Offender

“ Among so many chances of escaping, the needy and hardened offender overlooks the multitude that suffer ; he boldly engages in some desperate attempt, to relieve his wants or supply his vices ; and, if unexpectedly the hand of justice overtakes him, he deems himself peculiarly unfortunate, in falling at last a sacrifice to those laws, which long impunity has taught him to contemn. ”

“ It would be absurd, after an offence has already been committed, to increase the sum of misery in the world, by inflicting pain upon the offender, unless that pain were afterwards to be productive of happiness to society, either by preventing the criminal from repeating his offence, or by deterring others from similar enormities. ”

“ Not a warning, not a hint—not a prayer even—addressed to the offender. They have not the sense of justice to see or they have not the courage to denounce the perpetrators of evil, but direct all their efforts to hushing the complaints of the victims. ”

“ Am I the keeper of another man's conscience?' No one can hesitate to say that such a man voluntarily aids in the perpetration of the offence, and, morally speaking, is almost, if not quite, as guilty as the principal offender. ”

“ It looks only to the offender himself, and is regardless of his innocent posterity. It really operates, as a posthumous punishment upon them; and compels them to bear, not only the disgrace naturally attendant upon such flagitious crimes; but takes from them the common rights and privileges enjoyed by all other citizens, where they are wholly innocent, and however remote they may be in the lineage from the first offender. ”

“ Punishment by the blow or the immediate sentence will be futile. The offender must know he has trespassed in a realm beyond your administration and rule; he has done more than commit an offense against you. ”

“ The various punishments which are inflicted upon our law breakers are fines, imprisonment, flogging, and death.
Fines produce a very useful means of dealing with persons whose offences show a tendency to crime rather than to actual criminality. In many cases the self-respect of the offender has not been sacrificed, and while under arrest the sense of shame is deeply aroused. ”

“ Rather, an offender's background and character unrelated to his crime should be considered by the sentencer because of society's deeply felt view that punishment should reflect both the seriousness of a crime and the nature of the offender. ”

“ An innocent man, charged with a heinous offence, and against whom evidence of guilt has been given, is much more likely to be overwhelmed by his situation, and embarrassed, when called upon for explanation, than the offender, who is hardened in guilt ”

“ We behold the petty offender visited with the severest penalties of the law, while the- perpetrator of the most atrocious crimes — the murderer — not only remains unpunished, but is let loose to renew his practices with impunity, and to immolate new victims to his ferocious bigotry or revenge. ”

“ He knows that he is playing for his life, and plays the game out with his wits about him. Impress, therefore, upon this class of offenders that the crime with which they stand charged is so heinous in the eyes of their fellow-creatures that every effort will be made to bring them to punishment, if their guilt is established, and you at once deprive them of one strong incentive to crime in this particular form—namely, the strong probability of impunity. ”

“ Without knowing it the girl was arguing on the side of the world’s most expert criminologists, who hold that to destroy an offender cannot benefit society so much as to redeem him. ”

“ Wait until you are unexcited yourself, and until the vexation of the offender is also past, and then, when there is danger of a similar offence, forewarn, and point out the evils already done for want of proper care in this respect. ”

“ Naturally enough, then, woman, with her delicately balanced nervous organization, is the first and chief offender—if you insist on calling such a person an offender under your antiquated methods of dealing with such cases. ”

“ It also punishes the solicitation or incitement of others to commit crime, as a separate offence if the incitement fails, as the offence of being accessory before the fact or abettor if the offence is committed as a result of the incitement; and it punishes persons who, after a more serious crime—felony—has been committed, do any act to shield the offender from justice. ”

“ In due degree as his faith is easy will his revenges be extreme. In due degree as he is slow to suspect the wrong-doer, will be the tenacity of his pursuit when the offender requires punishment. He seems to throw wide his heart and habitation, but you must beware how you trespass upon the securities of either. ”

“ The modern tendency is to inflict much lesser punishment upon an offender, to grade the punishment having regard to such matters as the damage done, the past history of the offender, and the prospect of reform. ”

“ I know well that in the eye of the law we are offenders and enemies of society. But imagine only for a moment, gentlemen, the situation of this enemy of society when he is accused wholesale of an offence which he not only never committed, but which he is ready to resist with the whole strength of his soul. ”

“ But though you give no countenance to the complaints of the querulous, yet take care to curb the insolence and ill nature of the injurious. When you observe it yourself, reprove it before the injur'd party: but if the complaint be of something really worth your notice, and prevention another time, then reprove the offender by himself alone, out of sight of him that complain'd and make him go and ask pardon, and make reparation: ”

“ why should it trouble thee?' The offender needs pity, not wrath; those who must needs be corrected, should be treated with tact and gentleness; and one must be always ready to learn better. 'The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.' There are so many hints of offence forgiven, that we may believe the notes followed sharp on the facts. ”

“ Injury, injustice, affront, wrong, insult, indignity, outrage. 4. Trespass, transgression, misdeed, delinquency, misdemeanor, crime, sin. Offend, v. a. 1. Affront, displease, vex, chafe, annoy, irritate, provoke, nettle, fret, gall, give offence to, make angry. 2. Shock, wound, pain. Offend, v. n. 1. Give offence. 2. Transgress, sin, do wrong, commit offence. Offender, n. Transgressor, culprit, trespasser, criminal, delinquent, malefactor, convict, felon. Offensive, a. 1. Aggressive, assailant, attacking, invading. 2. Disgusting, nauseating, nauseous, sickening, loathsome, repulsive. 3. ”

“ Compassion to an offender, who has grossly violated the laws, is, in effect, a cruelty to the peaceable subject who has observed them; ”

“ And such person or persons, so offending, may be tried and convicted without the principal offender being first tried, provided such principal offender has fled from justice, or cannot be found to be put on his trial. ”

“ How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense,
And love th' offender, yet detest th' offence? ”

“ There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him. ”

“ “The things that happen here do not seem to mean anything; they mean something somewhere else. Somewhere else retribution will come on the real offender. Here it often seems to fall on the wrong person.” ”

“ That the Same Punishment is Not to Be Inflicted for Every Offence, But Different Punishments for Different Offenders.
XLVIII. Do not pass the same sentence for every sin, but one suitable to each crime, distinguishing all the several sorts of offences with much prudence, the great from the little. Treat a wicked action after one manner, and a wicked word after another; a bare intention still otherwise. So also in the case of a contumely or suspicion. And some thou shalt curb by threatenings alone; some thou shalt punish with fines to the poor; some thou shalt mortify with fastings ”

“ I willingly grant, it may be lawful for a civil magistrate to tolerate notorious evil doers in two cases, under which all the examples will fall, which the discusser allegeth; ... when the magistrates’ hand is too weak and feeble, and the offenders’ adherents too great and strong ... and an evil may be tolerated to prevent other greater evils.... In ordinary cases it is not lawful to tolerate a seducing false teacher. The commandment of God is clear and strong, Deut. ”

“ Be it further enacted, That all persons present, and not giving immediate information on the offenders, shall be regarded as guilty of a misdemeanor against the law, and shall be punished accordingly. ”

“ Very different phases of psychological work with offenders properly are taken up from the viewpoint of human conduct in general being the province of the student of human life. Quite the minority of offenders show mental peculiarities which can be learned by testing and then related to their delinquencies. Let us look at some comparisons of offenders as we have grouped them by most careful study. ”

“ Whereas, scandalous offenders against parents, against magistrates in the fifth command, and so against the life, chastity, goods, or good name in the rest, is properly transgression against the civil state and common weal, or the worldly state of men: and, therefore, consequently, if the world, or civil state, ought to be preserved by civil government or governors, such scandalous offenders ought not to be tolerated, but suppressed, according to the wisdom and prudence of the said government. ”

“ And the offenders, while they refrain from open acts, do nevertheless conduct their petty persecutions in such a manner that one can shape no charge against them, and consequently finds himself helpless. ”

“ He observes that mainly from the ranks of the cultured and wealthy are recruited our greatest and meanest offenders; offenders all of the time against moral law, and as much of the time as they dare against legal law, a distinction which, our man insists, begs the fundamental questions of right and [Pg 162] altruism. ”

“ Note, Those offenders ought to be treated with the greatest tenderness to whom we have any way given occasion of offending. If servants purloin, and their masters, by withholding from them what is due, tempt them to it, they ought to forgive them. ”

“ It is the almost universal neglect of this vital distinction, more than any other error, which has led us into such grotesque and inconceivable blunders. Individuals may regard these offenders in any light which harmonizes with their several idiosyncracies. ”

“ AS some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
⁠I've got a little list—I've got a little list
Of social offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed—who never would be missed! ”

“ And among the rest they comprehend a class of offenders who, in some countries—for instance, in France—are under the control as well as sanctioned by the police authorities, and in others defy almost all authority or restraint whatsoever. ”

“ I should have forfeited my own self-respect, and perhaps the good opinion of my countrymen, if I had failed to resent such an injury by calling the offender in question to a personal account. ”

“ And shall have power and authority by virtue of these presents according to To punish all offenders. the laws of the Realm to punish and correct or cause to be punished and corrected Offenders for their offences deceits falsehoods abuses or misdemeanours in the false insufficient or deceitful occupation or use of the Misterie Art or Trade of Cutlers aforesaid according to their demerits in that behalf. ”

“ But there is no zeal blinder than that which is inspired with the love of justice against offenders. ”

“ Does a woman offend? Punish her! Does a man offend? Punish him! Does a group offend? Punish them! ‘What for?’ someone suddenly asks. ‘To make them stop doing it!’ ‘But they have done it.’ ‘To make them not do it again, then.’ ‘But they do it again and worse.’ ‘To prevent other people’s doing it, then.’ But it does not prevent them—the crime keeps on. ”

“ Prisoner at the bar, you have been found guilty by a jury, after a very long and careful consideration of your remarkable and strange case, of a very serious offence; an offence which squeamish moralists are apt to call robbing the widow and orphan; a cant phrase also, with which I hesitate to soil my lips, designates this offence as swindling. You will permit me to remark that the very fact that such nauseous and improper words can be used about the conduct of a gentleman shows how far you have been led astray from the path traced out for the feet of a respectable member of society. ”

“ Garbed in the vestment of dishonor and disgrace, I myself am what the world terms a criminal. Should I not know the meaning of the appellation far better than the casual observer? For many years my life has been the life of an habitue of the underworld. Criminals, so called, have been my associates and my friends. I have known them in the moments of their success, I have known them in the hours of their failure. Failure that spells oblivion, the oblivion of cold gray walls and heart-breaking, monotonous, man-killing routine. ”

“ Would you charge any one as a thief? you must be clear from any suspicion of even desiring another man's property. Have you brought a man up for malice or cruelty? take care that you be not found hard-hearted. Have you called a man a seducer or an adulterer? be sure that your own life shows no trace of such vices. Whatever you would punish in another, that you must avoid yourself. A public accuser would be intolerable, or even a caviller, who should inveigh against sins for which he himself is called in question. ”

“ This custom of labelling a criminal with words or initials expositive of his crime or his political or religious offense, is neither American nor Puritan in invention and operation, but is so ancient that the knowledge of its beginning is lost. ”

“ Have I offended you?”
“I have no use for a murderer, sir, and especially for one who murders a helpless woman.”
“I say to you, kind fellow-prisoner, that I am innocent.”
“Yes. I have your reputation from the guard. Now, you get to hard work here, and no more of your pleading innocence.”
“I am going to do all that I can, sir, and as well as I can, to please you.”
I continued to prepare the press work. I wrote of the way to live and live right. We all make mistakes. Some repent, others never do. Who has not made mistakes which he would, if he could, undo? ”