The Cause and Cure of Crime Author:Charles Richmond Henderson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III Social Reactions Against Crime And Criminals T TAVING indicated the nature of criminal- - - ity and the development of the antisocial character... more », we arrive at the manipulations of the protective impulses of individuals and of communities — resentment, revenge, punishment. j. Origins of Resentment Even in the world of plants we discover manifestations of irritability and resistance to forces which endanger life. Animals of advanced nervous organization instinctively protect themselves and their young from their enemies. Fear, anger, and rudimentary revenge are illustrated by observers of these beings of lower intelligence. These instincts, which have their roots in the chemical and physical constitution of living matter, are useful for the preservation of the individualand the race, and so are transmitted and perpetuated. Pain is associated in memory with the appearance of certain forms, and fear anticipates the danger by withdrawal or concealment, while animals conscious of power are aggressive and bold to meet assaults with force or take reprisals. In the higher animals, as birds, cattle, horses, measures of defense and protection become socialized. The individual human being belongs to the organic world, and is endowed by nature with fear, resentment, and courage to fight his foes and maintain his place. Revenge is the brooding memory of resentment, a more permanent state of anger, and not a mere momentary explosion of self-protecting indignation or passion. So far as evidence goes human individuals were never left quite alone to protect themselves or to avenge their wrongs. In all the most ancient and most simple contemporary societies the group has some interest in the reaction — the family, the clan, the tribe. Rarely, if ever, was man solitary. T...« less