largely for the love of adventure; he robs because it is exciting and
may bring large returns. In his excursions to pilfer property he may
kill, and then for the first time the State discovers that there is
such a boy and sets in action the machinery to take his life. The city
quite probably has given him a casual notice by arresting him a number
of times and sending him to a juvenile prison, but it has rarely
extended a hand to help him. Any man or woman who has fairly normal
faculties, and can reason from cause to effect, knows that the crimes of
children are really the crimes of the State and society which by neglect
and active participation have made him what he is. When it is remembered
that the man is the child grown up, it is equally easy to understand the
adult prisoner.




X

HOMICIDE


Crimes against persons are not always as easy to classify and understand
as crimes against property. These acts are so numerous and come from so
many different emotions and motives, that often the cause is obscure and
the explanation not easy to find. Still here, as everywhere in Nature,
nothing can happen without a cause, and even where limited knowledge
does its best and cannot find causes, our recognition of the connection
between cause and effect and the all-inclusiveness of law can leave no
doubt that complete knowledge would bring complete understanding.