Delinquency

“ I stand here at this bar as a delinquent, and do desire that my accuser may be brought forth to accuse me for my delinquency, and then I shall answer to my charge, if any I be guilty of.
[23] No one ought to betray himself.
C. Judge. You are here demanded to take the oath of allegiance, and when you have done that, then you shall be heard about the other; for we have power to tender it to any man. ”

“ There is only one possible answer to the question, “What is to be done with the feebleminded person who is delinquent?” He must be cared for, but he must be cared for in a place where we care for irresponsibles. The jail or prison or reformatory, is not for him, neither must he be turned loose on the streets or sent back to the home and environment in which he has already become a delinquent.
In the present state of our laws and customs, delinquency is the one means by which we are able to get hold of a [Pg 14] certain type of mental defective and provide for him as he should be provided for. ”

“ You know better where to meet with the minister of justice than with an offending individual taken at large:— the officer has more to lose than the individual:— and the greater the assurance you have that a delinquent, in case of accusation, will be forthcoming, in readiness to afford satisfaction in the event of his being sentenced to afford it, the less the alarm which his delinquency inspires. ”

“ CLASSIFICATION.
The subject of delinquency is one which has attracted the attention of experts in many fields from earliest times. Of late years there has been a tendency to regard delinquency as a manifestation of abnormality if not of disease. There has' been considerable discussion as to whether criminology should not be taken from its close association with law and placed in more intimate relations with psychiatry. In the eyes of some, it is in itself a branch of science. Others regard it as merely a borderline science between law, medicine and economics. ”

“ If such an individual is to be classified by his delinquency he might find himself at one time a disturber of the peace, at another time a murderer. Furthermore, just as the individual might commit different sorts of crime, so the same crime might be committed by individuals belonging to entirely different types. ”

“ While it is undoubtedly an encouraging fact that the attitude of the community towards delinquency is rapidly changing and is assuming more the position of sympathetic inquiry into the causes and remedies, it is none the less a fact that the law remains as of old,-sternly searching for the responsible parties. ”

“ In case we suddenly segregate for life all those who are so deficient that we are justified in isolating them, 250would that solve the problem of delinquency for the next generation? Although this would be the most important attack which could be made on the most important known cause of delinquency, we must still answer that the results would hardly be comparable with a jail delivery. There is nothing to be gained by turning our backs upon the facts. Goring has estimated that 7.2% of the male population of England and Wales commit crime before death. ”

“ If the danger be intentional, insomuch that it might be produced, and might convert itself into actual mischief, without the concurrence of any calamity, it may be said to originate in mere delinquency: offences, then, which, without the concurrence of any calamity, tend to produce such danger as disturbs the security of a local, or other subordinate class of persons, may be styled semi-public offences operating merely by delinquency, or more briefly, offences of mere delinquency. ”

“ But this is not all:—The adroit Thief and Receiver, availing themselves of their pecuniary resources, often escape, from their knowledge of the tricks and devices which are practised, through the medium of disreputable practitioners of the Law; while the novices in delinquency generally suffer the punishment attached to conviction. ”

“ We know nothing, as yet, except by inference about the correlation of delinquency with the influence of bad companions outside the home, bad school adjustment, the effect of broken families aside from the early death of the mother, absence of proper recreation, and many other stimuli for delinquency which social workers have been studying for years by less conclusive methods. ”

“ But, from his situation, a private man, a subject, and the servant of a trading company, his accusers blended together his different characters. There is always something, in the slightest accusation of delinquency in pecuniary matters, which is revolting to a generous mind. ”

“ We have an examination of occasional, habitual, and latent criminals, who represent an attenuated type of delinquency, following on the investigations of these serious forms, admitting of correction, prevention, or cure. It develops much later in life than the vicious propensities of instinctive [Pg 308] criminals or may even remain latent; yet at the root we always find the same anatomical and pathological anomalies, although less marked and fewer in number. ”

“ Cases of stealing should be treated by analysis. Moral lectures are useless; the cause lies in the unconscious, and the moral lecture does not touch the unconscious. Nor does punishment affect the root cause of the delinquency. ”

“ Louise de Koven Bowen, Flexner and Baldwin, are pretty largely agreed that the causes of delinquency, and hence of criminality, are as follows: (1) The defective home—made defective by illness, poverty, shiftlessness, ignorance, immorality, desertion, divorce, death—is the leading single causal element. Nearly all criminals begin their careers as disobedient sons. The law of obedience and self-discipline, if not observed in the home, is learned later only at the expense of anti-social and criminal acts. (2) Mental defectiveness often causes delinquency. ”

“ It will be seen that vagrancy, or the habit of wandering abroad, under colour either of distress, or of some ostensible, though illegal occupation, having claims on the sympathies of the uninformed, constitutes one great source of delinquency, and especially of juvenile delinquency. ”

“ In dealing with delinquency there are two basic facts: that the great majority of criminals are made in their youth and that the great majority of youthful criminals are handicapped in life’s race either by physical, mental or moral defects. ”

“ Usually these officials are men with no legal training and with little understanding of the causes of delinquency or of how delinquents should be treated in order to give them a fair chance to become normal citizens. ”

“ The thief or swindler who has gained great wealth by his delinquency has a better chance than the small thief of escaping the rigorous penalty of the law and some good repute accrues to him from his increased wealth and from his spending the irregularly acquired possessions in a seemly manner. ”

“ The art of preventing offences is unbeaten ground—has hardly had a scientific teacher. On laws and general legislation, on the theory of crimes and punishments, on prison discipline, on the execution of offenders, and all the ulterior proceedings of delinquency, we have treatises without number; but on the institutions of police we have not a single work, except perhaps the matter-of-fact publication of the late Dr Colquhoun. ”

“ We all recognize the term, and in a good many instances agree in the diagnosis. We each of us, however, have our own ideas and prejudices in regard to delinquency and nobody wants to set tip a hard and fast definition uch as would be necessary from a legal point of view. ”

“ They seem to maintain what might be called a high general level of delinquency rather than to lead in any particular direction, errand boys being found in fourteen and newsboys in fifteen of the sixteen separate offense groups. ”

“ According to the definition contained in the above-mentioned law, a defective delinquent is, first, "an individual who has committed an offense not punishable by death or imprisonment for life, but who ordinarily might be committed to a state prison, a reformatory, jail, or house of correction, to the state farm or the industrial school, a truant school, or to the custody, of the State Board of Charity as mentally defective." ”

“ Thus, though our delinquents are not as capable as their sisters, many of them from congested districts, who in other ways are proving themselves ambitious [the group from night classes,] yet they are no less equipped intellectually than others who are earning a livelihood and caring for themselves without coming in conflict with the law in the least. ”

“ If we study the different groups of delinquents which have been tested, we notice that they represent highly selected groups among the ordinary offenders whether these be adults or minor delinquents. The only parallelism which can be traced at all is between prostitutes and vagrants and some of the institutional groups. We should stop assuming that the institutional delinquents represent the ordinary offenders. The present evidence points to the conclusion that it is the repeaters, not the first offenders either in the juvenile or criminal courts, who are most likely to be deficient. ”

“ All the previous cases in which he had sat had been for murder or arson, robbery or theft, burglary, blackmail or some other outrageous offense against common morals or decency. But here was a man who had never done anything but good in his life, and was at the bar of justice charged with crime merely because some cold-blooded mercenaries thought he was interfering with their business! Bently was in a recalcitrant and indignant frame of mind against the prosecution long before the defense began. ”

“ XXX. The second way, by which delays in criminal prosecutions afford occasions for delinquents to escape with impunity, is not so palpable, nor so obvious as the first, but in general is more successful, and oftener takes effect. I will explain what I mean. When a notorious crime is newly committed, all minds are sharpened against the offender, and filled with horror at the outrage. Even the most mild call out for punishment, and the injured person, invokes heaven and earth for it. The public in general seem filled with resentment, and breathe nothing but severity. ”

“ Next comes the “délit,” which includes all offences punished by imprisonment over a week and under five years. Then, finally, we arrive at the “crime,” the highest form of offence in French criminal law. It includes all offences subject to a more severe sentence than the punishment assigned to a délit. All cases are held to be crimes where death, life-imprisonment with or without hard labour, deportation out of the kingdom, detention or seclusion in a fortress or other expressly assigned place, are the punishments mentioned by the law. ”

“ Only those imprisoned for the smaller offenses of a single incidence of petty larceny, receipt of felons, or accessory to a felony, or some other trespass not punishable by life or limb shall be let out by sufficient surety. Prisoners who were outlawed or escaped from prison or are notorious thieves or were imprisoned for felonious house-burning, passing false money, counterfeiting the King's seal, treason touching the King himself, or other major offenses or have been excommunicated by the church may not be released. ”

“ To grade the delinquent downwards is not sufficient. There may be the possibility of constructive work with him. As a matter of fact, some of the most encouraging results of our own efforts have come through the discovery that the offender was suited for something which he had never had the chance of doing, and that a corresponding adjustment of his affairs brought cessation of delinquencies. ”

“ The circumstances, my lord, and gentlemen of the jury, which have brought the prisoner before you this day, involve a long catalogue of crimes that as far transcend, in the hideousness of their guilt, the offences of a common felon as his rank and position in life do that of the humblest villain who ever stood before a court of justice. ”

“ Whenever an offense was found to be increasing, some busy senator called for new rigor, until murder became in the eye of the law no greater crime than picking a pocket, purloining a ribbon from a shop, or pilfering a pewter-pot. ”

“ The Justices of the Peace decided misdemeanors such as abduction of heiresses, illegal entry, petty thievery, damage to crops, fence-breaking, brawling, personal feuds, drunken pranks, swearing, profanation of the Sabbath, alehouse nuisances, drunkenness, perjury, and malfeasance by officials. They held petty and quarter sessions. Many people were hanged for the felony of theft over 12d. Some bold men accused of felony refused to plead so that they could not be tried and found guilty. They died of heavy weights being placed on their bodies. ”

“ These are the momentous problems; in comparison with these, all fine-spun definitions respecting the difference between one crime and another are mere dust in the balance. There can be little doubt that a neglect of those considerations on the part of many magistrates and judges, is at the root of the capricious sentences so often passed upon criminals. The effects of this neglect result in the passing of sentences of too great severity on first offenders and the young; and of too much leniency on hardened and habitual criminals. ”

“ Every one would despise the delinquent, who, while passing to trial should impose on his fellows with protestations of innocence, when he knew the judge acquainted with his guilt, and that he would soon disclose it, and open it to public view. ”

“ What the effect upon society in general must be, of letting it be understood, that there is a crime which must not, or cannot, be restrained or punished, because peers and ‘gentlemen’ think proper to commit it, while the law declares it to be felony, we leave those to judge who know the power of example, and the aptness of the lower orders to learn evil from their betters. ”

“ For no crime whatever, and for no reason except that they had rescued a gentle and unfortunate spirit from a most degrading thraldom to demoniac agencies, and to men more vile and wicked than demons, they had been mobbed,――abused by a parcel of mercenary scoundrels,――stripped naked in the forum, and whipped there like thieves,――and at last thrown into the common jail among felons, with every additional injury that could be inflicted by their determined persecutors, being fettered so that they could not repose their sore and exhausted bodies. ”