CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 663 



Question YIII. — The conditional liberation of criminals. Dr. Semal, 

 director of the insane asylum of the state at Mons, Belgium, reporter. 



(1) In studying- the right of society to punish a criminal, one is 

 struck with the insistance of tlie law upon the characters and circum- 

 stances of the offense, without the slightest examination into the per- 

 sonalities or conditions of the delinquent. Dr. Semal advocated a 

 psycho-moral examination of the delinquent in order to determine his 

 condition, whether he was a confirmed criminal or only a criminal on 

 occasion; and whether he might not in the one case be given a condi- 

 tional liberation, and in the other be continued indefinitely in confine- 

 ment. One of the theories of the penal code which forms a foundation 

 for the riyht to punish, is the possible reformation of the delinquent; 

 but the idea of a fixed term of imprisonment as a punishment for one 

 class, and another term for another class of offenders, is opposed to 

 the tlieory of possible reformation. To give this idea of reformation 

 full effect, there should be a conditional liberation which should take 

 effect sooner in one proper case, and later, or not at all, in an improper 

 case. He declared a scheme of conditional liberation could be provided 

 which would be more rational, more humane, and more successful in 

 the reformation of criminals. 



The jurist, in writing on this subject, contents himself to remain 

 within the limits of the written law, and declares himself satisfied by 

 the uniform and inflexible application of formulas which have been crys- 

 tallized in the codes. The decay of these doctrines will appear where 

 to the safety of the public or society is added the desire to reform the 

 criminal. But their destruction will not be complete until crime is re- 

 garded as a natural phenomenon which can be prevented by a study of 

 the social and individual causes which lead up to it. From this there 

 are to be made two deductions : (1) If the punishment is the principal 

 object of the repressive system, why should it be prolonged when it has 

 contributed all it can to the reformation of tiie condemned ? This is the 

 foundation of conditional liberation. (2) If the penal condemnation is 

 sufficient to awaken in the heart of the delinquent his heretofore smoth- 

 ered sentiments of right and justice, and if the moral effect of his offense 

 is complete by the fact of his condemnation, why should he be com- 

 pelled to serve, or even enter upon, a term of imprisonment? And 

 from this has sprung the theory of conditional sentence. These Iwo 

 propositions contain the germs of the radical reform of the repressive 

 system. They tend to give to the convicted criminal the opportunity to 

 determine by his conduct if he will have his sentence postponed indefi- 

 nitely, and his liberation made at once, even though it be on probation 

 and under surveillance, he to be returned to prison on his first move- 

 ment towards a return to his former criminal life. 



(2) The proposed law of conditional liberation would operate upon 

 the sentiments of the condemned person, of which we can suppose the 



