The results from such study are varied and complicated and sometimes rather conflicting. A few of the outstanding facts, however, may be summarized. As a general rule, crimes against property increase with a rise in prices or with a fall in wages. Changes in prices and wages affect materially the economic welfare of the vast majority of the population. So that there is, apparently a causal relation be tween economic welfare and crimes against property. The analysis of statistics of crimes shows that the so-called economic crimes, in which economic factors predominate, constitute from two to three-fifths of the total number of crimes. Furthermore, economic factors play a part in the causation of many of the other crimes. The analysis of statistics of criminals shows that a disproportionately large number of criminals come from the poorer classes and from the occupations of the poorer classes. The study of the careers of professional criminals reveals the fact that it is economic pressure early in life in the form of a struggle for sub sistence or for a higher standard of living, and resulting usually in inadequate intellectual and moral training and association with bad com panions, which leads many of these professional criminals into their first crimes.
But the economic forces are not the only factors of the social environment which in fluence criminality. Political conditions have much influence upon crime. Inefficient and corrupt government encourages greatly the in crease of crime. Honest and efficient govern ment discourages crime, especially if it adopts and carries out successfully far-reaching meas ures which remove some of the economic and other causes of crime. In fact, according to those who take the socialistic point of view, the extent of crime depends very largely upon the nature of the political organization of society.
Religion, science, art, the press, education and many other features of our modern civili zation have their influence either for or against crime as the case may be. A rapid increase of population tends to increase criminality by accentuating the economic pressure. In fact, some criminologists have believed that the ad vance of civilization in general has increased crime. Comparative statistics of crime have furnished some evidence that this is true. If so, it is probably due to the facts that human life has became much more complex and that ethical standards have risen, thus resulting in stigmatizing many more acts as criminal. But this apparent increase is probably due in part to the fact that the law is being enforced much more rigorously now than it was in the past. The modern forces of criminality are to be witnessed in an accentuated form in the cities. Criminal statistics reveal a great preponder ance of crime in the cities as compared with the rural communities. The urban concentra tion of population has created new conditions in which more regulations are necessary to har monize the conduct of individuals with each other. Much of urban criminality is due to violations of ordinances with respect to tene ments, factories, sanitation, etc., which are
unnecessary in rural communities. The com plexity of the urban environment makes it difficult for social groups to function normally. Persons weak in mind or character find it par ticularly difficult to adjust themselves in the city. Furthermore, many kinds of crime can be committed only or best in cities, such as pickpocketing, some kinds of burglary, black mail, embezzlement, forgery, fraud of various kinds, etc. It is also more feasible for the crimi nal to live and hide himself in the city than in the country. Most of these forces which accen tuate urban criminality also increase urban vice.
Individual Factors in Many of the causes of criminality are to be found within the criminals themselves. Lombroso gave excessive weight to these traits. As a result of his anatomical and physiological studies, he formulated his theory of the (born criminal?' He found certain malformations of the skeleton and of the viscera and several abnormalities in the physiological processes unusually prevalent among the criminals he examined, and arrived at the conclusion that they constituted the traits of a distinct biological and anthropological type which is prone to become criminal. He also concluded as a result of a study of the equivalents of crime among animals and among primitive men and of the traits and conduct of children, that this con genital criminal type is to a large extent an atavistic type.
Lombroso seems to have been rather igno rant of the modern science of biology, and especially of the theory of heredity. Biologists recognize that atavism, or reversion, takes place when there reappears in an individual a trait of an earlier type, provided that this reappear ance is due to hereditary forces. That is to say, if primitive, traits which have long remained dormant reassert themselves in the germ plasm at the time of conception, there is a true case of reversion. But a perusal of Lombroso's writings shows that many of the criminal traits which he calls atavistic are not hereditary in their origin, but are cases of arrested development either before or after birth. In other cases he characterizes as atavistic certain habits which have been trans mitted by social agencies. In fact, Lombroso's exposition of his theory of the born criminal indicates that he believed in the he reditary transmission of acquired traits, though he nowhere explicitly states his opinion on this point. But he again and again speaks as if habits, or the effects of habits, are transmitted by hereditary means. The consensus of opinion among biologists to-day is that no acquired traits can be transmitted by hereditary means. It is obvious that there can be no "born" crim inal in the literal sense of that term. No per son is a criminal in the strict legal sense until he has committed a criminal act, and no one could commit such an act until several years after birth. Furthermore, no person is predes tined from birth to become a criminal on ac count of his congenital traits, because crimi nality depends in part upon environment and social status.