of the experiment has been so satisfactory that the system has now been formally incorporated into the new Japanese Penal Code,[1] and its scope has been extended so as to apply to sentences of imprisonment for two years or less. In Belgium, France, and other countries where the system of conditional sentences is enforced, it is by special laws for the reason that at the time the Penal Codes of those countries were enacted the system was not yet in existence. The new Penal Code of Siam and the new Penal Code of Japan, which are the latest additions to the list of the Penal Codes of the world, are probably the only Penal Codes in which the system of conditional sentences is formally incorporated. In fairness to America and England it should be mentioned, perhaps, that it was in America that the idea of conditional sentences first originated, and that England, too, has had her system of what is called “probation of first offenders” for half a century. But the system of conditional sentences adopted in the new Penal Codes of Siam and Japan is essentially the continental one.
It has been said above that the new Penal Code of Siam has adopted two systems for controlling second offenders. So much for the first of these two systems. The second of these is:
Recidivism.
This is a system of controlling first offenders against becoming second offenders, of controlling second offenders against becoming third offenders, of controlling third offenders against becoming fourth offenders, and so on, by holding out to them the fear of increased punishments. In short, it is a system of controlling habitual offenders by increasing their punishments in certain definite proportions. Recidivism is one of those principles which are commonly known in countries where the system of Continental Codes is followed but are almost unknown as general principles of jurisprudence in countries where English law prevails. An English Judge will, as a matter of common sense, be inclined to punish a second offender more severely than a first offender as, indeed, any Judge will be inclined to. But an English Judge who gives an increased punishment to a habitual offender does so (except in some statutory cases) within the maximum limit of the punishment provided for the particular offence committed, while a Continental Judge who does the
- ↑ The Japanese Penal Code (1908), Articles 25, 26, 27.
