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This little book of Mr. Lawes' is a very timely contribution to the subject of capital punishment. The reviewer is not aware of any correspondingly excellent discussion for some years. He has in mind particularly the work of Raymond T. Bye, to which Mr. Lawes frequently refers and which he quotes very freely. The book is an effort to marshal available facts for the determination as to the efficacy of capital punishment as a crime deterrent. It is hardly fair to criticize the effort, as one writer has, by saying that such matters are so complex that they cannot be proved by statistics, and dismissing the whole attempt in such manner. If statistics are the only available facts with which the problem may be tackled, then statistics will have to be used, and if used properly they may be expected to lead to certain other aspects of the problem, which in turn will render up available material upon examination. In any case the study of the statistics that Mr. Lawes has made makes but one conclusion possible, namely, the utter futility of capital punishment. In this conclusion the reviewer heartily agrees and trusts that the book will help to bring home to the minds of many readers the fact that capital punishment is but a medieval hang-over, a vestigial barbarism, which, while it serves no valuable purpose as a preventive, is in reality debasing and destructive in its general effects.
White