472
The Green Bag
on Criminal Law and Criminology at Chicago the fact was brought out that there is no journal or bulletin published in the English language de voted wholly or in part to the cause of criminal law and criminology or to the problems connected therewith, although there are thirty or forty peri odicals of this character published in foreign countries, notably Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and even India and South America. In Germany alone there are not less than twenty journals, bulletins or periodical publications de voted wholly or in part to some phase of criminal jurisprudence. criminology, penology. criminal psychology, psychiatry, or police administration. In France there are at least seven such periodicals, and in Belgium there is one (the Riva: do droil
penal et de ur'minolagie), founded in 1907.
In
Italy, where the interest in criminal science has long been active and constructive, there are at least a dozen periodical publications devoted to the problems of criminal law, criminology, penol Ogy and the allied sciences. "America needs a journal which shall represent all classes of persons whose professional activities or private interests bring them into relation with the administration of the criminal law and who are seeking for modern solutions of some of its most important problems. Very recently there has been a. remarkable awakening of interest in the scientific study of crime and penal methods— an interest which is beginning to manifest itself in a productive research and investigation as well as in destructive criticism of antiquated methods and in constructive proposals of reform. . . . "It is believed that such a journal will appeal not only to intelligent practitioners who are inter ested in the progress of a scientific criminal law, but to all persons, public officials and private individuals alike, who are concerned directly or
indirectly with the administration of punitive jus tice, as well as to a large group of scholars who are working in the allied fields of sociology. anthro pology, psychology, philanthropy, etc. It is now recognized that all these sciences are more or less closely related to criminal jurisprudence and criminology and that they are capable of throwing a vast amount of much-needed light on many problems of the criminal law. Each is in a sense contributory to the others and at many points their spheres touch and even overlap."
The field of the new publication is of course a very broad one. It is impossible entirely to divorce the problems of civil from those of criminal procedure, and the agitation for a. reform of procedure is taken up with much earnestness and intelligence. Such other topics as the regulation of medical expert testimony, the indeterminate sentence, pro bation and parole, and the administration of justice generally are absorbing so much public attention that the new journal irnmcL diately finds itself face to face with some of the most burning questions of the day. The problems of the civil branch of our juris prudence are perhaps secondary in impor
tance, at the present time, to those of the criminal law, so that the journal at once enters upon a field of great interest and use fulness. The broad range of its editorial discussion, and its illuminating department of notable significant events, minutely and comprehensively treated, offers a striking revelation of the broad horizon of this new undertaking and of the well-conceived policy of those who will direct it. There is naturally a division in this field of studies, between those which are legal, on the one hand, and those which belong to the general subject of criminology, on the other. The first two issues of the journal aflord no foundation for the fear which might readily be entertained, that this publication would devote principal attention to legal matters. For Professor Healy, director of the Juvenile Psychopathic Institute in Chicago, writes some stimulating observations on the ado lescent criminal, describing some cases in his own experience, and suggesting in what large degree crime may be due purely to environmental factors the action of which can be obviated by the needed individu alistic treatment. Edward Lindsey of the Warren (Pa.) bar urges the importance of the anthropometric study of the criminal, and advocates the passage of the bill intro duced in Congress for the establishment of a criminological laboratory in the District of Columbia. Adalbert Albrecht contributes one of the best analyses of Lombroso's the ories that we have yet seen, and shows his minute familiarity with the progress of the science of criminology in Europe. Proper emphasis is also laid on criminal statistics,
which are necessary to supply the science with adequate working data. Louis N. Robinson, expressing the conviction that such statistics are in this country, "from the point of view of a student of Criminology, almost without exception worthless," pro poses an effective plan whereby the govern ment can apply the same methods to criminal statistics which have already proved so suc cessful in the reform of mortality statistics. Arthur MacDonald analyzes the statistics of Germany, France and England and draws some interesting deductions. Warren F. Spalding, secretary of the Massachusetts Prison Association, presents some appalling figures with regard to the money cost of crime in Massachusetts. Coming now to criminal law, we find the substantive law of crime represented by a
