FASCINATION IN CRIME.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4809, 11 February 1925, Page 4

FASCINATION IN CRIME.

OUR LATENT CRUELTY. (By the Very Rev. W. R. Inge, Dean cf St. Paul’s, in the London '■Morning Post”) Cruelty, the most diabolical of human passions, is latent, not extinct, in most of us. It is bred in the bone, and comes down to us from the days when the ancient Britons tormented their prisoners, and from more recent times when barbarities were inflicted under legal sanction, which seems to make them more attractive to the spectators. A precis of a trial by torture before the Inquisition may be read in Lea’s famous history of that tribunal. The victim in this case was an innocent lady, and it is difficult to imagine any human beings fiendish enough to take part in such a scene. But we have not much right to throw stones at the Spaniards when we remember James 11. and his favourite torture of the “boots” ; the rack on whien Guy Fawkes was stretched; the frequent and popular spectacle of a man whipped at the cart’s tail from Nev,’gate to Tyburn; the “peine forte et dure” which survived till quite modern times; the Eighteenth Century parties to see women flogged at Bridewell, and the public executions which some persons now living may have seen. The old style of hanging was rot a quick or humane death. The two English officers who describe their experiment in “The Read to Endor” testify that no more agonising way of dying can be imagined than strangulation.'

Superficially, we have changed very much in the last century and a half. nl he mere suspicion of cruelty to man or beast excites our indignation ’ even the Rodeo exhibition was too much for the humanity or squeamishness of tlto public. But psychology will not allow us to believe that human nature ever alters radically or that apparently rapid changes go very deep. The intense horror which we feel at the sight of a sentient being in torture is not pure pity or righteous .anger : it is mingled with excitement and a sort of fear. Subconsciously, we feel that the devil i|S at our elbow, and that the vilest lusts are beginning to stir within us. And

seems that the horror wears off very quickly. There is a well-known description of' an execution ■in which three'men 1 were beheaded. The first decapitation evoked a groan of horror from the spectators; the second’was received in silence ; when the executioner accidentally dropped the third head, which he tried to hold up In the usual way, there ,was laughter and chaff. The soldiens in the late war must; I suppose, have soon become callous, and there were stoiies of horrible cruelty, though none, I believe, was proved against ’ English soldiers. There is therefore a natural fascination in a criminal, trial. It is a tragic drama in real life, which gives some of the same satisfaction with which in earlier days men and women watched a Christian torn by wild beast,?, or a- heretic -burned at the stake. Our system of cross-examina-tion is not a bad substitute for the thumbscrew, and a prisoner who is being tried for his life must, if he is at all sensitive, suffer quite as much as if he were tortured in the old style. After all, medieval torture only lasted half an hour, and a burning usually letss. However we may account for it, there is no doubt that crime divides with sport the interest of the newspaper-reading public. There were some, I am told, who on seeing the words “Outburst by Hobbs’ ’on a poster bought the paper in the hope of finding an expert opinion on Australian cricket; but for the majority during the last fortnight the name Hobbs suggested the Bank Case. Murder, however, is more attractive than any money transactions, however sensational. The fascination of crime ta mainly.the fascination of a drama of homicide. STUDY OF HUMAN MOTIVES. It would be unjust to human nature to suppose that this fascination -s merely a revolt against the repression of our most disreputable instincts. There art? other and more legitimate elements in the attractiveness of a cause celebre. There is the contest of wits between two skilled advocates, or, more rarely, between a counsel and a.clever witness. There is the intellectual interest of seeing a tangle

of evidence unravelled and the trutn established against ingenious at- ■ tempts to conceal it.. Above all, there is the study of human nature laid

bare in its innermost workings. What are the real motives of crime ? And bow does a criminal behave before and .after he commits a murder ? Is there a recognisable criminal type, or is the murderer, to all appearance, an ordinary man, perhaps even a man with spine good qualities, a good husband, a loyal friend, an honest tradesman ? These are qusetions which interest everybody. They may raise questions as to the justice of our criminal law. Do we hang a man because we want to get rid of .a social nuisance and danger, or because we infer from the book of Genesis that homicide ought to be capitally pun.’bheu, or to deter others from doing the same, or to exercise lawful vengeance upon a crime which we abhor? And can we execute even the worst malefactor without banging by the same rope three or four ether men who do not : deserve to be hanged—since we do not sum a man up by calling him a murderer, or a forger, ora thief ?

That the interest in criminal mysteries is almost universal is shown by the wide popularity of detective stories. Gaboriau was, I suppose, the founder of this genre of literature, but he has flourished exuberantly in this country. We all revelled in “The Moonstone” when we were young, .and Sherlock Holmes is one of the most living creations in modern fiction. Foreigners perambulate Baker Street to find his house, and there is a valley in Switzerland where guides point out the exact spot of the encounter between Holmes and Professor Moriarty. Half Sherlock Holmes’ cases deal with murder or manslaughter. 1 once asked a distinguished. Head of Scotland Yard, when I way sitting next him at dinner, what the Force thought of Sir Uonan Doyle as an expert in the detection of crime. He answered, as far us 1 can remember after u great many years: “Sherlock Holmes is very ingenious, and really 'isefu'. reading for a detective. But, of course, we really act .on information; not by induction. - Otherwise we should have arrested an archbishop before now.” (There were family reasons which must have made such an accident peculiarly shocking to this eminent official.) He added, in reply to a further question, that ha considered “Trent’s Last Case” the best detective story that he h.ad ever read. UNWHOLESOME INFLUENCES. Whether this popular interest m criminal trials conduces to justice m the law courts may be doubtful. The newspaper's are very scrupulous in avoiding any comments which might bias the' minds of the Juries. But democracy is government by public opinion ; and the crowds who attend an exciting trial exercise an impalpable influence on the jury which is often unwholesome. Popular sentimnet is becoming far too lenient to what the French call erimeis of passion. If the victim of a murderous outrage- is a ruffiian or a scoundrel there is an idea abroad that a woman who has had the misfortune to be associated with him ought not to oe punished for taking his life. There have been instances of this misguided lately, and the counsel for the prisoner has learnt how to play upon this string. There is no justification whatever for having one criminal law for a man and another for a woman ; and however wicked a man may be, there is no excuse for a private person who takes upon himself or herself -the part, of executioner. This is an evil which is likely to spread further; and the legal profession ought to recognise that it is a danger and quite foreign to the traditions of British justice.

Even more discreditable is the indulgence now shown to so-called political crimes.' It iseems hardly credible, though it is unhappily true, that there were noisy demonstrations in favour of remitting the extreme penalty in the case of Roger Casement, a traitor to his country in time of war, and (it is said) a man of vile eharateer, and of the two infamouis assassins of Sir Henry Wilson, Political assassin,ation is the most heinow of crimes; it has hitherto been the legitimate boast of Englishmen that attempts to kill eminent persons are very rare in England, and generally the work of foreigners or lunatics. Next to murder there is no more cruel and cowardly crime than arson. But incendiaries have lately been dealt, with in a culpably lenient manner. Ii should be made quite clear that a political motive is no defence whatever ; political criminals are even more deserving of condign punishment than'ordinary offendens.

As regards publicity, psychologists tell rs that if an actual case of cruelty or lust is brought before the eyes or minds of the public great moral mischief may be done. Even a scientific book on the pathology of sex may be ‘pdisonous, if it contains detailed descriptions of foul acts; and this is the reason why certain .books of this kind, written with the best intentions, have been forbidden to. be sold and advertised publicly. There should be mo hesitation in ordering some cases to-be tried in camera, and in forbidding some evidence to be reported.