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THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

VOL. CLXVI.

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AP

2

.N87

Copyright, 1898, by THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW PUBLISHING CO.

All rights reserved.

NORTH AMERICAN AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CCCCXCIV.

JANUARY, 1898.

WHY HOMICIDE HAS INCREASED IN THE
UNITED STATES.-II.

BY PROFESSOR CESARE LOMBROSo.

BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION.

THE special conditions under which North American civilization has been developed are such that the results, even with respect to the white race, present an intermingling of the effects and dangers of the maximum of civilization and the maximum of barbarism. The types developed by Aryan civilization are twofold; the first is a type of violence, where the struggle for existence is met by force, political power, and wealth, which unite and maintain themselves by arms to the detriment of the weak; and as competition between ancient communities was supported by armed forces, so at the present time litigation is frequently anticipated and solved by violent means. Brigandage may be regarded as a species of natural adaptation to the conditions arising from bad government. When the police fail to provide protection against oppression and crime, when the ministers of the law tyrannize over the weak and are blind to the wrongdoing of the strong, then brigandage, like the camorra, steps in and opposes cunning and force to the evil conditions existing. In other words, it becomes a sort of wild justice, substituting its own savVOL. CLXVI.-NO. 494. 1

Copyright, 1897, by THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW PUBLISHING COMPANY. All rights reserved.

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