《乌合之众·第三编·不同群体的分类与描述·刑事陪审团》第4节
[24] It is to be remarked, in passing, that this division of crimes into those dangerous and those not dangerous for society, which is well and instinctively made by juries is far from being unjust. The object of criminal laws is evidently to protect society against dangerous criminals and not to avenge it. On the other hand, the French code, and above all the minds of the French magistrates, are still deeply imbued with the spirit of vengeance characteristic of the old primitive law, and the term "vindicte" (prosecution, from the Latin vindicta, vengeance) is still in daily use. A proof of this tendency on the part of the magistrates is found in the refusal by many of them to apply Berenger's law, which allows of a condemned person not undergoing his sentence unless he repeats his crime. Yet no magistrate can be ignorant, for the fact is proved by statistics, that the application of a punishment inflicted for the first time infallibly leads to further crime on the part of the person punished. When judges set free a sentenced person it always seems to them that society has not been avenged. Rather than not avenge it they prefer to create a dangerous, confirmed criminal. Juries, like all crowds, are profoundly impressed by prestige, and President des Glajeux very properly remarks that, very democratic as juries are in their composition, they are very aristocratic in their likes and dislikes: "Name, birth, great wealth, celebrity, the assistance of an illustrious counsel, everything in the nature of distinction or that lends brilliancy to the accused, stands him in extremely good stead."
注释摘要
勒庞在这一段中做了一个鲜明的对比：他认为陪审团虽由普通民众组成，却本能地懂得区分对社会真正危险的犯罪与那些动机源于激情的、对社会威胁甚微的违法行为。他举的例子带有强烈的时代烙印——失足少女杀死新生儿、被诱骗又被抛弃的年轻女子用硫酸袭击负心汉。在勒庞看来，陪审团对这些案件的宽大处理，不是软弱，而是一种未经理论学习却相当准确的社会自我保护直觉：这些犯罪并不真正…