Chapter XVI 



ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: 

 DELINQUENCY AND CRIME 



William Healy 



IT is not possible to discuss scientifically antisocial 

 behavior, such as crime and delinquency, according 

 to the ordinary terms of social facts. What do we mean 

 when we speak of crime, delinquency, criminal, delinquent? 

 For the sake of sound generalizations there is very great 

 need of good definitions and discriminations in this field. 



It seems to be taken for granted by most writers that 

 crime is behavior easily differentiated and quite set apart 

 from all other conduct, so much so that very few have 

 conceived that there is any necessity for defining it. But 

 some do pay attention to this point, notably Garafalo, the 

 jurist and criminologist. He cites many instances of laws 

 making crimes of behavior which at other periods and 

 under other circumstances has not been considered crime. 

 To kill during a war is not criminal, and yet killing at 

 other times, perhaps from much the same motives, is a 

 crime. In one place bribery is hardly an off'ense; in another 

 country it is a serious one. 



Garafalo calls for understanding of what constitutes a 

 real or "natural" crime; behavior that would be recognized 

 anywhere and among all peoples as really crime, which, as 

 such, may be contrasted with legal or made crime. Real 

 or "natural" crime is a violation of the fundamental altruistic 

 sentiments, namely, those of pity and probity, in the average 

 measure in which they occur in civilized humanity. How- 

 ever, as Ferri suggests, it should be remembered that social 

 sentiments have changed during the ages; they have been 

 and are being evolved, together with alterations in social 

 conditions. Colajanni very well says that punishable acts 

 are those which, determined by individual and antisocial 

 motives, disturb the conditions of existence and shock 

 the average morality of a given people at a given moment. 



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