The Professional Thief

by a Professional Thief

[University of Chicago Press, $2.50]

IN this volume a retired and defunct professional thief has produced what seems to be a fairly complete and authentic introduction to his occupation. First of all he describes the qualifications and prerequisites of his profession, including its ethical code. He then explains the organization of ‘mobs’ and the most effective methods of conducting them from an administrative point of view. There follow careful instructions concerning different, profitable ‘rackets’ and how to avoid the mistakes which are likely to lead to failure or arrest.

The next chapter includes invaluable information in regard to ways of bribing police, and ‘fixing’ cases by employing crooked lawyers and politicians. There are some probably important tips as to the varying ease with which sundry types of theft may be committed in different cities. Finally the thief descants upon his social attitudes. Thieves’ slang is used by professional operators among themselves in order that they may recognize each other and help each other. This usage enables them to avoid becoming entangled with bungling amateurs. A complete glossary of such slang is appended.

This book was annotated and prepared for the press by Professor Edwin H. Sutherland, who is an eminent authority on Criminology. It is published in the University of Chicago Sociological Series. We are informed that ‘the editors are convinced that the textbooks used in teaching should be based upon the results of the efforts of specialists whose studies of concrete problems are building up a new body of funded knowledge.’

The reviewer feels that the readers of the Atlantic include very few aspiring amateur thieves to whom this textbook can be recommended as a guide which they ought to ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.’ He has a very strong conviction that the general dissemination of such ‘funded knowledge5 is at best folly, and at worst almost criminal.

Some of the native Australians have, as an important part of their initiation ceremonies for boys, the dramatic enactment of all of the most heinous offenses which it is possible for a tribesman to commit. The performance is carried out with gusto by the elders. At its conclusion they say to the boys: ‘These are all of the things which you must not do.’ It may be left to the reader to approve or disapprove this Australian method of education introduced into modern sociology.

E. A. HOOTON