On December 1, 1851, Charras[1] shrugged his shoulder and unloaded his
pistols. In truth, the belief in the possibility of a _coup d’etat_ had
become humiliating. The supposition of such illegal violence on the part
of M. Louis Bonaparte vanished upon serious consideration. The great
question of the day was manifestly the Devincq election; it was clear
that the Government was only thinking of that matter. As to a conspiracy
against the Republic and against the People, how could any one
premeditate such a plot? Where was the man capable of entertaining such a
dream? For a tragedy there must be an actor, and here assuredly the actor
was wanting. To outrage Right, to suppress the Assembly, to abolish the
Constitution, to strangle the Republic, to overthrow the Nation, to sully
the Flag, to dishonor the Army, to suborn the Clergy and the Magistracy,
to succeed, to triumph, to govern, to administer, to exile, to banish, to
transport, to ruin, to assassinate, to reign, with such complicities that
the law at last resembles a foul bed of corruption.

Sku: thehistoryofacrime

The following pages are a translation of that portion of Professor
Ferri’s volume on Criminal Sociology which is immediately
concerned with the practical problems of criminality. The Report
of the Government committee appointed to inquire into the
treatment of habitual drunkards, the Report of the committee of
inquiry into the best means of identifying habitual criminals, the
revision of the English criminal returns, the Reports of
committees appointed to inquire into the administration of prisons
and the best methods of dealing with habitual offenders, vagrants,
beggars, inebriate and juvenile delinquents, are all evidence of
the fact that the formidable problem of crime is again pressing
its way to the front and demanding re-examination at the hands of
the present generation. The real dimensions of the question, as
Professor Ferri points out, are partially hidden by the
superficial interpretations which are so often placed upon the
returns relating to crime. If the population of prisons or
penitentiaries should happen to be declining, this is immediately
interpreted to mean that crime is on the decrease.

Sku: criminalsociology

There can be no sane discussion of “crime” and “criminals” without an
investigation of the meaning of the words. A large majority of men, even
among the educated, speak of a “criminal” as if the word had a clearly
defined meaning and as if men were divided by a plain and distinct line
into the criminal and the virtuous. As a matter of fact, there is no
such division, and from the nature of things, there never can be such a
line.

Sku: crimeitscauseandtreatment

A few words about Dostoevsky himself may help the English reader to
understand his work.
Dostoevsky was the son of a doctor. His parents were very hardworking
and deeply religious people, but so poor that they lived with
their five children in only two rooms. The father and mother spent
their evenings in reading aloud to their children, generally from
books of a serious character.
Though always sickly and delicate Dostoevsky came out third in the
final examination of the Petersburg school of Engineering. There he
had already begun his first work, “Poor Folk.”
This story was published by the poet Nekrassov in his review and was
received with acclamations. The shy, unknown youth found himself
instantly something of a celebrity. A brilliant and successful career
seemed to open before him, but those hopes were soon dashed. In 1849
he was arrested.

Sku: crimeandpunishment

This volume, as its title indicates, is occupied with an examination
of some of the principal causes of crime, and is designed as an
introduction to the study of criminal questions in general. In spite
of all the attention these questions have hitherto received and are
now receiving, crime still remains one of the most perplexing and
obstinate of social problems. It is much more formidable than
pauperism, and almost as costly. A social system which has to try
hundreds of thousands of offenders annually before the criminal courts
is in a very imperfect condition; the causes which lead to this state
of things deserve careful consideration from all who take an interest
in social welfare.

CONTENTS

I.   THE STATISTICS OF CRIME
II.  CLIMATE AND CRIME
III.  THE SEASONS AND CRIME
IV. DESTITUTION AND CRIME
V.  POVERTY AND CRIME
VI. SEX, AGE, AND CRIME
VII. THE CRIMINAL IN BODY AND MIND
VIII.THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME APPENDICES

Sku: crimeanditscauses

According to David McClintick (”Swordfish: A True Story of Ambition,
Savagery, and Betrayal”), in the late 1980’s, the FBI and DEA set up
dummy corporations to deal in drugs. They funneled into these
corporate fronts money from drug-related asset seizures.
The idea was to infiltrate global crime networks but a lot of the
money in “Operation Swordfish” may have ended up in the wrong
pockets. Government agents and sheriffs got mysteriously and
filthily rich and the whole sorry affair was wound down. The GAO
reported more than $3.6 billion missing. This bit of history gave
rise to at least one blockbuster with Oscar-winner Halle Berry.
Alas, slush funds are much less glamorous in reality. They usually
involve grubby politicians, pawky bankers, and philistine
businessmen – rather than glamorous hackers and James Bondean secret
agents.

Sku: crimeandcorruption

There was a great to-do some years ago in the city of New York
over an ill-omened young person, Duffy by name, who, falling
into the bad graces of the police, was most incontinently
dragged to headquarters and “mugged” without so much as “By
your leave, sir,” on the part of the authorities. Having been
photographed and measured (in most humiliating fashion) he was
turned loose with a gratuitous warning to behave himself in
the future and see to it that he did nothing which might gain
him even more invidious treatment.
Now, although many thousands of equally harmless persons had
been similarly treated, this particular outrage was made the
occasion of a vehement protest to the mayor of the city by a
certain member of the judiciary, who pointed out that such
things in a civilized community were shocking beyond measure,
and called upon the mayor to remove the commissioner of police
and all his staff of deputy commissioners for openly violating
the law which they were sworn to uphold.

Sku: courtsandcriminals

On the 8th of April, 1492, in a bedroom of the Carneggi Palace, about
three miles from Florence, were three men grouped about a bed whereon a
fourth lay dying.
The first of these three men, sitting at the foot of the bed, and half
hidden, that he might conceal his tears, in the gold-brocaded curtains,
was Ermolao Barbaro, author of the treatise ‘On Celibacy’, and of
‘Studies in Pliny’: the year before, when he was at Rome in the capacity
of ambassador of the Florentine Republic, he had been appointed Patriarch
of Aquileia by Innocent VIII.
The second, who was kneeling and holding one hand of the dying man
between his own, was Angelo Poliziano, the Catullus of the fifteenth
century, a classic of the lighter sort, who in his Latin verses might
have been mistaken for a poet of the Augustan age.

Sku: celebratedcrimescomplete

“The silent workings, and still more the explosions, of human
passion which bring to light the darker elements of man’s nature
present to the philosophical observer considerations of intrinsic
interest; while to the jurist, the study of human nature and
human character with its infinite varieties, especially as
affecting the connection between motive and action, between
irregular desire or evil disposition and crime itself, is equally
indispensable and difficult.”–_Wills on Circumstantial
Evidence_.
I REMEMBER my father telling me that sitting up late one night
talking with Tennyson, the latter remarked that he had not kept
such late hours since a recent visit of Jowett. On that occasion
the poet and the philosopher had talked together well into the
small hours of the morning. My father asked Tennyson what was
the subject of conversation that had so engrossed them.
“Murders,” replied Tennyson. It would have been interesting to
have heard Tennyson and Jowett discussing such a theme. The fact
is a tribute to the interest that crime has for many men of
intellect and imagination. Indeed, how could it be otherwise?
Rob history and fiction of crime, how tame and colourless would
be the residue! We who are living and enduring in the presence
of one of the greatest crimes on record, must realise that trying
as this period of the world’s history is to those who are passing
through it, in the hands of some great historian it may make
very good reading for posterity. Perhaps we may find some little
consolation in this fact, like the unhappy victims of famous
freebooters such as Jack Sheppard or Charley Peace.

Sku: abookofremarkablecriminals