It is impossible to estimate with any degree of accuracy the extent of professional criminality. On account of their greater skill as criminals, in all probability more of the professional criminals escape punishment than of the other types of crimi- nals. For example, mentally defective and insane criminals, and criminals by passion are much more likely to get caught than professional criminals. On account of their lack of experi- ence occasional criminals are more likely to get caught than professionals. Some of these occasional criminals with further experience become professionals. We have, therefore, reason to believe that the number of professionals in prison at any time constitutes only a part, and perhaps only a small part, of the total number of criminals of this type. 2 If we bear in mind that a considerable proportion, perhaps as many as half of those in prison, are professionals, we can readily see that the total number must be very large. Several comments should be made which are of significance in this connection. In the first place, as I have already had occasion to remark, a good many crimes such as petty thefts are committed which never become known, either because the loss is never discovered or because it is not recognized as a theft. In the second place, a good many crimes become known for which no one is tried because no evidence can be found. 1 In the third place, a con- siderable proportion of the cases which come before the criminal courts end in dismissal or acquittal. In many of these cases a crime has unquestionably been committed. In the fourth place, in a few cases in which both the crime and the criminal are known the case never comes into court because the victim re- fuses to make a complaint, either in order to avoid the annoy- ance of having to testify, or out of a kindly feeling towards the offender. In the last type of case mentioned the offender may be a servant or employee whom his master or employer does not want to prosecute. But in all of the other cases the criminal is likely to be a professional who is escaping de- tection and punishment through his skill as a criminal. It is true that some of those who may be called professional criminals are very stupid and are frequently caught. They are usually on the borderline between the professional and the mentally defective criminal. But the higher type of professional criminal who is skillful as a criminal, though he may not be skillful in any other way, is responsible for a considerable proportion of the crimes committed, and yet escapes punishment much of the time.
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