overty.

SOCIAL CAUSES OF CRIME

_Education._ We now come to the second series of criminal factors, those
which depend, not on the organism, but on external conditions. We have
already stated that the best and most careful education, moral and
intellectual, is powerless to effect an improvement in the morally
insane, but that in other cases, education, environment, and example
are extremely important, for which reason neglected and destitute
children are easily initiated into evil practices.

At Naples, "Esposito" (foundling) is a common name amongst prisoners, as
is at Bologna and in Lombardy the name "Colombo," which signifies the
same thing. In Prussia, illegitimate males form 6% of offenders,
illegitimate females 1.8%; in Austria, 10 and 2% respectively. The
percentage is considerably larger amongst juvenile criminals,
prostitutes, and recidivists. In France, in 1864, 65% of the minors
arrested were bastards or orphans, and at Hamburg 30% of the prostitutes
are illegitimate. In Italy, 30% of recidivists are natural children and
foundlings.

This depends largely on hereditary influences, which are generally bad,
but still more on the difficulty of finding a means of subsistence,
owing to the state of neglect in which these wretched beings exist, even
when herded together in charity schools and orphanages--both of which
are even more anti-hygienic morally, than they are physically.

A depraved environment, which counsels or even insists on wrong-doing,
and the bad example of parents or relatives, exercise a still more
sinister influence on children than desertion. The criminal family
Cornu, finding one of their children, a little girl, strongly averse to
their evil ways, forced her to carry the head of one of their victims in
her pinafore for a couple of miles, after which she became one of the
most ferocious of the band.

_Meteoric Causes_ are frequently the determining factor of the ultimate
impulsive act, which converts the latent criminal into an effective one.
Excessively high temperature and rapid barometric changes, while
predisposing epileptics to convulsive seizures and the insane to
uneasiness, restlessness, and noisy outbreaks, encourage quarrels,
brawls, and stabbing affrays. To the same reason may be ascribed the
prevalence during the hot months, of rape, homicide, insurrections, and
revolts. In comparing statistics of criminality in France with those of
the variations in temperature, Ferri noted