Penal Methods Of The Middle Ages Criminals Witches Lunatics PDF Download

Excerpt from A History of Penal Methods: Criminals, Witches, Lunatics Criminology is the study of the causes and treatment of crime. To track the offender is a problem for the police; to determine his guilt or innocence is the work of the courts. Graphic accounts of his crime and capture, descriptions of his trial and conviction, or reports of the last scene when he stood upon the scaffold, are not criminology. The dreary records of convict mismanagement by the Governor of Gaolblank, and the ghastlycheerful reminiscences of the Chaplain of Chokee even the fascinating studies of, say, Edgar Poe, and Conan Doyle, in the art of Deduction are not criminology. We know now, and are beginning to realize, that nothing ever happens without a cause. A man can no more exist underived from the Past or effectless upon the Future, than he can walk suspended in the air. Therefore, when we look upon a person who is branded as a criminal, we have to account for him. He may be degraded enough as we find him, he may be a drunken, homeless wanderer or street-corner man, but what made him like this? He started some few years back as a helpless baby, with a little bright, wondering face looking out on life. What has been impressed into it since then? It was a blank page, with only the water-mark of heredity, and a certain grade of quality and texture upon it. What have we written there? what has the whole community been doing to make these lines, now so deeply graven, or whence came they? How is this stain on him, and therefore on all of us, to be cleared away? What must be done to help with a strong hand: that will be criminology. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.