Criminal Sociology

Every criminal has an internal justification for getting involved in crime.

l'instruction ne rend l'homme ni plus moral ni plus heureux, qu'elle ne change pas ses instincts et ses passions héréditaires ; qu'elle est parfois pour peu qu'elle soit mal dirigée beaucoup plus pernicieuse qu'utile. Les statisticiens sont venus confirmer ces vues en nous disant que la criminalité augmente avec la généralisation de l'instruction,

I will at this point give a scheme that has suggested itself to me, a scheme itself based on a little material collected here and there: – Punishment as a means of rendering the criminal harmless and incapable of inflicting further injury. – Punishment as compensation for the injury sustained by the injured party, in any form whatsoever (including

The common criminal is a bad man, but at least he is, as it were, a conditional good man. He says that if only a certain obstacle be removed—say a wealthy uncle—he is then prepared to accept the universe and to praise God. He is a reformer, but not an anarchist.