SPECIALISED CRIME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 99, 22 September 1914, Page 7

SPECIALISED CRIME.

HOW THE CRIMINAL. FAILS. In the New York World, Judge Swann, of the Court of General Sessions, gives fome interesting eidelighU on the mind of the law-breaker, and sbows "how he himself any. That criminals specialise in Uieir acts of violence, he says, is known to everyone who is interested in detective work. But that they also specialise in their methods of committing particular crimes is not so generally recognised. Yet, l by means of certain earmarks, so to speak, that they quite unconsciously r. ake a we]l-inforaned detective is enabled very often to lay his liands on the perpetrators of certain acts when a less experienced man would fail for -lack of definite clues.

One store burglar, for instance, will always enter through the fanlight over the front door, another Tjv breakinig in at. the back. One will pry open the iron haTs of the back window; (mother will .prefer to come down through the skylight in the roof. Moreover, tihey will oil reipeat the saino act in the same general neighborhood, ami at or about the rame hour of the night or day, as the case may be, with results disastrous to themselves and satisfactory to tne representatives of the law.

WHERE BRAIN POWER TELLS. It may easily be seen, then, how a detectivo with a long experience and a wide acuaintanee with the mo.st active crooks and their methods can firiu the task of tracking down his wan comparatively simple. The crime itself generally suggests the gang responsible for its commission; t:he exact methods may actually indicate the individual.

Many a time when a burglary has occurred and the criminal has vanished, leaving apparently no marks by which lie can be traced, police officials have been able to produce him in Court within a few days, to the utter astonishment of all concerned.

And here, it may be remarked, is one particular in which at least the lower order of criminal seems to differ from the ordinary man—in the matter of brain. In this he is abnormal, the parts of his mental mechanism being seemingly in Bome way defective, or at least "not co-ordinating in such a manner as to render life acts logical. It is to his interests, if to anybody's, tc conceal his identity, and to avoid mannerisms or fads from which a keen intellect might deduce liis participation ia i.ny given occurrence or crinw. Yet this he seems unable to do. Of course he must reeds specialise in one particular branch of crinif, for any career, lawless or otherwise, requires n certain amount of training, and every man's capacity for work is limited. HOW TUB POLICE SCORE. For in?lance, nn accomplished safeblower will rarely bo a good pickpocket, or a gunman an expert forger. Each action requires native ability as well special preparation- But there is no reason, physoiogic.rl or otherwise, rrhv the crook should not vavv his methods. Yet this he fails to do, leadin:.'. in coiHe.iiience. to bis own direction. Were it not that criminals vej.er.c their misdeeds in pubslanlialh- the same way or>ch time, and incidentally betrav their personal habits of thought end net ion, it would be imnossible tor the. police officials to follow up «n,\ convict as i:r.'.nv lawbreakers as 'hev