THE NEW CROOK.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 308, 3 October 1929, Page 1

THE NEW CROOK.

MONOCLE INSTEAD OF BLUDGEON. Criminals are decreasing in numbers, but crime is increasing in gravity (writes Mr. R. E. Corder, in the London Daily Mail). 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 sheets at the metropolitan police courts were filled by drunkenness cases and offences 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 sobriety—endured by the country since the war. To-day we are undoubtedly a sober people. The latest reports of all chief constables show a steady and progressive decline in convictions for drunkenness. A few weeks ago I toured the country extensively, and I was impressed by the absence of “ drunks ” from the charge sheets both in industrial and agricultural areas.

But a sober country does not necessarily mean a virtuous country. That is where the total 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 super-criminal, the clever men and women whom the detectives of the C.I.D. are .finding so difficult to catch.

Changing Phases. 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.

Scotland yard is now confronted with a problem in psychology. For generations detectives have hunted the Bill Sykes type of criminal, the crude bungler of the black bottle, the man who robbed mansions to live himself in a garret, the 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brought in their man so long as he conformed with the old methods, but during the last few years Bill Sykes has been replaced by Raffles, and applied science has succeeded brutal violence.

Many detectives with whom I have discussed the ingenuity of the new criminal declare that serious crime began when force broke out. Thousands of young men, including brilliant officers, they say, were unable to find work, and many of them turned those very mental and 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, cat burglars, jewel thieves, men of resource and tried courage, who plan a burglary as they would plan a night raid across No Man’s Land. They are the Bulldog Drummonds of the underworld, mem who will meet in the West End, men of good manner and pleasant appearance who mock at morality through a monocle.

Oxford Accent. I myself have met at least one of 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 companion. He is now doing time at Dartmoor. In addition to the “ gentlemen adventurers,” there is a formidable and elusive class of criminal composed of intelligent and skilled craftsmen who have had the benefit of a Borstal training. I agree that many Borstal boys have made good, but Scotland Yard

knows only too well that the bad Borstal boy, the boy who cannot be tamed, is one of the most dangerous criminals who menace society. Owing to the activities of the educated and scientific criminal we are faced to-day with the disturbing truth that high-class crime pays. It pays because detection is more difficult and fences (receivers) are afraid to blackmail men whose brains are at least equal to their own and whose methods are more subtle. The new criminal is bringing to the fore the new detective. Brains are being met with brains, and the whole system of investigations is in the process of being transformed to meet the changing phases of crime.