life as it now is--and undeniably it has the merit of having applied the
methods of experimental science to the study of criminal phenomena, of
having shown the hypocritical absurdity of modern penal systems based on
the notion of free-will and moral delinquency and resulting in the
system of cellular confinement, one of the mental aberrations of the
nineteenth century, as I have elsewhere qualified it. In its stead the
criminologists wish to substitute the simple segregation of individuals
who are not fitted for social life on account of pathological
conditions, congenital or acquired, permanent or transitory.

In the second place, to contend that socialism will cause the
disappearance of all forms of crime is to act upon the impulse of a
generous sentiment, but the contention is not supported by a rigorously
scientific observation of the facts.

The scientific school of criminology demonstrates that crime is a
natural and social phenomenon--like insanity and suicide--determined by
the abnormal, organic and psychological constitution of the delinquent
and by the influences of the physical and social environment. The
anthropological, physical and social factors, all, always, act
concurrently in the determination of all offences, the lightest as well
as the gravest--as, moreover, they do in the case of all other human
actions. What varies in the case of each delinquent and each offense, is
the decisive intensity of each order of factors.[16]

For instance, if the case in point is an assassination committed through
jealousy or hallucination, it is the anthropological factor which is the
most important, although nevertheless consideration must also be paid
to the physical environment and the social environment. If it is a
question, on the contrary, of crimes against property or even against