| Show intensive ante asive 6 study of the criminal cr imi nat 1 t he Is 19 being analyzed in psychological laboratory for indexing the psychology of the criminal Is bling being studied more intensely today than ever before the criminal Is being analyzed from every possible angle with a blew to correcting his habits or finding out something new about him and psychology has enabled us to classify and index him in a manner not dreamed of n few years ago it lias has been found for example that the age and physical strength of criminals may be studied with profit since they are often determining factors in the particular crimes in which they specialize ci alize it lias has been pointed out said a veteran detective that at least 90 per cent of the holdup hold up men who have been tit at work in all of our large cities are mere youths many of them are arc little more than beardless boys and it Is rare to find one over thirty youth Is eternally reckless and Is prone to take chances that a man of thirty experienced perien ced in the ways of the world would deliberate a long time before taking what Is true of the holdup hold up man Is true of most criminals A visit to the cites police stations when the nightly catch of the pollee police net Is casting out its vict victims lins will convince anyone that the majority of our criminals are extremely young men and if further proof Is needed it Is only necessary to turn backward the pages of any pollee police blotter in shooting and stabbing affrays and crimes of especial violence the lie be heedless edless thought thoughtless leRs youth Is always foremost ile he Is a victim of impulse and passion pitifully lacking i self control two classes of burglars take another example the burglar class there are many subdivisions lut but roughly burglars may be divided into tw two 0 classes the daring fellow who jimmies his way into an apartment and the petty sneak thief who Is what bl his name implies a co cowardly ardly Nr wretch etch who enters a place on some pretext or only when lie he finds a door open and no one at home twenty years ago the bolder type of a burglar known as a dutch houseman was often a 1 roan man of thirty alve bf orT k Opre re today lie he Is almost ex cx elusively ti young man burglary Is inore difficult today than it was a quarter of a century ago this Is because modern inventions hake made a mans castle more difficult to break into we have burglarproof burglar proof locks and window catches and tile the like and hidden bidden burglar alarms a as uell nell and the who hns has the temerity to enter such euch a stronghold must needs be robust and athletic lie ile roost must be a fellow who Is as a aile agile ile as a monkey on iare escape or coping as he frequently lias has to depend on his strength anil and speed in order to get away safely it surprised hence only a youth in the prime of physical condition ventures into such a hazardous calling today I 1 A few years azo ago a certain so go called gentleman burglar gave tho the police a merry time of it before lie was finally captured and sent away tor for a long term of years this fellow performed feats that appeared superhuman ile he could climb along the narrowest sort of apartment house coping und could leap successfully across a wide chasm from one roof to another when we finally corralled him we learned he wag a 11 trained athlete and kept blin himself gelf in the pink of condition by visiting a gymnasium dally daily the parallel might bo be extended further to show that criminals are more or less guided by temperament age and strength in their pursuits when a housebreaker feels ills his joints getting getling stiff and his arms getting soft he be realizes he Is no longer able to follow successfully the undertakings lie he used to accomplish without much effort and he either cither ches up crime for good or follows a criminal pursuit more in keeping with ills his years once a criminal always a crial nal Is a harsh saying it 1 Is veil known that some men time hae ha e beun been drawn into crime by some accident of fortune many such I 1 do not doubt having been caught and punished have reformed lived down the lie past and become useful citizens cut bill I 1 am discussing the lie criminals who have not seen the handwriting on the wall and headed their ways these men have beaume petty criminals in one way or another some have become professional fess ional mendicants mendi cants others have found berths in underworld ches and still others have become messengers ers for younger thieves schooling the them in the tricks and artifices of their trade all of them are mixed up to ID shady pursuits of some kind if it Is tree that criminals of sixty or more seldom fall into the tolls of the police it Is equally true that criminals have no age ace limit now and then theft you hear of a patriarch being arraigned in one of the courts recently a venerable well dressed man who Is seventy five years of age was arrested tor for forgery ile he has been a forger since lie he vias as a young man ills all plan n was to saunter into a store select so something me thing and when lie he was wag about to pay tor for it discover lie he had absently left ills his pocketbook pocket boote at livine lie he would write a check tor for a dollar or more than the article called for pleading ile he needed carfare eventually hlll ly ile he tripped himself up by laying down too many checks in tile tho same city |
