrated still more conclusively the existence of the professional criminal, and his responsibility for the great mass ot crime committed. The same individuals keep coming up again and again. They live by crime; it is their trade; they are not in the least deterred by the penalties ot the law, but' bagin afresh at the first opportunity because they prefer that means of livelihood. Society gets no forwarder," so to speak, in the repression or crime, because the task is always beginning over again. Bill Sykes may be safely waged m Newgate, but that is not much use if, on the same day, the gates of Fort-land are opened to leb loose Jack Shpppard. The effectual remedy is obvious. Once recognise that crime is, iii the main, not a series of accidental occurrences, but the outcome of a deliberate choice for life, and the rest follows. First the professional criminal must be identified with certainty and to that end the anthropometric system recommended by the British Association must bo adopted. V/ithout going into it in detail, we may mention some of its advantages Tt is absolutely certain : it tolls unerringly whether or no the subject has been convicted before, and why; it is applicable all over tho world without loss of time or the expense oE sending people to effect identification—a telegram suttices. Secondly, the professional criminal must be dealt with as such. The moral basis of criminal law is the right of society to protect itself. And the only effectual way of protecting society in this case is to lock the offender up for good. Thus we might institute a rational method af procedure roughly on the following basis :—First oiionders might, in ordinary cases, be let oft' lightly; second offenders treated with a sharp and inexpensive penalty, such as floggiug and short terms of hard labour ; thud oiteuders sent to penal servitude for life. The system would work in several ways : old hands who chiefly occupy the tima of the police would soon be all put safely away; beginners would bs deterred after a firit warning by the fate awaiting them ; the geiierafciou coming on would have no one to teach and initiate them ; it is quite possible to abolish systematic crime. The present system is pouring water through a sieve and paying several millions a year for the amusement