We have the undaunted faith that the work of scientific truth
will transform penal justice into a simple function of preserving
society from the disease of crime, divested of all relics of vengeance,
hatred and punishment, which still survive in our day as living
reminders of the barbarian stage. We still hear the "public vengeance"
invoked against the criminal today, and justice has still for its symbol
a sword, which it uses more than the scales. But a judge born of a woman
cannot weigh the moral responsibility of one who has committed murder or
theft. Not until the experimental and scientific method shall look for
the causes of that dangerous malady, which we call crime, in the
physical and psychic organism, and in the family and the environment, of
the criminal, will justice guided by science discard the sword which now
descends bloody upon those poor fellow-beings who have fallen victims to
crime, and become a clinical function, whose prime object shall be to
remove or lessen in society and individuals the causes which incite to
crime. Then alone will justice refrain from wreaking vengeance, after a
crime has been committed, with the shame of an execution or the
absurdity of solitary confinement.
On the one hand, human life depends on the word of a judge, who may err
in the case of capital punishment; and society cannot end the life of a
man, unless the necessity of legitimate self-defense demands it.
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