ABSTRACT
The ‘International Psycho-Analytic Association’ and its local branches have been endeavouring since 1908 to make the new method of research and investigation into mental science, which was, to begin with, only a form of medical treatment, accessible to all who wished to employ Freud’s knowledge in the wide circle of theory and practice. Criminology has till now traced crime theoretically to temptation and to the influence of environment; in practice, however, it recommended for the prevention of crime eugenic, pedagogic, and economic reforms. The conscious confessions of criminals and a statement of the circumstances of the crime will never sufficiently explain why the individual in the given circumstances had to commit just that act. Psycho-analysis should be at the service of criminological psychology and a criminological psycho-analysis should be set up. ‘Punishment’ was hitherto largely motivated by the need for ‘the maintenance of the outraged law’; others expected a prophylaxis of crime from its deterrent effect.
