Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/663

 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND JURISPRUDENCE 643

wisest method of creating or developing a greater degree of adapta- bility to society.

Outside of the main topics enumerated above, many other questions relating to the judicial system and to legislation are receiving thought and study, but are not deemed so absolutely essential to a decrease of crime as those mentioned.

The discussion relating to a public defender is almost entirely con- fined to the legal members of criminal anthropology, and the arguments are legal rather than scientific.

The attitude of district attorneys has received some attention, but may be said to be the result of a condition, rather than a cause needing legislation. It does not appear that justice is best served by the atti- tude taken by them, as their intense antagonism is not compatible with the basis upon which criminal anthropology founds its system. They are not the simple ministers of justice, but are the attorneys for parties on the record. Their duty should be as much to save the innocent as to convict the guilty ; but many of them are imbued with the idea that they must convict at all hazards, notwithstanding the presumption of the law that the prisoner is innocent until proven guilty. In some of the states the practice of awarding premiums for convictions is author- ized. Apart from acknowledging an inherent defect in the legal system, this practice does not produce a greater number of convictions. These abuses by attorneys consist largely in opening the case to the jury, in the argument to the jury, in abuse of the defendant, and serve more often to influence the jury in favor of the accused. The office is one which is usually filled by election, the number of convictions being often used as an argument for reelection. Under a scientific legal system a radical change in this respect would be necessary.

The matter of more complete statistics is a question for the United States more than for any European country, and legislation influences it to a great extent. No study of crime can be accurate without trust- worthy and complete statistics, but the statistical methods existing in the different states make this almost impossible. Statistics in the United States are taken as mere matters of record, and not with any view to the purposes of social science. Aside from the national census report there are no uniform data for comparative purposes.

Before leaving this discussion of the United States it will be interest- ing to glance at peculiar conditions which make this country impera- tively in need of a better system of jurisprudence. These and other conditions render it incomparable with European countries, and con-