HEREDITY AND CRIME.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 906, 27 August 1910, Page 11

HEREDITY AND CRIME.

" ' MEDICAI OPINIONS. ~';,,'.. (By .Telegrapji-Bpecial Oorreeji&ria'fcne.) • .... . .. Auckland,' .August, 25. ' A* number- of Auckland, doctors), .who were interviewed yesterday on' the subject of'eugenics-and tho recent .remarks of. the .Chief 'Justice, were agreed as- to tho distinct' connection; between heredity and crime, and one- ■■ doctoi referred to an article in a recent American publication, in which it was shown that a long list of criminal acts, extending hack from'generation to generation, could bo traced back to a progenitor who lived some 150 years ago. 'i'ke same doctor, however, pointed out that, degrees of temptation and general environment had a gre'at deal'to do with tho development of thcub hereditary criminal tendencies. The same tendency,' ho said, might lead to totally different results in.two.different individuals,',or.in one case it might. produce a marked effect, whilst in another caso.itmight, have , no effect at all. \ ■ .'- - "If," he said, "we are going to stamp out hereditary criminality we shall have to look not only to those- who bring themselves within reach of tho lawj but also to other members of the population who, whilst they may havo never seen the inBido.nf prison walls, nevertheless have tbo natural tendency to crime which requires only a favourable opportunity to assert itself in some more or less vicious form. Tho subject is a complex one, and it must also bo remembered that the borderline between criminality and mental dietaso is a very thin one. It is. hard to say on'which side of such border certain individuals really are." ' On tho subject of tho'work of. eugenics societies, the doctor said that the educative aspect of the work had everything to recommend it. Tho idea, he said,, was as old as tho sun, but he was not prepared to say to what length slops should bo taken to give practical-effect to tho doctrines enunciated by such societies. . ■ . "There is," he added,' "much that is repulsive, as well as much that is pleasant, in a consideration of the question. I. do not think tbo .public is yet sufficiently educated upon tho point.to warrant tho adoption of such drastic measures as must suggest themselves it we follow tho basic principle of eugenics out to iu logical conclifsic-n."-