Crime & criminals : being the jurisprudence of crime, medical biological, and psycological / by Charles Mercier... with an introduction by Sir Bryan Donkin.

  • Mercier, Charles Arthur, 1852-1919.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Crime & criminals : being the jurisprudence of crime, medical biological, and psycological / by Charles Mercier... with an introduction by Sir Bryan Donkin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    267/334 (page 245)
    He finds that each class of crimes has a corresponding class of convicts, who differ from the convicts that have committed crimes of other classes. My classification is much more detailed, but it is still true of my classifica¬ tion that the criminals who commit crimes of one class restrict themselves to crimes of that class. They are specialists and are not what might be termed general practitioners of crime. Dr Goring’s second class, for instance, includes stealing and burglary ; but scarcely any thief is a burglar, and scarcely any burglar is a thief. The two classes are distinct, and unquestionably are made and kept distinct by the possession of certain mental and bodily aptitudes, proclivities, and other physical and mental peculiarities. The burglar needs courage and enterprise that are not required by the pickpocket. The pickpocket requires manual dexterity of a kind that would be of little use to the burglar ; and hence we find that the burglar is never a pickpocket, the pickpocket never a burglar. The two classes of criminals are quite distinct, and are distinguished as much by personal differences as by the different callings which result from these personal differences. Not only do burglars differ from thieves, but also within the class of burglars are minor classes, and within the class of thieves minor classes ; and burglars of each class restrict themselves to their particular kind of burglary. There are burglars who always work in gangs, burglars who always work in pairs, and burglars who, like Charles Peace, always work in solitude. There are burglars who fly at high game, who restrict their opera¬ tions to jewel and other safes, and who would scorn to steal spoons ; and others who would never think of attacking a safe, but enter a house to pick up what they can find. There are burglars who break into houses