Crime: Its Cause and Treatment

by Clarence Darrow

Clarence Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union He is remembered for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb and defending John T. Scopes in the Scopes Trial (1925). Darrow began his career as a corporate lawyer and soon switched to criminal law. Darrow was an eloquent speaker and often spoke out against the death penalty. Here Darrow presents his ideas on the latest scientific thought and investigation bearing upon the question of human conduct. Darrow says, "My main effort is to show that the laws that control human behavior are as fixed and certain as those that control the physical world. In fact, that the manifestations of the mind and the actions of men are a part of the physical world."

Genres: Law, Nonfiction, Crime, Psychology, Ebooks, History, Sociology

140 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1972

About the author

in 1857, Clarence Darrow, later dubbed "Attorney for the Damned" and "the Great Defender," was born. For a time he lived in an Ohio home that had served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. His father was known as the "village infidel." Darrow attended the University of Michigan Law School for one year, then passed the bar in 1878 and moved to Chicago. There he joined protests against the trumped-up charges against four radicals accused in the Haymarket Riot case. Darrow became corporate counsel to the City of Chicago, then counsel for the North Western Railway. He quit this lucrative post when he could no longer defend their treatment of injured workers, then went on to defend without pay Socialist striker Eugene V. Debs. In 1907, Darrow successfully defended labor activist "Big Bill" Haywood, charged with assassinating a former governor. His passionate denunciation of the death penalty prompted him to defend the famous killers, Loeb and Leopold, who received life sentences in 1924.

His most celebrated case was the Scopes Trial, defending teacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tenn., who was charged with the crime of teaching evolution in the public schools. Darrow's brilliant cross-examination of prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan lives on in legal history. During the trial, Darrow said: "I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means." Darrow wrote many freethought articles and edited a freethought collection. His two appealing autobiographies are The Story of My Life (1932), containing his plainspoken views on religion, and Farmington (1932). He also wrote Resist Not Evil (1902), An Eye for An Eye (1905), and Crime, Its Causes and Treatments (1925). His freethought writings are collected into Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays. He told The New York Times, "Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either" (April 19, 1936). D. 1938.

More: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytr...

http://darrow.law.umn.edu/index.php?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history...

Reviews

[Onyango Makagutu · Rating 5 out of 5]

How little has changed in the criminal justice system. What has biology and sociology taught us? And how has this knowledge been applied in our treatment of antisocial behavior?

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a review of his lecture Crime and Criminals from Kerr Press, which I can't find here. Simple, direct, accurate, and true. He a century+ ago, and the updated essays from other writers from around 2000, would be most horrified at the disgusting and brutal explosion of the profit prison industry and continued existence of the death penalty. We must eradicate these zombie ideas from our sick society if we are to progress!

[Andrea Hickman Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some ideas put forward in this book that I agree with, and that I think are still relevant today. There are others that clearly date the material and that I cannot agree with. There are still other ideas that I just don't agree with, though others might. Not having much actual experience with crime or criminals, it's quite easy to have opinions without really thinking of them as applying to people I know or care about.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Famous defense attorney Clarence Darrow writes on his views of the criminal justice system. He addresses the ideas of nature verses nature as well as asking if criminals are being punished too harshly. Started this e-book in 2012.

[AM]

I actually have the 1934 Edition purchased in London, UK.

[Anne Brunton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just brilliant. Should be a 'must read' for all criminal justice mandarins.

[Anni Reeds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the SIMPLICITY of Darrow's expression of his quite philsophical ideas and thoughts. This is one of those books that make you think. Simply.

[ManjuPriyaKTT]

Interesting book to read.

[Reix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the ideas are very interesting, even nowadays. This book has made me think a lot about justice and moral

[Who · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly insightful given the date

[A.soorianarayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening book on crime, its cause and treatment.