THE SCIENTIFIC CRIMINAL

Hokitika Guardian, 31 July 1929, Page 7

THE SCIENTIFIC CRIMINAL

NEW PROBLEMS FOR THE “YARD.” ( By R. E. CORDER, in Daily Mail.) Criminals arc decreasing in number but crime is increasing in gravity. That is not a paradox; it is a mere statement of fact that is keeping Scotland Yard 'busy seeking to devise new methods to meet modern criminal moves. Twenty years ago the charge sheet at tho metropolitan police courts were filled by drunkenness cases and offenders directly due to drink. Now, except on festive occasions like Christmas, New .Year’s Eve, the Boat Race, and the Derby, “drunks” in London consist chiefly of old offenders, men and women who have survived what they would call the scourge of soberity—endured by the country since the war. A SOBER PEOPLE. . To-day we are undoubtedly a sober people. The latest reports of all chief constables show a steady and progressive decline in convictions for drunkeness. A few weeks ago I toured the country extensively, and I was impressed by the absence of “drunks” from the charge sheets both im.industrial and agricultural areas. But a sober country does not necessarily mean a virtuous country. That is where the toal abstinence advocates here and in the United States are arguing on a false thesis. They declare that most crime and attendant misery are due to drink. Magistrates and police now realise that sobriety has aided if not produced the supercriminal, the clever men and women whom the detectives of the C.I.D. are finding so difficult to catch. The changing phases of crime have kept pace with the decline in petty offences. The chief crimes of to-day are not the product of violence but of ingenuity. In other words, we have among us a clever educated, resourceful criminal who does not carry a bludgeon but often wears a monocle. PROBLEM 'IN PSYCHOLOGY. Scotland Yard is now confronted with a problem in psychology. For generations detectives have liunited rhe Bill Sikes type of criminal, the rude bunglieir of the black bottle, the man who robbed mansion to live himself in a garret, tile man whose methods were so characteristic that he ‘wrote his name on every job.” • Working on the old lines, the detectives invariably brought in their man so long confronted with the old methods, but during the last few years Bill Sikes lias been replaced by Raffles md applied science has succeeded brutal violence. Many detectives with whom I have discussed the ingenuity of the new •riminal declare that serious crime began when force broke out. Thousand of young men, including brilliant offi oers they say, were unable to find work, and many of them turned those very mental a,nd physical qualities that made them good soldiers into a career of crime. , • These are the men Scotland Yard finds it hard to catch. Motor bandits vat burglars, jewel thieves, men of resource and tried courage who plan a burglary as they would plan a nigh l raid across No Man’s Land. They are he Bull Dog Drummonds of the Under world, men you will meet in the West End, men of good manner and pleasant appearance who mock at morality through a monocle. I myself have met at least one cf these “gentlemen adventurers” as they call themselves. I met him at a murder trial at Maidstone, complete with monocle, Oxford accent, and charming manner. A brilliant conversationalist, he was a most entertaining dinner and smoke-room cornea nlion. He is now doing time at Dartmoor. THE UNTAMABLE BOY. In addition to tile “gentleman adenturers’’ there is a formidable nd elusive class of criminal compos'd of intelligent and skilled craftsnen who have had the benefit of a Borstal training. I agree that many Borstal boy* have made good, but Scotland Yard? knows only too well that the bad Boreal boy, the boy who cannot be tarnd is one of the most dangerous criminals who menace society. Owing to the activitie sof the eduated and scientific criminal we are 'need to-day with the disturbing truth hat high-class crime pays. It pays because detection is more difficult and fences (receivers) are afraid to blacknail men whose brains' are at least equal to their own and whose methods ire more subtle. The new criminal is bringing to the -re the new detective.. Brains arc being met with brains, and the whole system of criminal investigation is in f he process of being transformed to meet the changing phases of crime.