Age and Crime
| Date | 01 January 1930 |
| Published date | 01 January 1930 |
| Author | James Devon |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3000300112 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Age
and Crime
By JAMES DEVON
H.M.
Prison Commissioner for Scotland (retired). Formerly
M.O.,
H.M.
Prison, Glasgow. Medico-Legal Examiner for the Crown, etc.
1\
LL
ages are dangerous ages,
but
not in the same way.
The
r\.young
are subject to temptations and liable to fall into
snares that they escape when older.
It
should not therefore
surprise us to find the laws broken more frequently by young
people than by old.
The
sense of private property is not inborn.
It
has to be
taught. You cannot trust a child with the sugar bowl. Some
do not absorb teaching as readily as others and are slow to
distinguish between what is mine and what isthine.
'Honesty
is the best policy.'
It
is the only policy that can be followed if
society, as we know it, is to continue in existence. Even if we
held goods in common,
it
is not at all likely that theft would be
unknown.
If
what is yours is not mine, neither is what is ours
mine. Not only are we born without a knowledge of the laws
of society with regard to property,
but
we have a want of control
over our acts in relation to others, which has to be overcome by
training. Some children are more patient than others,
but
all
of them will indulge their temper if they are not checked.
Crime is simply a transgression of the penal laws of Society.
People are only born criminals in the same sense as they are
born policemen.
They
may have certain faculties, which, if
trained, would be found useful in one direction or the other.
Crimes against property are committed by many young
people.
In
some cases they do not know they are committing
an offence. I have known a case where a lad took away, from
the place of his employment, property that in the aggregate
amounted to something considerable in value. He had never
taken money, although he had opportunity for doing so. He
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