Part 34 (2/2)

12. Geographical distribution of immigration. (Semple, _American History and its Geographic Conditions_, chapter xv.)

13. Economic aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)

14. ”Birds of pa.s.sage.” (Consult any standard text on immigration.)

15. Immigration and the trade unions. (Carlton, _History and Problems of Organized Labor_, chapter xi. See also any standard text on immigration.)

16. Social aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)

17. Political aspects of immigration. (Consult any standard text on immigration.)

18. Chinese immigration. (Coolidge, _Chinese Immigration_; Hall, _Immigration_, chapter xv; Jenks and Lauck, _The Immigration Problem_, pages 231-237; _Annals_, vol. xciii, pages 7-13; Gulick, _American Democracy and Asiatic Citizens.h.i.+p_.)

19. j.a.panese immigration. (_Annals_, vol. xciii, part i; Jenks and Lauck, _The Immigration Problem_, pages 241-252; Steiner, _The j.a.panese Invasion_; Gulick, _American Democracy and Asiatic Citizens.h.i.+p_.)

20. Americanization. (_Annals_, vol. xciii, part in; Woods, _Americans in Process_; Steiner, _From Alien to Citizen_; Bogardus, _Essentials of Americanization_; Roberts, _The Problem of Americanization_)

FOR CLa.s.sROOM DISCUSSION

21. Is a.s.sisted immigration an evil?

22. Can immigrants be redistributed effectively by governmental agencies?

23. Should we retain the literacy test as part of our immigration policy?

24. At the present time many aliens journey across the Atlantic only to find that, for various reasons, they cannot be admitted to this country. How might the resulting disappointment and loss of time and money be avoided?

CHAPTER XXI

CRIME AND CORRECTION

228. THE NATURE OF CRIME.--A crime is an act which is punishable by law because it is considered injurious to the community. If the average man were a hermit, living entirely alone, his actions would affect only himself, and he would be subjected to little or no control by any community. But the average man is a member of a highly civilized community, and what he does, or what he fails to do, often profoundly affects other individuals. Members of the community therefore agree upon standards of conduct, to which individuals must conform. [Footnote: Where democracy does not exist, or is only partially developed, laws may be imposed upon the group from without.

In such a country as the United States, however, legal standards of conduct are preeminently the result of mutual agreements, freely entered into.] It is the failure to conform to these standards which const.i.tutes a crime, and which entails punishment by law.

What const.i.tutes a crime depends, of course, upon the level of civilization reached by a community, and upon the interpretation which it places upon right conduct. A deed considered heroic in one age may be considered a crime in a later century. In the days of chivalry, for example, it was sometimes considered heroic to rob or even kill wicked n.o.bles in order to distribute their wealth to the poor. At the present time, of course, such acts would const.i.tute a crime.

229. THE CAUSES OF CRIME.--The causes of crime are so various and so complex that their accurate cla.s.sification is impossible. But some light may be thrown upon the subject if we think of crime as influenced by economic, social, personal, and political factors.

Looking at crime from an economic point of view, it is obvious that poverty often accompanies crime. In many cases, it is claimed, such crimes as larceny, forgery, and robbery are directly traceable to poverty. Similarly, it is said that unemployment and industrial accidents may incite individuals to crime. Many authorities claim, however, that while bad economic conditions accompany and often encourage crime, such conditions alone are not a direct cause of crime. According to this latter view, poverty, for example, will not cause a person to commit a crime unless he is feeble-minded, depraved in morals, or otherwise defective in character.

While there is a good deal of dispute as to whether or not poverty is a direct cause of crime, it is quite generally agreed that a bad economic situation gives rise to social conditions which can be definitely connected with criminality. The strain and artificiality of urban life, together with the difficulty of obtaining inexpensive and wholesome recreation in the poorer sections of large cities, has a close connection with crime. The overcrowding so common in tenement districts renders difficult or impossible the maintenance of high moral standards. Where mother or children are habitually employed outside the home, the young are often denied proper home training.

Divorce, desertion, or the death of the bread-winner may break up the family and indirectly give rise to illiteracy, vice, and crime.

Often indistinguishable from the social causes are the personal causes of crime. Where alcoholism or vicious habits are given as the cause of crime, it may be impossible to say whether social or personal defect is primarily to blame. Illiteracy, superficially a _personal_ cause of crime, may often be traced to a bad _social_ environment. Thus an individual may be illiterate because his parents were unwilling or unable to send him to school, or because evil companions discouraged him from study. Such personal causes as mental defect are extremely important, indeed, many students maintain that bad economic and social conditions are negligible causes of crime, unless found in connection with low mentality and a depraved moral sense.

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