Project Gutenberg's Crime: Its Cause and Treatment, by Clarence Darrow

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Title: Crime: Its Cause and Treatment

Author: Clarence Darrow

Release Date: April 14, 2004 [EBook #12027]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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CRIME

ITS CAUSE AND TREATMENT

BY

CLARENCE DARROW

1922

PREFACE

This book comes from the reflections and experience of more than forty
years spent in court. Aside from the practice of my profession, the
topics I have treated are such as have always held my interest and
inspired a taste for books that discuss the human machine with its
manifestations and the causes of its varied activity. I have endeavored
to present the latest scientific thought and investigation bearing upon
the question of human conduct. I do not pretend to be an original
investigator, nor an authority on biology, psychology or philosophy. I
have simply been a student giving the subject such attention as I could
during a fairly busy life. No doubt some of the scientific conclusions
stated are still debatable and may finally be rejected. The scientific
mind holds opinions tentatively and is always ready to reexamine, modify
or discard as new evidence comes to light.

Naturally in a book of this sort there are many references to the human
mind and its activities. In most books, whether scientific or not, the
mind has generally been more closely associated with the brain than any
other portion of the body. As a rule I have assumed that this view of
mind and brain is correct. Often I have referred to it as a matter of
course. I am aware that the latest investigations seem to establish the
mind more as a function of the nervous system and the vital organs than
of the brain. Whether the brain is like a telephone exchange and is only
concerned with automatically receiving and sending out messages to the
different parts of the body, or whether it registers impressions and
compares them and is the seat of consciousness and thought, is not
important in this discussion. Whatever mind may be, or throug