1929, before the 1930 revision went into force on July 1, 1931. Yet it is an admitted fact that the 1930 Code, still in effect today with slight changes, was very largely the work of Ferri.

It was Ferri-who previously had tdught law, lectured on criminology, and become internationally famous as a prolific writer of volume, after volume on his favorite subjectwho was appointed on September 14, 1919, by Royal Degree, as President of a Commission "for the purpose of preparing a new Criminal Code" for Italy. There were 14 others on the commission, Italy's Attorney General who served as Vice-President, plus nine lawyers, and four biologists and psychiatrists.

Getting down to work, the Ferri Commission went to the roots of things. Several subcommissions were set up to study specific problems or aspects. One studied the "occasional criminal," another the "habitual criminal," a third the criminal "under age," a fourth the "abnormal" criminal. 5 And so on.

When the Code was finally finished in 1930, it consisted of only 195 pages in English. 6 As it stands today, Book II, Part IX, "Crimes: Against Morality and Decency," contains articles against rape, carnal violence, curruption of minors, and "obscene acts" in public, but nothing on homosexual acts. And the age of majority is 18, instead of 21 as in the United States.7

The old Classical school of criminology had adhered to the theory (and, regrettably, still does in many parts of the world, including the U. S.) that crimes of all kinds are sins, that the offender is wicked and evil and could choose the right path if he wanted to, and that the only way to deal with a criminal is to punish him. But the Positive school thought otherwise. Criminal causation, says Ferri, is a matter of biolo-

gy, environment, and other factors operating upon the individual in such a way that he is actually powerless to help himself. We are lacking in free will, because "the will is not an entity. Rather, the will is independent of both mind and body is an isolated thing. Without free will there is no "moral responsibility." But in the eyes of the Code there is an offense committed; there is society; and there is the offender Instead of looking primarily to the offense, Ferri looked to the offender -the offender and society. Therefore, there was RESPONSIBILITY, but it was SOCIAL, rather than moral, responsibility 8

Crime is a "social phenomenon, due to the interaction of anthropological, telluric, and social factors." But it is the "dangerousness" of the offender to society-not the offense

which should receive prime consideration. 10 Instead of considering the question of MORAL GUILT (which would follow from "free will"), the court must consider the question of SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

While the Code is a "Penal" Code, the word "sanctions" is preferable to "punishment." 11 "Sanctions" measures of safety, correction, and cure. 12 Ferri's Code recognizes the "psychological element" in offenses. An offense may be "without criminai intent, or against the intention" of the individual if the causative factors are psychological. 13

Ferri may have had some connection with Mussolini and the Fascists, but he was far above that: he was the central figure in the reform of Italy's criminal law, which is outstanding in the world today. The beginning of this great reform antedated Mussolini; and the Fascist government, when it came into power in 1922, did not approve the Ferri draft. 14 For the homosexual, Zanardelli in the 19th century had

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first removed the stigma and the penalty, but with Ferri matters seemed more secure. Not that there have been no bad features in the Code. The Fascist provisions which went into the Code under Mussolini, making crimes of strikes, lockouts and boycoits, would hardly meet with our approval. But these were repealed after the destruction of the Fascist regime in 1945. 15 In 1946, Italy voted in favor of becoming a republic instead of a monarchy, and in 1948 she got a new Constitution. By this new Constitution the death penalty was abolished; also by the same instrument the sentence of confinement to islands or remote places on the mainland was done away with. 16

The Italian Positive school of criminology has aroused increasing interest in this country. The late Professor John H., Wigmore, Dean of Northwestern University Law School and eminent authority on the law of evidence, was one of the first and most ardent American followers of the Positive viewpoint. It was he who, in 1909, organized the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology which, since 1910, has published its famous journal. 17

Most of us would object to Italy's present Code making a crime of mere insult, and we would object to' the sumptuary provisions against "obscene" publications and objects. But for the homosexual the Code is very satisfactory. And on the whole, the Italians seem quite pleased with it 18 They should be, for after all it is very much up-to-date and few o.her countries can boast of anything like it!

1-6 Encyc. Brit. 720 (1955) (Criminology); 6 Collier's Encyc. 111 (1955) (Criminology)

2 CODICE PENALE-ANNOT. (1859), Bk. II, Pt. VII, Art. 425. Naples: G. Sarracino, 1883

3-Enrico Ferri, "The Nomination of a Commission for the Positivist Reform of the Italian Penal Code," 11 JRNL. OF AMER. INST. OF CRIM. LAW & CRIMINOLOGY 67 (1920).

4 CODICE PENALE (1890). Pub. Firenzo, by G. Barbera, 1910.

See also: 15 Encyc. Brit. 74-75 (13 h ed.) (Italy): 28 Encyc. Brit. 955 (13th ed.) (Zanardelli). 5-Ferri, OP. CIT., pp. 75-76. 6-PENAL CODE OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY. London: H. M. Stationery Ofc., 1931. For Italian ed., see CODICI PENALIANNOT. Milan: Dott. A. Giuffre, 1955. 7-A. M. Kidd, "The Preliminary

Project for an Italian Penal Code," 10 CALIF. LAW REVIEW 388 (1922). B-Ferri, CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY, pp. xxix, 296. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1917. 9-Ferri, THE POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY, p. 93. Chicago. Chas. M. Kerr & co., 1906

10 Kidd., OP. CIT. p. 384 11-Axel Teisen, "The Italian Project for a New Criminal Code," 13 Amer. Bcr Assn. Jrnl. 213 (1927). 12-Giulio Battaglini, "The Fascist

Reform of the Penal Law in Italy," 24 Jrnl, of Crim. Law and Criminology 285 (1933)

13 CODICI PENALI (1955), Bk. I, Pt. III, Art. 43.

14-Carlo Calisse, A HSTORY OF ITALIAN LAW, P. 489. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1928. 15-12 Encyc. Brit. 817 (1955) (Italy) 16-Id., pp. 815, 818. 17-Robt. H. Gault, Criminology,

p. 34. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1832. The organ is now called THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW, CRIMINOLOGY, AND POLICE SCIENCE. 18-12 Encyc. Brit. 817 (1955), Italy