North Dakota Law Review/Volume 1/Number 2/Cost and Causes of Crime

COST AND CAUSES OF CRIME

"Estimates presented at the recent meeting of the American Bankers Association fixed last year's losses to the owners of property, as the result of the operations of criminals of all kinds, at a sum that exceeded the total expenditures of the Federal Government in the same year. In other words, the losses resulting from dishonesty reached to between $3,000,000,000 and $4,000,000,000. This stupendous sum represents one year's cost of society's failure to measure and cope with crime.

"Justice James C. Cropsey of the Supreme Court of New York attributes over eighty per cent of crime to persons under twenty-five years of age. In his opinion, the average youthful criminal operates upon the theory that the world owes him a living. Justice Cropsey, therefore, finds that moral, instead of mental, deficiencies account for most criminal acts. According to his observations, the criminal proclivities of the young are due to inadequate home training and to the decline of religious influences. Justice Cropsey says that the young criminal is easily led into radicalism, a fact which shows that his predisposition to crime is in part an outgrowth of his political and economic education.

"The situation presents a major problem for the consideration of the responsible leadership of the country."

The foregoing is from an American Exchange National Bank letter. It may not be amiss, therefore, to point out possible sources of inspiration. We point to some testimony taken by the Lusk Committee in New York a few years ago:

"Q. Do you mean that they teach the children to disregard the law? A. I mean that our attitude towards the child would be for him to take his position in regard to the law.

"Q. Then, according to the teachings, a child might arrive, however, at a conclusion that a particular law, being offensive to his ideals, he could disregard it although it is the law? A. If he was prepared to take the consequences. That is up to the child.

"Q. If they are prepared to take the consequences, they are at liberty to feel that they may disregard the specific statutes of the United States? A. If they are prepared to act and take the consequences of their acts, if they are prepared to act according to their consciences and take the responsibility for their acts, that would not be out of harmony with the teachings of the Ferrer School."

Do you wonder that the valedictory peroration of one of the students read like this?

"In the great world-wide struggle which is taking place today, we must take an active part. We must not fail, we must not falter. The ideals which inspired Marx and Engels, Bebel and Lassalle, the ideals which today inspire Debs and Lenine (now deceased), are the ideals which inspire us."