The Bengal Police Magazine. January-March 1939

The whole aim of punishment ought to be the cure of the mental attitude which prompts the act on the past of he offender and the protection of others who might suffer as a result of such act. [...] Cesari Lombroso the first man who gave a scientific turn to the study of criminology emphasised the importance of structural peculiarities of the criminal.18 THE BENGAL POLICE MAGAZINE This would correspond to the study of disease on the baSis of anatomical changes. [...] The studies of Mesmer about hypnotism of Janet of the structure of consciousness and of Morton Prince of the problem of multiple personality —the conceptions of Freud Adler and Jung of the unconscious Kretschmer's formulas for tracing the effects of bodily constitution upon mental disposition and Pavlov's theory of conditioned reflexes—all these appear intriguing to the layman. [...] The antiquated psychology of the Middle Ages considered the mental life of man and that of the beast to be two entirely different phenomena ; the one was attributed to 'reason' and the other to 'instinct'. [...] The difference is this : With regard to habitual actions the mechanism must be lalporiouslyTHE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CRIMINAL 27 constructed by exertions of the individual whereas with regard to instinctive actions the mechanism is inherited ready-formed as the structure of the ear and the eye is inherited ready-formed.