54 WHAT IS EUGENICS? 



different ways or stages, each with a somewhat different 

 end in view. 



The aim at the first stage, immediately after the first 

 offence, should be to get rid as far as possible of the after- 

 effects of the bad home. The young offender, if not kept 

 under probation, should be sent immediately to some 

 institution to be trained; and he should be kept there as 

 long as any useful purpose would be served. Life at such 

 places should be made pleasant rather than unpleasant; 

 for that would lessen the opposition to such detention. 

 Many will be saved, and excellent work will beaccomphshed. 

 On the other hand, failures will be frequent; for innate 

 stupidity cannot be stamped out by the schoolmaster. 



During the second stage the aim should be to make young 

 offenders more afraid of coming within the grasp of the law. 

 Short and sharp imprisonments should be given when 

 crimes are committed by those who have had adequate 

 reformatory training. The punishment should be su£&- 

 ciently unpleasant to make it feared ; for if this is the case 

 it will deter a few from crime. Those endowed with very 

 bad predispositions will, however, drift back to prison time 

 after time ; and, when convicted four or five times, further 

 liberty is practically certain to mean fm-ther crime. Then 

 the pubhc has the right to demand adequate protection, 

 both against this intolerable nuisance and against the social 

 contagion springing from the criminal himself. 



It would only be in the proposed third stage that the 

 families of criminals would be reduced in numbers, and that 

 the eugenic aim would be in any degree attained. After it 

 had appeared certain that further short imprisonments 

 would be useless, detention after each conviction should be 

 for longer and longer periods; until finally the detention 

 should be permanent. Such long detentions should be 

 made pleasant rather than unpleasant, the sexes, however, 

 being kept apart. Habitual criminals at this stage are to 

 be pitied rather than blamed; because it has become 

 evident that they are persons incapable of managing their 

 own affairs. 



