What is eugenics? / by Major Leonard Darwin.

  • Darwin, Leonard, 1850-1943.
Date:
[1937]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: What is eugenics? / by Major Leonard Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Chapter XI The Habitual Criminal THEUE are three things which make a person likely to commit a crime. These are, in the first place, a bad home; in the second place, subsequent temptation; and, lastly, bad natural quahties. We are bound to mitigate all these causes to the best of our abilities. Endeavours to wipe out the effects of harmful early surroundings, or to lessen temptation later in life, do not come within the scope of eugenics. This makes them none the less important ; but it is a reason why they should not be discussed in a book on that subject. It is true, no doubt, that it is practically impossible to disentangle the effects of these three causes of crime. It has been said on good authority that the son of a criminal is ten times as likely to commit a crime as is the son of honest parents. But with our present knowledge we cannot divide out this result and say that so much is due to bad early environment, so much to meeting the devil in the path of life, and so much to bad inborn predispositions. We may conclude, however, from such facts as this that if criminals had fewer children there would be less crime in the coming generation. The following is the way in which criminals are separated out from the rest of the community. A lad who has a very bad home, or very bad natural quahties, or both, will go astray under almost all conditions. Another lad, with a better home or with better qualities, will commit his first breach of the law only if actually tempted ; if shown by a relative, for example, when hard up how he can benefit himself at Httle risk by pilfering. It is the strength of all 60