Crime and Its Punishment in Chicago

Abstract

commands, or the doing of that which the law forbids. Sociologists define it as a disease, and say that the criminal belongs to a class separate and distinct from the normal individual. They tell us that in order to determine the punishment for one who has violated the criminal laws the judge should hold a judicial clinicexamine his ears, the color and shape of his eyes, the height of his brow, the form of his head, and inquire somewhat into the morals and idiosyncrasies of his ancestors. Given this data, they will tell you to a certainty what will be the prisoner's conduct in the future, and what will be the conduct of all his progeny, even to the third and fourth generations. If crime is the doing of that which the law forbids, then we make or unmake criminals just as we make new laws or repeal old ones. Crimes of one age and country are the dominant virtues of another age and country, and the virtues of other times are the crimes of to-day. John Huss, a Bohemian professor in the University of Prague, was burned at the stake because he insisted on teaching and preaching according to the dictates of his own conscience. Captain Kidd, flaunting the black flag in the face of the world, was the hero of his time; Cotton Mather at Salem, preaching and hanging witches, was believed to be the special agent of Almighty God! John Brown died a felon's death, but the most popular refrain to-day is, His soul goes marching on ! The heroes of one age have been the criminals of another, and the criminals of one age have been canonized in the next! Captain Kidd would be a pickpocket to-day, and Cotton Mather a Wall Street broker! Crime is the ineffaceable birthmark of humanity. There are no criminal classes. The differences between virtues and vices of men are differences of degree only. No man is all virtuous, none all vicious. All men are both virtuous and vicious. What is it that makes one man more virtuous or