Crime: Its Cause and Treatment

"Crime: Its Cause and Treatment" by Clarence Darrow is a book that examines crime by looking at science, during a period when people were thinking carefully about fairness and changes in society. It studies all the different reasons why crime happens by considering things like our bodies, our minds, and the world around us. Darrow wants people to start thinking about crime as something that happens because of lots of different things, instead of just thinking of it as people making bad choices. Right at the start, Darrow talks about his time working in courts and says he wants to figure out why people do bad things. He believes that most people think crime is simply a matter of right and wrong, but he argues that science shows that what we do comes from what we inherit and where we live. When he begins, he explains that "crime" means actions that are against the law, not necessarily things that are evil. He says laws are made by society, and that punishment is often about getting even, not about helping people change. This sets the stage for him to explore the social and mental reasons behind criminal behavior, and makes us question how we judge and treat people who are called criminals.