nge of tendency cannot be looked upon as a
mere misdirected sentimentality on the part of modern society, but is
the inevitable result of the final conviction that the solely punitive
criminology upon which society has been relying in its efforts to
eradicate criminal behavior from its midst has proved a total failure.
The idea of punishment as a deterrent of crime is, as a consequence,
gradually losing its hold upon modern criminologists, and in its stead
we have been experimenting for some time past with such measures as
probation, suspended or indeterminate sentence, and parole. Now it can
not be too strongly emphasized that in giving these measures a fair
trial we ought to guard against those very same grave errors which were
chiefly responsible for the failure of the old, solely punitive methods,
namely, the dealing with the criminal act rather than with the
individual committing it. If these new measures of probation, suspended
sentence, and parole, which are perfectly adequate in theory, are to
justify their existence in the practical everyday handling of the
problem of criminology, we must not fail to take into full account the
very obvious natural phenomenon that human beings vary within very wide
limits in their susceptibility to correction or reformation, that some
individuals because of their psychological make-up, either qualitative
or quantitative, are absolutely and permanently incorrigible and present
a problem which can be dealt with in only one effective way--namely,
permanent segregation and isolation from society. It is on this very
important account that the psychopathologist's place in criminology is
fully justified. In endeavoring to aid in the solution of the problem of
criminology, the psychopathologist need not seek new methods of
procedure but may safely rely upon those which have aided him in
elucidating in a very large measure the problem of mental disease. For
criminology is an integral part of psychopathology, crime is a type of
abnormal conduct which expresses a failure of proper adjustment at the
psychological level.

It was not until the advent of the Kraepelinian School of psychiatry,
with its intensive search for facts and the resultant more accurate
delineation and classification of types of mental disorder, that we
began to acquire real insight into psychopathology and were enabled to
render more accurate prognoses. This more or less purely descriptive
method of study is at present