SCIENTIFIC CRIME

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 750, 24 August 1929, Page 13

SCIENTIFIC CRIME

ONE RESULT OF ERA OF SOBRIETY NEW PROBLEMS FOR POLICE Criminals are decreasing in number, but crime is increasing in gravity. That is not a paradox; it is a mere statement o£ lact that is keeping Scotland Yard busy seeking to devise new methods to meet modern criminal moves, writes Mr. R. E. Corder in the “Daily Mail.” Twenty years ago the charge sheets at the metropolitan police courts were filled by drunkenness cases and offences directly due to drink. Now, except on festive occasions like Christmas, New Year’s Eve. the Boat Race, and the Derby, “drunks” in London consist chiefly of old offenders, men and women who have survived what they would call the scourge of sobriety—endured by the country since the war. Today England is undoubtedly a sober country. The latest reports of all chief constables show a steady and progressive decline in convictions for drunkenness. A few weeks ago I toured the country extensively, and I was impressed by the abpence of “drunks” from the charge sheets both in industrial and agricultural areas. But a sober country does not necessarily mean a virtuous country. That, is where the total abstinence advocates here and in the United States are arguing on a false thesis. They declare that most crime and attendant misery are due to drink. Magistrates and police now realise that sobriety has aided if not produced the super-criminal, the clever men and women whom the detectives of the C.I.D. are finding so difficult to catch. The changing phases of crime have kept pace with the decline in petty offences. The chief crimes of today are not the product of violence but of ingenuity. In other words, we have among us a clever, educated, resourceful criminal who does not carry a bludgeon but often wears a monocle. Problem in Psychology Scotland Yard is now confronted with a problem in psychology. For generations detectives have hunted the Bill Sikes type of criminal, the crude bungler of tho black bottle, the man who robbed mansions to live himself in a garret, the man whose methods were so characterictic that he “wrote his name” on every job. Working on the old lines, the detectives invariably brought in their man so long as he conformed with the old methods; but during the last few years Bill Sikes has been replaced by Raffles, and applied science has succeeded brutal violence. Many detectives with whom I have discussed the ingenuity of the new criminal declare that serious crime began when force broke out. Thousands of young men, including brilliant officers, they say, were unable to find work, and many of them turned those very mental and physical qualities that made them good soldiers into a career of crime. These are the men Scotland Yard finds it hard to catch. Motor bandits, cat burglars, jewel thieves, men of resource and tried courage who plan a burglary as they would xfian a night raid across No Man’s Land. They are the Bulldog Drummonds of the Underworld, men you will meet in the West End, men of good manner and pleasant appearance, who mock at morality through a monocle. I myself have met at least one of these “gentleman adventurers,” as they call themselves. I met him at a murder trial at Maidstone, complete with monocle, Oxford accent, and charming manner. A brilliant conversationalist, he was a most entertaining dinner and smoke-room companion. He is nc w doing time at Dartmoor. The Untamable Boy In addition to the "gentleman adventurers,” there is a formidable and elusive class of criminal composed of intelligent and skilled craftsmen who have had the benefit of a Borstal training. I agree that many Borstal boys have made good, but Scotland Yard knows only too well that the bad Borstal boy, the boy who cannot be tamed, is one of the most dangerous criminals who menace society. Owing to the activities of the educated and scientific criminal we are faced today with the disturbing truth that high-class crime pays. It pays because detection is more difficult and fences (receivers) are afraid to blackmail men whose brains are at least equal to their own and whose methods are more subtle. The new criminal is bringing to the fore the new detective. Brains are being met with brains, and the whole system of criminal investigation is in the process of being transformed to meet the changing phases of crime.