Book Reviews

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 31 Article 11 Issue 1 May-June Summer 1940 Book Reviews Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Book Reviews, 31 Am. Inst. Crim. L. & Criminology 92 (1940-1941) This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. BOOK REVIEWS A. R. Lindesmith [Ed.] MIGRATION AND SOCIAL WELFARE. By Philip very great part transiency plays as a E. Ryan. New York: Russel Sage factor in producing crime. Foundation, 1940. Pp. 98. $0.50. In failing to provide adequate care for This monograph is "an approach to," the transient, wherever he may be found, rather than a solution of the problem of communities fail to realize that some of transiency or the non-settled person in their own citizens are being similarly the Community. The perplexing nature neglected in other communities. It is be- of this problem is frankly admitted. cause of the need of reciprocal relation- From this study it is made apparent ships between communities to meet mut- that social responsibility for the transient ual needs, that this problem becomes a Report rests lightly upon the public conscience. national one. On this subject, a The writer points out that the national of the Department of Labor is quoted as are to character of the problem has never been saying: "If preventive measures properly recognized except in the brief be effective, some method of assuring existence of The Federal Transient Pro- migrants adequate income and normal gram. Since that brief service has been community contacts must be devised, as terminated, and the passage in several well as making available to them the serv- states of stricter domicile laws, the shift- ices of agencies whose purpose is the ing of community responsibility threatens prevention of delinquency." to revert to out-dated treatment of all The author calls attention to the fact migratory members of sociey. that the prevailing policy of failure to That migration has been a more or less provide for transients is a reflection of essential factor in the building of America fundamental civil rights as specified in the and of shifting industry, is here shown. Constitution: It provides that: "Citizens The "Depression Decade" of 1930 to 1939, of each state shall be entitled to the priv- with its abnormal unemployment has ileges and immunities of the citizens of the magnified and accentuated a problem that several states. No state shall make or has always been in part the expression of enforce any law which shall abridge the unsatisfied cravings for adventure and for privileges or immunities of citizens of the essential human needs. United States." In fact, a major force that impels people From this, it would appear that such to move from place to place is held to measures as the Illinois three year law, be economic. To be sure, there is the which denies relief or subsistence to any chronic "tramp" or "mobile non-worker," who cannot prove their constant presence but there is also the transient unemployed, for three years, is unconstitutional, but or the "depression transient," worthy of who can prove that? Certainly not the greater consideration if they are to escape indigents who, as a result, must either the danger, and the burden, of becoming starve or steal. chronics or delinquents. The traditional American concept of re- It is this latter contingency-the relation lief for local residents only, partly derived of transiency to criminality that will be from the English poor-laws, is in conflict of special interest to the readers of this with the modern urge to aid all who are Journal. The writer of this review, in in need. Whether the Community Chest his forty years' experience with released movement has helped or hindered this prisoners, has long been impresed with the tendency may be seriously questioned. At r 92] BOOK REVIEWS any rate, as this brochure states: "The The aim of this treatise on the theory of result is a group of needy persons for criminal law is to study the distinction whose welfare no governmental unit has between the principle of "act" and that of an accepted responsibility-people with- "actor." It is devoted to the historical out a state, although most of them are development of the theory of the criminal American citizens." Social workers, the actor, and a companion volume will apply author states, have long recognized the to the problem of the existing law of the injustice of settlement restrictions, and the Third Reich. consequent desert of need not provided The historical investigation goes back for in widely scattered Community Funds only to the Imperial Criminal Code of or in the resources of private agencies. 1871, where the principle of act was com- As to the psychology of the problem, pletely dominant With the collapse of this study, as well as others, recognizes the theoretical foundations (such as the that, human nature being what it is, peo- principle of retaliation) upon which the ple will move regardless of settlement laws Code was based, the principle of act be- or the availability of relief. Restrictive came more and more untenable, so that measures have proven of little avail in a reform movement arose which took as curbing migration. Because the causes its basis the principle of agent, or actor. and sweep of population movements are Bockelmann maintains, however, that this beyond the control of local 'communities, "naturalistic" reform movement formu- the entire nation should provide for the lated quite inadequately the principle of small per cent of needy migrants. agent, which has therefore never effec- Many proposals and experiments have tively supplanted the traditional principle been made in an effort to remedy the of act. The so-called naturalistic school, lack of coordination in this field. Councils which abandoned the dogma of atone- of Social Agencies, Congressional Com- ment nd looked upon the agent as homo mittees and Legislative enactments have naturalis, was in the opinion of the au- all pointed toward the need of a National thor bound to fail because the principle Policy and the coordination of numerous of guilt is indestructible. It will appar- State, Federal and Private Agencies. ently be the aim of the second part of his study to establish For such coordination and. the desired an accord between the long range planning, two existing agencies principle of agent and the idea of guilt, and to prove that this have been suggested, viz: the Interde- accord is the partmental Committee to Coordinate underlying idea of the Criminal Code of the Third Reich. Health and Welfare Activities, and the From National Resources Planning Board. Some the point of view of method the progress has already been made by these study is astonishingly superficial. The author bodies, but further cooperation is needed expressly states that he is confin- ing himself to specimens. between Federal, State, Regional and But it is certainly open local Private Agencies to meet the prob- to question, firstly, whether lems of migration effectively. sound method permits of drawing general conclusions from specimens; and sec- This little volume is thoughtfully in- ondly, whether the specimens chosen are dexed, and an extensive topical bibli- those of greatest relevance for the pur- ography of 11 pages indicates the use of pose. It is arbitrary, furthermore, and extensive source material in the study. distinctly dubious method, to begin an F. EmoRy LyoN. historical investigation of criminal theory The Central Howard Association. with the Imperial Code of 1871, as if this Code had inaugurated a new epoch in criminology. Even more significant is Bockelmann's capricious treatment of the "STUDIEN zumr TXTRSTRAFRECHT," Teil L literature on the subject. By neglecting Abhandlungen des Kriminalistischen important works he has ruled out in ad- Instituts an der Universitlt Berlin. By vance any clear understanding, and has Paul Bockelmann. Berlin: Walter de compromised such scientific value as his Gruyter & Co., 1939. Pp. 141. monograph might otherwise have had. BOOK REVIEWS The positive-juridical discussion is con- dividual is manifested. But he did not fined to the remarks found in the usual aim to favor the individual at the ex- criminological handbooks. And the in- pense of the state or to show him exces- quiries into the ideas and theories of law, sive tenderness. On the contrary, Liszt which should have been the core of the proposed to strengthen the authority of whole study, are so banal and naive that the state. The state, however, is for Liszt their brevity is almost their only virtue. not a vengeful Leviathan whose authority In the chapter on "Origin and Meaning of is measured by its frightfulness. For the Idea of the Criminal Act," for exam- Liszt public authority is an ethical power. ple, he might well have elaborated the It involves obligation, not privilege. alternative principia ultima underlying Finally, Liszt is no "naturalist" in the the dualistic criminological development common meaning of the word. True, he of the last 150 years-a fascinating study is a determinist, and he accepted the in- in the evolution of ideas. Instead, the terpretation of behavior-the one most author merely offers a wearisome chain current at the turn of the century-in of catch-words and misinterpretations terms of character, heritage and milieu. which miss the essential points.

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