SPONTANEOUS AND IMITATIVE CRIME. 66 5 



tional habits which are eventually to become automatic mental phe- 

 nomena, it is of immense importance that every means should then be 

 adopted to eradicate hereditary tendencies to abnormal action of that 

 organ, for while there is growth there may be change of direction, while 

 every year after maturity lessens the chances of this. It may likewise 

 be understood that to a permanent cure of hereditary tendency to 

 crime separation from contaminating example is essential, and this 

 separation must be permanent. Criminals who have acquired habits 

 of industry and self-control during the discipline of a term of impris- 

 onment might reasonably be expected to retain them if placed on their 

 release in conditions which insured paying work and a pure moral 

 atmosphere ; but they will inevitably relapse if thrown back into their 

 old circle, where crime and its contrivance are the main business of life. 

 Therefore all discharged convicts, more especially those of the chronic 

 sort, ought to be encouraged, and if necessary aided, to seek a new 

 residence, and by all means persuaded to avoid their old haunts. 



That the hereditary taint may be overcome by subsequent training 

 and a lengthened discipline of a judicious kind is proved by the fact 

 that the convicts sent out to Botany Bay by the British Government 

 in general reformed, through the new hopes inspired by new circum- 

 stances in a new land, away from their old haunts and habitudes, and 

 their children have reverted to honest and respectable lives. Medical 

 science also shows that the instinctive or ante-natal qualities may be 

 outweighed by the cultivation of the post-natal or reasoning. 



It is shown by prison registers and statistics that sporadic crime 

 among the educated, and those of honest parentage that is, in fami- 

 lies which have no examples of criminal courses in their direct ances- 

 try amounts to but two per cent. ; an overwhelming argument in favor 

 of preventive measures and their value above corrective penalties. 



That crime usually coexists with ignoranke and an ill-balanced brain 

 is shown in the fact that in the large majority of criminals the faculty 

 of arithmetical calculation is almost wholly lacking. Extensive experi- 

 mental investigations have shown that the average prisoner can not 

 answer the questions, " How much do you make ? " " What pay or 

 income would keep you honest ? " The reflective qualities are more or 

 less lacking or enfeebled in all descendants from neurotic stock. 



Of all the means best adapted for the propagation of crime is that 

 of herding criminals together, especially in juvenile asylums. Several 

 witnesses from the House of Refuge in New York testified that they 

 had there learned from more expert criminals tricks in stealing, pick- 

 ing locks, and in the concealment of stolen goods, which they had 

 never learned outside. 



The labors of many philanthropists for the last quarter of a cen- 

 tury have shown conclusively that, if the young are seasonably re- 

 moved from unfavorable environment, but a very small percentage 

 deliberately return to vicious courses ; but that they willingly learn 



