The old indictments5 charged that: "John Smith, being a wicked, malicious6 and evil disposed person, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced7 by the instigation of the devil etc." It followed, of course, that John Smith should be punished or made to suffer, for he had purposely brought all the evil on himself. The old idea is still the foundation of the world's judgment8 of men, in court and out. Of course this idea leaves no room for mercy and understanding. Neither does it leave any chance to give the criminal the proper treatment for his defects which might permit him to lead a normal life.
As a matter of fact, every scientific man knows that the origin of life is quite different from this; that the whole current conception of the individual and his responsibility is a gross error; and that no correct judgments9 can be based on the old foundation; that no sane10 treatment of crime can follow this assumption of man's origin and nature; that the result of this foundation is almost infinite injustice11 and cruelty to a large and constantly growing number of men and women; and that it tends to endless injury and evil to society. The conception of man and the treatment of crime and criminals by the courts is not better nor more scientific than was the old-time doctors' treatment of physical ailments12 by magic, incantations and sorcery.
The origin and development of all animal life is the same. In fact, the development of plant life is on a similar pattern. The origin of a human being is a simple cell, an egg. This cell is fertilized13 and through growth after fertilization begins dividing and building and taking on the form and semblance14 of a human being. All children have the same origin, the same development and the same pattern, yet no two are alike. Each has a distinct and different equipment from any of the others. The size of the body, real and potential; the size and fineness of the brain; the delicacy15 and sensitiveness of the nervous system; the innate16 instincts upon which conduct mainly rests; the emotions which control action and which flow from the structure—in short, the degree of perfection and imperfection of the machine is all hidden in the original cell. No well-informed person now thinks of questioning the fact that the main characteristics of the human being, as of every other animal and plant, are hidden in the germ or seed from which it sprang.
The laws of growth and development which govern organic matter were not made for man and do not except man. Life begins with the cell and evolves according to pattern. If the cell is that of a human being, it will be black or white, male or female, tall or short, intelligent or stupid, sensitive or stolid17; it will develop a large or a small brain, a fine one or a poor one, a sensitive nervous system or a defective18 one; it will be ruled by instincts that are all-powerful and controlling, and even the color of the hair and eyes are in the pattern. The whole structure, potentially, is in the original cell, and infinite knowledge could tell how the structure would respond to sensations as it passed through life.
It is obvious that the kinds and differences of human structures are infinite. It is no more possible for all men to respond equally to the same stimulus19, than it is for all machines or all animals to respond alike. It is apparent that not one of the structures can ever work perfectly20, and that from the best down to the poorest structures are infinite degrees of perfection, even down to the machine that has no capacity for any kind of work.
No ordinarily intelligent farmer doubts for a moment that all of this is true in the breeding of stock. He would never expect the same results from various breeds of cattle or even from all cattle of the same breed.
There is no exception to the rule that the whole life, with every tendency, is potential in the original cell. An acorn21 will invariably produce an oak tree. It can produce no other tree, and it will always develop true to its own pattern. The tree may be larger or smaller, more or less symmetrical, stronger or weaker, but always true to the general pattern of the oak. Variations will be certain, due in part to heredity and in part to environment.
That the baby had nothing to do with its equipment will readily be admitted by everyone. The child is born with a brain of a certain size and fineness. It is born with a nervous system made up of an infinite number of fine fibers22 reaching all parts of the body, with fixed23 stations or receivers like the central stations of a telephone system, and with a grand central exchange in the brain. If one can imagine all of the telephone wires in the world centered in one station, he may have some sort of a conception of the separate nerves that bring impressions to the brain and send directions out from it, which together make up the nervous system of man. None of these systems is perfect. They are of all degrees of imperfection down to the utterly24 useless or worse than useless system. These nerves are of all degrees of sensitiveness and accuracy in receiving and transmitting messages. Some may work well, others imperfectly. No one is much surprised when an automobile25, equipped with a mechanism26 much simpler than the nervous system, refuses to respond properly.
The child is born without knowledge but with certain tendencies, instincts, capacities and potential strength or weakness. His nervous system and his brain may be good or bad—most likely neither very good nor very bad. All of his actions both as a child and as a man are induced by stimulation27 from without. He feels, tastes, sees, hears or smells some object, and his nerves carry the impression to his brain where a more or less correct registration28 is made. Its correctness depends largely upon the perfection of the nervous system and the fineness of the material on which the registration is made. Perfect or imperfect, the child begins to gather knowledge and it is stored in this way. To the end of his days he receives impressions and stores them in the same manner. All of these impressions are more or less imperfectly received, imperfectly conveyed and imperfectly registered. However, he is obliged to use the machine he has. Not only does the machine register impressions but it sends out directions immediately following these impressions: directions to the organism as to how to run, to walk, to fight, to hide, to eat, to drink, or to make any other response that the particular situation calls for.
Then, too, stimulated29 by these impressions, certain secretions30 are instantly emptied from the ductless glands31 into the blood which, acting32 like fuel in an engine, generate more power in the machine, fill it with anger or fear and prepare it to respond to the directions to fight or flee, or to any type of action incident to the machine. It is only within a few years that biologists have had any idea of the use of these ductless glands or of their importance in the functions of life. Very often these ductless glands are diseased, and always they are more or less imperfect; but in whatever condition they are, the machine responds to their flow.
The stored-up impressions are more or less awakened33 under stimulation. As life goes on, these stored impressions act as inhibitions or stimulations to action, as the case may be. These form the material for comparisons and judgments as to conduct. Not only are the impressions imperfect and the record imperfect, but their value and effect depend on the brain which compares and considers the impressions. From all this mechanism, action is born.
That man is the product of heredity and environment and that he acts as his machine responds to outside stimuli34 and nothing else, seem amply proven by the evolution and history of man. But, quite aside from this, logic35 and philosophy must lead to the same conclusions. This is not a universe where acts result from chance. Law is everywhere supreme36. Every process of nature and life is a continuous sequence of cause and effect. No intelligent person would ever think of an effect in the physical world which did not follow a cause or causes. It has taken man a long time to find this out. The recurrence37 of the seasons, the seed-time and harvest, the common phenomena38 of Nature, were once supposed to be outside the realm of cause and effect and due to the whim39 of some powerful being. But the laws of matter are now coming to be understood. Chance, accident and whim have been banished40 from the physical world. The acts of men alone are supposed to be outside the realm of law. There is a cause for the eternal revolution of the earth around the sun, for the succession of seed-time and harvest, for growth and decay; but not for the thoughts and actions of man.
All the teaching of the world is based on the theory that there is no free will. Why else should children be trained with so much care? Why should they be taught what is right and what is wrong? Why should so much pains be taken in forming habits? To what effect is the storing of knowledge in the brain of the child, except that it may be taught to avoid the wrong and to do the right? Man's every action is caused by motive41. Whether his action is wise or unwise, the motive was at least strong enough to move him. If two or more motives42 pulled in opposite directions, he could not have acted from the weakest but must have obeyed the strongest. The same motives applied43 to some other machine might have produced an opposite result, but to his particular structure it was all-controlling. How any special motive will affect any special machine must depend upon the relative strength of the motive and make of the machine. It is for this reason that intelligent people have always taken so much pains to fortify44 the machine, so that it would respond to what they believed was right. To say that one could ever act from the weakest motive would bring chaos45 and chance into a world of method and order. Even punishment could have no possible effect to deter46 the criminal after release, or to influence others by the example of the punishment. As well might the kernel47 of corn refuse to grow upward to the sunlight, and grow downward instead.
Before any progress can be made in dealing48 with crime the world must fully49 realize that crime is only a part of conduct; that each act, criminal or otherwise, follows a cause; that given the same conditions the same result will follow forever and ever; that all punishment for the purpose of causing suffering, or growing out of hatred50, is cruel and anti-social; that however much society may feel the need of confining the criminal, it must first of all understand that the act had an all-sufficient cause for which the individual was in no way responsible, and must find the cause of his conduct, and, so far as possible, remove the cause.
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1
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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4
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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5
indictments
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| n.（制度、社会等的）衰败迹象( indictment的名词复数 )；刑事起诉书；公诉书；控告 | |
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6
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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7
seduced
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| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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8
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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judgments
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| 判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判 | |
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10
sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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12
ailments
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| 疾病（尤指慢性病），不适( ailment的名词复数 ) | |
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13
Fertilized
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| v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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18
defective
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| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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19
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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acorn
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| n.橡实，橡子 | |
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22
fibers
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| 光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质 | |
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23
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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24
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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stimulation
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| n.刺激，激励，鼓舞 | |
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registration
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| n.登记，注册，挂号 | |
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29
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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30
secretions
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| n.分泌（物）( secretion的名词复数 ) | |
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31
glands
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| n.腺( gland的名词复数 ) | |
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32
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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33
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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stimuli
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| n.刺激（物） | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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36
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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recurrence
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| n.复发，反复，重现 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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39
whim
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| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
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40
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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42
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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43
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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44
fortify
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| v.强化防御，为…设防；加强，强化 | |
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45
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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46
deter
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| vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住 | |
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47
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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48
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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49
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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50
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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