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Title: Criminal Man, According to the Classification of Cesare
Lombroso

Author: Gina Lombroso

Commentator: Cesare Lombroso

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRIMINAL
MAN, ACCORDING TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF CESARE

LOMBROSO ***

THE SCIENCE
SERIES
Edited by Edward Lee Thorndike,
Ph.D., and
F. E. Beddard, M.A., F.R.S.

1. The Study of Man. By A. C.
Haddon.
2. The Groundwork of Science.
By St. George Mivart.
3. Rivers of North America. By
Israel C. Russell.
4. Earth Sculpture, or; The
Origin of Land Forms. By James
Geikie.
5. Volcanoes; Their Structure
and Significance. By T. G.
Bonney.
6. Bacteria. By George Newman.
7. A Book of Whales. By F. E.
Beddard.

8. Comparative Physiology of
the Brain, etc. By Jacques Loeb.
9. The Stars. By Simon Newcomb.
10. The Basis of Social Relations.
By Daniel G. Brinton.
11. Experiments on Animals. By
Stephen Paget.
12. Infection and Immunity. By
George M. Sternberg.
13. Fatigue. By A. Mosso.
14. Earthquakes. By Clarence E.
Dutton.
15. The Nature of Man. By Élie
Metchnikoff.
16. Nervous and Mental Hygiene
in Health and Disease. By
August Forel.
17. The Prolongation of Life. By
Élie Metchnikoff.
18. The Solar System. By
Charles Lane Poor.
19. Heredity. By J. Arthur
Thompson, M.A.
20. Climate. By Robert
DeCourcy Ward.
21. Age, Growth, and Death. By
Charles S. Minot.

22. The Interpretation of Nature.
By C. Lloyd Morgan.
23. Mosquito Life. By Evelyn
Groesbeeck Mitchell.
24. Thinking, Feeling, Doing. By
E. W. Scripture.
25. The World's Gold. By L. de
Launay.
26. The Interpretation of
Radium. By F. Soddy.
27. Criminal Man. By Cesare
Lombroso.

For list of works in preparation
see end of this volume

The Science Series

CRIMINAL MAN

CRIMINAL MAN

ACCORDING TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF

CESARE LOMBROSO

BRIEFLY SUMMARISED BY HIS DAUGHTER

GINA LOMBROSO-FERRERO

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

CESARE LOMBROSO

ILLUSTRATED

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

1911

Copyright, 1911

BY

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

CONTENTS
PART I.—THE CRIMINAL WORLD
CHAPTER I PAGE
The Born Criminal 3
Classical and modern schools of penal
jurisprudence—Physical anomalies of
the born criminal—Senses and
functions—Psychology—Intellectual
manifestations—The criminal in
proverbial sayings.

CHAPTER II
The Born Criminal and his Relation to
52
Moral Insanity and Epilepsy
Identity of born criminals and the
morally insane—Analogy of physical
and psychic characters, origin and
development—Epilepsy—Multiformity
of disease—Equivalence of certain
forms to criminality—Physical and
psychic characters—Cases of moral
insanity with latent epileptic
phenomena.

CHAPTER III
The Insane Criminal 74
General forms of criminal insanity,
imbecility, melancholia, general
paralysis, dementia, monomania—
Physical and psychic characters of the
mentally deranged—Special forms of
criminal insanity—Inebriate lunatics

from inebriation—Physical and psychic
characters—Specific crimes—Epileptic
lunatics—Manifestations—Hysterical
lunatics—Physical and functional
characters—Psychology.

CHAPTER IV
Criminaloids 100
Psychology—Tardy adoption of
criminal career—Repentance—
Confession—Moral sense and
affections—Habitual criminals—
Juridical criminals—Criminals of
passion.

PART II.—CRIME, ITS ORIGIN, CAUSE,
AND CURE
CHAPTER I
Origin and Causes of Crime 125
Atavistic origin of crime—Criminality
in children—Pathological origin of
crime—Direct and indirect heredity—
Illnesses, intoxications, and traumatism
—Alcoholism—Social causes of crime
—Education and environment—
Atmospheric and climatic influences—
Density of population—Imitation—
Immigration—Prison life—Economic
conditions—Sex—Age.

CHAPTER II
The Prevention of Crime 153
Preventive institutions for children and
young people—Homes for orphans and
destitute children—Colonies for unruly

youths—Institutions for assisting adults
—Salvation Army.

CHAPTER III
Methods for the Cure and Repression of
175
Crime
Juvenile offenders—Children's Courts
—Institutions for female offenders—
Minor offenders, criminals of passion,
political offenders, and criminaloids—
Probation system and indeterminate
sentence—Reformatories—
Penitentiaries—Institutes for habitual
criminals—Penal colonies—Institutions
for born criminals and the morally
insane—Asylums for insane criminals
—Capital punishment—Symbiosis.

PART III.—CHARACTERS AND TYPES OF
CRIMINALS
CHAPTER I
Examination of Criminals 219
Antecedents and psychology—Methods
of testing intelligence and emotions—
Morbid phenomena—Speech, memory,
and handwriting—Clothing—Physical
examination—Tests of sensibility and
senses—Excretions—Table of
anthropological examination of
criminals and the insane.

CHAPTER II
Summary of Chief Forms of Criminality to
Aid in Distinguishing between Criminals
258
and Lunatics and in Detecting Simulations
of Insanity

A few cases showing the practical
application of criminal anthropology.

APPENDIX
Works of Cesare Lombroso (Briefly
Summarised)
I. The Man of Genius 283
II. Criminal Man 288
The Female Offender. (In
III. 291
Collaboration with Guglielmo Ferrero.)
Political Crime. (In Collaboration with
IV. 294
Rodolfo Laschi.)
Too Soon: A Criticism of the New
V. 298
Italian Penal Code
Prison Palimpsests: Studies in Prison
VI. 300
Inscriptions
VII. Ancient and Modern Crimes 302
Diagnostic Methods of Legal
VIII. 303
Psychiatry
IX. Anarchists 305
X. Lectures on Legal Medicine 307
Recent Discoveries in Psychiatry and
Criminal Anthropology and the
XI. 309
Practical Application of these
Sciences

Bibliography of the Chief Works of Cesare
310
Lombroso

Index 315

ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Fig. 1. Fossette Occipital 6
Fig. 2. Skull Formation 11
Fig. 3. Skull Formation 11
Fig. 4. Head of Criminal 16
Fig. 5. Head of Criminal 16
Fig. 6. Layers of the Frontal Region 23
Fig. 7. Figures Made in Prison. Murder of a Sleeping Victim 32
Fig. 8. Crucifix Poignard 32
Fig. 9. Water-Jugs 42
Fig.
Drawings in Script. Discovered by De Blasio 44
10.
Fig.
Alphabet. Discovered by De Blasio 45
11.
Fig.
Boy Morally Insane 56
12.
Fig.
Boy Morally Insane 56
13.
Fig.
An Epileptic Boy 60
14.
Fig.
Fernando. Epileptic 60
15.
Fig.
Italian Criminal. A Case of Alcoholism 82
16.
Fig.
Signatures of Criminals 163
17.
Fig.
Criminal Girl 114
18.
Fig.
The Brigand Salomone 114
19.

Fig.
Brigand Gasparone 166
20.
Fig.
Brigand Caserio 120
21.
Fig.
Terra-cotta Bowls. Designed by a Criminal 134
22.
Fig.
Art Production from Prison 136
23.
Fig. A Combat between Brigands and Gendarmes. Designed by
136
24. a Criminal
Fig.
A Volumetric Glove 224
25.
Fig.
Head of a Criminal. Epileptic 224
26.
Fig.
Anton Otto Krauser. Apache 236
27.
Fig.
A Criminal's Ear 224
28.
Fig.
Anthropometer 237
29.
Fig.
Craniograph Anfossi 238
30.
Fig.
Pelvimeter 239
31.
Fig.
Diagram of Skull 241
32.
Fig.
Diagram of Skull 241
33.
Fig.
Esthesiometer 245
34.
Fig.
Algometer 248
35.
Fig.
Campimeter of Landolt (Modified) 248
36.
Fig.
Diagram Showing Normal Vision 250
37.

Fig.
Dynamometer 253
38.
Fig.
Head of an Italian Criminal 254
39.

INTRODUCTION
BY CESARE LOMBROSO

[Professor Lombroso was able before his death to give his
personal attention to the volume prepared by his daughter and
collaborator, Gina Lombroso Ferrero (wife of the distinguished
historian), in which is presented a summary of the conclusions
reached in the great treatise by Lombroso on the causes of
criminality and the treatment of criminals. The preparation of
the introduction to this volume was the last literary work which
the distinguished author found it possible to complete during his
final illness.]

I T will, perhaps, be of interest to American readers of this book, in which
the ideas of the Modern Penal School, set forth in my work, Criminal
Man, have been so pithily summed up by my daughter, to learn how the
first outlines of this science arose in my mind and gradually took shape in a
definite work—how, that is, combated by some, the object of almost
fanatical adherence on the part of others, especially in America, where
tradition has little hold, the Modern Penal School came into being.
On consulting my memory and the documents relating to my studies on this
subject, I find that its two fundamental ideas—that, for instance, which
claims as an essential point the study not of crime in the abstract, but of the
criminal himself, in order adequately to deal with the evil effects of his
wrong-doing, and that which classifies the congenital criminal as an
anomaly, partly pathological and partly atavistic, a revival of the primitive
savage—did not suggest themselves to me instantaneously under the spell
of a single deep impression, but were the offspring of a series of
impressions. The slow and almost unconscious association of these first
vague ideas resulted in a new system which, influenced by its origin, has
preserved in all its subsequent developments the traces of doubt and
indecision, the marks of the travail which attended its birth.

The first idea came to me in 1864, when, as an army doctor, I beguiled my
ample leisure with a series of studies on the Italian soldier. From the very
beginning I was struck by a characteristic that distinguished the honest
soldier from his vicious comrade: the extent to which the latter was tattooed
and the indecency of the designs that covered his body. This idea, however,
bore no fruit.
The second inspiration came to me when on one occasion, amid the
laughter of my colleagues, I sought to base the study of psychiatry on
experimental methods. When in '66, fresh from the atmosphere of clinical
experiment, I had begun to study psychiatry, I realised how inadequate were
the methods hitherto held in esteem, and how necessary it was, in studying
the insane, to make the patient, not the disease, the object of attention. In
homage to these ideas, I applied to the clinical examination of cases of
mental alienation the study of the skull, with measurements and weights, by
means of the esthesiometer and craniometer. Reassured by the result of
these first steps, I sought to apply this method to the study of criminals—
that is, to the differentiation of criminals and lunatics, following the
example of a few investigators, such as Thomson and Wilson; but as at that
time I had neither criminals nor moral imbeciles available for observation (a
remarkable circumstance since I was to make the criminal my starting-
point), and as I was skeptical as to the existence of those "moral lunatics" so
much insisted on by both French and English authors, whose
demonstrations, however, showed a lamentable lack of precision, I was
anxious to apply the experimental method to the study of the diversity,
rather than the analogy, between lunatics, criminals, and normal individuals.
Like him, however, whose lantern lights the road for others, while he
himself stumbles in the darkness, this method proved useless for
determining the differences between criminals and lunatics, but served
instead to indicate a new method for the study of penal jurisprudence, a
matter to which I had never given serious thought. I began dimly to realise
that the a priori studies on crime in the abstract, hitherto pursued by jurists,
especially in Italy, with singular acumen, should be superseded by the direct
analytical study of the criminal, compared with normal individuals and the
insane.
I, therefore, began to study criminals in the Italian prisons, and, amongst
others, I made the acquaintance of the famous brigand Vilella. This man

possessed such extraordinary agility, that he had been known to scale steep
mountain heights bearing a sheep on his shoulders. His cynical effrontery
was such that he openly boasted of his crimes. On his death one cold grey
November morning, I was deputed to make the post-mortem, and on laying
open the skull I found on the occipital part, exactly on the spot where a
spine is found in the normal skull, a distinct depression which I named
median occipital fossa, because of its situation precisely in the middle of
the occiput as in inferior animals, especially rodents. This depression, as in
the case of animals, was correlated with the hypertrophy of the vermis,
known in birds as the middle cerebellum.
This was not merely an idea, but a revelation. At the sight of that skull, I
seemed to see all of a sudden, lighted up as a vast plain under a flaming sky,
the problem of the nature of the criminal—an atavistic being who
reproduces in his person the ferocious instincts of primitive humanity and
the inferior animals. Thus were explained anatomically the enormous jaws,
high cheek-bones, prominent superciliary arches, solitary lines in the palms,
extreme size of the orbits, handle-shaped or sessile ears found in criminals,
savages, and apes, insensibility to pain, extremely acute sight, tattooing,
excessive idleness, love of orgies, and the irresistible craving for evil for its
own sake, the desire not only to extinguish life in the victim, but to mutilate
the corpse, tear its flesh, and drink its blood.
I was further encouraged in this bold hypothesis by the results of my studies
on Verzeni, a criminal convicted of sadism and rape, who showed the
cannibalistic instincts of primitive anthropophagists and the ferocity of
beasts of prey.
The various parts of the extremely complex problem of criminality were,
however, not all solved hereby. The final key was given by another case,
that of Misdea, a young soldier of about twenty-one, unintelligent but not
vicious. Although subject to epileptic fits, he had served for some years in
the army when suddenly, for some trivial cause, he attacked and killed eight
of his superior officers and comrades. His horrible work accomplished, he
fell into a deep slumber, which lasted twelve hours and on awaking
appeared to have no recollection of what had happened. Misdea, while
representing the most ferocious type of animal, manifested, in addition, all
the phenomena of epilepsy, which appeared to be hereditary in all the

members of his family. It flashed across my mind that many criminal
characteristics not attributable to atavism, such as facial asymmetry,
cerebral sclerosis, impulsiveness, instantaneousness, the periodicity of
criminal acts, the desire of evil for evil's sake, were morbid characteristics
common to epilepsy, mingled with others due to atavism.
Thus were traced the first clinical outlines of my work which had hitherto
been entirely anthropological. The clinical outlines confirmed the
anthropological contours, and vice versâ; for the greatest criminals showed
themselves to be epileptics, and, on the other hand, epileptics manifested
the same anomalies as criminals. Finally, it was shown that epilepsy
frequently reproduced atavistic characteristics, including even those
common to lower animals.
That synthesis which mighty geniuses have often succeeded in creating by
one inspiration (but at the risk of errors, for a genius is only human and in
many cases more fallacious than his fellow-men) was deduced by me
gradually from various sources—the study of the normal individual, the
lunatic, the criminal, the savage, and finally the child. Thus, by reducing the
penal problem to its simplest expression, its solution was rendered easier,
just as the study of embryology has in a great measure solved the apparently
strange and mysterious riddle of teratology.
But these attempts would have been sterile, had not a solid phalanx of
jurists, Russian, German, Hungarian, Italian, and American, fertilised the
germ by correcting hasty and one-sided conclusions, suggesting opportune
reforms and applications, and, most important of all, applying my ideas on
the offender to his individual and social prophylaxis and cure.
Enrico Ferri was the first to perceive that the congenital epileptoid criminal
did not form a single species, and that if this class was irretrievably doomed
to perdition, crime in others was only a brief spell of insanity, determined
by circumstances, passion, or illness. He established new types—the
occasional criminal and the criminal by passion,—and transformed the
basis of the penal code by asking if it were more just to make laws obey
facts instead of altering facts to suit the laws, solely in order to avoid
troubling the placidity of those who refused to consider this new element in
the scientific field. Therefore, putting aside those abstract formulæ for

which high talents have panted in vain, like the thirsty traveller at the sight
of the desert mirage, the advocates of the Modern School came to the
conclusion that sentences should show a decrease in infamy and ferocity
proportionate to the increase in length and social safety. In lieu of infamy
they substituted a longer period of segregation, and for cases in which
alienists were unable to decide between criminality and insanity, they
advocated an intermediate institution, in which merciful treatment and
social security were alike considered. They also emphasised the importance
of certain measures which hitherto had been universally regarded as a pure
abstraction or an unattainable desideratum—measures for the prevention of
crime by tracing it to its source, divorce laws to diminish adultery,
legislation of an anti-alcoholistic tendency to prevent crimes of violence,
associations for destitute children, and co-operative associations to check
the tendency to theft. Above all, they insisted on those regulations—
unfortunately fallen into disuse—which indemnify the victim at the expense
of the aggressor, in order that society, having suffered once for the crime,
should not be obliged to suffer pecuniarily for the detention of the offender,
solely in homage to a theoretical principle that no one believes in, according
to which prison is a kind of baptismal font in whose waters sin of all kinds
is washed away.
Thus the edifice of criminal anthropology, circumscribed at first, gradually
extended its walls and embraced special studies on homicide, political
crime, crimes connected with the banking world, crimes by women, etc.
But the first stone had been scarcely laid when from all quarters of Europe
arose those calumnies and misrepresentations which always follow in the
train of audacious innovations. We were accused of wishing to proclaim the
impunity of crime, of demanding the release of all criminals, of refusing to
take into account climatic and racial influences and of asserting that the
criminal is a slave eternally chained to his instincts; whereas the Modern
School, on the contrary, gave a powerful impetus to the labors of
statisticians and sociologists on these very matters. This is clearly shown in
the third volume of Criminal Man, which contains a summary of the ideas
of modern criminologists and my own.
One nation, however—America,—gave a warm and sympathetic reception
to the ideas of the Modern School which they speedily put into practice,

with the brilliant results shown by the Reformatory at Elmira, the Probation
System, Juvenile Courts, and the George Junior Republic. They also
initiated the practice, now in general use, of anthropological co-operation in
every criminal trial of importance.
For this reason, and in view of the fact that America does not possess a
complete translation of my works—The Criminal, Male and Female, and
Political Crime (translation and distribution being alike difficult on account
of the length of these volumes)—I welcome with pleasure this summary, in
which the principal points are explained with precision and loving care by
my daughter Gina, who has worked with me from childhood, has seen the
edifice of my science rise stone upon stone, and has shared in my anxieties,
insults, and triumphs; without whose help I might, perhaps, never have
witnessed the completion of that edifice, nor the application of its
fundamental principles.

PART I

THE CRIMINAL WORLD

CHAPTER I

THE BORN CRIMINAL

A criminal is a man who violates the laws decreed by the State to
regulate the relations between its citizens, but the voluminous codes
which in past times set forth these laws treat only of crime, never of the
criminal. That ignoble multitude whom Dante relegated to the Infernal
Regions were consigned by magistrates and judges to the care of gaolers
and executioners, who alone deigned to deal with them. The judge,
immovable in his doctrine, unshaken by doubts, solemn in all his
inviolability and convinced of his wisdom, which no one dared to question,
passed sentence without remission according to his whim, and both judge
and culprit were equally ignorant of the ultimate effect of the penalties
inflicted.
In 1764, the great Italian jurist and economist, Cesare Beccaria first called
public attention to those wretched beings, whose confessions (if statements
extorted by torture can thus be called) formed the sole foundation for the
trial, the sole guide in the application of the punishment, which was
bestowed blindly, without formality, without hearing the defence, exactly as
though sentence were being passed on abstract symbols, not on human
souls and bodies.
The Classical School of Penal Jurisprudence, of which Beccaria was the
founder and Francesco Carrara the greatest and most glorious disciple,
aimed only at establishing sound judgments and fixed laws to guide
capricious and often undiscerning judges in the application of penalties. In
writing his great work, the founder of this School was inspired by the
highest of all human sentiments—pity; but although the criminal

incidentally receives notice, the writings of this School treat only of the
application of the law, not of offenders themselves.
This is the difference between the Classical and the Modern School of Penal
Jurisprudence. The Classical School based its doctrines on the assumption
that all criminals, except in a few extreme cases, are endowed with
intelligence and feelings like normal individuals, and that they commit
misdeeds consciously, being prompted thereto by their unrestrained desire
for evil. The offence alone was considered, and on it the whole existing
penal system has been founded, the severity of the sentence meted out to
the offender being regulated by the gravity of his misdeed.
The Modern, or Positive, School of Penal Jurisprudence, on the contrary,
maintains that the anti-social tendencies of criminals are the result of their
physical and psychic organisation, which differs essentially from that of
normal individuals; and it aims at studying the morphology and various
functional phenomena of the criminal with the object of curing, instead of
punishing him. The Modern School is therefore founded on a new science,
Criminal Anthropology, which may be defined as the Natural History of the
Criminal, because it embraces his organic and psychic constitution and
social life, just as anthropology does in the case of normal human beings
and the different races.
If we examine a number of criminals, we shall find that they exhibit
numerous anomalies in the face, skeleton, and various psychic and sensitive
functions, so that they strongly resemble primitive races. It was these
anomalies that first drew my father's attention to the close relationship
between the criminal and the savage and made him suspect that criminal
tendencies are of atavistic origin.
When a young doctor at the Asylum in Pavia, he was requested to make a
post-mortem examination on a criminal named Vilella, an Italian Jack the
Ripper, who by atrocious crimes had spread terror in the Province of
Lombardy. Scarcely had he laid open the skull, when he perceived at the
base, on the spot where the internal occipital crest or ridge is found in
normal individuals, a small hollow, which he called median occipital fossa
(see Fig. 1). This abnormal character was correlated to a still greater
anomaly in the cerebellum, the hypertrophy of the vermis, i.e., the spinal

cord which separates the cerebellar lobes lying underneath the cerebral
hemispheres. This vermis was so enlarged in the case of Vilella, that it
almost formed a small, intermediate cerebellum like that found in the lower
types of apes, rodents, and birds. This anomaly is very rare among inferior
races, with the exception of the South American Indian tribe of the Aymaras
of Bolivia and Peru, in whom it is not infrequently found (40%). It is
seldom met with in the insane or other degenerates, but later investigations
have shown it to be prevalent in criminals.
This discovery was like a flash of light. "At the sight of that skull," says my
father, "I seemed to see all at once, standing out clearly illumined as in a
vast plain under a flaming sky, the problem of the nature of the criminal,
who reproduces in civilised times characteristics, not only of primitive
savages, but of still lower types as far back as the carnivora."

Fig. 1
Fossette Occipital
(see page 6)

Thus was explained the origin of the enormous jaws, strong canines,
prominent zygomæ, and strongly developed orbital arches which he had so
frequently remarked in criminals, for these peculiarities are common to
carnivores and savages, who tear and devour raw flesh. Thus also it was
easy to understand why the span of the arms in criminals so often exceeds
the height, for this is a characteristic of apes, whose fore-limbs are used in
walking and climbing. The other anomalies exhibited by criminals—the
scanty beard as opposed to the general hairiness of the body, prehensile
foot, diminished number of lines in the palm of the hand, cheek-pouches,
enormous development of the middle incisors and frequent absence of the
lateral ones, flattened nose and angular or sugar-loaf form of the skull,
common to criminals and apes; the excessive size of the orbits, which,
combined with the hooked nose, so often imparts to criminals the aspect of
birds of prey, the projection of the lower part of the face and jaws
(prognathism) found in negroes and animals, and supernumerary teeth
(amounting in some cases to a double row as in snakes) and cranial bones
(epactal bone as in the Peruvian Indians): all these characteristics pointed to
one conclusion, the atavistic origin of the criminal, who reproduces
physical, psychic, and functional qualities of remote ancestors.
Subsequent research on the part of my father and his disciples showed that
other factors besides atavism come into play in determining the criminal
type. These are: disease and environment. Later on, the study of
innumerable offenders led them to the conclusion that all law-breakers
cannot be classed in a single species, for their ranks include very diversified
types, who differ not only in their bent towards a particular form of crime,
but also in the degree of tenacity and intensity displayed by them in their
perverse propensities, so that, in reality, they form a graduated scale leading
from the born criminal to the normal individual.

Born criminals form about one third of the mass of offenders, but, though
inferior in numbers, they constitute the most important part of the whole
criminal army, partly because they are constantly appearing before the
public and also because the crimes committed by them are of a peculiarly
monstrous character; the other two thirds are composed of criminaloids
(minor offenders), occasional and habitual criminals, etc., who do not show
such a marked degree of diversity from normal persons.
Let us commence with the born criminal, who as principal nucleus of the
wretched army of law-breakers, naturally manifests the most numerous and
salient anomalies.
The median occipital fossa and other abnormal features just enumerated are
not the only peculiarities exhibited by this aggravated type of offender. By
careful research, my father and others of his School have brought to light
many anomalies in bodily organs, and functions both physical and mental,
all of which serve to indicate the atavistic and pathological origin of the
instinctive criminal.
It would be incompatible with the scope of this summary, were I to give a
minute description of the innumerable anomalies discovered in criminals by
the Modern School, to attempt to trace such abnormal traits back to their
source, or to demonstrate their effect on the organism. This has been done
in a very minute fashion in the three volumes of my father's work Criminal
Man and his subsequent writings on the same subject, Modern Forms of
Crime, Recent Research in Criminal Anthropology, Prison Palimpsests,
etc., etc., to which readers desirous of obtaining a more thorough
knowledge of the subject should refer.
The present volume will only touch briefly on the principal characteristics
of criminals, with the object of presenting a general outline of the studies of
criminologists.

Physical Anomalies of the Born Criminal

The Head. As the seat of all the greatest disturbances, this part naturally
manifests the greatest number of anomalies, which extend from the external
conformation of the brain-case to the composition of its contents.

The criminal skull does not exhibit any marked characteristics of size and
shape. Generally speaking, it tends to be larger or smaller than the average
skull common to the region or country from which the criminal hails. It
varies between 1200 and 1600 c.c.; i.e., between 73 and 100 cubic inches,
the normal average being 92. This applies also to the cephalic index; that is,
the ratio of the maximum width to the maximum length of the skull[1]
multiplied by 100, which serves to give a concrete idea of the form of the
skull, because the higher the index, the nearer the skull approaches a
spherical form, and the lower the index, the more elongated it becomes. The
skulls of criminals have no characteristic cephalic index, but tend to an
exaggeration of the ethnical type prevalent in their native countries. In
regions where dolichocephaly (index less than 80) abounds, the skulls of
criminals show a very low index; if, on the contrary, they are natives of
districts where brachycephaly (index 80 or more) prevails, they exhibit a
very high index.
SKULL FORMATION

Fig. 2 Fig. 3

In 15.5% we find trochocephalous or abnormally round heads (index 91). A
very high percentage (nearly double that of normal individuals) have
submicrocephalous or small skulls. In other cases the skull is excessively
large (macrocephaly) or abnormally small and ill-shaped with a narrow,
receding forehead (microcephaly, 0.2%). More rarely the skull is of normal
size, but shaped like the keel of a boat (scaphocephaly, 0.1% and
subscaphocephaly 6%). (See Fig. 2.) Sometimes the anomalies are still

more serious and we find wholly asymmetrical skulls with protuberances on
either side (plagiocephaly 10.9%, see Fig. 3), or terminating in a peak on
the bregma or anterior fontanel (acrocephaly, see Fig. 4), or depressed in the
middle (cymbocephaly, sphenocephaly). At times, there are crests or
grooves along the sutures (11.9%) or the cranial bones are abnormally
thick, a characteristic of savage peoples (36.6%) or abnormally thin
(8.10%). Other anomalies of importance are the presence of Wormian bones
in the sutures of the skull (21.22%), the bone of the Incas already alluded to
(4%), and above all, the median occipital fossa. Of great importance also
are the prominent frontal sinuses found in 25% (double that of normal
individuals), the semicircular line of the temples, which is sometimes so
exaggerated that it forms a ridge and is correlated to an excessive
development of the temporal muscles, a common characteristic of primates
and carnivores. Sometimes the forehead is receding, as in apes (19%), or
low and narrow (10%).
The Face. In striking contrast to the narrow forehead and low vault of the
skull, the face of the criminal, like those of most animals, is of
disproportionate size, a phenomenon intimately connected with the greater
development of the senses as compared with that of the nervous centres.
Prognathism, the projection of the lower portion of the face beyond the
forehead, is found in 45.7% of criminals. Progeneismus, the projection of
the lower teeth and jaw beyond the upper, is found in 38%, whereas among
normal persons the proportion is barely 28%. As a natural consequence of
this predominance of the lower portion of the face, the orbital arches and
zygomæ show a corresponding development (35%) and the size of the jaws
is naturally increased, the mean diameter being 103.9 mm. (4.09 inches) as
against 93 mm. (3.66 inches) in normal persons. Among criminals 29%
have voluminous jaws.
The excessive dimensions of the jaws and cheek-bones admit of other
explanations besides the atavistic one of a greater development of the
masticatory system. They may have been influenced by the habit of certain
gestures, the setting of the teeth or tension of the muscles of the mouth,
which accompany violent muscular efforts and are natural to men who form
energetic or violent resolves and meditate plans of revenge.

Asymmetry is a common characteristic of the criminal physiognomy. The
eyes and ears are frequently situated at different levels and are of unequal
size, the nose slants towards one side, etc. This asymmetry, as we shall see
later, is connected with marked irregularities in the senses and functions.
The Eye. This window, through which the mind opens to the outer world, is
naturally the centre of many anomalies of a psychic character, hard
expression, shifty glance, which are difficult to describe but are,
nevertheless, apparent to all observers (see Fig. 4). Side by side with
peculiarities of expression, we find many physical anomalies—ptosis, a
drooping of the upper eyelid, which gives the eye a half-closed appearance
and is frequently unilateral; and strabismus, a want of parallelism between
the visual axes, which is insignificant if it arises from errors of refraction,
but is very serious if it betokens progressive or congenital diseases of the
brain or its membranous coverings. Other anomalies are asymmetry of the
iris, which frequently differs in colour from its fellow; oblique eyelids, a
Mongolian characteristic, with the edge of the upper eyelid folding inward
or a prolongation of the internal fold of the eyelid, which Metchnikoff
regards as a persistence of embryonic characters.
The Ear. The external ear is often of large size; occasionally also it is
smaller than the ears of normal individuals. Twenty-eight per cent. of
criminals have handle-shaped ears standing out from the face as in the
chimpanzee: in other cases they are placed at different levels. Frequently
too, we find misshapen, flattened ears, devoid of helix, tragus, and anti-
tragus, and with a protuberance on the upper part of the posterior margin
(Darwin's tubercle), a relic of the pointed ear characteristic of apes.
Anomalies are also found in the lobe, which in some cases adheres too
closely to the face, or is of huge size as in the ancient Egyptians; in other
cases, the lobe is entirely absent, or is atrophied till the ear assumes a form
like that common to apes.
The Nose. This is frequently twisted, up-turned or of a flattened, negroid
character in thieves; in murderers, on the contrary, it is often aquiline like
the beak of a bird of prey. Not infrequently we meet with the trilobate nose,
its tip rising like an isolated peak from the swollen nostrils, a form found
among the Akkas, a tribe of pygmies of Central Africa. All these

peculiarities have given rise to popular saws, of a character more or less
prevalent everywhere.
The Mouth. This part shows perhaps a greater number of anomalies than
any other facial organ. We have already alluded to the excessive
development of the jaws in criminals. They are sometimes the seat of other
abnormal characters,—the lemurine apophysis, a bony elevation at the
angle of the jaw, which may easily be recognised externally by passing the
hand over the skin; and the canine fossa, a depression in the upper jaw for
the attachment of the canine muscle. This muscle, which is strongly
developed in the dog, serves when contracted to draw back the lip leaving
the canines exposed.
The lips of violators of women and murderers are fleshy, swollen and
protruding, as in negroes. Swindlers have thin, straight lips. Hare-lip is
more common in criminals than in normal persons.
The Cheek-pouches. Folds in the flesh of the cheek which recall the
pouches of certain species of mammals, are not uncommon in criminals.
The Palate. A central ridge (torus palatinus), more easily felt than seen,
may sometimes be found on the palate, or this part may exhibit other
peculiarities, a series of cavities and protuberances corresponding to the
palatal teeth of reptiles. Another frequent abnormality is cleft palate, a
fissure in the palate, due to defective development.
The Teeth. These are specially important, for criminals rarely have normal
dentition. The incisors show the greatest number of anomalies. Sometimes
both the lateral incisors are absent and the middle ones are of excessive
size, a peculiarity which recalls the incisors of rodents. The teeth are
frequently striated transversely or set very wide apart (diastema) with gaps
on either side of the upper canines into which the lower ones fit, a simian
characteristic. In some cases, these spaces occur between the middle
incisors or between these and the lateral ones.

Fig. 4 Fig. 5

Head of Criminal Head of Criminal
(see page 14) (see page 18)

Very often the teeth show a strange uniformity, which recalls the
homodontism of the lower vertebrates. In some cases, however, this
uniformity is limited to the premolars, which are furnished with tubercles
like the molars, a peculiarity of gorillas and orang-outangs. In 4% the
canines are very strongly developed, long, sharp, and curving inwardly as in
carnivores. Premature caries is common.
The Chin. Generally speaking, this part of the face projects moderately in
Europeans. In criminals it is often small and receding, as in children, or else
excessively long, short or flat, as in apes.
Wrinkles. Although common to normal individuals, the abundance, variety,
and precocity of wrinkles almost invariably manifested by criminals, cannot
fail to strike the observer. The following are the most common: horizontal
and vertical lines on the forehead, horizontal and circumflex lines at the
root of the nose, the so-called crow's-feet on the temple at the outer corners
of the eyes, naso-labial wrinkles around the region of the mouth and nose.

The Hair. The hair of the scalp, cheeks and chin, eyebrows, and other parts
of the body, shows a number of anomalies. In general it may be said that in
the distribution of hair, criminals of both sexes tend to exhibit
characteristics of the opposite sex. Dark hair prevails especially in
murderers, and curly and woolly hair in swindlers. Both grey hair and
baldness are rare and when found make their appearance later in life than in
the case of normal individuals. The beard is scanty and frequently missing
altogether. On the other hand, the forehead is often covered with down. The
eyebrows are bushy and tend to meet across the nose. Sometimes they grow
in a slanting direction and give the face a satyr-like expression (see Fig. 5).
The blemishes peculiar to the delinquent are not only confined to the face
and head, but are found in the trunk and limbs.
The Thorax. An increase or decrease in the number of ribs is found in 12%
of criminals. This is an atavistic character common to animals and lower or
prehistoric human races and contrasts with the numerical uniformity
characteristic of civilised mankind.
Polymastia, or the presence of supernumerary nipples (which are generally
placed symmetrically below the normal ones as in many mammals) is not
an uncommon anomaly. Gynecomastia or hypertrophy of the mammæ is
still more frequent in male criminals. In female criminals, on the contrary,
we often find imperfect development or absence of the nipples, a
characteristic of monotremata or lowest order of the mammals; or the
breasts are flabby and pendent like those of Hottentot women.
The chest is often covered with hair which gives the subject the appearance
of an animal.
The Pelvis and Abdomen. The abdomen, pelvis, and reproductive organs
sometimes show an inversion of sex-characters. In 42% the sacral canal is
uncovered, and in some cases there is a prolongation of the coccyx, which
resembles the stump of a tail, sometimes tufted with hair.
The Upper Limbs. One of the most striking and frequent anomalies
exhibited by criminals is the excessive length of the arms as compared with
the lower limbs, owing to which the span of the arms exceeds the total
height, an ape-like character.

Six per cent. exhibit an anomaly which is extremely rare among normal
individuals—the olecranon foramen, a perforation in the head of the
humerus where it articulates with the ulna. This is normal in the ape and
dog and is frequently found in the bones of prehistoric man and in some of
the existing inferior races of mankind.
Several abnormal characters, which point to an atavistic origin, are found in
the palm and fingers. Supernumerary fingers (polydactylism) or a reduction
in the usual number are not uncommon. Sometimes we find syndactylism,
or palmate fingers, a continuation of the interdigital skin to the second
phalanx. The length of the fingers varies according to the type of crime to
which the individual is addicted. Those guilty of crimes against the person
have short, clumsy fingers and especially short thumbs. Long fingers are
common to swindlers, thieves, sexual offenders, and pickpockets. The lines
on the palmar surfaces of the finger-tips are often of a simple nature as in
the anthropoids. The principal lines on the palm are of special significance.
Normal persons possess three, two horizontal and one vertical, but in
criminals these lines are often reduced to one or two of horizontal or
transverse direction, as in apes.
The Lower Limbs. Of a number of criminals examined, 16% showed an
unusual development of the third trochanter, a protuberance on the head of
the femur where it articulates with the pelvis. This distinctly atavistic
character is connected with the position of the hind-limb in quadrupeds.
The Feet. Spaces between the toes like the interdigital spaces of the hand
are very common, and in conjunction with the greater mobility of the toes
and greater length of the big-toe, produce the prehensile foot, of the
quadrumana, which is used for grasping. The foot is often flat, as in
negroes. In the feet, as in the hands, there is frequently a tendency to greater
strength or dexterity on the left side, contrary to what happens in normal
persons, and this tendency is manifested in many cases where there is no
trace of functional and motorial left-handedness.
The Cerebrum and the Cerebellum. The chief and most common anomaly is
the prevalence of macroscopic anomalies in the left hemisphere, which are
correlated to the sensory and functional left-handedness common to
criminals and acquired through illness. The most notable anomaly of the

cerebellum is the hypertrophy of the vermis, which represents the middle
lobe found in the lower mammals. Anomalies in the cerebral convolutions
consist principally of anastomotic folds, the doubling of the fissure of
Rolando, the frequent existence of a fourth frontal convolution, the
imperfect development of the precuneus (as in many types of apes), etc.
Anomalies of a purely pathological character are still more common. These
are: adhesions of the meninges, thickening of the pia mater, congestion of
the meninges, partial atrophy, centres of softening, seaming of the optic
thalami, atrophy of the corpus callosum, etc.
Of great importance, too, are the histological anomalies discovered by
Roncoroni in the brains of criminals and epileptics. In normal individuals
the layers of the frontal region are disposed in the following manner:
1. Molecular layer. 2. Superficial layer of small cells. 3. Layer of small
pyramidal cells. 4. Deep layer of small nerve cells. 5. Layer of
polymorphous cells (see Fig. 6).
In certain animals, the dog, ape, rabbit, ox, and domestic fowl, the
superficial layer is frequently non-existent and the deep one is found only to
some extent in the ape.
In born criminals and epileptics there is a prevalence of large, pyramidal,
and polymorphous cells, whereas in normal individuals small, triangular,
and star-shaped cells predominate. Also the transition from the small
superficial to the large pyramidal cells is not so regular, and the number of
nervous cells is noticeably below the average. Whereas, moreover, in the
normally constituted brain, nervous cells are very scarce or entirely absent
in the white substance, in the case of born criminals and epileptics they
abound in this part of the brain.
The abnormal morphological arrangement described by Roncoroni is
probably the anatomical expression of hereditary alterations, and reveals
disorders in nervous development which lead to moral insanity or epilepsy
according to the gravity of the morbid conditions which give rise to them.

Fig. 6
a) Cortical strata of the circumvolutions of the parietal lobes of a normal
person.
b) Cortical strata of the circumvolutions of the parietal lobes of a criminal
epileptic.
1. Molecular stratum. 2. External granular stratum. 3. Stratum of
the small pyramidal cells. 4. Stratum of the large pyramidal
cells. 5. Deep stratum of the small nervous cells or the deep
granular stratum. 6. Stratum of polymorphic cells. S.B. White
matter.

These anomalies in the limbs, trunk, skull and, above all, in the face, when
numerous and marked, constitute what is known to criminal anthropologists
as the criminal type, in exactly the same way as the sum of the characters
peculiar to cretins form what is called the cretinous type. In neither case
have the anomalies an intrinsic importance, since they are neither the cause
of the anti-social tendencies of the criminal nor of the mental deficiencies
of the cretin. They are the outward and visible signs of a mysterious and
complicated process of degeneration, which in the case of the criminal
evokes evil impulses that are largely of atavistic origin.

Sensory and Functional Peculiarities of the Born Criminal

The above-mentioned physiognomical and skeletal anomalies are further
supplemented by functional peculiarities, and all these abnormal
characteristics converge, as mountain streams to the hollow in the plain,
towards a central idea—the atavistic nature of the born criminal.
An examination of the senses and sensibility of criminals gives the
following results:
General Sensibility. Tested simply by touching with the finger, a certain
degree of obtuseness is noted. By using an apparatus invented by Du Bois-
Reymond and adopted by my father, the degree of sensibility obtained was
49.6 mm. in criminals as against 64.2 mm. in normal individuals. Criminals
are more sensitive on the left side, contrary to normal persons, in whom
greater sensibility prevails on the right.
Sensibility to Pain. Compared with ordinary individuals, the criminal shows
greater insensibility to pain as well as to touch. This obtuseness sometimes
reaches complete analgesia or total absence of feeling (16%), a
phenomenon never encountered in normal persons. The mean degree of
dolorific sensibility in criminals is 34.1 mm. whereas it is rarely lower than
40 mm. in normal individuals. Here again the left-handedness of criminals
becomes apparent, 39% showing greater sensibility on the left.
Tactile Sensibility. The distance at which two points applied to the finger-
tips are felt separately is more than 4 mm. in 30% of criminals, a degree of
obtuseness only found in 4% of normal individuals. Criminals exhibit

greater tactile sensibility on the left. Tactile obtuseness varies with the class
of crime practised by the individual. While in burglars, swindlers, and
assaulters, it is double that of normal persons, in murderers, violators, and
incendiaries it is often four or five times as great.
Sensibility to the Magnet, which scarcely exists in normal persons, is
common to a marked degree in criminals (48%).
Meteoric Sensibility. This is far more apparent in criminals and the insane
than in normal individuals. With variations of temperature and atmospheric
pressure, both criminals and lunatics become agitated and manifest changes
of disposition and sensations of various kinds, which are rarely experienced
by normal persons.
Sight is generally acute, perhaps more so than in ordinary individuals, and
in this the criminal resembles the savage. Chromatic sensibility, on the
contrary, is decidedly defective, the percentage of colour-blindness being
twice that of normal persons. The field of vision is frequently limited by the
white and exhibits much stranger anomalies, a special irregularity of outline
with deep peripheral scotoma, which we shall see is a special characteristic
of the epileptic.
Hearing, Smell, Taste are generally of less than average acuteness in
criminals. Cases of complete anosmia and qualitative obtuseness are not
uncommon.[2]
Agility. Criminals are generally agile and preserve this quality even at an
advanced age. When over seventy, Vilella sprang like a goat up the steep
rocks of his native Calabria, and the celebrated thief "La Vecchia," when
quite an old man, escaped from his captors by leaping from a high rampart
at Pavia.
Strength. Contrary to what might be expected, tests by means of the
dynamometer show that criminals do not usually possess an extraordinary
degree of strength. There is frequently a slight difference between the
strength of the right and left limbs, but more often ambidexterity, as in
children, and a greater degree of strength in the left limbs.

Psychology of the Born Criminal

The physical type of the criminal is completed and intensified by his moral
and intellectual physiognomy, which furnishes a further proof of his
relationship to the savage and epileptic.
Natural Affections. These play an important part in the life of a normally
constituted individual and are in fact the raison d'être of his existence, but
the criminal rarely, if ever, experiences emotions of this kind and least of all
regarding his own kin. On the other hand, he shows exaggerated and
abnormal fondness for animals and strangers. La Sola, a female criminal,
manifested about as much affection for her children as if they had been
kittens and induced her accomplice to murder a former paramour, who was
deeply attached to her; yet she tended the sick and dying with the utmost
devotion.
In the place of domestic and social affections, the criminal is dominated by
a few absorbing passions: vanity, impulsiveness, desire for revenge,
licentiousness.

Moral Sense

The ability to discriminate between right and wrong, which is the highest
attribute of civilised humanity, is notably lacking in physically and
psychically stunted organisms. Many criminals do not realise the
immorality of their actions. In French criminal jargon conscience is called
"la muette," the thief "l'ami," and "travailler" and "servir" signify to steal. A
Milanese thief once remarked to my father: "I don't steal. I only relieve the
rich of their superfluous wealth." Lacenaire, speaking of his accomplice
Avril, remarked, "I realised at once that we should be able to work
together." A thief asked by Ferri what he did when he found the purse stolen
by him contained no money, replied, "I call them rogues." The notions of
right and wrong appear to be completely inverted in such minds. They seem
to think they have a right to rob and murder and that those who hinder them
are acting unfairly. Murderers, especially when actuated by motives of
revenge, consider their actions righteous in the extreme.
Repentance and Remorse. We hear a great deal about the remorse of
criminals, but those who come into contact with these degenerates realise
that they are rarely, if ever, tormented by such feelings. Very few confess

their crimes: the greater number deny all guilt in a most strenuous manner
and are fond of protesting that they are victims of injustice, calumny, and
jealousy. As Despine once remarked with much insight, nothing resembles
the sleep of the just more closely than the slumbers of an assassin.
Many criminals, indeed, allege repentance, but generally from hypocritical
motives; either because they hope to gain some advantage by working on
the feelings of philanthropists, or with a view to escaping, or, at any rate,
improving their condition while in prison. Thus Lacenaire, when convicted
for the first time, wrote in a moving strain to his friend Vigouroux in order
to get money and help from him, "Repentance is the only course left open
to me. You may well feel pleased at having turned a man from a path of
crime for which he was not intended by nature." A few hours later he
committed another theft, and before he died remarked cynically that he had
never experienced remorse. When tried at the Assizes at Pavia, Rognoni
pronounced a touching discourse on his repentance and refused the wine
brought him in prison for some days because it reminded him of his
murdered brother. But he obtained it surreptitiously from his fellow-
prisoners, and when one of them grumbled at having to give up his own
portion, Rognoni threatened him saying, "I have already murdered four, and
shall make no bones about killing a fifth."
Sometimes remorse is advanced by criminals as a palliation of their crimes.
Michelieu justified the coup de grace inflicted on his victim by saying,
"When I saw her in that state, I felt such terrible remorse that I shot her
dead in order not to meet her glance."
Sometimes an appearance of remorse is produced by hallucinations due to
alcoholism. Philippe and Lucke imagined they saw the spectres of the
persons they had murdered a short time before, but in reality they were
suffering from the effects of drink and so little true remorse did they feel
that on being sentenced, Philippe remarked, "If they had not sent me to
Cayenne, I should have done it again." Generally speaking, what seems to
be repentance is only the fear of death or some superstitious dread, which
assumes an appearance of remorse, but is devoid of real feeling.
A typical instance of hypocrisy and cynicism is furnished by the Marquise
de Brinvilliers, the notorious poisoner, who succeeded in deceiving the

venerable prison-chaplain so completely that he regarded her as a model of
penitence, yet in her last moments she wrote to her husband denying her
guilt and exhibited lascivious and revengeful feelings.
Many criminals, when in prison, model sculptural representations of their
crimes with crumbs of bread (see Fig. 7).
Cynicism. The strongest proof of the total lack of remorse in criminals and
their inability to distinguish between good and evil is furnished by the
callous way in which they boast of their depraved actions and feign pious
sentiments which they do not feel. One criminal humbly entreated to be
allowed to retain his own crucifix while in prison. It was subsequently
discovered that the sacred image served as a sheath for his dagger (see Fig.
8).
Philippe made the following statement to one of his female companions.
"My way of loving women is a very strange one. After enjoying their
caresses, I take the greatest delight in strangling them or cutting their
throats. Soon you will hear everyone talking about me." Shortly before he
murdered his father, Lachaud said to his friends, "This evening I shall dig a
grave and lay my father there to rest eternally."
Sometimes, indeed, a criminal realises dimly the depravity of his actions; he
rarely judges them, however, as a normal person would, but seeks to explain
and justify them after his own fashion. When asked by the magistrate if he
denied having stolen a horse, Ansalone replied, "Surely you do not call that
a theft; a leader of brigands could hardly be expected to go on foot!"
Others consider that their actions are less criminal if their intentions were
good; like Holland, who murdered to obtain food for his wife and children.
Others, again, think themselves excused by the fact that many do worse
things with impunity. Any circumstance, the lack or insufficiency of
evidence against them or the fact that they are accused of an offence
different from the one they have really committed, is seized upon as a
mitigation of their guilt, and they always manifest much resentment against
those who administer the law. "London thieves," observes Mayhew, "realise
that they do wrong, but think that they are no worse than ordinary
bankrupts."

The constant perusal of newspaper reports leads criminals to believe that
there are a great many rogues in higher circles, and by taking exceptions to
be the rule, they flatter themselves that their own actions are not very
reprehensible, because the wealthy are not censured for similar actions.

Fig. 7 Fig. 8

Figures made in Prison
Murder of a Sleeping Victim Crucifix Poignard
Work of a Prisoner (see page 31)
(see page 31)

These instances show that criminals are not entirely unable to distinguish
between right and wrong. Nevertheless, their moral sense is sterile because
it is suffocated by passions and the deadening force of habit.
In the cant of Spanish thieves, justice is called "la justa" (the just), and this
name is given in French slang to the Assizes, but, as Mayor observes, it may
be applied ironically.
In alluding to the unknown author of the crimes committed in reality by
himself, the murderer Prévost remarked, "Whoever it is, he is bound to end

by the guillotine sooner or later." In such cases, although a sense of truth
and justice exists, the desire to act according to it is lacking.
"It is one thing [observes Harwick] to possess a theoretical
notion of what is right and wrong, but quite another to act
according to it. In order that the knowledge of good should be
transformed into an ardent desire for its triumph, as food is
converted into chyle and blood, it must be urged to action by
elevated sentiments, and these are generally lacking in the
criminal. If, on the contrary, good feelings really exist, the
individual desires to do right and his convictions are translated
into action with the same energy that he displayed in doing
wrong."

A philanthropist once invited a number of young London thieves to a
friendly gathering, and it was noticed that the most hardened offenders were
greeted with the greatest amount of applause from the company.
Nevertheless, when the President requested one of them to change a gold
coin outside, and he did not return, those present showed great indignation
and anxiety, abusing and threatening their absent companion, whose
ultimate return was hailed with genuine relief. In this case, no doubt, envy
and vanity played as great a part as a sense of integrity, in the resentment
shown at this fancied breach of faith.
In the prisons at Moscow, offences against discipline are dealt with by the
offenders' fellow-prisoners. The convict population on the island of San
Stefano compiled spontaneously a Draconian code to quell internal discord
arising from racial jealousies.
Treachery. This species of morality and justice, which unexpectedly makes
its appearance in the midst of a naturally unrighteous community, can only
be forced and temporary. When, instead of reaping advantages, interests and
passions are injured by acting rightly, these notions of justice, unsustained
by innate integrity suddenly fail. Contrary to universal belief, criminals are
very prone to betray their companions and accomplices, and are easily
induced to act as informers in the hope of gaining some personal advantage
or of injuring those they envy or suspect of treachery towards themselves.

"Many thieves," says Vidocq, "consider it a stroke of luck to be consulted
by the police." In fact, Bouscaut, one of a notorious band of malefactors in
France, was chiefly instrumental in causing the arrest of the gang; and the
brigand Caruso aided the authorities in capturing his former companions.
Vanity. Pride, or rather vanity, and an exaggerated notion of their own
importance, which we find in the masses, generally in inverse proportion to
real merit, is especially strong in criminals. In the cell occupied by La Gala,
the following notice was found in his handwriting: "March 24th. On this
date La Gala learnt to knit." Another criminal, Crocco, tried hard to save his
brother, "Lest," he said, "my race should die out." Lacenaire was less
troubled by the death-sentence than by adverse criticisms of his bad verse
and the fear of public contempt. "I do not fear being hated," he is reported
to have said, "but I dread being despised—the tempest leaves traces of its
passage, but unobserved the humble flower fades."
Thus thieves are loth to confess that they are guilty of only petty larceny,
and are sometimes prompted by vanity to commit more serious robberies.
The same false shame is common to fallen women, among whom contempt
is incurred, not by excess of depravity but by the failure to command high
prices. Grellinier, a petty thief, boasted in court of imaginary offences, with
the desire of appearing in the light of a great criminal. The crimes in the
haunted castle, attributed by Holmes to himself, were certainly in part
inventions. The female poisoner, Buscemi, when writing to her accomplice,
signed herself, "Your Lucrezia Borgia."
One of the most frequent causes of modern crime is the desire to gratify
personal vanity and to become notorious.
Impulsiveness. This is another and almost pathognomonical characteristic of
born criminals, and also, as we shall see later on, of epileptics and the
morally insane. That which in ordinary individuals is only an eccentric and
fugitive suggestion vanishing as soon as it arises, in the case of abnormal
subjects is rapidly translated into action, which, although unconscious, is
not the less dangerous. A youth of this impulsive type, returning home one
evening flushed with wine, met a peasant leading his ass and cried out, "As
I have not come to blows with anyone to-day, I must vent my rage on this
beast," at the same time drawing his knife and plunging it several times into

the poor animal's body (Ladelci, Il Vino, Rome, 1868). Pinel describes a
morally insane subject, who was in the habit of giving way to his passions,
killing any horses that did not please him and thrashing his political
opponents. He even went to the length of throwing a lady down a well,
because she ventured to contradict him.
"The most trifling causes [remarks Tamburini, speaking of
Sbro...] that stand in the way of his wishes, provoke a fit of rage
in which he appears to lose all self-control, like little children,
who in resenting any offence show no sense of proportion. The
most trivial reasons for disliking anyone awaken in him an
irresistible desire to kill the object of his aversion, and if any
new blasphemy rises to his lips, he feels constrained to repeat
it."

A thief once said to my father: "It is in our very blood. It may be only a pin,
but I cannot help taking it, although I am quite ready to give it back to its
owner." The pickpocket Bor... confessed that at the age of twelve he had
begun to steal in the streets and at school, to the extent of taking things
from under his schoolfellows' pillows, and that it was impossible for him to
resist stealing, even when his pockets were full. If he had not stolen some
article before going to bed, he was unable to sleep, and when midnight
struck, he felt obliged to take the first thing that came to his hand,
destroying it frequently as soon as he had appropriated it.
"To give up stealing," said Deham to Lauvergne, "would be like ceasing to
exist. Stealing is a passion that burns like love and when I feel the blood
seething in my brain and fingers, I think I should be capable of robbing
myself, if that were possible." When sentenced to the galleys, he stole the
bands from the masts, nails, and copper plates, and he himself fixed the
number of lashes he was to receive after each of these exploits, which did
not prevent his recommencing stealing directly afterward (Les Forçats, p.
358).
Ponticelli once saw a thief, who was dying of consumption, steal an old
slipper from his neighbour and hide it under the bedclothes.

Vindictiveness. Closely allied to this impulsiveness and exaggerated
personal vanity, we find an extraordinary thirst for revenge. Lebuc
murdered a man who had stolen some matches from him. Baron R... caused
the death of a man, because he had failed to order a religious procession to
halt under the windows of his palace.
"To see expire the one you hate—
Such is the joy of the gods.
My sole desire is to hate and be avenged."
wrote Lacenaire.
After a slight dispute with Voit, whose hospitality he had enjoyed, Renaud
threw his friend down a well. He was arrested, and when Voit, who had
been rescued, pardoned him, he said, "I only regret not having finished him,
but when I come out of prison, I will do so." And he kept his word.
The tattooing on the persons of criminals and their writings while in prison
are full of solemn oaths of vengeance. A female thief once said, "If it were
true that those who refuse to pardon will be damned eternally, I should still
withhold my forgiveness."
Cruelty depends on moral and physical insensibility, those incapable of
feeling pain being indifferent to the sufferings of others.
The post of executioner was eagerly competed for at the prison of
Rochefort. Mammon used to drink the blood of his victims and when this
was not to be had, he drank his own. The executioner Jean became so
maddened by the sight of blood flowing beneath his lash, that guards were
stationed to prevent undue prolongation of the punishment. Dippe wrote:
"My chief pleasure is beheading. When I was young, stabbing was my sole
pastime."
It has often been observed that the ferocity of women exceeds that of men.
Rulfi killed her own niece, whom she detested, by thrusting long pins into
her, and the female brigand Ciclope reproached her lover for murdering his
victims too quickly.
Idleness. Like savages, criminals are dominated by an incorrigible laziness,
which in certain cases leads them to prefer death from starvation to regular

work. This idleness alternates with periods of ferocious impulsiveness,
during which they display the greatest energy. Like savages, too, they are
passionately fond of alcohol, orgies, and sensual pleasures, which alone
rouse them to activity.
Orgies. Those who have observed children absorbed all day long by a game
that pleases them, can understand the meaning of these words, spoken by a
woman: "Criminals are grown-up children." The love of habitual debauch is
so intense that, as soon as thieves have made some great haul or escaped
from prison, they return to their haunts to carouse and make merry, in spite
of the evident danger of falling once more into the hands of the police.
Gambling. The passion for gambling is so strong that the criminal is always
in a penniless condition, no matter how much treasure he has appropriated,
and cases of starvation in prison are not unknown, prisoners having sold
their rations in order to gratify this vice.
Games. Many primitive and cruel amusements, similar to the pastimes of
savages, have been preserved or reconstructed by criminals. Such are the
games known to Italian offenders as "La Patta," in which one of the players
tries to avoid being struck while passing his head between two points
brought together horizontally by another, who stands with his arms
outstretched; and "La Rota," in which the players run in a circle, one behind
the other, seeking to escape, by dodging, the blows from a stout stick,
aimed at them by one of their companions.
Intelligence is feeble in some and exaggerated in others. Prudence and
forethought are generally lacking. A very common characteristic is
recklessness, which leads criminals to run the risk of arrest for the sake of
being witty, or to leave some blood-stained weapon on the very spot where
they have committed a crime, notwithstanding the fact that they have taken
a hundred precautions to avoid detection. This same recklessness prompts
them, when the danger is scarcely past, to make verses or pictures of their
exploits or to tattoo them upon their persons, heedless of consequences.
Zino relates the story of a Sicilian schoolboy, who illustrated his criminal
relations with his schoolfellows by a series of sketches in his album. A
certain Cavaglia, called "Fusil" robbed and murdered an accomplice and hid
the body in a cupboard. He was arrested and in prison decided to commit

suicide a hundred days after the date of his crime, but before doing so, he
adorned his water-jug with an account of his misdeed, partly in pictures and
partly in writing, as though he desired to raise a monument to himself (see
Fig. 9). The clearest and strangest instance of this recklessness was
furnished by a photograph discovered by the police, in which, at the risk of
arrest and detection, three criminals had had themselves photographed in
the very act of committing a murder.

Intellectual Manifestations

Slang. This is a peculiar jargon used by criminals when speaking among
themselves. The syntax and grammatical construction of the language
remain unchanged, but the meanings of words are altered, many being
formed in the same way as in primitive languages; i.e., an object frequently
receives the name of one of its attributes. Thus a kid is called "jumper,"
death "the lean or cruel one," the soul "the false or shameful one," the body
"the veil," the hour "the swift one," the moon "the spy," a purse "the saint,"
alms "the rogue," a sermon "the tedious one," etc. Many words are formed
as among savages, by onomatopoeia, as "tuff" (pistol), "tic" (watch),
"guanguana" (sweetheart), "fric frac" (lottery).

Fig. 9

Water-Jugs
(see page 42)

The necessity of eluding police investigations is the reason usually given
for the origin of this slang. No doubt it was one of the chief causes, but does
not explain the continued use of a jargon which is too well known now to
serve this purpose; moreover, it is employed in poems, the object of which
is to invite public attention, not to avoid it, and by criminals in their homes
where there is no need for secrecy.
Pictography. One of the strangest characteristics of criminals is the
tendency to express their ideas pictorially. While in prison, Troppmann
painted the scene of his misdeed, for the purpose of showing that it had
been committed by others. We have already mentioned the rude illustrations
engraved by the murderer Cavaglia on his pitcher, representing his crime,
imprisonment, and suicide. Books, crockery, guns, all the utensils criminals
have in constant use, serve as a canvas on which to portray their exploits.
From pictography it is but an easy step to hieroglyphics like those used by
ancient peoples. The hieroglyphics of criminals are closely allied to their
slang, of which in fact they are only a pictorial representation, and, although
largely inspired by the necessity for secrecy, show, in addition, evident
atavistic tendencies.
De Blasio has explained the meaning of the hieroglyphics used by the
"camorristi" (members of the camorra at Naples), especially when they are
in prison. For instance, to indicate the President of the Tribunal, they use a
crown with three points; to indicate a judge, the judge's cap (see Fig. 10).
The following is a list of some of the hieroglyphics mentioned by De
Blasio:
Police Inspector—a hat
like those worn by the
Italian soldiers who are
called Alpini (a helmet
with flat top and an
upright feather on the left
side).
Public Prosecutor—an
open-mouthed viper (see
Fig. 10).

Fig. 10 Carabineer—a bugle.
Drawings in Script. Discovered by De Blasio
Theft—a skull and cross-
bones.
Commissary of the Police—a dwarf with the three-cornered hat worn by the
carabinieri.
Arts and Industries of the Criminal. Although habitual criminals show a
strong aversion to any kind of useful labour, in prison and at large, they,
nevertheless, apply themselves with great diligence to certain tasks,
sometimes of an illegal nature, such as the manufacture of implements to
aid them in escaping, sometimes merely artistic, such as modelling, with
breadcrumbs, brickdust, or soap, the figures of persons. Sometimes they
make baskets, machines, dominoes, draughts, playing-cards, etc., or form
means of communication with their fellow-prisoners and construct weapons
for executing their schemes of vengeance. They also devote themselves to
eccentric and useless occupations, like the training of animals, such as
mice, marmosets, birds, and even fleas (Lattes). This morbid and misguided
activity, which frequently shows gleams of talent, might well be utilised for
increasing the scope of prison industries.

Tattooing

This personal decoration so often found on great criminals is one of the
strangest relics of a former state. It consists of designs, hieroglyphics, and
words punctured in the skin by a special and very painful process.
Among primitive peoples, who live in a more or less nude condition,
tattooing takes the place of decorations or ornamental garments, and serves
as a mark of distinction or rank. When an Eskimo slays an enemy, he adorns
his upper-lip with a couple of blue stripes, and the warriors of Sumatra add
a special sign to their decorations for every foe they kill. In Wuhaiva, ladies
of noble birth are more extensively tattooed than women of humbler rank.
Among the Maoris, tattooing is a species of armorial bearings indicative of
noble birth.

According to ancient writers,
tattooing was practised by Thracians,
Picts, and Celts. Roman soldiers
tattooed their arms with the names of
their generals, and artisans in the
Middle Ages were marked with the
insignia of their crafts. In modern
times this custom has fallen into
disuse among the higher classes and
only exists among sailors, soldiers,
peasants, and workmen.
Although not exclusively confined to
criminals, tattooing is practised by
them to a far larger extent than by
normal persons: 9% of adult
criminals and 40% of minors are
tattooed; whereas, in normal persons
the proportion is only 0.1%.
Recidivists and born criminals,
whether thieves or murderers, show
the highest percentage of tattooing. Fig. 11
Forgers and swindlers are rarely Alphabet Discovered by De Blasio
tattooed.
Sometimes tattooing consists of a motto symbolical of the career of the
criminal it adorns. Tardieu found on the arm of a sailor who had served
various terms of imprisonment, the words, "Pas de chance." The notorious
criminal Malassen was tattooed on the chest with the drawing of a
guillotine, under which was written the following prophecy: "J'ai mal
commencé, je finirai mal. C'est la fin qui m'attend."
Tattooing frequently bears witness to indecency. Of 142 criminals examined
by my father, the tattooing on five showed obscenity of design and position
and furnished also a remarkable proof of the insensibility to pain
characteristic of criminals, the parts tattooed being the most sensitive of the
whole body, and therefore left untouched even by savages.

Another fact worthy of mention is the extent to which criminals are
tattooed. Thirty-five out of 378 criminals examined by Lacassagne were
decorated literally from head to foot.
In a great many cases, the designs reveal violence of character and a desire
for revenge. A Piedmontese sailor, who had perpetrated fraud and murder
from motives of revenge, bore on his breast between two daggers, the
words: "I swear to revenge myself." Another had written on his forehead,
"Death to the middle classes," with the drawing of a dagger underneath. A
young Ligurian, the leader of a mutiny in an Italian Reformatory, was
tattooed with designs representing all the most important episodes of his
life, and the idea of revenge was paramount. On his right forearm figured
two crossed swords, underneath them the initials M. N. (of an intimate
friend), and on the inner side, traced longitudinally, the motto: "Death to
cowards. Long live our alliance."
Tattooing, as practised by criminals, is a perfect substitute for writing with
symbols and hieroglyphics, and they take a keen pleasure in this mode of
adorning their skins.
Of atavistic origin, also, is the practice, common to members of the
camorra, of branding their sweethearts on the face, not from motives of
revenge, but as a sign of proprietorship, like the chiefs of savage tribes, who
mark their wives and other belongings; and the form of tattooing called
"Paranza," which distinguishes the various bands of malefactors,—the band
of the "banner," of the "three arrows," of the "bell-ringer," of the
"Carmelites," etc.

The Criminal Type

All the physical and psychic peculiarities of which we have spoken are
found singly in many normal individuals. Moreover, crime is not always the
result of degeneration and atavism; and, on the other hand, many persons
who are considered perfectly normal are not so in reality. However, in
normal individuals, we never find that accumulation of physical, psychic,
functional, and skeletal anomalies in one and the same person, that we do in
the case of criminals, among whom also entire freedom from abnormal
characteristics is more rare than among ordinary individuals.

Just as a musical theme is the result of a sum of notes, and not of any single
note, the criminal type results from the aggregate of these anomalies, which
render him strange and terrible, not only to the scientific observer, but to
ordinary persons who are capable of an impartial judgment.
Painters and poets, unhampered by false doctrines, divined this type long
before it became the subject of a special branch of study. The assassins,
executioners, and devils painted by Mantegna, Titian, and Ribera the
Spagnoletto embody with marvellous exactitude the characteristics of the
born criminal; and the descriptions of great writers, Dante, Shakespeare,
Dostoyevsky, and Ibsen, are equally faithful representations, physically and
psychically, of this morbid type.

The Criminal in Proverbial Sayings

The conclusions of instinctive observers have found expression in many
proverbs, which warn the world against the very characteristics we have
noted in criminals.
A proverb common in Romagna, says: "Poca barba e niun colore, sotto il
cielo non vi ha peggiore" (There is nothing worse under Heaven than a
scanty beard and a colourless face), and in Piedmont there is a saying,
"Faccia smorta, peggio che scabbia" (An ashen face is worse than the itch).
The Venetians have a number of proverbs expressing distrust of the criminal
type: "Uomo rosso e femina barbuta da lontan xe megio la saluta" (Greet
from afar the red-haired man and the bearded woman); "Vàrdete da chi te
parla e guarda in la, e vàrdete da chi tiene i oci bassi e da chi camina a corti
passi" (Beware of him who looks away when he speaks to you, and of him
who keeps his eyes cast down and takes mincing steps); "El guerzo xe
maledetto per ogni verso" (The squint-eyed are on all sides accursed);
"Megio vendere un campo e una cà che tor una dona dal naso levà" (Better
sell a field and a house than take a wife with a turned-up nose); "Naso che
guarda in testa è peggior che la tempesta" (A turned-up nose is worse than
hail); etc.
There are innumerable cases on record, in which persons quite ignorant of
criminology have escaped robbery or murder, thanks to the timely distrust
awakened in them by the appearance of individuals who had tried to win

their confidence. My father once placed before forty children, twenty
portraits of thieves and twenty representing great men, and 80% recognised
in the first the portraits of bad and deceitful people.
In conclusion, the born criminal possesses certain physical and mental
characteristics, which mark him out as a special type, materially and
morally diverse from the bulk of mankind.
Like the little cage-bred bird which instinctively crouches and trembles at
the sight of the hawk, although ignorant of its ferocity, an honest man feels
instinctive repugnance at the sight of a miscreant and thus signalises the
abnormality of the criminal type.

CHAPTER II

THE BORN CRIMINAL AND HIS RELATION TO MORAL
INSANITY AND EPILEPSY

N O one, before my father, had ever recognised in the criminal an
abnormal being driven by an irresistible atavistic impulse to commit
anti-social acts, but many had observed (cases of the kind were too frequent
to escape notice) the existence of certain individuals, nearly always
members of degenerate families, who seemed from their earliest infancy to
be prompted by some fatal impulse to do evil to their fellow-men. They
differed from ordinary people, because they hated the very persons who to
normal beings are the nearest and dearest, parents, husbands, wives, and
children, and because their inhuman deeds seemed to cause them no
remorse. These individuals, who were sometimes treated as lunatics,
sometimes as diseased persons, and sometimes as criminals, were said by
the earliest observers to be afflicted with moral insanity.
Analogy. Those who are familiar with all that Pinel, Morel, Richard
Connon, and other great alienists have written on the morally insane cannot
help remarking the analogy, nay identity, of the physical, intellectual, and
moral characteristics of this type of lunatic and those of the born criminal.

The same physical anomalies already observed in criminals, as described in
the first chapter (cranial deformities, asymmetry, physical and functional
left-handedness, anomalies in the teeth, hands, and feet), are described by
these older writers as being characteristic of the morally insane, as are also
those mental and moral qualities already noted in the born criminal—vanity,
want of affection, cruelty, idleness, and love of orgies.
Only the analogy of the origin and early manifestations was lacking to
complete the proof of the identity of the two forms. It is true that moral
insanity is more often found in the descendants of insane, neurotic, or
dipsomaniac forebears than in those of criminals, and that the
characteristics are manifested at an earlier age than is the case with born
criminals, but these differences are not of fundamental importance.
Cases. During many years of observation, my father was able to follow
innumerable cases of moral insanity in which perversity was manifested
literally from the cradle, and in which the victims of this disease grew up
into delinquents in no wise distinguishable from born criminals.
A typical instance is that of a certain Rizz... who was brought to him by the
mother because, while still at the breast, he bit his nurse so viciously that
bottle-feeding had to be substituted. At the age of two years, careful training
and medical treatment notwithstanding, this child was separated from his
brothers, because he stuck pins into their pillows and played dangerous
tricks on them. Two years later, he broke open his father's cash-box and
stole money to buy sweets; at six, although decidedly intelligent, he was
expelled from every private school in the town, because he instigated the
others to mischief or ill-treated them. At fourteen, he seduced a servant and
ran away, and at twenty he killed his fiancée by throwing her out of a
window. Thanks to the testimony of a great many doctors, Rizz... was
declared to be morally insane, but if the family had been poor instead of
well-to-do, and the mother had neglected to have her child examined in
infancy by a medical man, thus obtaining ample proof of the pathological
nature of his perversity, Rizz... would have been condemned as an ordinary
criminal, because, like all morally insane persons, he was very intelligent
and able to reason clearly, like a normal individual.

Another typical case is that of a child named Rav... (see Fig. 12) a native of
the Romagna, who was brought to my father at the age of eight, because his
parents were convinced that his conduct was due to a morbid condition.
Unlike the above-mentioned case, his evil acts were always carried out in
an underhand way. He showed great spite towards his brothers and sisters,
especially the smaller ones, whom he attempted to strangle on several
occasions, and was expelled from school on account of the bad influence he
exercised over his schoolfellows. He delighted above everything in robbing
his parents, employers, and the neighbours and in falsely accusing others,
and so cleverly did he manage this that he caused a great deal of mischief
before his double-dealing was discovered. When only eight, on leaving
home early every morning to go to work, he would secretly throw all the
milk left at the neighbours' doors into the dust-bin, then he accused the
janitor of stealing it and got him dismissed. A year later, he nearly
succeeded in causing the arrest of a pawnbroker, whom he accused of
having lent him money on a cloak, it being illegal in Italy to accept
anything in pawn from a minor. The cloak, however, was discovered by his
mother hidden in the cellar. At ten years of age, he alleged that his father
had brutally ill-treated him, and as severe marks and bruises on his body
gave colour to the accusation, the poor man was arrested. The marks,
however, were self-inflicted.
Another boy, a certain Man..., a peasant from the Val d'Aosta, an Alpine
valley in Piedmont, where cretinism is indigenous, exhibited perverse
tendencies from his earliest infancy. When twelve years old, he killed his
companion in a squabble over an egg. (See Fig. 13.)
In the above-mentioned cases, the subjects all belonged to well-to-do or
honest families and the pathological heredity was therefore exclusively
nervous, not criminal. For this reason, the parents were struck by the
abnormal depravity of their sons and had them medically examined and
treated, thus discovering that they were morally insane. If, on the other
hand, the parents had been criminals and had, themselves, set a bad
example, nobody would have supposed that these depraved tendencies were
innate in the children or had developed precociously. The fact of the
prevalence of moral insanity in neurotic families (with frequent cases of
lunacy, alcoholism, etc.) rather than in those of criminal tendencies appears
at first sight strange, but according to the new theory advanced by my

father, the criminal is a mentally diseased person; and we shall see in a later
chapter that the heredity of insane, neurotic, and dipsomaniac parents is
completely equivalent to a criminal heredity.

Fig. 12 Fig. 13

Boy Morally Insane Boy Morally Insane
(see page 55) (see page 56)

Proofs of Analogy. Thus the genesis and early manifestations, which might
have been diverse, really constitute a counter-proof. Careful anamnesis
shows that both born criminals and the morally insane begin at a very early
age to exhibit symptoms of the morbid tendencies which make them such a
danger to society, and if the general public and the police, when such cases
are brought to their notice, usually fail to realise that they arise from
precocious perversity, it is because atrocious actions are excused on the
ground of extreme youth and attributed to this cause rather than to vicious
propensities. In many cases, indeed, they are revealed only to the physician.

A counter-proof is likewise furnished by investigations of the origin of
these pathological cases, since the study of born criminals shows that they,
as well as the morally insane, are as frequently the offspring of insane,
epileptic, neurotic, and drunken parents as of criminals, but in the latter
case, the morbid origin of their perversity is seldom brought to light owing
to the criminality of the parents, who naturally view with indifference
symptoms of vice in their children.

Epileptics, and their Relation to Born Criminals and the Morally
Insane

We have already stated that the physical and psychic characteristics of born
criminals coincide with those of the morally insane. Both are identical with
those of another class of degenerates, known to the world as epileptics.
The term epilepsy was applied to a malady frequently studied but little
understood by the ancient medical world, the chief symptoms of which
were repeated tonic and clonic fits, preceded by the so-called "epileptic
aura" and followed by a deep sleep. It was called morbus sacer and
believed to be of divine origin.
Careful examination of epileptics by clinical and mental experts, showed
that in addition to the characteristic seizure, these unfortunate beings were
subject to other phenomena, which sometimes took the place of the
convulsive fit and in other cases preceded or followed it. These were pavor
nocturnus, sudden sweats, heat, neuralgia, sialorrhea, periodical cephalalgia
and, above all, vertigo; and these symptoms were not always accompanied
by unconsciousness nor followed by coma. Sometimes the seizure was only
manifested by paroxysms of rage or ferocious and brutal impulses
(devouring animals alive), which, if consciously committed, would be
considered criminal. This fact led doctors and mental experts to examine
other patients, and they were able to advance positive proof that a certain
number of epileptics never experience the typical seizure, the disease being
manifested in this milder form with cephalalgia, sialorrhea, delirious
ferocity, and above all, giddiness.
The multiformity of epilepsy has been fully confirmed by the experiments
of Luciani, Zehen, and others, who produced various forms of epilepsy by

submitting different cerebral zones to varying degrees of irritation. By
graduating the electric current, Rosenbach was able to provoke the whole
series of epileptic phenomena described above, from the mildest to the most
serious manifestations. A slight irritation of the motor areas gave rise to
tetanic contractions and clonic convulsions in a given joint; an increase in
the strength of the current produced more violent movements which spread
over the whole limb, and by intensifying the current still further, to half the
body. Finally, on the application of a very strong current, the typical fit was
produced with clonic spasms in all the body, unconsciousness, nystagmus,
and rigidity of the pupils.
By irritating the frontal lobes of dogs, Richet and Bernard produced vertigo
and certain physical phenomena (snuffing, barking, and biting).
Taking these investigations as a basis, Jackson came to the conclusion that
epileptic fits are due to a rapid and excessive explosion of the grey matter,
which, instead of developing its force gradually, develops it all of a sudden
because it is irritated. And as it has been shown conclusively that the
disease can be manifested in such varied forms—vertigo, twitching of the
muscles, sialorrhea, cephalalgia, fits of rage, and ferocious actions—which
appear to be the equivalent of the typical seizure, individuals subject to
these forms of neurosis should be classed as epileptics, even if they never
experience the typical motor attack.
It is in this category, which may be called attenuated epilepsy, that we
should place criminals, who in addition to the psychic and physical
characteristics of the epileptic, possess others peculiar to themselves.
Physical anomalies (plagiocephaly, microcephaly, macrocephaly,
strabismus, facial and cranial asymmetry, prominent frontal sinuses, median
occipital fossa, receding forehead, projecting ears, progeneismus, and badly
shaped teeth) are characteristic both of criminals and epileptics, as was
demonstrated in certain epileptics treated by my father (Figs. 14 and 15),
and the same holds good of functional and histological anomalies. The
histological anomaly discovered by Roncoroni in the frontal lobe of born
criminals, consisting of the atrophy of the deep granular layer, the inversion
of the pyramidal layers and small cells with enlargement and rarefaction of
the pyramidal cells, and the existence of nervous cells in the white
substance, is found in about the same proportion in cases of non-criminal

epileptics. We find also in the same proportion in the field of vision of
epileptics, as of born criminals, the anomaly discovered by Ottolenghi,
consisting of peripheral scotoma intersecting the nearly uniform line of
varying size common to normal eyes.

Fig. 14

An Epileptic Boy
(see page 60)

Psychological Characteristics. The complete identity of epileptics, born
criminals and the morally insane becomes evident as soon as we study their
psychology.
Epilepsy, congenital criminality, and moral insanity alone are capable of
comprising in one clinical form intellectual divergencies which range from
genius to imbecility. In epileptics, this divergence is sometimes manifested
in one and the same person in the space of twenty-four hours. An individual
at one time afflicted with loss of will-power and amnesia, and incapable of
formulating the simplest notion, will shortly afterwards give expression to
original ideas and reason logically.
Contradictions and exaggerations of sentiment are salient characteristics of
epileptics as of born criminals and the morally insane. Quarrelsome,
suspicious, and cynical individuals suddenly become gentle, respectful, and
affectionate. The cynic expresses religious sentiments, and the man who has
brutally ill-treated his first wife, kneels before the second. An epileptic

observed by Tonnini fancied himself at times to be Napoleon; at others, he
would lick the ground like the humblest slave.
The extreme excitability manifested by born criminals is shared by
epileptics. Distrustful, intolerant, and incapable of sincere attachment, a
gesture or a look is sufficient to infuriate them and incite them to the most
atrocious deeds.
Epilepsy has a disastrous effect on the character. It destroys the moral sense,
causes irritability, alters the sensations through constant hallucinations and
delusions, deadens the natural feelings or leads them into morbid channels.
Affection for Animals. The hatred frequently manifested by criminals and
epileptics towards the members of their own families is in many cases
accompanied by an extraordinary fondness for animals as is shown by the
cases of Caligula, Commodus, Lacenaire, Rosas, Dr. Francia, and La Sola,
—who preferred kittens to her own children. A morally insane individual
known to my father would spend months in training dogs, horses, birds,
geese, and other fowls. He was wont to remark that all animals were
friendly to him as though they recognised in him one of their own kind.
Dostoyevsky's fellow-convicts showed great fondness for a horse, an eagle,
and a number of geese. They were so attached to a goat that they wanted to
gild its horns.

Fig. 15

Fernando
Epileptic
(see page 60)

Somnambulism. This is a frequent characteristic of epileptics. Krafft-Ebing
says:
"The seizure is often followed by a condition approaching
somnambulism. The patient appears to have recovered
consciousness, talks coherently, behaves in an orderly manner,
and resumes his ordinary occupations. Yet he is not really
conscious as is shown by the fact that, later he is entirely
ignorant of what he has been doing during this stage. This
peculiar state of mental daze may last a long time, sometimes
during the whole interval between two seizures."

Many of the criminals observed by Dostoyevsky were given to gesticulating
and talking agitatedly in their sleep.
Obscenity is a common characteristic. Kowalewsky (Archivio di
Psichiatria, 1885) notes the resemblance between the reproductive act and

the epileptic seizure, the tonic tension of the muscles, loss of consciousness
and mydriasis in both cases, and remarks also on the frequency with which
epileptic attacks are accompanied by sexual propensities.
The desire for sexual indulgence, like the taste for alcohol, is distinguished
by the precocity peculiar to criminals and the morally insane. Precocious
sexual instincts have been observed in children of four years, and in one
case obscenity was manifested by an infant of one year.
Marro (Annali di Freniatria, 1890) describes a child of three years and ten
months, who had exhibited signs of epilepsy from birth and was of a
jealous, irascible disposition. He was in the habit of scratching and biting
his brothers and sisters, knocking over the furniture, hiding things, and
tearing his clothes, and when unable to hurt or annoy others, would vent his
rage upon himself. If punished, he would continue his misdeeds in an
underhand way.
Another child had been afflicted with convulsions from his earliest infancy,
in consequence of which his character deteriorated, and while still a mere
infant, he behaved with the utmost violence. He killed a cat, attempted to
strangle his brother, and to set fire to the house.
Invulnerability, another characteristic common to criminals, has been
observed by Tonnini in epileptics, whose wounds and injuries heal with
astonishing rapidity, and he is inclined to regard this peculiarity in the light
of a reversion to a stage of evolution, at which animals like lizards and
salamanders were able to replace severed joints by new growths. This
invulnerability is shared by all degenerates: epileptics, imbeciles, and the
morally insane.
"One of these latter," says Tonnini, "tore out his moustache bodily and with
it a large piece of skin. In a few days the wound was nearly healed."
Very characteristic is the almost automatic tendency to destroy animate and
inanimate objects, which results in frequent wounding, suicides, and
homicides. This desire to destroy is also common to children. Fernando P.
(Fig. 15), an epileptic treated by my father, when enraged was in the habit
of smashing all the furniture within his reach and throwing the pieces over a
wall some twenty-five feet high.

Misdea, a regimental barber, to whom we shall refer later, roused to fury by
dismissal from his post, broke four razors into small pieces with his teeth.
Another epileptic, Piz... used to break all the crockery in his cell regularly
every other day, "just to give vent to his feelings."
This tendency to destroy everything in the cell is common also to ordinary
criminals.
Cases of Moral Insanity with Latent Epileptic Phenomena. The following
cases, which were treated by my father and which were subject to careful
observation and study, will serve to give a clear idea of the criminal form of
epilepsy.
Subject: Giuliano Celestino, age 16. Yellow skin abundantly tattooed,
absence of hair on face or body. Cranium: plagiocephaly on the left frontal
and right parietal regions, obliquely-placed eyes, narrow forehead,
prominent orbital arches, line of the mouth horizontal as in apes, lateral
incisors of upper jaw resembling the canines with rugged margins,
excessive zygomatic and maxillary development, tactile sensibility very
obtuse, dolorific sensibility non-existent on the right, very obtuse on the
left, rotular reflex action exaggerated on the right, very feeble on the left.
Devoid of natural feeling. When asked if he was fond of his mother, he
replied: "When she brings me cigars and money." When questioned
concerning his crimes he showed neither shame nor confusion. On the
contrary, he confessed with a smile that when only ten he had tried to kill
his youngest brother, who was then an infant in the cradle, and when
hindered by his mother, had struck and bitten her. His father was a drunkard
afflicted with syphilis, and Giuliano had suffered from epilepsy from the
age of seven. At this age he began to indulge in alcohol and self-abuse, and
stole from his parents in order to buy sweets. He appears to have been
subject to an ambulatory mania, which caused him to wander aimlessly
about the country, and if kept within doors he would let himself down from
the windows, climb up the chimney, or, failing in these attempts to escape,
would break the furniture and attract the attention of the neighbours by his
terrific yells. From the age of eight, despite his parents' efforts to apprentice
him, he was always immediately dismissed by his employers. He ran away
with a strolling company of acrobats, and later apprenticed himself to a
butcher in order to revel in the horrors of the slaughter-house. At fifteen he

was confined in a reformatory, where he twice attempted to escape and to
set fire to the building, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. For
the space of a few days, he appears to have suffered from epileptic attacks,
although in a masked form, accompanied by various attempts at suicide.
These were renewed every other month for a whole year. When asked what
he would do for a living when released, he would reply laughingly that
there was plenty of money in other people's pockets.
L... a morally insane subject, age 16, native of Turin, the son of an aged, but
extremely respectable man. Height 1.50 m., weight, 46.2 kg., with abundant
hair, and down on the forehead, incisors crowded together, excessive
development of the canines, and exaggerated orbital angle of the frontal
bone. He was entirely devoid of affection for his family, remarking
cynically that he was fond of his father when he gave him money and did
not worry him. Sometimes he kicked the poor old man and otherwise
abused him. When unable to obtain money, he would smash all the furniture
in the house, until, for the sake of economy, his family gave him what he
wanted. In order to get a five-pound note from money-lenders he would
sign promissory notes for ten times that amount. He changed his ideas from
one hour to another. Sometimes he wanted to enter the army, at others to
emigrate to France, etc. When only fourteen he frequented houses of ill-
fame, where he played the bully.
Although this case may be regarded as a typical instance of moral insanity,
there were apparently no symptoms of vertigo or convulsions. At the age of
sixteen, however, while suffering from rheumatism, this subject tried to
throw himself from the balcony of his bedroom at the same hour three
nights running. After this he seems to have suffered from amnesia.
These frenzied attempts at self-destruction, which seem to have taken the
place of the epileptic seizure, were related to my father casually by the
boy's mother; but in other cases, similar incidents, although of the utmost
importance to the criminologist, often pass unnoticed.
In the Actes du Congrès d'Anthropologie, Angelucci describes another
typical case of epileptic moral insanity. E. G. (brother a criminal epileptic,
father a sufferer from cancer) was sentenced several times for assaulting
people often without motive. Tattooed with the figure of a naked woman,

microcephalous (39.2 cubic inches = 589 c.c.), having cranial and facial
asymmetry, he was vain, deceitful, and violent, and made great show of
scepticism although he wore a great many medals of the Virgin. This
subject was over twenty-five when the first epileptic seizure took place.
The connection between epilepsy and crime is one of derivation rather than
identity. Epilepsy represents the genus of which criminality and moral
insanity are the species.
The born criminal is an epileptic, inasmuch as he possesses the anatomical,
skeletal, physiognomical, psychological, and moral characteristics peculiar
to the recognised form of epilepsy, and sometimes also its motorial
phenomena, although at rare intervals. More frequently he exhibits its
substitutes (vertigo, twitching, sialorrhea, emotional attacks). But the
criminal epileptic possesses other characteristics peculiar to himself; in
particular, that desire of evil for its own sake, which is unknown to ordinary
epileptics. In view of this fact this form of epilepsy must be considered
apart from the purely nervous anomaly, both in the clinical diagnosis and
the methods of cure and social prophylaxis.
Moreover, the nervous anomaly, which in the case of criminals appears on
the scene from time to time, accentuating the criminal tendency till it
reaches the atavistic form and producing morbid complications which
sometimes prove fatal, serves to point out the true nature of the disease and
to emphasise the fact that while it is attenuated so far as motor attacks are
concerned, it is aggravated on the other hand by criminal impulses, which
render the patient semi-immune and permit him a longer and less troubled
existence, but provoke a constant brain irritation, which clouds and disturbs
his intellectual and moral nature.
In order better to understand these two forms of epilepsy, we must recall
two analogous forms of another and equally multiform disease, tuberculosis
in its forms of quick consumption and scrofula. The etiology is identical
and the symptoms frequently alike, but while the latter proceeds very
slowly and allows the patient a long life, the former is rapid and severs life
in its prime.
In motory epilepsy, the irritation is manifested on a sudden, but leaves the
mind healthy in the interval, although the attacks may lead to rapid

dementia. In criminal epilepsy this irritation does not break out in violent
seizures and is compatible with a long life, but it changes the whole
physical and psychic complexion of the individual.
The epileptic origin of criminality explains many characteristics of the
criminal, the genesis of which was previously obscure. Many of the moral
and physical peculiarities of born criminals and the morally insane may be
classed as professional characteristics acquired through the habit of evil-
doing, especially the naso-labial and zygomatic wrinkles, cynical
expression, tapering fingers, etc. Many anomalies also in the bones, hair,
ears, eyes, and the monstrous development of the jaws and teeth, must be
explained by arrested development in the fifth or sixth month of ultra-
uterine existence, corresponding to the characteristics of inferior races by
the usual law of ontogeny which recapitulates phylogeny. But there is a
final series of anomalies, the origin of which was formerly wrapped in
mystery: plagiocephaly, sclerosis, the thickening of the meninges, cranial
asymmetry, and other changes in the cerebral layers, which can be
explained only by a disease altering precociously the whole cerebral
conformation, as is exactly the case in epilepsy.
The born criminal is an epileptic, not however afflicted with the common
form of this disease, but with a special kind. The pathological basis, the
etiology, and the anatomical and psychological characteristics are identical,
but there are many differences. While in the ordinary form motor anomalies
are very common, in the criminal form they are very rare, while in ordinary
epilepsy the mental explosions are accompanied by unconsciousness, in the
other form they are weakened and spread over the whole existence, and
consciousness is, relatively speaking, preserved; and while, finally, the
ordinary epileptic has not always the tendency to do evil for its own sake—
nay, may even achieve holiness—in the hidden form the bent towards evil
endures from birth to death. The perversity concentrated in one second in
the motor attack, is attenuated in the second form, but spread over the
whole existence. We have therefore an epilepsy sui generis, a variety of
epilepsy which may be called criminal.
Thus the primitive idea of crime has become organic and complete. The
criminal is only a diseased person, an epileptic, in whom the cerebral
malady, begun in some cases during prenatal existence, or later, in

consequence of some infection or cerebral poisoning, produces, together
with certain signs of physical degeneration in the skull, face, teeth, and
brain, a return to the early brutal egotism natural to primitive races, which
manifests itself in homicide, theft, and other crimes.

CHAPTER III

THE INSANE CRIMINAL

General Forms of Criminal Lunacy

E PILEPTIC born criminals and the morally insane may be classed as
lunatics under certain aspects, but only by the scientific observer and
professional psychologist. Outside these two forms, there is an important
series of offenders, who are not criminals from birth, but become such at a
given moment of their lives, in consequence of an alteration of the brain,
which completely upsets their moral nature and makes them unable to
discriminate between right and wrong. They are really insane; that is,
entirely without responsibility for their actions.
Nearly every class of mental derangement contributes a special form of
crime.
The Idiot is prompted by paroxysms of rage to commit murderous attacks
on his fellow-creatures. His exaggerated sexual propensities incite him to
rape, and his childish delight at the sight of flames, to arson.
The Imbecile, or weak-minded individual, yields to his first impulse, or,
dominated by the influence of others, becomes an accomplice in the hope of
some trivial reward.
The victims of Melancholia are driven to suicide by suppressed grief,
precordial agitation, or hallucinations. Sometimes the suicidal attempt is
indirect and takes the form of the murder of some important personage or

their own kin, in the hope that their own condemnation may follow, or it is
to save those dear to them from the miseries of life.
Persons afflicted with General Paralysis frequently steal, in the belief that
everything they see belongs to them, or because they are incapable of
understanding the meaning of property. If accused of theft, they deny their
guilt or assert that the stolen articles have been hidden on their persons by
others. They are inclined to forgery and fraudulent bankruptcy, and when
their misdeeds are brought home to them they show no shame. Unnatural
sexual offences and crimes against the authorities are also common. While
they are seldom guilty of murder, they frequently commit arson, through
carelessness, or with the idea of destroying their homes because they think
them too small, or wish to get rid of the vermin in them, such as rats.
The sufferer from Dementia forgets his promises, however serious they may
be. Cerebral irritability often leads him to commit violent acts, homicide,
etc.
In some cases, mental alienation is manifested in a mania for litigation,
which urges the sufferer to offend statesmen, state lawyers, and judges.
A common symptom of Pellagra is the tendency to unpremeditated murder
or suicide, without the slightest cause. The sight of water suggests
drowning, in the form of murder or suicide.
Young persons at the approach of puberty and women subject to
amenorrhea often exhibit a tendency to arson and crimes of an erotic nature.
Similar tendencies are sometimes displayed during pregnancy, and an
inclination to theft is not uncommon.
Maniacs are prone to satyriasis and bacchanalian excesses. They commit
rape and indecent acts in public and often appropriate strange objects, hair
or wearing apparel, with the idea of obtaining means to satisfy their vices,
either because they are unconscious of doing wrong or because, like true
megalomaniacs, they believe the stolen goods to be their own property.
Sometimes a feverish activity prompts them to steal; "I felt a kind of
uneasiness, a demon in my fingers," said one, "which forced me to move
them and carry off something."

Monomaniacs, especially if subject to hallucinations, frequently manifest a
tendency to homicide, either to escape imaginary persecutions or in
obedience to equally imaginary injunctions. The same motives prompt them
to commit special kinds of theft and arson. Na... (see Fig. 16) murdered his
friend without any reason, after suffering from delusions for one year.
The characteristics of insane criminals are so marked that it is not difficult
to distinguish them from habitual delinquents. They seldom show any fear
of the penalty incurred nor do they try to escape. They take little trouble to
hide their misdeeds, or to get rid of any clue. If poisoners, they leave poison
about in their victim's room; if forgers, they take no trouble to make their
signatures appear genuine; if thieves, they exhibit stolen goods in public, or
appropriate them in the presence of witnesses. They frequently manifest
unbounded rage and assault those present, entirely forgetting the stolen
objects. Once their crime is accomplished, not only do they give themselves
no trouble to hide it, but are prone to confess it immediately, and are eager
to talk about it, saying with satisfaction that they feel relieved at what they
have done, that they have obeyed the order of superior beings and consider
their actions praiseworthy. They deny that they are insane, or if they admit
it in some cases, it is only because they are persuaded to do so by their
lawyers or fellow-prisoners. And even then, they are ready at the first
opportunity to contradict the idea, eulogising and exaggerating their
criminal acts.
A full confession in court is not uncommon, and in the case of impulsive
monomaniacs, epileptics, and insane inebriates, the descriptions are full of
characteristic expressions, showing what was the offender's state of mind
when dominated by criminal frenzy.
Rom..., an impulsive monomaniac, who stabbed an acquaintance, felt "the
blood rushing to his head, which seemed to be in flames."
Tixier narrates that, on seeing the old man he afterward murdered pass him
on a country road, "something went to his head." Frequently such criminals
are quick to give themselves up to justice.
Antecedents. Unlike the ordinary offender, insane criminals are often
perfectly law-abiding up to the moment of the crime.

Motive. Perhaps the greatest difference between born criminals and insane
criminals lies in the motive for the act, which in the case of the latter is not
only entirely disproportionate to it, but nearly always absurd and depends
far less on personal susceptibility.
Here are a few typical cases: A father fancies he hears a voice bidding him
kill his favourite child. He goes home, has the little victim dressed in its
best clothes and cuts off its head with perfect calmness. A lady, ignorant of
horticulture, plants some flowers on her husband's grave. A day or two later,
noticing that they are drooping, she imagines that the gardener has watered
them with boiling water, and after reproaching him bitterly, wounds him
with a pair of scissors.
These unfortunate beings frequently show perfect mental clearness before
the crime and even in the act of striking the fatal blow; yet their action is
purely instinctive and not prompted by passion or any other cause.
Although such individuals appear to reason, can it be said that they are in
full possession of their mental faculties? If they are, how shall we explain
the wholesale destruction of those they hold most dear? A husband kills the
wife to whom he is sincerely attached; a father, the son he loves most; or a
mother, the infant at her breast.
Such an extraordinary phenomenon can only be explained by a sudden
suspension of the intellectual and moral faculties and of the powers of the
will.

Special Forms of Criminal Insanity

ALCOHOLISM

In addition to these casual forms of lunacy, in which the individual is led to
commit crime by a momentary alteration of his moral nature, we find other
forms which might be called specific, because the criminal act forms the
culminating point of the malady. The sufferers from these forms are less
easily distinguished from ordinary criminals and normal persons than are
the lunatics of whom we have just spoken. These mental diseases, which
should be studied separately, are alcoholism, hysteria, and epilepsy.

It is well known that temporary drunkenness may transform an honest,
peacable individual into a rowdy, a murderer, or a thief.
Gall narrates the case of a certain Petri, who manifested homicidal
tendencies when excited by alcohol. Locatelli mentions a workman of
thirty, who, when under the influence of drink, would smash everything
around him and stab the companions who sought to restrain his drunken
fury. Ladelci and Carmignani cite the case of a miner, who was repeatedly
arrested for drunken brawls, and when reproved replied: "I cannot help it.
As soon as I drink, I must start fighting."
Very characteristic is the case of a certain Papor... who was imprisoned for
some time at Turin. His father was a drunkard and ill treated his wife. The
son became a soldier, then an excise officer, fireman, and finally nurse in an
infirmary, and was known as a respectable, temperate man. In 1876, he was
transferred to the Island of Lipari, where malvoisie only costs 25 centimes a
litre, and there he acquired a taste for wine, without, however, drinking to
excess. But a year later, a change in the hospital regulations gave him
longer hours of leisure, and he began to drink deeply. In 1881, while
intoxicated, he accosted a sportsman and pretending to be a police officer,
ordered him to give up his gun. At that moment he was arrested by a
genuine constable and taken to the barracks, where he was sentenced,
without any one's observing his drunken condition. After his release, he
committed other offences of the same type, which were followed by
confession and repentance.
Chronic Alcoholism. The phenomena developed by chronic inebriety are,
however, still more important from the point of view of the criminologist
than the immediate effects of alcohol on certain constitutions.
Physical and Functional Characteristics of Chronic Inebriety. The habitual
drunkard rarely exhibits traces of congenital degeneracy, but frequently that
of an acquired character, especially paresis, facial hemiparesis, slight
exophthalmia (see Fig. 6), inequality of the pupils, insensibility to touch
and pain, which is often unilateral, especially in the tongue,
thermoanalgesia, hyperæsthesia, experienced at various points not
corresponding to the nervous territories and modified spontaneously or by
esthesiogenic agents (Grasset), alphalgesia (sensation of pain at contact

with painless bodies), a deficiency of urea in the urine, out of proportion to
the general state of nourishment, and a proneness of the symptoms to return
after trauma, poisoning, agitation, or serious illness.
The gravest phenomena, however, are atrophy or degeneration in the liver,
heart, stomach, seminal canaliculi, and central nervous system, which give
rise to serious functional disturbances; most of all, in the digestion—as
manifested by the characteristic gastric catarrh, matutinal vomit and cramp
—and in the reproductive system, with resulting impotence.
Psychic Disturbances—Hallucinations. The most frequent and precocious
symptoms are delusions and hallucinations, generally of a gloomy or even
of a terrible nature, and extremely varied and fleeting, which, like dreams,
in nearly every instance arise from recent and strong impressions. The most
characteristic hallucinations are those which persuade the patient that he
experiences the contact of disgusting vermin, corpses, or other horrible
objects. He is gnawed by imaginary worms, burnt by matches, or
persecuted by spies and the police.

Fig. 16

Italian Criminal
A Case of Alcoholism
(see page 82)

The strange pathological conditions resulting from chronic alcoholism give
rise to other fearful hallucinations. Cutaneous anæsthesia and alcoholic
anaphrodisia make the sufferers fancy they have lost the generative organs,
nose, legs, etc.; dyspepsia, exhaustion, and paresis, that they have been
poisoned or are being persecuted. The reaction following excessively
prolonged stimuli causes furious lypemania and gloomy fancies. Sometimes
chronic inebriates believe that they are accused of imaginary crimes and
loaded with chains amid heaps of corpses. They implore mercy and try to
kill themselves in order to escape from their shame; or they remain
motionless, bewildered, and terrified. Not infrequently, because of the
profound faith, which, unlike many other lunatics, they have in their
hallucinations, they pass from melancholy broodings to a fit of mad energy,
often of a homicidal or suicidal nature. They imagine they are struggling
with thieves or wild beasts and hurl themselves from the window or rush

naked through the streets, killing the first person that crosses their path. In
some, this delirium of energy breaks out suddenly like an epileptic attack,
which it resembles in its brevity and intensity. With hair standing on end,
they rush about like savage beasts, grinding their teeth, biting, rending their
clothes, or tearing up the sod, or hurling themselves from some height.
These symptoms are preceded by vertigo, periodical cephalalgia, and
flushing of the face, and are manifested more frequently by those who are
already predisposed through trauma to the head, or through typhus or
heredity, or after great agitation and prolonged fasting, and often bear no
relation to the quantity of alcohol imbibed, which may be small, or to the
general physical state; but depend on cerebral irritation caused by chronic
alcoholism. The attacks may disappear in a few hours without leaving the
slightest recollection in the mind of the patient (Krafft-Ebing, p. 182). They
are, in short, a species of disguised epilepsy, and thus they may well be
styled, since true alcoholic epilepsy is noted in many inebriates, specially in
absinthe-drinkers.
Apathy. Another characteristic almost invariably found in inebriates who
have committed a crime, is a strange apathy and indifference, a total lack of
concern regarding their state—a trait common also to ordinary criminals,
but in a less marked degree. They make themselves at home in prison
without showing the faintest interest in their trial or in the offence which
has caused their arrest, and only when brought before the judge do they
rouse themselves for a moment from their lethargy.
A well-educated man, after a varied career as doctor, chemist, and clerk,
during which time he had been constantly dismissed from his posts for
drunkenness, met a policeman in the street and killed him, in the belief that
the officer wanted to arrest him. When taken to prison, the first thing he did
was to write to his mother begging her to send him some pomade. When
interrogated, he informed the examining magistrate that the interrogatory
was useless, since he had already chosen a fresh trade, that of photographer.
It was only after several months of total abstinence in prison, that he began
to come to his senses and to realise the gravity of his situation. (Tardieu, De
la Folie, 1870.)
Contrast between Apathy and Impulsiveness. This apathy alternates with
strange impulses, which, although strongly at variance with the patient's

former habits, he is unable to control, even when he is aware that they are
criminal.
Crimes peculiar to Inebriates. Since modification of the reproductive
organs is a common cause of hallucinations, inebriate criminals frequently
suffer from a species of erotic delirium, during which they murder those
whom they believe guilty of offences against themselves—generally their
wives or mistresses. This is partly owing to the sexual nature of their
hallucinations and partly to the wretchedness of their homes, which are in
such striking contrast to the rosy dreams inspired by alcohol and which tend
to increase the melancholy natural to drunkards. They imagine they are
being deceived and their impotence derided, the most innocent gestures
being interpreted as deadly insults.
In the prison at Turin, my father had under observation two of these
unfortunate beings, one a man of sixty and the other quite young. Both had
murdered their wives with the most revolting cruelty, because they believed
them to be unfaithful, although in reality both the women led blameless
lives.
Course of the Disease. The continued abuse of alcohol ends at last in
complete dementia or general pseudo-paralysis. The body is at first obese,
but rapidly loses flesh, the skin becomes greasy and damp, owing to
hypersecretion of the sebaceous and sudoriparous glands, and soils the
garments. Memory becomes enfeebled, speech uncertain and defective
(dysarthria), the association of ideas sluggish, sensibility blunted,
perception confused, judgment erroneous, and every species of regular and
continued application impossible. The earlier hallucinations reappear, but in
a less vivid form and only at long intervals; then paralysis more or less
rapidly becomes general and ends in death.

EPILEPSY

We have spoken of this disease in another chapter and have shown that the
born criminal is in reality an epileptic, in whom the malady, instead of
manifesting itself suddenly in strange muscular contortions or terrible
spasms, develops slowly in continual brain irritation, which causes the

individual thus affected to reproduce the ferocious egotism natural to
primitive savages, irresistibly bent on harming others.
But besides these epileptics, who are morally insane from their birth and
pass their lives in prisons and lunatic asylums, without any one being able
to mark the exact boundary between their perversity and their
irresponsibility; besides these individuals, whom society has a right, nay a
moral obligation, to remove from its midst because they are ever a source of
danger there are those who are afflicted with other forms of epilepsy;—
forms in which irritation is manifested in seizures exactly similar to the
typical convulsive fit, which they resemble also with regard to variation in
intensity and duration. Generally speaking, they are likewise accompanied
by complete loss of memory and consciousness, but in some cases there
may be partial or complete consciousness, and yet the sufferer is not
responsible for his actions. This variety of epilepsy, termed by Samt psychic
epilepsy (epilepsy with psychic seizures), manifests itself at long intervals,
sometimes only once, but more frequently twice or thrice in the course of a
lifetime, and during the attack the personality of the individual undergoes a
complete change.
The attack is described by Samt as follows: During the seizure, the
individual behaves like a somnambulist. Sometimes he is dazed, mute, and
immovable; at others, he talks incessantly; at still others, he goes on with
his ordinary occupations, travelling, reading, and writing: but in every case
his personality suffers a complete metamorphosis, his habits, actions, and
even handwriting assume a different character. Sometimes he is seized by a
mania for walking and tramps for miles; at others, he undertakes
interminable railway journeys. Tissié (Les aliénés voyageurs, 1887) cites
cases of epileptics who travelled from Paris to Bombay, who covered 71
kilometres on foot, and who wandered unconscious for 31 months.
Sometimes epilepsy is manifested only by the tendency to undertake
purposeless journeys, as in the case of Ferretti and a certain M... who
visited the Mahdi in Africa and from thence travelled aimlessly to Australia.
This ambulatory form of epilepsy is very common amongst lads of fourteen
or fifteen. Scarcely a week passes without the police receiving information
from parents that their son has disappeared from home with only a few

pence in his pocket. The wanderer is discovered later, frequently in some
small provincial town, which he has reached after tramping aimlessly for
days, sleeping in barns, and living on charity. When questioned, the boy
usually displays total ignorance regarding all that has happened to him
during the interval.
Dr. Maccabruni in his Notes on Hidden Forms of Epilepsy, 1886, narrates
the case of an epileptic, who during childhood received an injury to his
skull. Later, he started out on a series of wanderings to Venice, Padua,
Rome, Milan, Monaco, and Mentone. His journeys, especially those to
distant parts, were undertaken in a state of unconsciousness and generally a
short time before the commencement of a fit.
These attacks may last any length of time, from a few minutes to several
months. In one of the cases observed by my father, the attack lasted a
fortnight. The patient, a young officer with whom we were personally
acquainted, was one of the quietest persons possible, but suddenly he was
seized with a mania for writing innumerable letters, especially on stamped
paper, in exaggeratedly large writing very different from his usual style.
These letters, which were full of absurdities, were posted by the writer from
the different towns he passed through on his aimless journeyings, which
lasted a whole fortnight. During one of these seizures, he was arrested as a
deserter and was unable to give any explanation of his conduct.
In this particular patient, the disease assumed the mild form of absurd
letters and still more absurd journeys, but other individuals in the same state
may commit criminal acts like homicide, equally without reason or gain to
themselves. Once the fit is passed, these unfortunate individuals have
generally no recollection of their past actions, and since in their normal
state they are quiet, law-abiding persons, it is extremely difficult to trace
back the deed to the right source, or to discover the disease, because they
show no other symptoms of epilepsy, apart from the particular criminal act.
Samt describes a still more complicated form of this psychic seizure, in
which the personality is altered without there being any loss of
consciousness. In a case of this kind, a servant, after forty years of faithful
service, murdered his old mistress during the night, having previously cut
all the bell-wires to prevent communication with the other servants. He

escaped with some valuables, but returned in a few days and gave himself
up to the police, to whom he gave a detailed account of his crime without
showing either horror or remorse. He was tried and condemned, and a few
months later was again seized with epileptic fits during one of which he
died. Samt, who saw him in this state, came to the conclusion that the
murder had been committed during a similar seizure and he was able to
prove that attacks of this kind are not necessarily accompanied by loss of
consciousness.
As in the above case, these psychic attacks are sometimes accompanied by
an insatiable thirst for blood, destruction and violence of all kinds, as well
as by an extraordinary development of muscular strength with apparent
lucidity of mind. They may last from a few minutes to half an hour, after
which the patient falls into a sound sleep and forgets everything that has
happened, or else retains only a vague recollection.
Such was the case of the epileptic Misdea, which first suggested to my
father the idea of a link between crime and epilepsy. As this case has
become famous in the annals of crime in Italy, it will perhaps be of interest
to the reader. Misdea, the son of degenerate parents, manifested a series of
typical epileptic anomalies—asymmetry, vaso-motor disturbances,
impulsiveness, ferocity, etc. At the age of twenty, while serving in the army,
for some trivial motive he suddenly attacked and killed his superior officer
and eight or ten soldiers who tried to overpower him. Finally he was bound
and placed in a cell, where he fell into a sound slumber and on awaking had
entirely forgotten what he had done. He was condemned to death, but my
father, who examined him medically, was able to prove conclusively that
the crime had been committed during an attack of epilepsy.
The physical and psychic characters of this class of epileptic are those
common to all non-criminal epileptics, and indeed we are justified in
considering them insane rather than criminal, because, with the exception of
the attack, which assumes this terrible form, they do not manifest criminal
tendencies.

HYSTERIA

Hysteria is a disease allied to epilepsy, of which it appears to be a milder
form, and is much more common among women than men in the ratio of
twenty to one. The disease may frequently be traced to hereditary
influences, similar to those found in epilepsy, transmitted by epileptic,
neurotic, or inebriate parents, frequently also, to some traumatic or toxic
influence, such as typhus, meningitis, a blow, a fall, or fright.
Physical Characteristics. These are fewer than in epileptics. The most
common peculiarities are small, obliquely-placed eyes of timid glance, pale,
elongated face, crowded or loosened teeth, nervous movements of the face
and hands, facial asymmetry, and black hair.
Functional Characteristics. These are of great importance. Hysterical
subjects manifest special sensibility to the contact of certain metals such as
magnetised iron, copper, and gold. Characteristic symptoms are the
insensibility of the larynx or the sensation of a foreign body in it (globus
hystericus), neuralgic pains, which disappear with extreme suddenness,
reappearing often on the side opposite that where they were first felt, the
prevalence of sensory and motor anomalies on one side (hemianæsthesia),
the confusion of different colours (dyschromatopsia); greater sensibility in
certain parts of the body, such as the ovary and the breasts, which when
subjected to pressure give rise to neuropathic phenomena (hysterogenous
points); a sense of pleasure in the presence of pain, the abolition of
pharyngeal reflex action, the absence of the sensation of warmth in certain
parts of the body and a tendency to the so-called attacks of "hysterics."
These characteristics, which are closely allied, if not precisely similar to
those of epilepsy, are preceded by a number of premonitory symptoms—
hallucinations, sudden change of character, contractions, laryngeal spasms,
strabismus, frequent spitting, inordinate laughter or yawning, cardiac
palpitations, loss of strength, trembling, anæsthesia and (just before the
attack,) pains in some fixed spot, generally in the head, ovary, or nape of
the neck.
Psychology. The psychological manifestations of hysterical subjects are of
still greater interest and importance.
They show, on the whole, a fair amount of intelligence, although little
power of concentration. In disposition they are profoundly egotistical and

so preoccupied with their own persons that they will do anything to arouse
attention and obtain notoriety. They are exceedingly impressionable,
therefore easily roused to anger and cruelty, and are prone to take sudden
and unreasonable likes and dislikes. They are fickle and easily swayed.
They take special delight in slandering others, and when unable to excite
public notice by unfounded accusations, to which they resort as a means of
revenge, they embitter the lives of those around them by continual quarrels
and dissensions.
Susceptibility to Suggestion. Of still greater importance for the
criminologist is the facility with which hysterical women are dominated by
hypnotic suggestion. Their wills become entirely subordinated to that of the
hypnotiser, by whose influence they can be induced to believe that they
have changed their sex so that they forthwith adopt habits of the opposite
sex, or to entertain idées fixes—strange, impulsive, or even criminal ideas.
They are, in fact, obedient automatons when under hypnotic influence, but
they cannot be prevailed upon to perform acts contrary to their nature, to
commit crimes or reveal secrets entrusted to them, if they are naturally
upright.
Variability. Mobility of mood is a still more salient characteristic of
hysteria. The subject passes with extraordinary rapidity from laughter to
tears "like children," says Richet, "who laugh immoderately before their
tears are dry."
"For one hour," says Sydenham, "they will be irascible and discontented;
the next, they are cheerful and follow their friends about with all the signs
of the old attachment."
Their sensibility is affected by the most trifling causes. A word will grieve
them like some real misfortune. Their impulses are not lacking in
intellectual control, but are followed by action with excessive rapidity.
Although of such changeable disposition, they are subject to fixed ideas, to
which they cling with a kind of cataleptic intensity. A woman will be dumb
or motionless for months, on the pretext that speech or motion would injure
her. But this is the only form of constancy they exhibit, otherwise they are
indolent by nature. Sometimes they will show activity for a few days only
to relapse again into idleness.

Erotomania. This is almost a pathognomonical symptom and is shown in
hallucinations and nightmares of an erotic character, preceded by epigastric
aura. This erotomania is so impulsive that hysterical women frequently
engage in a liaison, from a desire of adventure or of experiencing sudden
emotions. The criminality of the hysterical is always connected with the
sexual functions.
Of twenty-one women found guilty of slander, nine made false accusations
of rape, four accused their husbands of sexual violence, and one of sodomy.
Such accusations, when made by minors, are generally full of disgusting
details, which would be repugnant to any adult.
Mendacity. Another peculiarity of hysterical women is the irresistible
tendency to lie, which leads them to utter senseless falsehoods just for the
pleasure of deceiving and making believe. They sham suicide and sickness
or write anonymous letters full of inventions. Many, from motives of spite
or vanity, accuse servants of dishonesty, in order to revel in their disgrace
and imprisonment. The favourite calumny, however, is always an accusation
of indecent behaviour, sometimes made against their fathers and brothers,
but generally against a priest or medical man. The accusations, in most
cases, are so strange and fantastic as to be quite unworthy of belief, but
sometimes, unfortunately, they obtain credence. The commonest method
adopted for spreading these calumnies is by means of anonymous letters. In
one case, a young girl of twenty-five belonging to a distinguished family,
pestered a respectable priest with love-letters and shortly afterwards
accused him of seduction. Another girl of eighteen informed the Attorney
for the State that she had frequently been the victim of immoral priests and
accused one of her female cousins of complicity. According to her story,
while praying at church, a certain Abbot R... took her into the sacristy and
entreated her to elope with him to Spain. She refused indignantly, and
hoping to soften her, he twice stabbed himself in her presence, whereat she
fainted, and on recovering consciousness, found the priest at her feet,
begging forgiveness. She further accused the same cousin of having taken
her to a convent, where she was seduced by a priest, the nuns acting as
accomplices. A subsequent medical examination proved that no seduction
had taken place and that she was suffering from hysteria.

In another case, a girl of sixteen, the daughter of an Italian general,
complained to her father that a certain lieutenant, her neighbour at table,
had used indecent language to her. Shortly afterwards, a shower of
anonymous letters troubled the peace of the household—declarations of
love addressed to the girl's mother and threats to the daughter. It was
discovered that the girl herself was the writer of all these letters.
Anonymous letter-writing is so common among hysterical persons, that it
may be considered a pathognomonical characteristic. The handwriting is of
a peculiar character, or rather it shows a peculiar tendency to vary from
excessive size to extreme smallness, a characteristic we have noticed in
epileptics.
Delirium. Hysterical, like epileptic, subjects often suffer from melancholia
or monomaniacal delirium. Indeed, according to Morel, this symptom is
more frequent when the other morbid phenomena are absent.
Psychic hysteria, like epilepsy, may exist unaccompanied by the
characteristic hysterical attack, and then, as is the case with epilepsy, it is
most dangerous to society.
In conclusion, although up to the present, medical men have been disposed
to consider hysteria as a disease distinct from epilepsy, careful study of this
malady inclined my father to class it as a variation of epilepsy, prevalent
among women, who in this disease, as in many others, manifest an
attenuated form.

CHAPTER IV

CRIMINALOIDS

W E have seen how, owing to disease, alcoholism and epilepsy,
physically and psychically degenerate individuals make their
appearance in a community of normal persons. But a large proportion of the
crimes committed cannot be attributed to lunatics, epileptics, or the morally
insane, nor do all criminals show that aggregate of atavistic and morbid

characters,—the cruelty and bestial insensibility of the savage, the
impulsiveness of the epileptic, the licentiousness, delusions, and
impetuosity of the madman,—which we find united in the born criminal.
According to statistics obtained by my father, the share contributed to the
sum total of criminality by this latter type is only 33%, which appears to be
a magic figure for the criminal, since it corresponds to the percentage of the
histological anomaly discovered by Roncoroni and to that of all important
anomalies, including those of the field of vision. But besides this percentage
of born criminals, doomed even before birth to a career of crime, whom all
educational efforts fail to redeem and who therefore should be segregated at
once; besides the epileptic, hysterical, and inebriate lunatics and those
insane from alcoholisation, of whom we have already spoken, there remain
a number of criminals, amounting to a full half, in whom the virus is, so to
speak, attenuated, who, although they are epileptoids, suffer from a milder
form of the disease, so that without some adequate cause (causa criminis)
criminality is not manifested. The inhibitory centres are somewhat obtuse,
but not altogether absent, so that a healthy environment, careful training,
habits of industry, the inculcation of moral and humane sentiments may
prevent these individuals from yielding to dishonest impulses, provided
always that no special temptation to sin comes in their path.
We have said that education is not sufficient to convert a criminal into an
honest man. Conversely, trials and difficulties and the want of education are
powerless to make a criminal of an honest individual. Hypnotism, the most
powerful means of suggestion possible, cannot induce a good man to
commit a crime during the hypnotic sleep, but vicious training has an
enormous influence on weak natures, who are candidates for good or evil
according to circumstances. Such individuals were classified by my father
as criminaloids.
Physical Characteristics. Criminaloids have no special skeletal, anatomical,
or functional peculiarities. As the criminaloid represents a milder type of
the born criminal, he may possess the same physical defects in the skull,
hair, beard, ears, eyes, teeth, lips, joints, hands, and feet, as well as all the
sensory anomalies, lessened sensibility to touch and pain, hyper-sensibility
to the magnet and barometrical variations, etc.; but all these anomalies are
never found in the same proportion as in born criminals; that is,

criminaloids never manifest the aggregate of physical and psychic
peculiarities which distinguish born criminals and the morally insane. On
the other hand, we find in criminaloids certain characteristics, such as
premature greyness and baldness, etc., which are never exhibited by the
born criminal. The real distinction between the criminaloid and the born
criminal is psychological rather than physical.
Psychological Characteristics. The difference between born criminals and
criminaloids becomes apparent directly on considering the age at which the
latter enter on their anti-social career and the motives which cause them to
adopt it. While the born criminal begins to perpetrate crimes from the very
cradle, so to speak, and always for very trivial motives, the criminaloid
commits his initial offence later in life and always for some adequate
reason.
A criminal of this attenuated type, a certain Salvador, without cranial or
facial anomalies, had led an honest life for many years, but on returning
home after a prolonged absence on business, he found his house ransacked
by his wife, who had deserted him. From that time he seems to have
deliberately adopted a career of dishonesty, as the leader of a band of
thieves.
In another case, an engraver who showed no pathological anomalies, except
excessive frontal sinuses, was ordered by a society to strike a medal for
them. This happened to be exactly similar to a coin current in his country
and the coincidence incited him to the making of counterfeit coin.
But the most characteristic case, which aroused much interest in its time, is
that of Olivo. He was a man of handsome appearance, with normal
olfactory acuteness and sensibility to touch and pain. He had, however,
inherited from neurotic and insane forebears secondary epileptic
phenomena, which subsequently developed into convulsive epilepsy, and
certain indications of degeneracy (facial and cranial asymmetry, abnormal
capillary vortices and length of arm, scotoma in the field of vision and
exaggerated tendinous reflex action). Up to the age of thirty he led an
irreproachable life; in fact, he was scrupulous to excess, and this, coupled
with pronounced conceit and stinginess, was his only fault. He married a
woman of common origin, who was not really depraved, but she was coarse

and unfaithful, and, worst of all in his eyes, unscrupulous and wasteful.
These defects, and her habits of lying and trickery embittered the poor
man's existence. One night, feeling very ill, probably owing to an
approaching seizure, he appealed to his wife for assistance and received an
unfeeling reply, whereupon he sprang out of bed, picked up a knife and
stabbed her. Afterwards he fell into a deep sleep. In order to obliterate all
traces of the crime, he cut the corpse into small pieces, packed it into a
portmanteau and threw it into the sea. Two months later, when he was
arrested, he immediately made a full confession, showing deep repentance
and sincere attachment to his victim, whose merits he celebrated in a poem
of his own composition. At the trial, he made no attempt to defend himself;
during the hearing of evidence, which appeared greatly to agitate him, he
was seized with an epileptic fit. He was absolved by the jury and returned to
his former peaceful occupation of bookkeeper, nor did he again come into
conflict with the law.
Reluctance to Commit Crimes. Another trait characteristic of criminaloids is
the hesitation they show before committing a crime, especially the first
time, when it is not done, as in the above mentioned case, during an
epileptic seizure.
Feuerbach's fine collection contains a description of the brothers Kleinroth,
whose father cruelly ill-treated and starved his wife and family while
lavishing his money on low women and their bastards. The sons were
unwilling to run away and leave the invalid mother to bear the brunt of her
husband's fury, and while they were in this terrible situation, a certain
individual offered to assassinate their tormentor. After great hesitation this
offer was accepted; when arrested, the youths immediately confessed their
complicity and manifested deep repentance.
Confession. The criminaloid is easily induced to confess his misdeed.
A certain C... on returning from abroad, found his former mistress married
to his father. The pair resumed their liaison, but after a time, fearing a
scandal, the woman threatened to drown herself unless her lover could find
some means of adjusting matters on a satisfactory basis. C..., who disliked
his father, poisoned him and disappeared with the widow taking with him a
few valuables belonging to his father. A year later, the woman having died

meanwhile, he returned home and made full confession, first to his sister
and subsequently in court.
Moral Sense—Intelligence. In the place of a weak, clouded, or unbalanced
mind and that cynicism and absence of moral sense and natural feelings
which distinguish born criminals of the most elevated type and even
geniuses, criminaloids generally possess lucidity and balance of mind and
may show themselves worthy of guiding the destinies of a nation. The men
implicated in the French Panama Scandal and the case of the Banca
Romana (Bank of Rome) are instances. When under a cloud of disgrace,
instead of that insensibility, cynicism, or levity common to true criminals,
they show deep sorrow, shame, and remorse, which not infrequently result
in serious illness or death. Their natural affections and other sentiments are
normal.
It is notorious, too, that as soon as accusations were made against those
implicated in the French Panama Scandal and the affair of the Bank of
Rome, the greater number became ill and two died suddenly at the end of
the trial.
Unlike born criminals, criminaloids manifest deep repugnance towards
common offenders. They demand solitary confinement and forego exercise,
the only recreation prison life affords, in order to avoid all contact with their
fellow-prisoners.
Social Position and Culture of the Criminaloid. Criminaloids, as we have
seen, are recruited from all ranks of society and strike every note in the
scale of criminality, from petty larceny to complicated and premeditated
murder, from minting spurious coins to compassing gigantic frauds, which
inflict incalculable damage upon the community. The magnitude of a crime
does not imply greater criminality on the part of its author, but rather that he
is a man of brilliant endowments, whose culture and talents multiply his
opportunities and means for evil. In all cases where opportunity plays an
important part, the crime must necessarily be committed by individuals
exposed to special temptations: cashiers who handle other people's money,
which they may be tempted to spend with the illusory idea of being able
later to replace what they have taken, officials and public men, who possess
a certain amount of power and an apparent impunity, and bankers who are

entrusted with wealth belonging to others, of which in that capacity they are
accustomed to make use. Thus is explained why men of great talent and
only slight criminal tendencies have taken part in gigantic frauds, such as
the affairs of the Bank of Rome and the French Panama Canal.
A characteristic case is that of Lord S——, First Lord of the Treasury, who
committed forgeries to the extent of half a million sterling. "No torture," he
writes, "would be an adequate punishment for my crime. Step by step, I
have become the author of innumerable misdeeds and ruined more than ten
thousand families. With less talent and greater uprightness, I might be now
what I once was, an honest man. Now remorse is in vain."
In Lord S—— we find united all the characteristics of the criminaloid:
repentance, the desire to confess, irreproachable antecedents, a strong
incentive to dishonesty, and great intelligence.
Although the damage inflicted on society by this man was probably far
greater than any evil wrought by a vulgar born criminal could have been,
his criminality is nevertheless of an attenuated type. The mischief he
wrought owed its gravity, not to the intensity of his criminal tendencies, but
to his remarkable talents, which increased his power for evil as for good.
In this category of criminals must be inscribed those clever swindlers, who
set the whole world talking of their exploits: Madame Humbert, Lemoine,
and the cobbler-captain of Köpenick.
Sometimes, especially in political or commercial criminals, we find cases of
an auto-illusion, of which the author of the crime is as much a victim as the
public. Sometimes it is some device or mechanism which an inventor is
convinced he has invented or is about to invent, an enterprise, in which the
promoter imagines he will gain enormous wealth. Sometimes it is a trick in
which the cupidity of the victims and their readiness to swallow promises of
large and immediate profits play as important a part as the ability of the
swindler. Sometimes it is a gigantic hoax, in which the deviser himself
becomes keenly interested and for the carrying out of which he spends as
much talent and energy as would suffice, if employed honestly, to acquire
considerable wealth; but the swindler delights in his ingenious fraud as
though he were taking part in some thrilling drama.

A typical instance is that of a certain C... who was imprisoned about twenty
years ago for defrauding a woman. My father undertook to cure him while
in prison and was able to follow him in his subsequent career. This C... was
a young man of good family, intelligent, honest, and a good linguist. His
countenance was pleasing and bore no trace of precocious criminality. At
the age of twenty he developed an unrestrained love of gambling and in
order to indulge this vice, promised to marry a rich woman considerably
older than himself, from whom he borrowed large sums, on the
understanding that they should be paid back. However, shortly afterwards,
he fell in love with a young girl and married her. His ex-fiancée brought
legal action against him and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
During this time he shrank from seeing anybody and refused to exercise in
order to avoid all contact with his fellow-prisoners. He showed great
affection for his wife and declared his intention of turning over a new leaf.
The offence he had committed, however seemed to cause him little or no
regret, because, as he said, he would never have continued the deception
had not his victim shown such willingness to be gulled. From prison he
went to London, where lack of funds caused him to perpetrate another
swindle, but this time he was able to escape to Naples. Here for twelve
years, he worked honestly in a large hotel, but once again a pressing need of
money made him engage in a third fraud of considerable importance, for
which he is still undergoing imprisonment.

Habitual Criminals

The degrading influence of prison life and contact with vulgar criminals, or
the abuse of alcohol, to which better natures frequently have recourse in
order to stifle the pangs of conscience, may cause criminaloids who have
committed their initial offences with repugnance and hesitation, to develop
later into habitual criminals,—that is, individuals who regard systematic
violation of the law in the light of an ordinary trade or occupation and
commit their offences with indifference.
Physically, habitual criminals do not resemble born criminals, but they
exhibit some of the characteristics of those offenders from whom their
ranks are recruited, besides, in a more marked degree, certain acquired
characters, like sinister wrinkles and a shifty and sneaking look.

Psychologically, criminaloids tend to resemble born criminals, whose
habits, tastes, slang, tattooing, orgies, idleness, etc., they gradually develop,
in the same way as old couples, living isolated in the country, adopt
identical habits, gestures, and tone of voice.
The type of criminaloid, who develops into an habitual criminal is well
illustrated by the case of Eyraud, who in conjunction with Gabrielle
Bompard, murdered Gouffré and packed the corpse in a trunk. Through his
marked weakness for women, Eyraud became successively a deserter, a
thief, and a murderer. He certainly possessed a few of the characteristics
peculiar to degenerates—long, projecting ears, excessive development,
amounting to asymmetry, of the left frontal sinus, prognathism, exaggerated
brachycephaly, and the span of the arms exceeding the total height, but he
had not the general criminal type, his teeth were regular, beard abundant,
and hair scanty.
His psychology corresponds exactly to his physical individuality. During
infancy and youth, he showed nothing abnormal, except an unusual
predominance of the sexual instincts. He exhibited no signs of that love of
evil for its own sake, so characteristic of criminals, above all, of murderers.
According to all accounts, he was a jovial individual, fond of making merry,
but at the same time, brusque and violent and easily roused to passionate
fury. His extreme susceptibility to the attractions of the opposite sex made
him regardless of all moral considerations. In order to gratify this weakness,
he became a deserter, dissipated all the money he had earned in a distillery
and as a dealer in skins, and finally committed murder. At his trial, it was
shown that before his escape to America, he had attempted to kill a woman
who refused to leave her husband for him. He became violently enamoured
of his accomplice, Gabrielle Bompard, to whom, like many criminaloids, he
was attracted by reason of her greater depravity.
The extreme levity displayed by Eyraud seems to be the strongest link
between him and the born criminal. He passed with extraordinary facility
from gaiety to melancholy. His intellect was well developed, he spoke three
or four languages, and was successful in most things he undertook, though
he seems to have been incapable of remaining constant to anything for long.
As a business man he wasted his capital, and even in the execution of his
crimes he showed frivolity and incoherence. At Lyons, he hired a carriage,

in which he placed the corpse of Gouffré and after driving about the streets
with Gabrielle Bompard like a madman, left the body of his victim in a spot
near which people were constantly passing.
Eyraud appears to have been a dissolute criminaloid whose unbridled
passions and connection with Gabrielle Bompard caused him to develop
into an habitual criminal. This diagnosis is confirmed by the absence of
morbid heredity.
It would be futile to cite a long series of cases, in which, although the
details may vary, we always find the same phenomenon, the gradual
development of a criminaloid into a criminal. It will suffice to name a large
class of criminals, in whom this phenomenon may often be observed—the
brigands common to Spain and Italy.
These outlaws, and particularly their leaders, notwithstanding the gravity of
their offences, are seldom born criminals, nor do they (except in rare cases)
begin their career at a very early age. They possess, moreover, good
qualities[3] and are capable of affection, generosity, and chivalry, which
explains why their memories are cherished by the common people long
after good and law-abiding men have been forgotten.
The brigand Mandrin, known as the "Smuggler General" is remembered
with love and affection in Dauphiné and other regions of France,
Switzerland, and Savoy; and this feeling is easy to understand, since he was
the enemy of the "fermiers généraux," who, in the eighteenth century,
leased from the French Government the right to levy excise duties, and
sorely oppressed the people.
Louis Mandrin, who in early life showed no signs of perversity nor
possessed criminal traits, became a bandit, because he had been unjustly
treated by these same "fermiers généraux" who refused him payment for
work done. He became the chief of a small band of smugglers and spread
terror among excise officers and gendarmes. He used to bring smuggled
goods openly into the vicinity of villages and towns and invite the people to
buy them, and the buying and selling went on without either gendarmes' or
excise officers' daring to interfere. The Administration of the "fermiers
généraux" promulgated a terrible edict against all purchasers of contraband
goods; whereupon Mandrin, who was not without a sense of humour,

declared he would force the Administration itself to buy the merchandise,
and from time to time he would oblige the excise officers to buy smuggled
wares at a fair price.

Fig. 18 Fig. 19

Criminal Girl The Brigand Salomone

The brigand Gasparone (Fig. 20), whose memory is still held in great
esteem by Sicilians, was an individual of much the same disposition.

Juridical Criminals

This category comprises individuals who break the law, not because of any
natural depravity, nor owing to distressing circumstances, but by mere
accident. They may be divided into two classes:

First, the authors of accidental misdeeds, such as involuntary homicide or
arson, who are not considered criminal by public opinion or by
anthropologists, but who are obliged by the law to make compensation for
the damage caused. Naturally, this class of law-breaker is in no way
distinguishable, physically or psychically, from normal individuals, except
that he is generally lacking in prudence, care, and forethought.
Second, the authors of offences, which do not cause any damage socially,
nor are they considered criminal by the general public, but have been
deemed such by the law, in obedience to some dominating opinion or
prejudice. Bad language, seditious writings, atheism, drunkenness, evasion
of customs, and any violation of petty by-laws come under this head.
Instances of such offences are too well known to need citation. They may
best be summed up in the words of an American judge, who pointed out
how easy it would be to sentence the most honest citizen of the Republic to
imprisonment for a hundred years and fines exceeding a thousand dollars
for breaking a number of petty local regulations against spitting, drinking,
disrobing near a window, swearing, opening places of amusement on
Sunday, or employing persons on certain days or under certain conditions
prohibited by the law, etc.
Although persons who commit these acts are often in no wise
distinguishable from ordinary individuals, both criminals and criminaloids
are more often guilty of such offences than are normal persons, who
instinctively avoid coming into conflict with the law.
The difficulty of judging these misdeeds lies in the necessity for careful
weighing of the motive which gives rise to them, whether, that is, they have
been unwittingly committed by an honest individual, or whether they are
but an item in the long list of offences perpetrated by a criminal. This
differential diagnosis should be based principally on the antecedents of the
offender.
To this group belong also the authors of more serious infractions of the law
that are not generally considered such at the time, or in the district in which
they take place. Misdeeds of this nature are: thefts of fuel in rural districts,
poaching, the petty dishonesty current in commerce and in certain
professions, and in countries where secret societies like the camorra at

Naples and the mafia in Sicily, exist, a connection with such organisations,
which to a certain extent is necessary in self-defence. Such, too, are theft
and homicide during revolutions, insurrections, wars, and the conquest and
exploitation of new territories and mines.
Rochefort and Whitman have pointed out that during the gold-fever in
Australia and California there was an enormous increase in crime.
Individuals of good antecedents engaged in deadly struggles for the
possession of the most valuable territories, and unbridled orgies followed
these bloody affrays.
During the expedition of Europeans to China in 1900, looting was carried
on by soldiers of previously blameless career.

Criminals of Passion

This type of criminal, if indeed such he may be called, represents the
antithesis of the common offender, whose evil acts are the outcome of his
ferocious and egotistical impulses, whereas criminals from passion are
urged to violate the law by a pure spirit of altruism. In fact, they stand in no
relation whatsoever to ordinary delinquents, and it is only by a legislative
compromise that they are classed together. They represent the ultra-violet
ray of the criminal spectrum, of which the vulgar criminal represents the
ultra-red. Not only are they free from the egotism, insensibility, laziness,
and lack of moral sense peculiar to the ordinary criminal, but their
abnormality consists in the excessive development of noble qualities,
sensibility, altruism, integrity, affection, which if carried to an extreme, may
result in actions forbidden by law, or worse still, dangerous to society.
Physical Characteristics. These, too, are in complete contrast to those of the
born criminal. The countenance is frequently handsome, with lofty
forehead, serene and gentle expression, and the beard is abundant. The
sensibility is extremely acute; there is a high degree of excitability and
exaggerated reflex action, all characteristics of the normal (or rather
hypernormal) individual, from whom nothing distinguishes the criminal of
passion except the anti-social effects of his action.

Psychology. Here, as in all physical characteristics, criminals of passion are
scarcely distinguishable from their fellow-men, except that we find in an
excessive degree those qualities we consider peculiar to good and holy
persons—love, honour, noble ambitions, patriotism. In fact, the motive of
the crime is always adequate, frequently noble, and sometimes sublime.
Love prompts certain natures to kill those who insult their beloved ones or
are the cause of their dishonour and, in some cases, even the object of their
affection who proves unfaithful. Crimes of this character are the murder by
brothers of the man who dishonours their sister, the murder of an infant by
its unmarried mother, the murder of an unfaithful wife by her husband.
Sometimes the motive is a patriotic one, as in the cases of Charlotte Corday,
Orsini Sand, and Caserio (Fig. 21) all of whom had been persons of gentle
disposition and blameless conduct up to the moment of their crimes.
This class of offender not infrequently commits suicide after his crime, or,
if this is prevented, he seeks to expiate it by long years of remorse and self-
inflicted martyrdom.
The deed is almost always unpremeditated and committed publicly, without
accomplices and with the simplest means at hand—be they nails, teeth,
scissors, or a stick. The previous career is always blameless.
Cumano, Verano, Guglielmotti, Harry, Curti, Milani, Brenner, Mari, Zucca,
Bechis, Bouley, Tacco, Berruto and Sand, and Camicia, Vinci, and Leoni
(these last three women), all attacked their victims single-handed and in
public.
In the case of Chalanton, the woman he had rescued by marriage from a low
life, not content with betraying her benefactor, covered him in public with
abuse and persecuted him with anonymous accusations. His demand for a
separation was unsuccessful and at last, finding himself, in spite of his
integrity, involved in a scandalous action, in which his wife figured as a go-
between, and tormented by public curiosity and the implacable questionings
of reporters, he murdered the cause of all his misfortunes. Another
murderer, Del Prete, was prompted to kill his victim, an old woman with a
reputation for witchcraft, because he believed she had caused the illness of
his mother, to whom he was greatly attached.

The motive for the crime is generally a serious one and in most cases
immediately precedes it. Bouley committed his crime only a few hours after
receiving the news which prompted it; Bounin, Bechis, and Verano, only a
few minutes; Milani, twenty-four hours, Zucca eight hours; Curti, a few
days. Thus the crime is seldom premeditated, or if so, for only a short space
of time, never for months or years.

Fig. 21

Brigand Caserio
(see page 119)

Homicide forms 91% of the criminality of this group of offenders. There is
a certain proportion also of infanticide, owing to the prevailing prejudice
which condemns immorality more harshly when the results are evident.
Arson and theft form only 2%. Such cases are however possible. A young
girl, whom my father had under observation in prison, seeing her family in
dire poverty, committed arson in order to get the insurance money.

In another case a woman of refinement, education, and of gentle
disposition, who had fallen from prosperity into extreme want, stole in
order to pay her son's school-fees. When arrested, she refused to give her
name so that the lad should not be dishonoured, and her identity might
never have been discovered had she not been recognised by a lawyer in
court. She died of a broken heart a few days after her trial.

PART II

CRIME, ITS ORIGIN, CAUSE, AND CURE

CHAPTER I

ORIGIN AND CAUSES OF CRIME

I N order to determine the origin of actions which we call criminal, we
shall be forced to hark back to a very remote period in the history of the
human race. In all the epochs of which records exist, we find traces of
criminal actions. In fact, if we study minutely the customs of savage
peoples, past and present, we find that many acts that are now considered
criminal by civilised nations were legitimate in former times, and are to-day
reputed such among primitive races.
According to Pictet the Latin word crimen is derived from the Sanscrit
karman, which signifies action corresponding to kri to do. This is
contradicted by Vanicek who derives it from kru, to hear, croemen
(accusation). At any rate, the Sanscrit word apaz, which means sin,
corresponds to apas, work (opus), the Latin facinus derives from facere,
and culpa according to Pictet and Pott, from the Sanscrit kalp, to do or
execute. The Latin word fur (thief) which Vanicek derives from bahr, to
carry, the Hebrew ganav and the Sanscrit sten only signify to put aside, to
hide, to cover (gonav). The Greek word peirao (πειράω) from which pirate
is derived, signifies to risk; the Greek chleptein (χλέπτειν) to hide or steal,
is derived from the Sanscrit harp-hlap to hide and steal (Vanicek).
In India, from Ceylon to the Himalayas, infanticide is sanctified by religion,
not only among the more barbarous races, but also among the Rajputs, the
nobles, who think themselves dishonoured if one of their daughters remains
unmarried. The inhabitants of the Island of Tikopia, kill more male children
than female, a fact that accounts for their practice of polygamy.

Marco Polo speaks of the infanticide practised in Japan and China, which
was then, as it is now, a means of regulating the population. The same
practice—common to Bushmen, Hottentots, Fijians, also existed among the
natives of Hawaii and America. In the Island of Tahiti, according to the
testimony of missionaries, two thirds of the children born are destroyed by
their parents.
"Amongst the Guaranys," says D'Azara, "mothers kill a large proportion of
their female infants, in order that the survivors may be more highly valued."
(Travels in America, 1835.)
The Carthaginians had originally the custom of offering the noblest and
most beautiful children to Kronos (Moloch), but later victims were always
bought and bred for the purpose. After their defeat at the hand of
Agathokles they sacrificed two hundred children belonging to the noblest
Carthaginian families, in order to appease the Divine wrath.
Phœnicians, Egyptians, Cretans, Cypriotes, Rhodians, and Persians had
similar practices.
Among the Lydians, the sacred courtesans were so numerous and wealthy
that their contributions to the Mausoleum of Alyattes exceeded those of the
artists and merchants combined (Herodotus, Book I.); in Armenia (Strabo
XII.) the priestesses alone were permitted to practise polyandry, and in
Media, a woman boasting of five husbands was greatly honoured, which
shows that polyandry was not only allowed, but esteemed.
In Thibet, the eldest male of a family shares his wife with his brothers, the
whole family live in the bride's house and the children inherit from her.
Among the Todas, the wife espouses all her husband's younger brothers as
they attain their majority, and they in their turn become the husbands of her
younger sisters (Short).
Among the Nairs, a noble negro caste of Malabar, it is customary for one
woman to have five or six husbands, the maximum number allowed being
ten.
In Egypt, the business of thief was a recognised one. Those who wished to
exercise this calling inscribed their names on a public tablet, collected all
the stolen goods in one spot and restored them to their owners in exchange

for a certain coin. The ancient Germans encouraged the youthful portion of
the population to make raids on the property of neighbouring peoples, so
that they should not develop habits of idleness. Thucydides states that the
Greeks, as well as the barbarous peoples inhabiting the islands and along
the coasts, were pirates, and the calling was a noble one.
Amongst Spartans, as is well known, theft was allowed, but the unlucky
marauder who was caught in the act, was punished, not for the deed itself,
but for his want of skill. In East Africa, according to Burton (First
Footsteps in East Africa, p. 176), robbery is considered honourable. In
Caramanza (Portuguese Guinea) in Africa, side by side with the peaceful
rice-cultivating Bagnous dwell the Balantes who subsist upon the chase and
the spoils of their raids. While they kill the individual who presumes to steal
in his native village, they encourage depredations upon the other tribes
(Revue d' Anthropologie, 1874). The cleverest thieves are greatly esteemed,
are paid for instructing boys in their profession, and are chosen to lead the
expeditions.
In India the tribe Zakka Khel is devoted to this dishonest calling, and at
birth every male child is consecrated to thievish practices by a peculiar
ceremony, in which the new-born infant is passed through a breach in the
wall of his father's house, whilst the words "Become a thief" are chanted
three times in chorus. Amongst the ancient Germans, according to Tacitus,
thefts perpetrated outside the boundary of the tribe itself were by no means
infamous. In the midst of a great assembly, the chief called upon those he
wished to follow him; they showed their willingness by rising to their feet
amid the applause of the crowd. Those who refused to take part were looked
upon as deserters and traitors (Spencer, Principles of Ethics, 1895). Among
the Comanches (Mülhausen, Diary of a Journey from the Mississippi to the
Pacific) no man was considered worthy of being numbered among the
warriors of the tribe, unless he had taken part in some successful pillaging
expedition. The cleverest thieves were the most respected members of the
tribe. No Patagonian is deemed worthy of a wife unless he has graduated in
the art of despoiling a stranger (Snow, Two Years' Cruise round Tierra del
Fuego). Among the Kukis (Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal) skill
in stealing is the most esteemed talent. In Mongolia (Gilmour, Among the
Mongols), thieves are regarded as respectable members of the community,
provided they steal cleverly and escape detection.

Criminality in Children

The criminal instincts common to primitive savages would be found
proportionally in nearly all children, if they were not influenced by moral
training and example. This does not mean that without educative restraints,
all children would develop into criminals. According to the observations
made by Prof. Mario Carrara at Cagliari, the bands of neglected children
who run wild in the streets of the Sardinian capital and are addicted to
thievish practices and more serious vices, spontaneously correct themselves
of these habits as soon as they have arrived at puberty.
This fact, that the germs of moral insanity and criminality are found
normally in mankind in the first stages of his existence, in the same way as
forms considered monstrous when exhibited by adults, frequently exist in
the fœtus, is such a simple and common phenomenon that it eluded notice
until it was demonstrated clearly by observers like Moreau, Perez, and
Bain. The child, like certain adults, whose abnormality consists in a lack of
moral sense, represents what is known to alienists as a morally insane being
and to criminologists as a born criminal, and it certainly resembles these
types in its impetuous violence.
Perez (Psychologie de l'enfant, 2d ed., 1882) remarks on the frequency and
precocity of anger in children:
"During the first two months, it manifests by movements of the
eyebrows and hands undoubted fits of temper when undergoing
any distasteful process, such as washing or when deprived of
any object it takes a fancy to. At the age of one, it goes to the
length of striking those who incur its displeasure, of breaking
plates or throwing them at persons it dislikes, exactly like
savages."

Moreau (De l'Homicide chez les enfants, 1882) cites numerous cases of
children who fly into a passion if their wishes are not complied with
immediately. In one instance observed by him a very intelligent child of
eight, when reproved, even in the mildest manner by his parents or
strangers, would give way to violent anger, snatching up the nearest

weapon, or if he found himself unable to take revenge, would break
anything he could lay his hands on.
A baby girl showed an extremely violent temper, but became of gentle
disposition after she had reached the age of two (Perez). Another, observed
by the same author, when only eleven months old, flew into a towering
rage, because she was unable to pull off her grandfather's nose. Yet another,
at the age of two, tried to bite another child who had a doll like her own,
and she was so much affected by her anger that she was ill for three days
afterwards.
Nino Bixio, when a boy of seven (Vita, Guerzoni, 1880) on seeing his
teacher laugh because he had written his exercise on office letter-paper,
threw the inkstand at the man's face. This boy was literally the terror of the
school, on account of the violence he displayed at the slightest offence.
Infants of seven or eight months have been known to scratch at any attempt
to withdraw the breast from them, and to retaliate when slapped.
A backward and slightly hydrocephalous boy whom my father had under
observation, began at the age of six to show violent irritation at the slightest
reproof or correction. If he was able to strike the person who had annoyed
him, his rage cooled immediately; if not, he would scream incessantly and
bite his hands with gestures similar to those often witnessed in caged bears
who have been teased and cannot retaliate.
The above cases show that the desire for revenge is extremely common and
precocious in children. Anger is an elementary instinct innate in human
beings. It should be guided and restrained, but can never be extirpated.
Children are quite devoid of moral sense during the first months or first
years of their existence. Good and evil in their estimation are what is
allowed and what is forbidden by their elders, but they are incapable of
judging independently of the moral value of an action.
"Lying and disobedience are very wrong," said a boy to Perez, "because
they displease mother." Everything he was accustomed to was right and
necessary.

A child does not grasp abstract ideas of justice, or the rights of property,
until he has been deprived of some possession. He is prone to detest
injustice, especially when he is the victim. Injustice, in his estimation, is the
discord between a habitual mode of treatment and an accidental one. When
subjected to altered conditions, he shows complete uncertainty. A child
placed under Perez's care modified his ways according to each new arrival.
He began ordering his companions about and refused to obey any one but
Perez.
Affection is very slightly developed in children. Their fancy is easily caught
by a pleasing exterior or by anything that contributes to their amusement;
like domestic animals that they enjoy teasing and pulling about, and they
exhibit great antipathy to unfamiliar objects that inspire them with fear. Up
to the age of seven or even after, they show very little real attachment to
anybody. Even their mothers, whom they appear to love, are speedily
forgotten after a short separation.
In conclusion, children manifest a great many of the impulses we have
observed in criminals; anger, a spirit of revenge, idleness, volubility and
lack of affection.
We have also pointed out that many actions considered criminal in civilised
communities, are normal and legitimate practices among primitive races. It
is evident, therefore, that such actions are natural to the early stages, both of
social evolution and individual psychic development.
In view of these facts, it is not strange that civilised communities should
produce a certain percentage of adults who commit actions reputed
injurious to society and punishable by law. It is only an atavistic
phenomenon, the return to a former state. In the criminal, moreover, the
phenomenon is accompanied by others also natural to a primitive stage of
evolution. These have already been referred to in the first chapter, which
contains a description of many strange practices common to delinquents,
and evidently of primitive origin—tattooing, cruel games, love of orgies, a
peculiar slang resembling in certain features the languages of primitive
peoples, and the use of hieroglyphics and pictography.

Fig. 22

Terra-cotta Bowls
Designed by a Criminal
(see page 135)

The artistic manifestations of the criminal show the same characteristics. In
spite of the thousands of years which separate him from prehistoric savages,
his art is a faithful reproduction of the first, crude artistic attempts of
primitive races. The museum of criminal anthropology created by my father
contains numerous specimens of criminal art, stones shaped to resemble
human figures, like those found in Australia, rude pottery covered with
designs that recall Egyptian decorations (Fig. 22) or scenes fashioned in
terra-cotta (Fig. 23) that resemble the grotesque creations of children or
savages.

The criminal is an atavistic being, a relic of a vanished race. This is by no
means an uncommon occurrence in nature. Atavism, the reversion to a
former state, is the first feeble indication of the reaction opposed by nature
to the perturbing causes which seek to alter her delicate mechanism. Under
certain unfavourable conditions, cold or poor soil, the common oak will
develop characteristics of the oak of the Quaternary period. The dog left to
run wild in the forest will in a few generations revert to the type of his
original wolf-like progenitor, and the cultivated garden roses when
neglected show a tendency to reassume the form of the original dog-rose.
Under special conditions produced by alcohol, chloroform, heat, or injuries,
ants, dogs, and pigeons become irritable and savage like their wild
ancestors.
This tendency to alter under special conditions is common to human beings,
in whom hunger, syphilis, trauma, and, still more frequently, morbid
conditions inherited from insane, criminal, or diseased progenitors, or the
abuse of nerve poisons, such as alcohol, tobacco, or morphine, cause
various alterations, of which criminality—that is, a return to the
characteristics peculiar to primitive savages—is in reality the least serious,
because it represents a less advanced stage than other forms of cerebral
alteration.
The ætiology of crime, therefore, mingles with that of all kinds of
degeneration: rickets, deafness, monstrosity, hairiness, and cretinism, of
which crime is only a variation. It has, however, always been regarded as a
thing apart, owing to a general instinctive repugnance to admit that a
phenomenon, whose extrinsications are so extensive and penetrate every
fibre of social life, derives, in fact, from the same causes as socially
insignificant forms like rickets, sterility, etc. But this repugnance is really
only a sensory illusion, like many others of widely diverse nature.

Fig. 23

Art Production from Prison
(see page 135)

Fig. 24

A Combat between Brigands and Gendarmes
Designed by a Criminal
(see page 135)

Pathological Origin of Crime. The atavistic origin of crime is certainly one
of the most important discoveries of criminal anthropology, but it is
important only theoretically, since it merely explains the phenomenon.
Anthropologists soon realised how necessary it was to supplement this
discovery by that of the origin, or causes which call forth in certain
individuals these atavistic or criminal instincts, for it is the immediate
causes that constitute the practical nucleus of the problem and it is their
removal that renders possible the cure of the disease.

These causes are divided into organic and external factors of crime: the
former remote and deeply rooted, the latter momentary but frequently
determining the criminal act, and both closely related and fused together.
Heredity is the principal organic cause of criminal tendencies. It may be
divided into two classes: indirect heredity from a generically degenerate
family with frequent cases of insanity, deafness, syphilis, epilepsy, and
alcoholism among its members; direct heredity from criminal parentage.
Indirect Heredity. Almost all forms of chronic, constitutional diseases,
especially those of a nervous character: chorea, sciatica, hysteria, insanity,
and above all, epilepsy, may give rise to criminality in the descendants.
Of 559 soldiers convicted of offences, examined by Brancaleone Ribaudo,
10% had epileptic parents. According to Dejerine, this figure reaches 74.6%
among criminal epileptics. Arthritis and gout have been known to generate
criminality in the descendants. But the most serious, and at the same time
most common, form of indirect heredity is alcoholism, which, contrary to
general belief, wreaks destruction in all classes of society, amongst the rich
and poor without distinction of sex, for alcohol may insinuate itself
everywhere under the most refined and pleasant disguises, in liqueurs,
sweets, and coffee.
According to calculations made by my father, 20% of Italian criminals
descend from inebriate families; according to Penta the percentage is 27 and
in dangerous criminals, 33%. The Jukes family, of whom we shall speak
later, descended from a drunkard.
The first salient characteristic in hereditary alcoholism is the precocious
taste for intoxicants; secondly, the susceptibility to alcohol, which is
infinitely more injurious to the offspring of inebriates than to normal
individuals; and thirdly, the growth of the craving for strong drinks, which
inevitably undermine the constitution.
Direct Heredity. The effects of direct heredity are still more serious, for they
are aggravated by environment and education. Official statistics show that
20% of juvenile offenders belong to families of doubtful reputation and
26% to those whose reputation is thoroughly bad. The criminal Galletto, a
native of Marseilles, was the nephew of the equally ferocious

anthropophagous violator of women, Orsolano. Dumollar was the son of a
murderer; Patetot's grandfather and great-grandfather were in prison, as
were the grandfathers and fathers of Papa, Crocco, Serravalle and
Cavallante, Comptois and Lempave; the parents of the celebrated female
thief Sans Refus, were both thieves.
The genealogical study of certain families has shown that there are whole
generations, almost all the members of which belong to the ranks of crime,
insanity, and prostitution (this last being amongst women the equivalent of
criminality amongst men). A striking example is furnished by the notorious
Jukes family, with 77 criminal descendants.
Ancestor, Max Jukes: 77 criminals; 142 vagabonds; 120 prostitutes; 18
keepers of houses of ill-fame; 91 illegitimates; 141 idiots or afflicted with
impotency or syphilis; 46 sterile females.
A like criminal contingent may be found in the pedigrees of Chrêtien, the
Lemaires, the Fieschi family, etc.
Race. This is of great importance in view of the atavistic origin of crime.
There exist whole tribes and races more or less given to crime, such as the
tribe Zakka Khel in India. In all regions of Italy, whole villages constitute
hot-beds of crime, owing, no doubt, to ethnical causes: Artena in the
province of Rome, Carde and San Giorgio Canavese in Piedmont, Pergola
in Tuscany, San Severo in Apulia, San Mauro and Nicosia in Sicily. The
frequency of homicide in Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia is fundamentally
due to African and Oriental elements.
In the gipsies we have an entire race of criminals with all the passions and
vices common to delinquent types: idleness, ignorance, impetuous fury,
vanity, love of orgies, and ferocity. Murder is often committed for some
trifling gain. The women are skilled thieves and train their children in
dishonest practices. On the contrary, the percentage of crimes among Jews
is always lower than that of the surrounding population; although there is a
prevalence of certain specific forms of offences, often hereditary, such as
fraud, forgery, libel, and chief of all, traffic in prostitution; murder is
extremely rare.

Illnesses, Intoxications, Traumatism

These causes, although apparently as important as heredity, are in fact,
decidedly less so. Both disease and trauma may intensify or call forth latent
perversity, but they are less frequently the cause of it. There are, however,
certain cases in which traumatism meningitis, typhus, or other diseases that
affect the brain have undoubtedly evoked criminal tendencies in individuals
hitherto normal. Twenty out of 290 criminals studied by my father with
minute care had suffered from injury to the head in childhood; and recently
a case came under his notice in which a youth of good family and excellent
character received an injury to his head at the age of fourteen and became
epileptic, developing subsequently into a gambler, thief, and murderer. Such
cases, however, are not very common.
There is one disease that without other causes—either inherited degeneracy
or vices resulting from a bad education and environment—is capable of
transforming a healthy individual into a vicious, hopelessly evil being. That
disease is alcoholism, which has been discussed in a previous chapter, but
to which I must refer briefly again, because it is such an important factor of
criminality.
Temporary drunkenness alone will give rise to crime, since it inflames the
passions, obscures the mental and moral faculties, and destroys all sense of
decency, causing men to commit offences in a state of automatism or a
species of somnambulism. Sometimes drunkenness produces kleptomania.
A slight excess in drinking will cause men of absolute honesty to
appropriate any objects they can lay their hands upon. When the effects of
drink have worn off, they feel shame and remorse and hasten to restore the
stolen goods. Alcohol, however, more often causes violence. An officer
known to my father, when drunk, twice attempted to run his sword through
his friends and his own attendant.
Among Oriental sects of murderers, as is well known, homicidal fury was
excited and maintained by a drink brewed for the purpose from hemp-seed.
Büchner shows that dishonest instincts can be developed in bees by a
special food consisting of honey mixed with brandy. The insects acquire a
taste for this drink in the same way as human beings do, and under its
influence cease to work. Ants show similar symptoms after narcosis by

means of chloroform. Their bodies remain motionless, with the exception of
their heads, with which they snap at all who approach them.
The above cited cases show that there exists a species of alcoholic psychic
epilepsy, similar to congenital epilepsy, in which after alcoholic poisoning,
the individual is incited to raise his hand against himself or others without
any due cause. But besides the crimes of violence committed during a
drunken fit, the prolonged abuse of alcohol, opium, morphia, coca, and
other nervines may give rise to chronic perturbation of the mind, and
without other causes, congenital or educative, will transform an honest,
well-bred, and industrious man into an idle, violent, and apathetic fellow,—
into an ignoble being, capable of any depraved action, even when he is not
directly under the influence of the drug.
When we were children, a frequent visitor at our house was a certain
Belm... (see Fig. 16, Chap. III.), a very intelligent man and an accomplished
linguist. He was a military officer, but later took to journalism, and his
writings were distinguished by vivacious style and elevation of thought. He
married and had several children, but at the age of thirty some trouble
caused him to take to drink. His character soon underwent a complete
change. Although formerly a proud man, he was not ashamed to pester all
his friends for money and to let his family sink into the direst poverty.

Social Causes of Crime

Education. We now come to the second series of criminal factors, those
which depend, not on the organism, but on external conditions. We have
already stated that the best and most careful education, moral and
intellectual, is powerless to effect an improvement in the morally insane,
but that in other cases, education, environment, and example are extremely
important, for which reason neglected and destitute children are easily
initiated into evil practices.
At Naples, "Esposito" (foundling) is a common name amongst prisoners, as
is at Bologna and in Lombardy the name "Colombo," which signifies the
same thing. In Prussia, illegitimate males form 6% of offenders, illegitimate
females 1.8%; in Austria, 10 and 2% respectively. The percentage is
considerably larger amongst juvenile criminals, prostitutes, and recidivists.

In France, in 1864, 65% of the minors arrested were bastards or orphans,
and at Hamburg 30% of the prostitutes are illegitimate. In Italy, 30% of
recidivists are natural children and foundlings.
This depends largely on hereditary influences, which are generally bad, but
still more on the difficulty of finding a means of subsistence, owing to the
state of neglect in which these wretched beings exist, even when herded
together in charity schools and orphanages—both of which are even more
anti-hygienic morally, than they are physically.
A depraved environment, which counsels or even insists on wrong-doing,
and the bad example of parents or relatives, exercise a still more sinister
influence on children than desertion. The criminal family Cornu, finding
one of their children, a little girl, strongly averse to their evil ways, forced
her to carry the head of one of their victims in her pinafore for a couple of
miles, after which she became one of the most ferocious of the band.
Meteoric Causes are frequently the determining factor of the ultimate
impulsive act, which converts the latent criminal into an effective one.
Excessively high temperature and rapid barometric changes, while
predisposing epileptics to convulsive seizures and the insane to uneasiness,
restlessness, and noisy outbreaks, encourage quarrels, brawls, and stabbing
affrays. To the same reason may be ascribed the prevalence during the hot
months, of rape, homicide, insurrections, and revolts. In comparing
statistics of criminality in France with those of the variations in
temperature, Ferri noted an increase in crimes of violence during the
warmer years. An examination of European and American statistics shows
that the number of homicides decreases as we pass from hot to cooler
climates. Holzendorf calculates that the number of murders committed in
the Southern States of North America is fifteen times greater than those
committed in the Northern States. A low temperature, on the contrary, has
the effect of increasing the number of crimes against property, due to
increased need, and both in Italy and America the proportion of thefts
increases the farther north we go.
Density of Population. The agglomeration of persons in a large town is a
certain incentive to crimes against property. Robbery, frauds, and criminal

associations increase, while there is a decrease in crimes against the person,
due to the restraints imposed by mutual supervision.
"He who has studied mankind, or, better still, himself [writes my
father], must have remarked how often an individual, who is
respectable and self-controlled in the bosom of his family,
becomes indecent and even immoral when he finds himself in
the company of a number of his fellows, to whatever class they
may belong. The primitive instincts of theft, homicide, and lust,
the germs of which lie dormant in each individual as long as he
is alone, particularly if kept in check by sound moral training,
awaken and develop suddenly into gigantic proportions when he
comes into contact with others, the increase being greater in
those who already possess such criminal tendencies in a marked
degree."

In all large cities, low lodging-houses form the favourite haunts of crime.
Imitation. The detailed accounts of crimes circulated in large towns by
newspapers, have an extremely pernicious influence, because example is a
powerful agent for evil as well as for good.
At Marseilles in 1868 and 1872, the newspaper reports of a case of child
desertion provoked a perfect epidemic of such cases, amounting in one
instance to eight in one day.
Before Corridori murdered the Head-master of his boarding-school, he is
said to have declared: "There will be a repetition of what happened to the
Head-master at Catanzaro" (who had been murdered in the same way).
The anarchist Lucchesi killed Banti at Leghorn shortly after the murder of
Carnot by Caserio, and in a similar manner. Certain forms of crime which
become common at given periods, the throwing of bombs, the cutting up of
the bodies of murdered persons, particularly those of women, and frauds of
a peculiar type may certainly be attributed to imitation, as may also the
violence committed by mobs, in whom cruelty takes the form of an
epidemic affecting even individuals of mild disposition.

Immigration. The agglomeration of population produced by immigration is
a strong incentive to crime, especially that of an associated nature,—due to
increased want, lessened supervision and the consequent ease with which
offenders avoid detection. In New York the largest contingent of criminality
is furnished by the immigrant population.
The fact of agglomeration explains the greater frequency of homicide in
France in thickly populated districts.
The criminality of immigrant populations increases in direct ratio to its
instability. This applies to the migratory population in the interior of a
country, specially that which has no fixed destination, as peddlers, etc. Even
those immigrants whom we should naturally assume to be of good
disposition—religious pilgrims—commit a remarkable number of
associated crimes. The Italian word mariuolo which signifies "rogue" owes
its origin to the behaviour of certain pilgrims to the shrines of Loreto and
Assisi, who, while crying Viva Maria! ("Hail to the Virgin Mary!")
committed the most atrocious crimes, confident that the pilgrimage itself
would serve as a means of expiation. In his Reminiscences Massimo d'
Azeglio notes that places boasting of celebrated shrines always enjoy a bad
reputation.
Prison Life. The density of population in the most criminal of cities has not
such a bad influence as has detention in prisons, which may well be called
"Criminal Universities."
Nearly all the leaders of malefactors: Maino, Lombardo, La Gala,
Lacenaire, Soufflard, and Hardouin were escaped convicts, who chose their
accomplices among those of their fellow-prisoners who had shown audacity
and ferocity. In fact, in prison, criminals have an opportunity of becoming
acquainted with each other, of instructing those less skilled in infamy, and
of banding together for evil purposes. Even the expensive cellular system,
from which so many advantages were expected, has not attained its object
and does not prevent communication between prisoners. Moreover, in
prison, mere children of seven or eight, imprisoned for stealing a bunch of
grapes or a fowl, come into close contact with adults and become initiated
into evil practices, of which these poor little victims of stupid laws were
previously quite ignorant.

Education. Contrary to general belief, the influence of education on crime is
very slight.
The number of illiterates arrested in Europe is less, proportionally, than that
of educated individuals. Nevertheless, although a certain degree of
instruction is often an aid to crime, its extension acts as a corrective, or at
least tends to mitigate the nature of crimes committed, rendering them less
ferocious, and to decrease crimes of violence, while increasing fraudulent
and sexual offences.
Professions. The trades and professions which encourage inebriety in those
who follow them (cooks, confectioners, and inn-keepers), those which bring
the poor (servants of all kinds, especially footmen, coachmen, and
chauffeurs) into contact with wealth, or which provide means for
committing crimes (bricklayers, blacksmiths, etc.) furnish a remarkable
share of criminality. Still more so is this the case with the professions of
notary, usher of the courts, attorneys, and military men.
It should be observed, however, that the characteristic idleness of criminals
makes them disinclined to adopt any profession, and when they do, their
extreme fickleness prompts them to change continually.
Economic Conditions. Poverty is often a direct incentive to theft, when the
miserable victims of economic conditions find themselves and their families
face to face with starvation, and it acts further indirectly through certain
diseases: pellagra, alcoholism, scrofula, and scurvy, which are the outcome
of misery and produce criminal degeneration; its influence has nevertheless
often been exaggerated. If thieves are generally penniless, it is because of
their extreme idleness and astonishing extravagance, which makes them run
through huge sums with the greatest ease, not because poverty has driven
them to theft. On the other hand the possession of wealth is frequently an
incentive to crime, because it creates an ever-increasing appetite for riches,
besides furnishing those occupying high public offices or important
positions in the banking and commercial world with numerous
opportunities for dishonesty and persuading them that money will cover any
evil deed.
Sex. Statistics of every country show that women contribute a very small
share of criminality compared with that furnished by the opposite sex. This

share becomes still smaller when we eliminate infanticide, in view of the
fact that the guilty parties in nearly all such cases should be classed as
criminals from passion. In Austria, crimes committed by females barely
constitute 15% of the total criminality; in Spain 11%; and in Italy 8.2%.
However, this applies only to serious crimes. For those of lesser gravity,
statistics are at variance with the results obtained by the Modern School,
which classes prostitutes as criminals. According to this mode of
calculation, the difference between the criminality of the two sexes shows a
considerable diminution, resulting perhaps in a slight prevalence of crime in
women. In any case, female criminality tends to increase proportionally
with the increase of civilisation and to equal that of men.
Age. The greater number of crimes are committed between the ages of 15
and 30, whereas, outbreaks of insanity between these ages are extremely
rare, the maximum number occurring between 40 and 50. On the whole,
criminality is far more precocious than mental alienation, and its precocity,
which is greater among thieves than among murderers, swindlers, and those
guilty of violence and assault is another proof of the congenital nature of
crime and its atavistic origin, since precocity is a characteristic of savage
races.
Seldom do we find among born criminals any indication of that so-called
criminal scale, leading by degrees from petty offences to crimes of the most
serious nature. As a general rule, they commence their career with just those
crimes which distinguish it throughout, even when these are of the gravest
kind, like robbery and murder. Rather may it be said that every age has its
specific criminality, and this is the case especially with criminaloids. On the
borderland between childhood and adolescence, there seems to be a kind of
instinctive tendency to law-breaking, which by immature minds is often
held to be a sign of virility. The Italian novelist and poet Manzoni describes
this idea very well in his Promessi Sposi, when speaking of the half-witted
lad Gervaso, who "because he had taken part in a plot savouring of crime,
felt that he had suddenly become a man."
This idea lurks in the slang word omerta used by Italian criminals, which
signifies not only to be a man but a man daring enough to break the law.

CHAPTER II

THE PREVENTION OF CRIME

T HE curability of crime is an entirely novel idea, due to the Modern
Penal School. As long as, in the eyes of the world, the criminal was a
normal individual, who voluntarily and consciously violated the laws, there
could be no thought of a cure, but rather of a punishment sufficiently severe
to prevent his recidivation and to inspire others with a salutary fear of
offending the law.
The penalties excogitated in past centuries were varied: flogging, hard
labour, imprisonment, and exile. During the last century they have been
crystallised in the form of imprisonment, as being the most humane,
although in reality it is the most illogical form, since it serves neither to
intimidate the offender nor to reform him. In fact, although prison with its
forced separation from home and family is a terrible penalty for those
honest persons, who sometimes suffer with the guilty, it is a haven of rest
for ordinary criminals, or at the worst, in no wise inferior to their usual
haunts. There is a certain amount of privation of air, light, and food, but
these disadvantages are fully counterbalanced by the enjoyment of complete
leisure and the company of men of their own stamp.
If imprisonment does not serve to intimidate instinctive criminals, still less
is it a means of rehabilitation. In virtue of what law, should any man, even
if he be normal, become reformed after a varying period of detention in a
gloomy cell, where he is isolated from the better elements of society and
deprived of every elevating influence—art, science, and high ideals; where
he loses regular habits of work, the disciplining struggle with
circumstances, and the sense of responsibility natural to free citizens and is
tainted by constant contact with the worst types of humanity?
The autobiographies of criminals show us that far from reforming evil-
doers, prison is in reality a criminal university which houses all grades of
offenders during varying periods; that far from being a means of
redemption, it is a hot-bed of depravity, where are prepared and developed
the germs which are later to infect society, yet it is to this incubator of crime

that society looks for defence against those very elements of lawlessness
which it is actively fostering.
In his book Prison Palimpsests my father has made a collection of all the
inscriptions, drawings, and allegories scratched or written by criminals
while in prison, on walls, utensils, and books. Of lamentations, despair, and
repentance, scarcely a trace, but innumerable imprecations, plans of
revenge against enemies without, project of future burglaries and murders,
and advice for the sound instruction of criminals.
Although the Modern School has demonstrated the uselessness, nay the
injuriousness of prison, it has no desire to leave society suddenly
unprotected and the criminal at large. Nature does not proceed by leaps, and
the Modern School aims at effecting a revolution, not a revolt, in Penal
Jurisprudence. It proposes, therefore, the gradual transformation of the
present system, which is to be rendered as little injurious and as beneficial
as possible. Such has been the course pursued by the modern science of
medicine, which from the original absurd remedies and equally absurd
empirical operations, has now succeeded in placing the cure of diseases on
the more solid basis of experience.
The Modern School aims at preventing the formation of criminals, not
punishing them, or, failing prevention, at effecting their cure; and, failing
cure, at segregating such hopeless cases for life in suitable institutes, which
shall protect society better than the present system of imprisonment, but be
entirely free from the infamy attaching to the prison. The Modern School
proposes the cure of criminals by preventive and legislative measures.

Preventive Institutions for Destitute Children

The cure of crime, as of any other disease, has the greater chance of
success, the earlier it is taken in hand. Attention, therefore, should be
specially concentrated on the childhood of those likely to become criminals:
orphans and destitute children, who as adults contribute the largest
contingent of criminality. A community seriously resolved to protect itself
from evil should, above all, provide a sound education for those unfortunate
waifs who have been deprived of their natural protectors by death or vice.
The greatest care must be exercised in placing them, whenever it is

possible, in respectable private families where they will have careful
supervision, or in suitable institutes where no pains are spared to give them
a good education and, more important still, sound moral training.
In order to attain this end, the State cannot do better than follow in the
footsteps of philanthropists of rare talent like Don Bosco, Dr. Barnardo,
General Booth, Brockway, and many others, who have been so successful
in rescuing destitute children.
Don Bosco, the Black Pope, as he was familiarly styled at Turin, where he
lived during the latter half of the last century, was a Roman Catholic priest
who founded numerous institutes for orphans in all parts of Italy and many
parts of both Americas, especially South America. The psychological basis
on which he founded the training of children in these schools, was mainly
derived from experience, and proved so successful in practice that it is
worthy of quotation:

"Most neglected and abandoned children [he said], are of ordinary
character and disposition, but inclined to changeableness and
indifference. Brief, but frequent exhortations, good advice, small
rewards, and encouragements to persevere are very efficacious, but
above all the teacher must show perfect trust in his charges, while
being careful never to relax his vigilance. The greatest solicitude
should, however, be reserved for the unruly characters, who
generally form about one fifth of the whole number. The teacher
should make a special effort to become thoroughly acquainted with
their dispositions and past life and to convince them that he is their
friend. They should be encouraged to chatter freely, while the
conversation of the master should be brief and abound in examples,
maxims, and anecdotes. Above all, while showing perfect
confidence in his pupils, he should never lose sight of them.
"Occasional treats of a wholesome and attractive nature, picnics and
walks, will keep the boys happy and contented. Lasciviousness is
the only vice that need be feared; any lad persisting in immoral
practices should be expelled.
"Harsh punishments should never be resorted to. The repressive
system may check unruliness, but can never influence for good. It
involves little trouble on the part of those who make use of it and
may be efficacious in the army, which is composed of responsible
adults, but it has a harmful effect on the young, who err more from
thoughtlessness than from evil disposition. Far more suitable in their
case is the preventive system, which consists in making them
thoroughly acquainted with the regulations they have to obey and in
watching over them. In this way they are always conscious of the
vigilance of the Head-master or his assistants, who are ready to
guide and advise them in every difficulty and to anticipate their
wants. The pupils should never be left to their own devices, yet they
should have complete freedom to run, jump, and enjoy themselves
in their own noisy fashion. Gymnastics, vocal and instrumental
music, and plenty of outdoor exercise are the most efficacious
means of maintaining discipline and improving the boys, bodily and
mentally."

Only children over seven were admitted to the Institutes founded by Don Bosco.
Dr. Barnardo, on the other hand, who rescued thousands of orphans and destitute
children in London and was able to witness a decided decrease in the criminality
of that capital, concentrated his beneficent efforts on destitute children from
their earliest years, with the idea of removing them as soon as possible from the
bad environment in which they were born. He was, moreover, desirous that they
should share with more fortunate children the boon of happy childhood, and
resolved that up to the age of seven they should be brought up without
educational or other restraints, save the affection of those appointed to watch
over them during the first years, so that they might imbibe sufficient love and
joy for the rest of their lives. Such is the rule followed in the buildings set apart
for the infants, Bird Castle, Tiny House, and Jersey House, which are perfect
nests of happy birds.
In spite of the seeming impossibility of obtaining individual education in a
school, thanks to a system devised by Dr. Barnardo, the older children actually
enjoy this advantage. New-comers are placed in a special department until facts
relative to their past life are ascertained and an idea formed of their
individuality. The results of these preliminary inquiries determine in which
school the boy shall be placed and what trade he shall follow. Moreover, any
boy desiring to change his occupation is encouraged to do so. Every year a re-
distribution is made according to the aptitudes shown by the lads in study and
manual work and their physical and intellectual development, special care being
taken that the younger children should not be put with those who have arrived at
a more advanced stage of physical and mental evolution. Free development of
the various individual aptitudes is thus secured, while avoiding that common
defect of schools, the turning out of numerous lads all made after one regulation
pattern.
Having come to the conclusion that life in an institute, in spite of all these
precautions, is unsuited to girls, Dr. Barnardo founded a village at a short
distance from London with cottage homes for children of both sexes. Each
cottage contains from fifteen to twenty children and forms a family, the
domestic duties of the homes being discharged by the girls.
Dr. Barnardo realised, however, that the placing of children in private families is
the best means of effecting their salvation, and he made great efforts in private
and public to induce benevolent persons to adopt his protégés. Finally, he
organised a regular emigration of lads to Canada, where a special agent provides
them with situations on farms or in factories.

America certainly does not lag behind Europe in the number and excellence of
its organisations for rescuing the little derelicts of its cities. In every town of the
United States visited by me, I had the pleasure of inspecting such institutions, all
of which are kept with extraordinary care, and in some cases, with elegance.
Amongst others, I may mention the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society in New
York City and the George Junior Republic at Freeville, near Ithaca, both of
which seemed to me the most original of their kind.
The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is an orphanage for the Jews, managed
with rare insight and intelligence by Mr. Lewisohn. The Institute being founded
for orphans only, there is no limit as to age or condition. Infants and young
people, diseased and healthy, intelligent and mentally deficient, normal and
abnormal, good and bad, are all welcome. In order to prevent the overcrowding
of the institution and to provide homes for as many children as possible, a
committee has been organised for the purpose of finding homes in private
families for all children under six years of age and for those who are sickly and
delicate. A certain proportion are adopted, and others are boarded out, but the
sum paid for their keep is always less than it would cost to place them in a
school; and there is, moreover, always a chance of their being adopted later. At
the age of six, all healthy and robust children enter the Institute, which becomes
their home, providing them with board, lodging, clothing, moral and religious
instruction, and training in some kind of work, but in order that they shall mix
with other children, they are educated at the public schools, and the consequent
saving in money and space enables the Institute to receive a larger number of
children than it otherwise could.
Instead of the uniform customary in such institutions which serves to accentuate
in a humiliating way the contrast between the inmates and more fortunate
children who possess parents and homes, the clothing worn by the orphans of
the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is varied in colour and style. Girls
skilled in the use of their needle alter their dresses to suit their individual tastes,
and are allowed to sew, either gratis or for payment, for the boys and other girls
of the Institute, who are unable or unwilling to make these alterations
themselves. When school-tasks are finished, boys and girls of over twelve are
allowed to engage in light occupations—needlework, writing, etc., supplied by
the Institute to enable them to earn a little pocket-money and learn to spend it
properly.
When the boys and girls have passed all the standards of the elementary schools,
they enter trade schools, where they remain until they are proficient in some

craft which will enable them to earn a living. Those who show decided
intellectual or business aptitudes are sent to colleges or commercial schools.
The children are encouraged to take an interest in social and political life by the
foundation of a miniature republic, or rather two separate republics, one for the
boys and the other for the girls, each with its president, a boy or a girl according
to the case. In reality, however, they are under the management of a lady, who
devises various amusements for the children, reading, games, etc., teaches them
music and drawing, and helps the little President to organise entertainments to
which outsiders, relatives, and schoolfellows are invited.

Fig. 17
Signatures of Criminals

The George Junior Republic (America) is a very different institution, having
been founded for unruly and turbulent boys, who are beyond their parents'
control. It is a species of Reformatory, not a Home for Waifs.
Mr. George, the founder of the Republic, a man of original and intelligent cast of
mind, if I may judge of his individuality from hearsay, decided on its
establishment after many attempts of a similar nature. Being anxiously
concerned for the future of so many unruly youths who, left to their own devices
during the summer vacations, degenerate into rowdies, he invited about a
hundred of these lads to spend the summer months on his estate at Freeville,
near Ithaca, and tried to influence them for good. The attempt did not meet with
much success at first. Mr. George soon realised that however easy it is to
exercise a beneficial influence on one or two boys by adopting gentle methods,
it is extremely difficult to manage hundreds in this way. He had, however,
observed how fair and rigidly honest boys generally are in their games and how
ready they are to condemn any meanness, and he conceived the idea of making
his charges look after each other. Thus each one would feel himself a
responsible judge of his companions' actions.
At the end of the summer holidays in 1895, when the time came for the boys to
return home, five remained behind at Freeville in a cottage standing on three
acres of land; the next year the number of lads remaining was doubled or
trebled. A miniature Republic was founded, of which the lads were the citizens,
and in this capacity, were obliged to make laws and to insist on their being
respected. The Republic proved to be a great success, the temporary colony
became a permanent one capable of reforming wild, unruly boys, who if allowed
to wander about in the streets and to mix with older and more vicious lads,
would possibly have been ruined. A recent census of the Republic showed that it
possessed 150 citizens, 82 boys and 68 girls, three hundred acres of land,
twenty-four buildings, a chapel, prison, school, and court of justice.

Fig. 20
Brigand Gasparone

In order that the colonists should not completely lose touch with the outside
world, but should in some measure be prepared for the social exigencies of their
future lives, the colony is organised like a miniature town. The children, boys
and girls, are divided into so many families, each consisting of ten or twelve
members presided over by two adults, who take the place of parents and look
after the household. The greater part of the population is engaged in agriculture,
in cultivating the land belonging to the Republic, but a certain proportion adopt
the arts and crafts necessary to every community: joinery, book-binding,
printing, shoemaking, or shop-keeping. The colony coins its own money and
possesses a bank run by the boys themselves, where the colonists can deposit
their savings. All labour and produce are paid for separately. The colony has its
own laws sanctioned by its Parliament, its Tribunal, the members of which,
chosen from amongst the citizens, are charged with enforcing the laws. The
Parliament, composed without distinction of sex, of boys and girls, decrees the
holidays, organises the games and entertainments, and establishes the public
expenditure, revenue, and taxes, etc. (see Figs. 19 and 20).
The results of this system appear to be excellent; most of the ex-colonists have
turned out well, and in view of this fact, republics on similar lines are being
organised in various parts of the United States. This Republic admits only
children over twelve, who remain in the colony about three years.

Preventive Institutions for Destitute Adults

Besides institutions for the careful training of the young, methods for preventing
crime also include all attempts to help young or adult persons at any crisis in
their lives when they are friendless and out of work, for it is precisely then that
they are most exposed to temptation.
People's hotels, shelters for emigrants or strangers, reading-rooms, inexpensive
but wholesome entertainments, evening classes for instruction in manual work,
labour bureaus, organisations for assisting emigrants, etc., are the most
efficacious institutions of this kind. And in this connection, I must refer to the
work done by the Salvation Army, which from what I was able to observe in
America, seems to me the best organised of all existing benevolent associations,
since by means of a thousand arms it reaches every form of poverty and misery
and seeks to make all its institutions self-supporting. It fights drunkenness by
lectures, recreation rooms, and temperance hotels; it fights poverty by
investigating each individual case of destitution, visiting poor families,
dispensing sympathy and help, providing shelter for the night at a minimum
price and industrial homes for those who are out of work. Sometimes the rooms
are turned into recreation halls for drunkards or industrial schools for the girls of
poor mothers who are obliged to go out to work, or temporary hospitals for
some urgent case which, owing to bureaucratic formalities, the hospitals are
unable to attend to immediately, or rooms with moving pictures for friendly
gatherings on holidays, thus grafting one benevolent work on to another so as to
obtain the best results at the smallest cost.
That interesting book Where the Shadows Lengthen gives an account of the
different institutions founded by the Salvation Army in the United States. There
are sixty-five Industrial Homes, where unemployed of all classes can apply for
work. In these Homes refuse and worn-out articles collected from individual
homes of their respective towns are disinfected and transformed into useful
articles, which are sold at low prices to the neighbouring poor, thus benefiting
purchasers, work-people, and society in general. During one year these Homes
gave employment to 8696 men, distributed 1,318,044 meals (work-people who
are temporarily employed in these Homes have a right only to board and
lodging), and gave a night's shelter to 463,550 persons.
In addition, the Army has seventy-seven Hotels where the working-classes find
a night's lodging at a low price (just sufficient to cover the maintenance of the
Shelter), and 7990 Accommodations which in one year supplied a night's rest to
2,114,037 persons. It has, besides, three colonies with 420 inhabitants, two
boarding-houses for servants and shop-girls out of employment, where for a few

pence they may have a bed, cook their own meals, wash and mend their clothes,
and are assisted to find work.
The Salvation Army has also 22 Rescue Homes, where young girls condemned
by the Juvenile Court and generally more neglected than vicious, are reformed
with a little care and affection, and 3599 Accommodations to which during one
year 1701 girls were admitted.
To ensure careful supervision of all the poor quarters, the Salvation Army has
divided them into twenty slums, in each of which they have established their
Headquarters and send out their soldiers to investigate and assist cases of
poverty and misery of every kind. Each slum Headquarters is provided with
halls for meetings, rooms for the officials, a Kindergarten, and Dormitories
which also serve as shelters or hospitals for urgent cases. In one year 26,290
families were visited by the Army and 38,290 received assistance. Employment,
temporary and permanent, was found for 66,621 persons.
All poor of whatever condition, nationality, or religion, whether honest or
criminal, on applying to the nearest of these Headquarters may be sure of
finding sympathy and help.
Five Homes have been founded by the Army for waifs and children whose
mothers are obliged to go out to work, and 225 Accommodations where children
may find a temporary or permanent home.
A special squad of soldiers has recently undertaken work amongst prisoners
with great success. In two months they visited 43 prisons, wrote 1732 letters to
prisoners, and distributed 10,000 pamphlets. 19,882 prisoners attended meetings
held in the prisons, 194 articles of clothing were distributed, 128 persons
provided with work on their release and 300 with sleeping accommodation.
In South America the Army has founded similar institutions, which embrace
others, such as hospitals, etc., suited to the needs of each place.
Other benevolent organisations which seem to me admirable, are the Sisterhoods
founded twenty years ago by the Rabbi Gottheil. These Sisterhoods, as may be
assumed from the name, are entirely directed by women. They consist of
premises, sometimes annexed to the synagogue; at others, situated
independently, which form a species of Headquarters for the philanthropical
work done in the surrounding districts. The Sisterhood is open day and night to
all the poor who are in need of help of any kind. There is a resident Directress,
under whose orders a number of ladies take turns in helping applicants. The

Sisterhoods were founded on the principle that human beings are capable of
doing the maximum amount of good to others when they follow their own
particular tendencies and try to utilise their individual talents in satisfying the
intellectual, moral, or recreative needs of the poor. Some of the ladies devote
themselves to simple legal questions, tracing an absent husband or wife,
registering births, taking unruly children to the Juvenile Courts, or looking after
them, etc. Others take charge of medical matters, arrange for the admission of
children or adults to the hospitals, etc.; others organise entertainments, teach
singing, drawing, needlework, and cooking classes. The premises are used in
turn by working-girls learning sewing, or others rehearsing some play or opera
chorus. Almost all the Sisterhoods possess a permanent Kindergarten for the
children of women who are obliged to work outside their homes, and an
employment bureau. All the ladies, except the Directress, give their services
gratis. For all help given by the Sisterhood, except in the case of the very poor, a
small fee is demanded, and this enables the Sisterhood to pay its way without
depending much on donations and subscriptions from private persons, and to
spread and increase its work without difficulty.
"The Educational Alliance" of New York, founded to give assistance to Jewish
emigrants arriving at that city from all parts of the world, is another institution
deserving of mention. This "Alliance" has a large building in the Jewish quarter
near the docks, where emigrants can obtain instruction in gymnastics, cookery,
domestic economy, English, needlework, etc. There are also recreation rooms,
baths, a library, and rooms where school children can prepare their lessons. Men
and women are assisted in obtaining employment and receive medical and legal
aid. There is also a species of tribunal for settling petty disputes in cases where
the parties interested object to applying to the ordinary courts. It was crowded
when I saw it, and I was not surprised to learn that it is of great service to the
emigrants. For public holidays, the Alliance organises concerts, excursions, and
lectures, and during the summer vacations it opens a number of boarding-houses
in the country.
All these benevolent institutions, schools, rescue homes, orphanages, and
shelters, organised with so much care for the prevention of crime and adopted in
America by all communities of whatever religion, regardless of cost, have given
excellent results. Bosco and Rice (Les Homicides aux Etats-Unis) and my father
(Crimes, Ancient and Modern) have demonstrated statistically that in States like
Massachusetts, where there is no great influx of immigration nor a large
coloured population, the diminution in the number of crimes has been very

rapid, the percentage of homicides being about equal to those of England, that
is, lower than the majority of European States.
It must be confessed in honour to the people of the United States, that they are
very ready to admit their own short-comings and constantly regret the large
proportion of crimes in their country. But when they reflect that the constant
stream of immigration contains many lawless elements, that the different laws in
force in the different States make evasions of justice in many cases easy, that the
construction of houses with the fire-escape communicating directly with the
public thoroughfare provides an easy means of ingress and egress, and that an
enormous proportion of the dense population of their cities is composed of
people from all parts of the world, accustomed to varying moral codes, they may
realise with pride that the percentage of crime in the United States is certainly
lower than it would be in any Continental State under similar conditions.

CHAPTER III

METHODS FOR THE CURE AND REPRESSION OF CRIME

P REVENTIVE methods, the careful training of children, and assistance
rendered to adults in critical moments of their lives, may diminish crime, but
cannot suppress it entirely. Such methods should be supplemented by
institutions which undertake to cure criminals, while protecting society from
their attacks, and by others for the segregation of incurable offenders, who
should be rendered as useful as possible in order to minimise in every way the
injury they inflict on the community.
Although unjustly accused of desiring to revolutionise penal jurisprudence,
criminal anthropologists realised from the very beginning that laws cannot be
changed before there is a corresponding change in public opinion, and that even
equitable modifications in the laws, if too sudden, are always fraught with
dangerous consequences. Therefore, instead of a radical change in the penal
code, their aim was to effect a few slight alterations in the graduation of
penalties, in accordance with age, sex, and the degree of depravity manifested
by culprits in their offences. They also counselled certain modifications in the
application of the laws, the reformation according to modern ideas, of prisons,
asylums, penal colonies, and all institutions for the punishment and redemption

of offenders, and an extensive application of those penalties devised in past ages
as substitutes for imprisonment, which have the advantage of corrupting the
culprit less, and costing the community very little.
Juvenile Offenders. Young people, and, above all, children, should be dealt with
separately by special legislative methods.
With the exception of England, where quite recently a children's court has been
opened at Westminster, special tribunals for the young are unknown in Europe.
However, in modern times, the penal codes of nearly every European State
make marked allowance for the age of offenders, and where there is no
differentiation in the laws, the magistrate uses his own discretion and refuses in
many cases to convict juvenile offenders, even when they are guilty of serious
offences.
These instinctive methods of dealing with the young have many drawbacks:
1. Without special courts, children guilty of simple acts of insubordination or
petty offences (thefts of fruit or riding in trams and trains without paying the
fare) which cannot be separated by a hard and fast line from ordinary childish
pranks, come into contact with criminal types in court or in prison, and this is
greatly detrimental to them morally. If naturally inclined to dishonesty, they run
the risk of developing into occasional criminals and of losing all sense of shame:
or if really honest, contact with bad characters cannot fail to shock and perturb
them, even though their stay in prison be only a short one.
2. The magistrate has no legal powers to supervise juvenile offenders, nor when
their actions show grave depravity, to segregate and cure them to prevent their
developing into criminals. It has already been shown that born criminals begin
their career at a very early age. In one case cited in a previous chapter, a morally
insane child of twelve killed one of his companions for a trifling motive—a
dispute about an egg; in another, a child of ten caused the arrest of his father by
a false accusation; he had previously attempted to strangle a little brother.
Children of this type, notwithstanding their tender age, are a social danger, and
the moral disease from which they suffer should be taken in hand at once. In any
case they should be carefully segregated until a cure appears to be effected.
Minors require a special code, which takes into consideration the fact that
certain offences are incidental to childhood and that children who have
committed these offences may still develop into honest men. It should also
contain provisions for dealing with born criminals, epileptics, and the morally

insane at an early age, by segregation in special reformatories where they cannot
corrupt juvenile offenders of a non-criminal type, and where a thorough-going
attempt to cure them may be made.
An excellent reform of this character has been effected in many of the United
States of America with the adoption of the probation system and juvenile courts
which protect children from the corruption of prison life and contact with
habitual offenders. The juvenile court, this tribunal exclusively instituted for
minors, has been brought to great perfection in many of the United States. In
some, special buildings have been erected for the hearing of cases against
children, by which means all contact with adult criminals is avoided: in others,
where this is not practicable, a part of the ordinary court is set aside for them
with a separate entrance.
Nor are juvenile offenders judged according to the common law; their offences
are tried by special magistrates, who deal with them in a paternal, rather than in
a strictly judicial spirit, and the penalties are slight, varied, and suited to
children. The magistrates are assisted by officers, who obtain information from
teachers, parents, and neighbours as to the character, conduct, faults, and good
qualities of the culprit, and with these indications the magistrate is able to essay
the correction, not of the particular offence which has brought the child within
his jurisdiction, but his general organic defects. The punishments do not include
imprisonment, and are drawn from practical experience and common-sense, not
from any article of the penal code.
I was present at the hearing of a case against a lad, who was accused of having
travelled on a subway without paying. He was sentenced to copy out the by-laws
twenty times, to learn them by heart and repeat them a month later at the same
court. In the case of more serious offences, children may be sent to some public
or private reformatory, according to the circumstances of the parents. However,
none of these punishments are infamous, and parents themselves, when unable
to control their children, have recourse to the juvenile court.
It is supplemented in a very efficacious manner by the probation system, the
organisation of a number of men and women who undertake the supervision of
children when the court decides that they require it. These protectors use every
means at their disposal to prevent their charges falling into bad ways and assist
them in every possible way to correct their defects.
This system has proved to be so efficacious, and at the same time so devoid of
any drawbacks, that its unconditional adoption by all the States of Europe and

America would be of great social advantage.

Institutions for Female Offenders

The weighty reasons which call for separate courts and reformatories for
juvenile offenders are equally valid in the case of female law-breakers, for
whom special tribunals and legislation should be provided.
The percentage of criminality among women is considerably lower than that of
men, and in nearly all cases offenders belong to the category of criminaloids.
My father's work The Female Offender demonstrates that prostitution is the true
equivalent of criminality. When we except this class of unfortunates, there
remain only hysterical and occasional offenders, guilty generally of petty
larceny (particularly of a domestic nature) or of harbouring criminals and acting
as more or less passive accomplices; and criminals from passion, who commit
infanticide or kill faithless husbands and lovers. In all these cases, imprisonment
should not be resorted to; in fact, the greater number might be dealt with by a
magisterial reprimand or the granting of conditional liberty. In view also, of the
important part played by dress, ornaments, etc., in the feminine world, penalties
inflicted on vanity—the cutting off of the hair, the obligation to wear a certain
costume, etc., might with advantage be substituted for imprisonment.
The milder nature of feminine criminality, the usefulness of women in the home,
and the serious injury inflicted on the family and society in general by the
segregation of the wife and mother (if only for a short period), are reasons for
advocating the institution of special tribunals for dealing with the offences of
women and special legislation which would take into consideration their
position in the family and the fact that they are rarely a violent social danger.
At present, in Europe at least, no such differential treatment exists. The
reduction of penalties is left entirely to the discretion and humanity of judges,
who in many cases, it is true, are instinctively disposed to be more indulgent
towards women and to take these conditions into account. But it would be a far
more satisfactory state of things if legislation paid due regard to such
circumstances, just as in Italy in enrolling recruits for compulsory military
service, allowance is made for social and family relations, the only sons of
widowed mothers, men of delicate constitution, etc., being exempted.
In spite of the low percentage and, generally speaking, trifling importance of the
crimes committed by women, there are a small number of female delinquents,

some of whom show an extraordinary degree of depravity, as though all the
perversity lacking in the others were concentrated in these few. They are true
born criminals, epileptics, and morally insane subjects.
These serious anti-social elements, murderers, poisoners, and swindlers, might
be secluded in a small reformatory with compulsory labour and silence as
additional penalties. Separate cells, however, are not necessary. All
reformatories for women should be provided with a nursery where children born
in prison could be nursed by their mothers, thereby diminishing the social injury
which must result from the imprisonment of any mother, and fostering the
growth of the sublime and sacred maternal sentiment, which is unfortunately so
often lacking in criminals.
The Reformatory Prison for Women at South Framingham, near Boston, under
the management of Mrs. Morton, is an excellent example of an institution
conducted on the lines laid down by criminologists. The Reformatory is situated
at about an hour's journey by rail from Boston, in the midst of fields which are
cultivated by a part of the convict population. No high walls surround the
building and separate it from the outer world, nor is it watched by guards. A
broad avenue leads to the entrance, where, in answer to my ring, I was
welcomed by neat white-clad attendants and shown into a charming room
looking out upon a lovely garden. I passed through corridors, unmolested by the
sound of keys grating in locks, from this room to the dining-rooms, dormitories,
recreation and work rooms.
As soon as prisoners enter the Reformatory, they are carefully examined by an
intelligent and pleasant woman physician, who is in charge of the infirmary
where the anthropological examination takes place. When the prisoner has been
declared able-bodied, she is placed in one of the work-rooms to learn and follow
the trade indicated by the medical officer as the best adapted to her constitution
and aptitude. At night, she is conducted to a second-class cell situated in a large,
well-lighted corridor. The cell is furnished with a table, bed, chair, pegs to hang
clothes on, a calendar, a picture, and a book or two.
Work is compulsory and done by the piece, and when each prisoner has finished
her allotted task, she is at liberty to work for herself or to read books supplied
from the library. If unskilled, she receives instruction in some manual work, and
the payment for her labour is put aside and handed over to her on her release,
with the small outfit she has prepared and sewed during detention.

Women with children under a year, or those who give birth to a child in the
Reformatory, are allowed to have their little ones with them during the night and
part of the day. When they go to work every morning, the babies are left in the
nursery, which adjoins the infirmary, and is under the direct supervision of the
doctor. The nursery, a large, well-lighted room, spotlessly clean and bright with
flowers, is a veritable paradise for the little ones.
At noon, the prisoner is permitted to fetch her baby, feed, and keep it near her
during dinner-hour. At two o'clock she resumes work until five, when she again
takes charge of her baby till next morning. A cradle is placed in her cell for the
infant, and she is provided with a small bath.
A series of trifling rewards encourage moral improvement. Those who show
good conduct during the first two months are transferred to the first class with
its accompanying privileges, a better and more spacious cell, a smart collar, the
right to correspond with friends and to receive visitors more frequently, to have
an hour's recreation in company with other good-conduct prisoners and to
receive relatives in a pretty sitting-room instead of in the common visitors'
room.
The final reward for uninterrupted improvement and untiring industry on the
part of the prisoner is her ultimate release, which since the sentence is unlimited,
may take place as soon as the Directress considers her competent to earn an
honest living. But released prisoners are not left to their own devices with the
risk of speedily succumbing to temptation. A commission of ladies interested in
the Reformatory (one of whom, Mrs. Russell, was my guide on the occasion of
my visit there) are consulted before the release of each prisoner and undertake to
furnish her with suitable employment, and to guide and watch over her during
the first few months so that she may be sure of advice and assistance in any
difficulties.

Institutions for Minor Offenders

Punishments should vary according to the type of criminal, distinction being
made between criminals of passion, criminaloids, and born criminals.
Criminals of Passion. The true criminal of passion suffers more from remorse
than from any penalty the law can inflict. Additional punishments should be:
exile of the offender from his native town or from that in which the person
offended resides; indemnity for the injury caused, in money, or in compulsory

labour if the offender is not possessed of sufficient means. Recourse should
never be had to imprisonment, which has an injurious effect even upon the
better types of law-breakers; and criminals from passion do not constitute a
menace to society. On the contrary, they are not infrequently superior to average
humanity and are only prompted to crime by an exaggerated altruism which
with care might be turned into good channels.
This applies equally to political offenders, for whom exile is the oldest, most
dreaded, and most efficacious punishment, and the disuse into which it has
fallen does not appear to be justified, since it admits of graduation, is temporary,
and an adequate check on any attempt at insurrection.
Criminaloids. Repeated short terms of detention in prison should be avoided and
other penalties substituted for petty offences against police regulations, cheating
the Customs, etc., when committed by criminaloids who are not recidivists and
have no accomplices. A short term of imprisonment, which brings this type of
offender into contact with habitual criminals, not only does not serve as a
deterrent, but generally has an injurious effect, because it tends to lessen respect
for the law, and, in the case of recidivists, to rob punishment of all its terrors;
and because criminaloids, when once branded with the infamy of prison and
corrupted by association with worse types, are liable to commit more serious
crimes.
For all minor offences, fines are more efficacious than imprisonment and, in the
case of the poor, should be replaced by compulsory labour at the discretion of
the magistrate. Binding over under a guarantee to make good the injury done,
corporal punishment, confinement to the house, judicial reprimands and
cautions are applicable to offenders of this type, as is also the system of
remitting first offences used in France with great success by Magnaud. Under
this system, the offender is sentenced to an adequate penalty, which, however, is
only inflicted in the case of recidivation.
An efficacious, and at the same time, more serious method of dealing with
criminaloids, is by means of the probation system and indeterminate sentence.
The offender is sentenced to the maximum penalty applicable to his particular
offence, but it may be diminished after a certain time if he shows signs of
improvement. During this interval he is on probation, that is, under supervision,
much in the same way as juvenile offenders.
The probation system is extensively and successfully adopted in America, either
singly or in conjunction with other penalties, as shown above.

The Probation System

This is an ideal manner of dealing with offenders of a less serious type, minors
and criminaloids, who have fallen into bad ways, since, instead of punishing
them, it seeks to encourage in them habits of integrity and to check the growth
of vices by means of a benevolent but strict supervision. The offender is placed
under the guidance of a respectable person, who tries in every way to smooth
the path of reform by providing his charge with employment if he has none, or
putting him in the way of learning some trade if he is unskilled, by isolating him
from bad company, by rewarding any improvement, and reporting progress to
the central office, which has to decide whether the period of probation is
sufficient, or, in cases where it has not been efficacious, to have recourse to
sterner measures.
The only drawback to this system is the difficulty of applying it, because it is
not always possible to find in every town a number of persons of high moral
standing, who are able and willing to exercise vigilance over offenders.
However, to the honour of the United States it must be said that in many States
this supervision is organised in a truly admirable manner. At Boston I visited the
Probation Office organised and managed by Miss Mary Dewson, which
undertakes the supervision of girls and is a model worthy of imitation from the
general arrangement down to the smallest details.
The relations between the officers and their charges are in most cases very
cordial. The little girls write most affectionate letters, in which they narrate their
joys and sorrows, express penitence for their shortcomings and ask advice and
help as of guardian spirits. The officers in their turn show themselves to be
affectionate protectors and are scrupulous in the fulfilment of their duties
towards the central office. Upwards of one hundred lockers were opened at my
request, and I was able to examine the documents relating to each of the
children with their antecedents, improvement, or the reverse, methodically
entered up to a few days previous to my visit.
The splendid results obtained everywhere by this system are leading to its
gradual adoption in nearly all the States of the Union and in many parts of
Australia and England, in dealing with young people, adults, and all first
offenders convicted of petty infractions of the law, drunkenness, disturbance of
the peace, and disorderly conduct, and also for prisoners released on ticket-of-
leave. The probationer is obliged to report himself every fortnight, or at any time
the probation officer may desire. The officer is empowered to supervise the

conduct of the probationer at home and in his place of employment, and to
threaten him with legal proceedings should his conduct be unsatisfactory.
The supervision of adults, as may be supposed, is a far more delicate and
complicated matter than that of children, and however discreetly the officer
proceeds in order to keep the matter hidden from neighbours and employers, the
position is such a humiliating one for adults that many prefer imprisonment to
supervision. I was told that special reformatories have been established at
Boston for the detention of those who prefer prison to vigilance.
Perhaps this aversion of adult offenders in America to the probation system is
due to the fact that the probation officer is vested with powers almost exceeding
those of any magistrate. If he thinks fit, he may extend the period of supervision
almost indefinitely or convert it into imprisonment. Moreover, the feeling that
every movement and action, however innocent, is being watched is very galling
to a grown-up person. However, these drawbacks could no doubt be remedied.
In England, supervision is replaced by a pledge of good behaviour guaranteed
by the culprit or a surety, who is induced to exercise vigilance by the knowledge
that he will lose the sum deposited in the case of recidivation. The magistrate is
obliged by English law to fix the period of probation, which cannot be extended
without another sentence. In France, Belgium, and Australia, the probation
system appears to have given good results.
Corporal Punishment. Although repugnant to civilised ideas, the various forms
of corporal punishment, fasting, cold shower-bath, or even the rod, are very
suitable substitutes for imprisonment in the case of children guilty of petty
offences, because not only are these punishments inexpensive and have the
advantage of creating a deeper and more immediate impression, but they do not
corrupt minor offenders nor do they interrupt their regular occupations, whether
work or study. Fines should always be inflicted for slight infractions of the law
and in all cases of petty larceny, frauds, and forgeries committed by minors. The
fines should be proportioned to the means of the individual and the gravity of
the offence, and replaced by compulsory labour in the case of those who refuse
to pay.
Indemnity. The obligation to make adequate compensation for the injury caused
would be an ideal punishment, but is extremely difficult to put into practice. The
magistrate, however, should do his utmost to make suitable use of this penalty,
and the victim should be legally entitled to receive a part of the proceeds from
work done by the culprit during detention.

Reformatories

Minors convicted for the first time of such serious offences that supervision
becomes an insufficient guarantee against recidivation, should be relegated to
reformatories or other institutions which undertake to punish offences and to
segregate and correct offenders.
For the truly magnificent scale on which such reclaiming institutions are
conducted in North and South America, both continents merit special mention.
The oldest and most celebrated of these reformatories, that founded at Elmira by
Brockway, owed its inspiration to my father's book Criminal Man and is the first
reformatory that has been instituted on similar principles.
The convicts admitted to Elmira are young men between the ages of sixteen and
thirty, convicted for the first time of any offence, except those of the most
serious kind. The Administrative Council is invested with unlimited powers for
determining the period of detention and may release prisoners long before the
expiration of their sentence.
Each newcomer has a bath, dons the uniform of the Institute, is photographed,
registered, medically examined, and finally shut up in a cell to meditate upon his
offence. During this time the superintendent obtains all the available information
concerning his character, environment, and the probable causes that have led to
his crime, and this information serves as a basis for the cure. According to the
aptitude and culture of the prisoner, he is placed in a technical or industrial
class, where he learns some trade which will enable him to become honestly
self-supporting on his release. He is immediately acquainted with his duties and
rights and the conditions under which he may regain his liberty.
Education in the Reformatory consists of instruction in general knowledge and
special training in some trade. Moral and intellectual progress is stimulated by
the publication of a weekly review, The Summary, which gives a report on
political matters and the news of the Reformatory.
The convicts are divided into three categories: good, middling, and bad. The
transference from the second to the first class entails certain privileges,
especially those respecting communication with the outer world, the right to
receive visitors, to have books, and to eat at a common table instead of partaking
of a solitary meal in a cell. Those who obtain the highest marks for good
conduct are at liberty to walk about the grounds and are entrusted with

confidential missions, such as the supervision of the other convicts. Bad conduct
marks cause prisoners to be transferred from a higher to the lowest division,
where they are obliged to perform the rudest labour.
First-class convicts are purposely exposed to temptations of various kinds, and
when they have passed through this ordeal triumphantly, they obtain a
conditional release. This cannot take place, however, until the prisoner is
provided with regular employment of some kind, procured by his own exertions,
through friends, or by the director of the Reformatory.
For six months after his release he is obliged to give an account of himself
regularly in the manner prescribed by the Director; after one year absolute
liberty is regained.
In order to reduce the working expenses of the Reformatory as much as
possible, all posts, even that of superintendent or teacher in the technical
schools, are filled by the convicts.

Penitentiaries

Although born criminals, habitual criminals, and recidivists should be carefully
isolated from minor offenders, they nevertheless require institutes conducted on
nearly similar principles. A prison, which is to punish, but at the same time to
correct and redeem, demands strict discipline: in fact, milder punishments have
very little effect and their constant repetition is harmful, although any
exaggeration of brute force is more injurious than useful. Harshness may cow
criminals, but does not improve them: on the contrary, it only serves to irritate
them or to convert them into hypocrites. Even the adult offender should be
looked upon in the light of a child or a moral invalid, who must be cured by a
mixture of gentleness and severity, but gentleness should predominate, since
criminals are naturally prone to vindictiveness and are apt to regard even slight
punishments as unjust tortures. Even a too rigid adherence to the rule of silence
may have a detrimental effect on the character of the prisoners. An old convict
once said to Despine: "When you winked at slight offences against the rules, we
used to talk more, but there was no harm in what we said. Now we talk less, but
when we do, we blaspheme and plot evil."
In Danish prisons under rigorous discipline, infractions of prison regulations
amounted to 30%; more recently under milder rule such infractions only amount
to 6%.

In order to strengthen the sense of justice which, as we have said, is little
developed in criminals, if indeed it is not altogether suffocated by ignoble
passions, it is often advisable to appeal to their vanity and self-esteem to aid in
maintaining discipline and increasing industry, by constituting them judges of
each other's conduct. Obermayer used to divide the convicts into small groups
and ask them to elect their own superintendents and teachers, thus establishing a
spirit of good-comradeship and rendering possible a system of detailed and
individual instruction, the sole kind that is really efficacious. The 385 convicts
at Detroit showed the highest percentage of efficiency, because they were
divided into 21 classes with 28 teachers, all of whom, with the exception of one,
were prisoners. It was noticed that the worst convicts were the best teachers
(Pears, Prisons and Reform, 1872), which proves that even the most perverse
elements may often be utilised for the improvement of others.
Equally good was Despine's method of letting a certain time elapse before
inflicting punishment, so that it should not be attributed to mere anger on his
part. As soon as the infraction was noted, the prisoner was left to reflect on his
conduct, and an hour later the teacher and Director came to show him the
penalty prescribed by the regulations. Sometimes it was found efficacious to
administer a rebuke and punishment to the whole group to which the offender
belonged. Obermayer considered this method to be advantageous.
Work should be the motive force, aim, and recreation of every institute of this
kind, in order to stimulate flagging energies, to accustom prisoners to useful
pursuits after release, to reinforce prison discipline and to compensate the State
for the expense incurred. This latter object should, however, always be
subordinated to the others, and lucrative trades must occasionally be avoided.
Occupations which might pave the way for other crimes: lockmaking,
brasswork, engraving, photography, and calligraphy should not be adopted, but
choice made, instead, of those agricultural employments which show the lowest
mortality and are much in demand. The manufacture of articles in straw, esparto,
and string, printing, tailoring, the making of pottery, and building are all suitable
trades, but those which require dangerous tools—shoemaking, cabinet-making,
and carpentering—should be resorted to last of all. The rush baskets made by
the convicts at Noto (Sicily) obtained several medals.
The tasks allotted to prisoners should always be proportioned to their strength
and tastes. Unskilled or physically weaker individuals who conscientiously do
their best, should be rewarded in some way, if not pecuniarily, at least by a

reduction of their sentences. In this way work becomes profitable and a spirit of
comradeship and friendly emulation develops among the prisoners.

Institutes For Habitual Criminals

To protect society against the repeated misdeeds of these offenders and those of
born criminals, segregation is essential. However, the institutions set apart to
receive these classes should still regard the redemption of the inmates as their
chief aim, and only when all attempts have proved futile should they be replaced
by almost perpetual isolation in a penal colony.
The Penitenciario Nacional of Buenos Ayres is a splendid instance of an institute
founded for the redemption of adult offenders as well as for the punishment of
their offences. The inmates of this penitentiary comprise offenders of all types—
criminaloids, habitual and born criminals—belonging to the Province of Buenos
Ayres. It was established a few years after the Reformatory at Elmira, the
fundamental principles of which it has imitated with certain wise modifications
to suit diverse circumstances.
Externally, it has nothing in common with the gloomy European prisons. It is a
large, white edifice with a broad flight of steps leading to the street and is
devoid of all signs of force, soldiers, sentry-boxes, etc.
After passing through a wide vestibule, I reached a large, shady court-yard with
low walls almost hidden beneath a wealth of flowers and foliage. A corridor
opening on to the court-yard was flanked on each side by a row of open, white
cells, each well lighted by a fair-sized window during the day, and by electricity
at night. Each cell is furnished with book-shelves, a table with paper, pen and
inkstand, and a chair. All the corridors, which are gay with plants, converge
towards a central glass-room, whence the sub-inspector surveys all the radiating
corridors under his jurisdiction. Each corridor ends in a workshop, where
printing, lithography, shoemaking, metal and steel work are carried on, and
between the corridors are garden plots in which fruit, vegetables, and flowers
are cultivated. The workshops are reckoned among the best the Republic
contains. The printing-office turns out many weekly papers, illustrated
magazines, and scientific and literary reviews. Footgear of the finest and most
elegant quality is manufactured in the shoe-factory, and the foundry and
workshop produce lathes, boilers, industrial and agricultural machines and
implements. All the cooking in the Penitentiary is done by steam, and the plant
is installed in a large building erected by the prisoners themselves.

Work in the Penitentiary is compulsory. On arrival, each convict receives
instruction in some handicraft, chosen by himself or one of the foremen. Of
course swindlers and forgers are not admitted to trades like lithography, for
reasons easy to understand.
The convicts receive regular wages which vary according to their abilities and
are about equal to the standard wages in each particular trade. All earnings are
put aside and handed to the convict on his release when he is also provided with
suitable employment.
Work is finished at five o'clock in the evening and after a substantial supper the
prisoners are divided into nine classes, six elementary and three secondary,
according to their culture and intelligence. If illiterate, they are taught reading
and writing and later, arithmetic, geography, history, languages, and drawing,—
this latter being adapted to the particular trade of each individual. When school
is finished, prisoners are allowed to go to the library to return the books they
have read and take others for the night.
Instead of a weekly newspaper like that published at Elmira, intellectual
development is stimulated by means of lectures delivered each week by the
prisoners or their teachers and attended by the Director, Vice-Director, and all
the convicts.
In addition to the care lavished by the Director, Señor Ballvé, on the work and
education of his charges, he spares no pains to encourage moral progress by
rewarding good conduct. As each convict enters the Penitentiary, his name, trial,
sentence, and antecedents are entered in a book with his photograph and
particulars of his physical and psychic individuality, and these data are
supplemented by remarks on his conduct and good actions, if any, so that on his
release a clear idea is obtained of the moral progress he has made while in
prison.

Penal Colonies

When after unsparing efforts for the redemption of a criminal, repeated
convictions prove him to be a hopeless recidivist, the community should decline
to allow him to perfect his anti-social abilities at their expense in prisons or at
large, and should segregate him permanently, unless, indeed, there is any hope
of reform, or circumstances render him harmless. Perpetual confinement in a
prison, even of an improved type is, however, both cruel and expensive, but an

excellent substitute may be found in the Penal Colony. Here the chief object
should be, not to educate, elevate, or redeem the criminal, but to render him as
useful as possible, so that he does not prove too great a burden on the
community.
Penal colonies should be situated on islands or in remote territories, that is,
completely isolated from populous districts. The agricultural colony at Meseplas
founded by the Belgian Government is a model worthy of imitation.
In this colony the convict population is divided into four categories:
1. Turbulent and dangerous individuals, who exercise an injurious influence
over the other inmates of reformatories and prisons;
2. Recidivists, ticket-of-leave men, escaped and mutinous convicts;
3. Persons of bad reputation, who have hitherto avoided conviction;
4. The better types, who have been convicted three or four times only and
although not depraved, lack moral stamina and are constantly yielding to
temptation when at large.
All the common necessities of life are supplied by the colonists themselves,
beginning with the dwellings which are erected as they are required and
according to the resources available. In this way, extensive building operations
are carried out at a very slight cost to the State. Cattle and crops are raised on
the land, which is cultivated by a number of the convicts, while others
manufacture articles which find a ready market in the vicinity and for which
they possess suitable tools.
Any convict refusing to work is imprisoned on bread and water. All work is paid
for in special coin current only in the colony itself, but which, on the release of
the owner, is exchanged for the coin of the country.
The "Open Door," an institution on similar lines, was founded by Professor
Cabred for the insane of the Province of Buenos Ayres, and judging from what I
was able to observe during my short visit, it fulfils its purpose admirably. It
consists of a large village populated by some ten or twelve thousand lunatics.
With the exception of the price of the land and the cost of erecting the first
buildings, this colony does not cost the community anything; on the contrary,
the colonists are able to make large profits.

The ultimate plan of the village with streets and edifices has already been
mapped out, and the patients are continually occupied in erecting new buildings,
etc. There is a brick-kiln, a carpenter shop, and a smithy, which produce all the
materials used in building and furnishing the dwellings. Only the less dangerous
patients are employed in these operations: those of weaker mind make brushes
and wicker articles.
The colony is situated in the midst of a vast stretch of land in the Province of
Buenos Ayres, on which fruit and vegetables are grown by a number of the
patients. Others are occupied in raising fowls and pigs, which supply the colony
with eggs and meat and yield a large profit when sold outside.
Professor Cabred wisely prefers agriculture of this kind to the raising of large
crops of wheat or maize, because it simplifies the task of supervision necessary
in any colony, and gives the colonists, whose toil is compulsory, a continual and
regular occupation of an almost unvarying character. (This applies equally to the
case of a penal colony.) Workmen, foremen, engineers, builders, mechanics,
gardeners,—all are patients, with the exception of the Director, the doctor, and
about a hundred mounted warders, who pass rapidly from one part to another
and are able to intervene in suicidal or homicidal outbreaks.
A colony on these lines would be suitable for the large mass of habitual
criminals, who, although unable to resist the temptations of ordinary life, are
capable of useful work under supervision, and under such conditions may prove
beneficial to themselves and to the community.

Institutions for Born Criminals and the Morally Insane

Asylums for Criminal Insane. We have still to consider born criminals,
epileptics, and the morally insane, whose crimes spring from inherited perverse
instincts. These unfortunate beings cannot be consigned to ordinary prisons,
since, owing to their state of mental alienation, they do not possess even the
modesty of the vicious—hypocrisy—and they never fail to pervert those
criminaloids with whom they come in contact. Malcontents by nature, they
distrust everybody and everything, and as they see an enemy in every warder
and official, they are the centres of constant mutinies.
To confine them in common asylums would be still more injurious, for they
preach sodomy, flight, and revolt and incite the others to robbery, and their
indecent and savage ways, as well as the terrible reputation which often

precedes them, make them objects of terror and repulsion to the quieter patients
and their relatives, who dread to see their kin in such company.
Ordinary asylums are equally unsuited to those victims of mental derangement
who, although devoid of the depraved instincts of the morally insane and
generally of blameless career up to the moment in which they are led to commit
a crime by some isolated evil impulse, have a bad influence on the other
inmates. Unlike other lunatics, they do not shrink from the company of others,
whom they torment with their violence and contaminate with that spirit of
restlessness and discontent which distinguished them even before they became
insane or criminals. Firm in the belief that they are always being ill treated and
insulted, they instil these ideas into their companions and suggest thoughts of
flight and revolt, which would never occur to ordinary lunatics, absorbed as they
are by their own world of fancies. The condition of the inmates is thereby
aggravated, and it becomes impossible to accord them that large measure of
freedom advocated by all modern alienists.
To leave these madmen at large would be more dangerous still. Beneath an
appearance of perfect calm and mental lucidity are hidden morbid impulses,
which may give terrible results at some unexpected moment.
All these offenders—insane criminals and the morally insane whose irresistible
tendencies are detrimental to the community—should be confined in special
institutes to be cured, or at any rate segregated for life. No infamy would attach
to their names, because their irresponsibility would be clearly recognised, and
society would be secure from their attacks.
England was the first country to provide asylums for the criminal insane. In
1840 a portion of Bedlam was set aside for this purpose. Fisherton House, a
special private asylum of this kind, was opened in 1844, and later others were
instituted at Dundrum (Ireland) in 1850, at Broadmoor in 1863, and at Perth
(Scotland) in 1858, to receive criminals who commit crimes in a state of
insanity, or become insane during their trial, and all prisoners whose state of
lunacy or imbecility renders them unable to conform to the discipline of a
prison. Of course sanguinary and violent scenes often occur in these asylums,
where the pernicious influence this type of lunatic exercises over his
surroundings in ordinary asylums or prisons is multiplied and intensified a
hundred-fold. Conspiracies, almost unknown in common asylums, and the
murder of warders or officials are very common. Despairing of release and
conscious of their irresponsibility, these wretched beings attack the warders,
destroy the walls which confine them, murder and wound others and

themselves; but at any rate the injury is limited to a small circle, and both
harmless lunatics and common criminals are not contaminated. Moreover, even
in criminal asylums, long experience with these strange pathological types and
the adoption of subdivisions like those recently introduced into Broadmoor by
Orange have done much towards improving the general condition and
eliminating many drawbacks. According to this classification insane criminals
are divided into two classes, unconvicted and convicted, the former class being
subdivided into untried and tried. Untried offenders, those who are considered
to have been insane before committing the crime, are sent to a common county
asylum, where are also confined persons convicted of minor offences and
declared insane (the percentage of cures in this class is considerable) and others
suspected of shamming insanity. In this way, the better elements are eliminated
and the inmates of the criminal insane asylum reduced to the worst and most
dangerous types only.

Capital Punishment

When, notwithstanding prisons, deportation, and criminal asylums, individuals
of ineradicable anti-social instincts make repeated attempts on the lives of
others, whether honest men or their own companions in evil-doing, the only
remedy is the application of the extreme penalty—death.
Amongst barbarous peoples, on whom prison makes but slight impression, or in
primitive communities that do not possess criminal asylums, penitentiaries, and
other means of social defence and redemption, the death penalty has always
been considered the most certain and at the same time the most economical
means of common protection. But criminal anthropologists realise that the
desire to abolish this penalty, which so often finds expression in civilised
countries, arises from a noble sentiment and one they have no wish to destroy.
Capital punishment, according to the opinion of my father, should only be
applied in extreme cases, but the fear of it, suspended like a sword of Damocles
above their heads, would serve as a check to the murderous proclivities
displayed by some criminals when they are condemned to perpetual
imprisonment.
We have, it is true, no right to take the lives of others but if we refuse to
recognise the legitimacy of self-defence, exile and imprisonment are equally
unjustifiable.

When we realise that there exist beings, born criminals, who are organised for
evil, who reproduce the instincts common to the wildest savages and even those
of ferocious carnivora, and are destined by nature to injure others, our
resentment becomes softened; but notwithstanding our sense of pity, we feel
justified in demanding their extermination when they prove to be dangerous and
absolutely irredeemable.

Penalties Proposed by the Modern School

The following tables, compiled by Senator Garofalo, a celebrated jurist of the
Modern School and inserted in Criminal Man, vol. iii, show the distribution of
penalties systematically arranged.
I. Born Criminals who are utterly devoid of the sentiment of pity.

Offender Crime Penalty
Murderers exhibiting Murder for lucre Prison, penal colony,
moral insensibility or some other criminal insane
and instinctive egotistical object asylum, or capital
cruelty, convicted of punishment if
Murder without recidivists.
provocation on
the part of the
victim

Murder with
ferocious
execution

II. Violent and Impulsive Criminals, Criminaloids, and those guilty through
insufficiency of pity, of decency, of inhibitory power, and through prejudiced
notions of honor.

Offender Crime Penalty
Adults Cruelty, assault and Criminal insane asylum for
convicted of battery, rape, epileptics, or

kidnapping Indefinite seclusion for a
period equal to
one of the natural divisions of
a man's life,
with period of supervision.

Minors Murder, cruelty and Special reformatories,
convicted of other offences against criminal insane asylum
the person without if there are congenital
provocation tendencies.

Offences against Penal colony and deportation
decency in cases of recidivation.

Adults Homicide provoked by Exile from native place and
convicted of injury or genuine from the town in which
grievances the victim's family live.

Adults Homicide in self-
convicted of defence
Exile, segregation for an
indefinite period in some
Homicide to avenge
remote town or settlement.
some wrong or
personal dishonour

Adults Assault in quarrels, or
Compensation for injury
convicted of ill-treatment when
caused, fines, reprimand,
intoxicated, blows,
security, conditional liberty.
insults, or slander

Adults Reprimand, security,
convicted of Mutiny and revolt imprisonment for a definite
period.

III. Criminals Devoid of a Sense of Honesty

Offender Crime Penalty
Adults (habitual Theft, fraud, arson, Criminal lunatic asylums
offenders) forgery, blackmail (if insane or epileptic),
convicted of deportation (for sane
offenders).

Adults Theft, fraud, arson, Reformatories,
(occasional forgery, blackmail conditional liberty,
offenders) exclusion from particular
convicted of profession.

Adults convicted Peculation, Loss of office, exclusion
of concussion from all public offices,
fines, compensation for
damage done.

Adults convicted Arson, malicious Compensation, or as a
of damage to property substitute, imprisonment.
Criminal lunatic asylums
(if insane).
Penal colonies (for
recidivists).

Adults convicted Fraudulent bankruptcy Compensation for damage
of caused, exclusion from
business and public
offices.

Adults convicted Counterfeiting, Reformatories, fines,
of forging cheques, compensation for damage,

public title-deeds, etc. exclusion from office.

Adults convicted Bigamy, substitution Seclusion for an indefinite
of or suppression period.
of child

Minors Theft, fraud, and Magisterial reprimand,
convicted of picking pockets probation, reformatory,
or agricultural colony.

IV. Offenders Lacking in Industry

Offender Penalty
Agricultural
Beggars, colony for
vagabonds, country offenders,
loafers workshop for city
offenders.

V. Offenders Deficient in Misoneism (Hatred of Change)

Offender Penalty
Political, social, and Temporary
religious rebels exile.

Symbiosis

The punishment of offenders and the protection of society from the insane are
the two chief objects of criminal jurisprudence, but criminal anthropologists aim
at something higher, the utilisation of anti-social elements, thus redeeming them

completely and justifying their existence in the eyes of mankind and in the
scheme of nature.
We find, in fact, in nature numerous instances of a partnership for mutual benefit
between animals and plants of very diverse species and tendencies. Lichens are
a living symbiosis of algæ and fungi: the pagurus allows the actiniæ to settle on
his dwelling, where they attract his prey and in return are housed and conveyed
from place to place.
In imitation of this principle, criminal anthropologists seek to devise a means of
making offenders serviceable to civilisation by carefully analysing their
tendencies and psychology, and fitting them into some suitable groove in the
social scheme, where they may be useful to themselves and to others. Side by
side with depraved instincts, criminals frequently possess invaluable gifts: an
abnormal degree of intelligence, great audacity, and love of innovation. The
wonderful galleries and fortifications cut out in the rocks at Gibraltar and Malta
by English convicts and the complete transformation of parts of Sardinia have
led criminologists to the conclusion that the ancient penalty of enforced labour
was more logical, useful, and advantageous both for the culprit and the
community than all modern punishments. The Mormons of America and the
religious sects persecuted in Russia by an omnipotent bureaucracy, have by their
energy transformed uninhabitable regions into lands of extraordinary fertility.
Still greater results might be obtained, if the abnormal tendencies of certain
individuals were turned into useful channels, instead of being pent up until they
manifest themselves in anti-social acts, and this beneficent and lofty task should
devolve on teachers and protectors of such of the young as show physical and
psychic anomalies at an early age.
The colonisation of wild regions and all professions (motoring, cycling,
acrobatic and circus feats) which demand audacity, activity, love of adventure,
and intense efforts followed by long periods of repose are eminently suited to
criminals. There are cases on record in which young men have actually become
thieves and even murderers in order to gain sufficient means to become
comedians or professional cyclists, and there is every reason to suppose that
these crimes would never have been committed had the youths been able to
obtain the required sums honestly. On the other hand, men of bad character,
ready to develop into criminals, often undergo a complete transformation when
they find some outlet for their intelligence and aptitudes, in becoming pioneers
in virgin regions or soldiers. War, the original, perpetual and exclusive
occupation of our ancestors, is eminently suited to the tendencies of criminals.

All the characteristics of the criminal, impulsiveness, cynicism, physical and
moral insensibility, and invulnerability are valuable qualities in the soldier in
times of war, especially when waged against savage and barbarous nations,
when cunning and ability have to be employed against primitive races who
laugh at the rules and ethics of civilised warfare.
Amongst brigands, we find a few badly-armed individuals performing marvels
of valour, and the leaders, although ignorant men, manifesting an intelligence
and tactical skill that puts trained armies to shame. Could not the tendencies of
criminals be used for the good of their country? The qualities developed in
primitive races by constant warfare against the forces of nature are characteristic
also of criminals. Let those whom nature has destined to reproduce impulsive
and brutal instincts in a civil and industrial age be permitted to employ them in
defending civilisation with true primitive valour against external and internal
enemies, against barbarous peoples who would restrict its boundaries, or
reactionary elements who seek to hinder its progress.
The Great Redeemer, who in pardoning the adulteress, said, "He that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," and the Prophet who foretold
the day when the wolf and the lamb should dwell together and the lion should
eat straw like the ox and should "not hurt nor destroy," divined perhaps this
noble aim. If criminal anthropology is destined to lead mankind to this goal, it
may well be pardoned all the harsh measures it has seen fit to suggest in order to
realise the supreme end—social safety.

PART III

CHARACTERS AND TYPES OF CRIMINALS

CHAPTER I

EXAMINATION OF CRIMINALS

C RIMINAL anthropologists are unanimous in insisting on the importance of
the results to be gained from a careful examination of the physical and
psychic individuality of the offender, with a view to establishing the extent of
his responsibility, the probabilities of recidivation on his part, the cure to be
prescribed or the punishment to be meted out to him; but besides furnishing the
magistrate with a sound basis for his decisions, the anthropological examination
will prove of great assistance to probation officers, superintendents of
orphanages and rescue homes and all those who are entrusted with the destinies
of actual offenders or candidates for crime. I have therefore decided to devote
this part of my summary to a minute demonstration of the methods to be
employed in these examinations, which should be conducted on the one hand
with the scientific precision that distinguishes clinical diagnoses of diseases and
on the other with special rules deduced from the long experience of
criminologists in dealing with criminals and the insane, between whom there is
so much affinity.

Antecedents and Psychic Individuality

The examination of a criminal or person of criminal tendencies should, if
possible, be preceded by a careful investigation of his antecedents. Questions
put to relatives and friends often bring to light facts relating to his past life, and
give an idea of the surroundings in which he has grown up and the illnesses
suffered by him during childhood (meningitis, typhus, convulsions, hemicrania,
giddiness, pavor nocturnus, trauma). The prevalence of disease in the family
(parents, grandparents, uncles, cousins, etc.) should be elicited and note taken
not only of nervous maladies, but of arthritic, tuberculous, pellagrous, and
inebriate forms, including a tendency to morphiomania. Even goitre should not

escape notice, since it may indicate cretinism or any other form of degeneration.
The existence of criminality in the family is of still greater importance, but it is
extremely difficult to obtain any information on this head, either from the
patient himself or his relatives. A certain amount of strategy must be used in
eliciting facts of this kind, by suddenly asking, for instance, whether a certain
individual of the same name, already deceased or confined in such-and-such an
asylum or prison, is any relation of the patient.
Next should be ascertained whether he is single or married, and in the latter
case, whether his wife is still living; also what profession or professions he has
exercised. In this connection it should be observed that although criminals are
generally successful in everything they undertake, they are incapable of
remaining constant to one thing for any length of time.
Many persons, cooks, tavern-keepers, confectioners, etc., exercise callings that
have a deleterious effect on the nervous centres and encourage an abuse of
alcohol; others like bakers, have night work, which is equally harmful.
Professions which bring poor men, servants, secretaries, cashiers, etc., into close
contact with wealth, are sometimes the cause of dishonesty in those who in the
absence of special temptations, would have remained upright; others provide
criminaloids with opportunities or instruments for accomplishing some crime, as
in the case of locksmiths, blacksmiths, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, etc.
The time of the year and other circumstances under which the crime takes place
should be elicited, and it should be borne in mind that the vintage season in
countries of Southern Europe and extremes of heat and cold are favourable to
seizures of an epileptic nature.
When the subject under examination is a recidivist, care should be taken to
ascertain at what age and under what circumstances the initial offence was
committed. Precocity in crime is a characteristic of born criminals, and puberty
and senility have their peculiar offences, as have the extremes of poverty and
wealth.
Intelligence. As we are not dealing with an ordinary patient, who is generally
only too ready to talk about his troubles, but with an individual who has been
put on his guard by constant cross-examination, his suspicions should first of all
be allayed by a series of general questions on his native place or the town in
which he is now living, his trade, etc. "Why did you leave your native town?
Why do you not return? Are you married? How many children have you?" etc.
Then an attempt should be made to gain an idea of his intellectual powers by

asking easy questions: "How many shillings are there in a pound? How many
hours are there in a day? In what year were you married?" etc.
Affection. The affections should be tested in an indirect way. "Is your father a
bad man?" or "Are your neighbours worthless people? Do they treat you with
due respect? Has any one a spite against you? Are you fond of your parents? Are
you aware that your brother (or mother) is seriously ill?" Questions concerning
relatives and friends are of special interest, because they enable the examiner to
ascertain whether they cause the patient emotion of any kind, whether he has
any real affection for those beings to whom normal persons are attached, but
towards whom born criminals and the insane in general do not manifest love. In
the absence of instruments, we must judge of the feelings of patients by their
answers and the facial changes caused by emotion, but medico-legal experts
naturally prefer a scientific test by means of accurate instruments, by which the
exact degree of emotion is registered. These instruments are the plethysmograph
and the hydrosphygmograph.
It is well known that any emotion which causes the heart-
beats to quicken or become slower makes us blush or turn
pale, and these vaso-motor phenomena are entirely
beyond our control. If we plunge one of our hands into
the volumetric tank invented by Francis Frank, the level
of the liquid registered on the tube above will rise and fall
at every pulsation, and besides these regular fluctuations,
variations may be observed which correspond to every
stimulation of the senses, every thought and above all,
every emotion. The volumetric glove invented by Patrizi
(see Fig. 25), an improvement on the above-mentioned
instrument, is a still more practical and convenient
Fig. 28 apparatus. It consists of a large gutta-percha glove, which
Criminal's Ear is put on the hand and hermetically sealed at the wrist by
a mixture of mastic and vaseline. The glove is filled with
air as the tank was with water. The greater or smaller pressure exercised on the
air by the pulsations of blood in the veins of the hands reacts on the aerial
column of an india-rubber tube, and this in its turn on Marey's tympanum (a
small chamber half metal and half gutta-percha). This chamber supports a lever
carrying an indicator, which rises and falls with the greater or slighter flow of
blood in the hand. This lever registers the oscillations on a moving cylinder
covered with smoked paper. If after talking to the patient on indifferent subjects,
the examiner suddenly mentions persons, friends, or relatives, who interest him

and cause him a certain amount of emotion, the curve registered on the
revolving cylinder suddenly drops and rises rapidly, thus proving that he
possesses natural affections. If, on the other hand, when alluding to relatives and
their illnesses, or vice-versa, no corresponding movement is registered on the
cylinder, it may be assumed that the patient does not possess much affection.

Fig. 25 Fig. 26

A Volumetric Glove Head of a Criminal
(see page 224) Epileptic

Thus when Bianchi and Patrizi spoke to the notorious brigand Musolino about
life in his native woods, his mother, and his sweetheart, there was an immediate
alteration in the pulse, and the line registered by the plethysmograph suddenly
changed, nor did it return to its previous level until some time afterward.
My father sometimes made successful use of the plethysmograph to discover
whether an accused person was guilty of the crime imputed to him, by

mentioning it suddenly while his hands were in the plethysmograph or placing
the photograph of the victim unexpectedly before his eyes.
Morbid Phenomena. When examining a criminal or even a suspected person,
who is nearly always more or less abnormal, it is advisable to investigate the
more common morbid phenomena he may be subject to, on which he is not
likely to give information spontaneously because he is ignorant of their
importance. He should be questioned about his sleep, whether he has dreams,
etc. Mental sufferers nearly always sleep badly and are frequently tormented by
insomnia and hallucinations. The inebriate imagines he is being pursued by
disgusting, misshapen creatures, from which he cannot escape. Epileptics, and
frequently also hysterical persons have peculiar obsessions. They fancy they
cannot perform certain actions unless they are preceded by certain words and
gestures.
The susceptibility of the patient to suggestion should also be tested, to determine
what value can be attached to his assertions. Sufferers from hysteria and general
paralysis are like children, highly susceptible to suggestion, not necessarily of
an hypnotic nature. If you tell an hysterical person with conviction that he
suffers pain in a certain part of his body, is feverish or pale or something of the
sort, he will inform you spontaneously after a few minutes that he feels pain or
fever, etc. After a crime of a startling nature has been committed by some
unknown person, it not unfrequently happens that some hysterical subject,
generally a youth, who imagines he has been accused of the crime by the
neighbours or his acquaintances, becomes convinced that he is really guilty and
gives himself up to the police.
Speech. Special attention should be directed during the examination to the way
in which the patient replies to questions and his mode of pronunciation. There
may be peculiarities of pronunciation and stammering, characteristic of certain
forms of mental alienation, or at any rate of some nervous anomaly; or
articulation may be tremulous and forced, as in precocious dementia and chronic
inebriety. In other cases the words are jumbled and confused, especially if long
and difficult. In the first stages of progressive paralysis the letter r is not
pronounced. To test this anomaly, which is of great importance in the diagnosis,
the patient should be requested to pronounce difficult words, such as,
corroborate, reread, rewrite, etc.
In order not to lose such valuable indications, in cases where personal
examination is impossible, phonograph impressions of conversations between
the patient and some third person will serve as a substitute.

The inquiry may reveal still more serious anomalies in the ideas, intelligence,
and mental condition of the patient. Sometimes the answers given are sensible
but are followed by nonsense. Other patients, especially when afflicted with
melancholia, speak unwillingly, as if the words were forced from them, one by
one. Idiots, cretins, and demented persons are sometimes incapable of
expressing themselves. Some patients who have had apoplectic strokes
substitute one word for another, "bread" for "wine," etc., or elide one part of the
sentence and only repeat the last word.
Memory. To form an idea of the memory of the subject, questions should be put
to him concerning recent and remote personal facts and circumstances, the year
in which he or his children were born, what he had for his supper on the
previous evening, etc., etc.
Visual memory may be tested by giving the patient a sheet of paper, on which
are drawn various common objects, letters, or easy words. He should be allowed
to look at these for five or ten seconds and requested to enumerate them after the
paper has been withdrawn. In order to test the memory of sounds, the examiner
should utter five or six easy words and ask the patient to repeat them
immediately afterwards.
To test sense of colour, a picture on which various colours are painted is placed
before the patient, as well as a skein of wool of the same shade as one of the
colours in the picture, which he is requested to point out.
Handwriting is very important, particularly in distinguishing a born criminal
from a lunatic, and between the various kinds of mental alienation.
Monomaniacs and mattoids (cranks) who give the police the most trouble often
speak in a perfectly sane manner, but pour out all their insanity on paper,
without an examination of which it is not easy to detect mental derangement.
They write with rapidity and at great length. Their pockets, bags, etc., are
always full of sheets of paper covered with small handwriting, sometimes
scribbled in all directions. The matter is generally absurd or simply stupid,
consisting of endless repetitions.
Individuals in the first stage of paralysis make orthographical errors, which
coincide with their mistakes in pronunciation, like Garigaldi, instead of
Garibaldi. Care must be taken to test this defect thoroughly. If the patient is
fairly well-educated, his signature, which is the last to alter, is not sufficient; nor
are a few lines a satisfactory test, since he can easily concentrate his attention on

them, but he should be requested to write a page or two and be exhorted to make
haste.
Alcoholism and paralysis generally give rise to tremulous handwriting with
unsteady strokes, as in old people. After epileptic seizures and attacks of
hysteria the writing is shaky. The slightest trembling of the hand is detected if
Edison's electric pen be used.
In progressive general paralysis and some forms of dementia shakiness is so
excessive that it becomes dysgraphy, with zigzag letters. The handwriting of
persons subject to apoplectic strokes has often the appearance of copper-plate.
Monomaniacs intersperse their writings with illustrations and symbols. They
write very closely in imitation of print, as do mattoids, hysterical persons, and
megalomaniacs, and use many notes of exclamation and capital letters. Their
writings are full of badly-spelled words, scrolls, and flourishes.
Criminals guilty of sanguinary offences generally have a clumsy but energetic
handwriting and cross their t's with dashing strokes. The handwriting of thieves
can scarcely be distinguished from that of ordinary persons, but the handwriting
of swindlers is easier to recognise, as it generally lacks clearness although it
preserves a certain uniformity. The signature is usually indecipherable and
enveloped in an infinite number of arabesques.
Clothing. The manner in which a patient is dressed often gives an exact
indication of his individuality. Members of those secret organizations of Naples
and Sicily, the Camorra and Mafia, are fond of dressing in a loud manner with
an abundance of jewelry. Murderers, epileptics, and the morally insane, who
lead isolated lives, attach no importance to dress and are frequently dirty and
shabby. (See Fig. 26, A. D., a morally insane epileptic, the perpetrator of three
murders.) Swindlers are always dressed in faultless style, the cinædus is fond of
giving his costume a feminine air, and monomaniacs trick themselves out with
ribbons, decorations, and medals: their clothes are generally of a strange cut.
The cretin and the idiot go about with their clothes torn and in disorder and not
infrequently emit a strong odour of ammonia.

Physical Examination

Having carefully investigated the past history of the subject and made a minute
study of his abnormal psychic phenomena, the expert should proceed to the
examination of his physical characters.

Chapter I of Part I contains a detailed description of the principal
physiognomical anomalies of the criminal that may be discerned by the naked
eye. They will now be briefly recapitulated.
Skin. The skin frequently shows scars and (in the epileptic subject to seizures)
lesions on the elbows and temples. Marks of wounds inflicted in quarrels and
attempted suicide are frequent in habitual criminals. The forehead and nose must
be examined for traces of acne rosacea frequent in drunkards, and for erythema
on the back of the hands, characteristic of pellagra. Ichthyosis, psoriasis, or
other skin diseases are very common in cases of mental alienation, and scurvy
often indicates long seclusion in prison.
Tattooing. Great care must be taken to ascertain whether the subject is tattooed,
and if so, on what parts of his body. Tattooing often reveals obscenity,
vindictiveness, cupidity, and other characteristics of the patient, besides
furnishing his name or initials, that of his native town or village, and the symbol
of the trade he refuses to reveal (sometimes such indications have been blurred
or effaced). (See Fig. 27.)
One of the chief proofs showing the untruthfulness of the statements made by
the Tichborne claimant was the fact that his person was devoid of tattooing,
whereas it was well known that Roger Tichborne had been tattooed.
Tattooing often reveals the psychology, habits, and vices of the individual. The
tattooing on pederasts usually consists of portraits of those with whom they have
unnatural commerce, or phrases of an affectionate nature addressed to them. A
pederast and forger examined by Professor Filippi was tattooed on his forearm
with a sentimental declaration addressed to the object of his unnatural desires; a
criminal convicted of rape was covered with pictorial representations of his
obscene adventures. From these few instances, it is apparent that these personal
decorations are of the utmost value as evidence of hidden vices and crimes.
Wrinkles. We have already spoken of the abundance and precocity of wrinkles in
born criminals. They are also a characteristic of the insane.
The following are of special importance: the vertical and horizontal lines on the
forehead, the oblique and triangular lines of the brows, the horizontal or
circumflex lines at the root of the nose and the vertical and horizontal lines on
the neck. (The ferocious leader of a band of criminals at twenty-five, and a
savage murderer under thirty years of age.)

Beard. The beard is scanty in born criminals and often altogether absent in
epileptics. On the other hand, it is common in insane females and in normal
women after the menopause. Degenerates of both sexes frequently manifest
characteristics of the opposite sex in the distribution of hair on the body. A tuft
of hair in the sacro-lumbar region, suggestive of the tail of the mythological
faun, is frequently found in epileptics and idiots, and in some cases the back and
breast are covered with thick down which makes them resemble animals.
The hair covering the head is generally thick and dark, the growth is often
abnormal with square or triangular zones growing in a different direction from
the rest, or in small tufts like those inserted in a brush. Still more frequently do
we find anomalies in the position of the vortex, or that point whence the hair-
growth diverges circularly, which in normal persons is nearly always situated on
the crown. In degenerates it is frequently on one side of the head and in cretins
on the forehead. Precocious greyness and baldness are common in the insane
criminals, and cretins, on the contrary, show these initial signs of senility at a
much later period than normal persons.
Teeth. The greatest percentage of anomalies is found in the incisors; next come
the premolars, the molars, and lastly the canines. In criminals, especially if
epileptics, the middle incisors of the upper jaw are sometimes missing and their
absence is compensated by the excessive development of the lateral incisors. In
other cases the lateral incisors are of the same size as the middle ones, and
sometimes the teeth are so nearly uniform that it is difficult to distinguish
between incisors, canines, and molars, a circumstance which recalls the
homodontism of the lower vertebrates. After the incisors, the premolars show
the greatest number of anomalies. While in normal persons they are smaller than
the molars, in degenerates they are frequently of the same size or even larger.
Supernumerary teeth, amounting sometimes to a double row, are not
uncommon. In other cases there is extraordinary development of the canines.
Inherited degeneracy from inebriate, syphilitic, or tuberculous parents frequently
manifests itself in rickety teeth with longitudinal and transverse striæ or
serration of the edges, due to irregularities in the formation of the enamel. In
idiots and epileptics, dentition is often backward and stunted; the milk-teeth are
not replaced by others, or are almond-shaped and otherwise of abnormal aspect.
Ears. The ears of criminals and epileptics exhibit a number of anomalies. They
are sometimes of abnormal size or stand out from the face. Darwin's tubercle,
which is like a point turned forward when the helix folds over, and turned
backward when the helix is flat, is frequently encountered in the ears of

degenerates. The lobe is subject to a great many anomalies, sometimes it is
absent altogether, in some cases it adheres to the face or is of huge dimensions
and square in shape. Sometimes the helix is prolonged so as to divide the concha
in two. Idiots often show excessive development of the anti-helix, while the
helix itself is reduced to a flattened strip.
Eyes. The eyebrows are generally bushy in murderers and violators of women.
Ptosis, a species of paralysis of the upper lid, which gives the eye a half-closed
appearance, is common in all criminals; but more frequently we find strabismus,
a want of parallelism in the visual axes, bichromatism of the iris, and rigidity of
the pupils.
Nose. In thieves the base of the nose often slants upwards, and this characteristic
of rogues is so common in Italy that it has given rise to a number of proverbs.
The nose is often twisted in epileptics, flattened and trilobate in cretins.
Jaws. Enormous maxillary development is one of the most frequent anomalies
in criminals and is related to the greater size of the zygomæ and teeth. (See Fig.
27.) The lemurian apophysis already alluded to is not uncommon.
Chin. This part of the face, which in Europeans is generally prominent, round
and proportioned to the size of the face, in degenerates as in apes is frequently
receding, flat, too long or too short.
These anomalies may be studied rapidly with the naked eye, but height, weight,
the proportions of the various parts of the body, shape of the skull, etc., should
be measured with the aid of special instruments.
Height. Criminals are rarely tall. Like all degenerates, they are under medium
height. Imbeciles and idiots are remarkably undersized. The span of the arms,
which in normal persons about equals the height, is often disproportionately
wide in criminals. The hands are either exaggeratedly large or exaggeratedly
small.

Fig. 27

Anton Otto Krauser
Apache
(see page 236)

The height of a patient must be compared with the mean height of his fellow-
countrymen, or, to be more exact, of those inhabitants of his native province or
district who are, needless to say, of the same age and social condition. The
average height of a male Italian of twenty is 5 feet 4 inches (1.624 m.), that of a
female of the same age, 5 feet (1.525 m.). The distances from the sole of the foot
to the navel and from the navel to the top of the head are in ratio of 60 to 40, if
the total height be taken as 100.
These measurements may be effected very rapidly by using the
tachyanthropometer invented by Anfossi (see Fig. 29). It consists of a vertical
column against which the subject under examination places his shoulders, a
horizontal bar adjustable vertically until it rests on the shoulders, and can be
used at the same time for ascertaining the length of the arms and middle finger:
a graduated sliding scale in the vertical column for rapid measurements of the
other parts of the body and a couple of scales at the base for measuring the feet.
Weight. In proportion to their height, criminals generally weigh less than normal
individuals, whose weight in kilogrammes is given by the decimal figures of his
height as expressed in metres and centimetres.

Head. The head, or
rather the skull, the
shape of which is
influenced by the
cerebral mass it
contains, is rarely
free from
anomalies, and for
this reason the
careful
examination of this
part is of the
utmost importance.
We have no means
of studying subtle
cranial alterations
in the living Fig. 29
Fig. 30 subject, but we can Anthropometer
Craniograph Anfossi ascertain the form
and capacity of his
skull. This is rendered easy and rapid by means of a
very convenient craniograph invented by Anfossi (see Fig. 30), which traces the
cranial profile on a piece of specially prepared cardboard.
In the absence of a craniometer, measurements may be taken with calipers, the
arms of which are curved like the ordinary pelvimeters used in obstetrics (see
Fig. 31), and a graduated steel tape.
The following are the principal measurements:
1. Maximum antero-posterior diameter, which is obtained by applying one arm
of the instrument above the root of the nose just between the eyebrows and
sliding the other arm over the vault of the skull till it reaches the occiput. The
distance between the two arms furnishes the maximum longitudinal diameter.
2. The maximum transverse diameter or breadth of the skull is measured by
placing the arms of the calipers, one on each side of the head on the most
prominent spot.
3. The antero-posterior curve is obtained by fixing the graduated tape at zero on
the root of the nose (on the fronto-nasal suture) and passing it over the middle of

the forehead, vertex, and occiput to the
external occipital protuberance.
4. The transverse, or biauricular curve is
obtained by applying the steel tape at zero to a
point just above the ear, and carrying it over
the head in a vertical direction till it reaches
the corresponding point on the other side.
5. The maximum circumference is obtained by
encircling the head with the steel tape,
touching the forehead immediately above the
eyebrows, the occiput at the most prominent
point, and the sides of the head more or less at
the level, where the external ear joins the head,
according to whether the position of the
occipital protuberance is more or less elevated. Fig. 31
(See Figs. 32, 33.) Pelvimeter
6. The cranial capacity is obtained by adding
together these five measurements, the antero-posterior diameter, maximum
transverse diameter, antero-posterior curve, transverse curve, and maximum
circumference. For a normal male the capacity is generally 92 inches (1500 c.c).

Fig. 32 Fig. 33
Diagram of Skull

7. The cephalic index is obtained by multiplying the maximum width by 100
and dividing the product by the maximum length, according to the following
formula:

W × 100
——— = X (cephalic index).
L

If the longitudinal diameter is 200 and the transverse diameter 100, the cephalic
index is 10,000 divided by 200 = 50.
The cephalic indices of degenerates, like their height, have only a relative
importance; that is, when they are compared with the mean cephalic index
prevalent in the regions of which the subject is a native. The cephalic index of
Italians varies between 77.5 (Sardinians) and 85.9 (Piedmontese).
Skulls are classified according to the cephalic index, in the following manner:

Hyperdolichocephalic under 66
Dolichocephalic 66-75
Subdolichocephalic 75-77
Mesaticephalic 77-80
Subbrachycephalic 80-83
Brachycephalic 83-90
Hyperbrachycephalic above 90

We shall find among criminals frequent instances of microcephaly,
macrocephaly, and asymmetry, one side of the head being larger than the other.
Sometimes the skull is pointed in the bregmatic region (hypsicephaly),
sometimes it is narrow in the frontal region in correlation to the insertion of the
temporal muscles and the excessive development of the zygomatic arches
(stenocrotaphy, see Fig. 5, Part I., Chapter I.), or depression of the bregmatic
region (cymbocephaly).
Face. We have already remarked on the excessive size of the face compared
with the brain-case, owing chiefly to the high cheek-bones, which are one of the
most salient characteristics of criminals, and to the enormous development of

the jaws, which gives them the appearance of ferocious animals (see Fig. 5). To
these peculiarities may be added progeneismus, the projection of the lower jaw
beyond the upper, a characteristic found only in 10% of normal persons,
receding forehead as in apes, and the lemurian apophysis already mentioned.
Arms and Hands. With the exception of the excessive length as compared with
the stature, anomalies in the arms are rare, but the hands show some interesting
characteristics, which have already been described in the first chapter of Part I,
an increase or decrease in the number of fingers and syndactylism or palmate
fingers. Also the lines in the palm and those on the palmar surfaces of the finger-
tips show deviations from the normal type resembling characteristics of apes.
Feet. Degenerates and more especially epileptics, frequently have flat or
prehensile feet and an elongated big-toe with which, like the Japanese, they are
able to grasp objects.
All these anomalies vary in number and degree according to whether the subject
examined is a born criminal or a criminaloid, and according, also, to the special
type of crime to which he is addicted. Thieves commonly show great mobility of
the face and hands. Their eyes are small, shifty and obliquely placed, and glance
rapidly from one object to another. The eyebrows are bushy and close together,
the nose twisted or flattened, beard scanty, hair not particularly abundant,
forehead small and receding, and the ears standing out from the head. Projecting
ears are common also to sexual offenders, who have glittering eyes, delicate
physiognomy excepting the jaws, which are strongly developed, thick lips,
swollen eyelids, abundant hair, and hoarse voices. They are often slight in build
and hump-backed, sometimes half impotent and half insane, with malformation
of the nose and reproductive organs. They frequently suffer from hernia and
goitre and commit their first offences at an advanced age.
The cinædus is distinguished by his feminine air. He wears his hair long and
plaited, and even in prison his clothing seems to retain its feminine aspect. The
genitals are frequently atrophied, the skin glabrous, and gynecomastia not
uncommon.
The eyes of murderers are cold, glassy, immovable, and bloodshot, the nose
aquiline, and always voluminous, the hair curly, abundant, and black. Strong
jaws, long ears, broad cheek-bones, scanty beard, strongly developed canines,
thin lips, frequent nystagmus and contractions on one side of the face, which
bare the canines in a kind of menacing grin, are other characteristics of the
assassin.

Forgers and swindlers wear a singular, stereotyped expression of amiability on
their pale faces, which appear incapable of blushing and assume only a more
pallid hue under the stress of any emotion. They have small eyes, twisted and
large noses, become bald and grey-haired at an early age, and often possess
faces of a feminine cast.

Sensibility

This external inspection of the criminal should be followed by a minute
examination of his senses and sensibility.

Fig. 34
Esthesiometer

General Sensibility and Sensibility to Touch and Pain. Tactile sensibility should
be measured by Weber's esthesiometer, which consists of two pointed legs, one
of which is fixed at the end of a scale graduated in millimetres, along which the
other slides (see Fig. 34). After separating the two points three or four
millimetres, they are placed on the finger-tips of the patient, who closes his eyes
and is asked to state whether he feels two points or one. Normal individuals feel
the points as two when they are only 2 mm. or 2.5 mm. apart; when, however,
tactile sensibility is obtuse (as in most criminals) the points must be separated
from 3 to 4.5 mm. or even more, before they are felt as two. Obtuseness varies
with the type of crime committed habitually by the subject; in burglars,
swindlers, and assaulters, being approximately double, while in violators,
murderers, and incendiaries it stands in the ratio of 5 to 1 compared with normal
persons.
In the absence of an esthesiometer, a rough calculation may be made by using an
ordinary drawing compass or even a hairpin, separating the two points and

measuring with the eye the distance at which they are felt to be separate.
General Sensibility and Sensibility to Pain are measured by a common electric
apparatus (Du Bois-Reymond), adapted by Lombroso for use as an algometer.
(See Fig. 35.) It consists of an induction coil, put into action by a bichromate
battery. The poles of the secondary coil are placed in contact with the back of
the patient's hand and brought slowly up behind the index finger, when the
strength of the induced current is increased until the patient feels a prickling
sensation in the skin (general sensibility) and subsequently a sharp pain
(sensibility to pain). The general sensibility of normal individuals is 40 and the
sensibility to pain, 10-25: the sensibility of the criminal is much less acute and
sometimes non-existent.
Sensibility to Pressure. Various metal cubes of equal size but different weight,
are placed two by two, one on each side, on different parts of the back of the
hand. The patient is then asked to state which of any two weights is the lighter
or heavier. This sense is fairly acute in criminals.
Sensibility to Heat. Experiments are made by placing on the skin of the patient
various receptacles filled with water at different temperatures. If great exactitude
is desirable, Nothnagel's thermo-esthesiometer should be used. This is an
instrument very similar to Weber's esthesiometer, but the points are replaced by
receptacles filled with water of varying heat and furnished with thermometers.
The patient must state which is the colder, and which the hotter spot. Sensibility
to heat is less acute in criminals than in normal individuals.
Localisation of Sensibility. After the patient has been requested to close his eyes,
various parts of his body are touched with the finger and he is asked to point out
the exact spot touched. Should he not be able to reach it with his finger, a
statuette should be placed before him on which he should mark with a pencil the
part touched. Normal persons are always able to localise the sensation exactly:
inability to do so signifies disease of the brain or some kind of anomaly.
Sensibility to Metals is tested by placing discs of different metals, copper, zinc,
lead, and gold, or the poles of a magnet, on the frontal and occipital parts of the
patient's head. Sometimes he feels pricking or heat, giddiness, somnolence, or a
sense of bodily well-being. In general, criminals show great sensibility to
metals; in hysterical persons this sensibility reaches an extraordinary degree of
acuteness. By applying a magnet to the nape of the neck, the sensations of such
individuals become polarised, that is, what appeared white to them before
becomes black; bitter, what was formerly sweet, or vice versa. This is an

excellent way of distinguishing between bona-fide cases of hysteria and sham
ones. My father once detected simulation in a soi-disant hysterical patient by
means of a piece of wood shaped and coloured to represent a magnet. On
application of either magnet, the real or sham one, the patient's sensations were
identical, whereas hysterical persons experience very diverse sensations and are
able to distinguish very sharply between the contact, not only of wood and
metal, but of the different kinds of metal, and are particularly sensitive to the
magnet.

Fig. 35 Fig. 36

Campimeter of Landolt
Algometer
(Modified)
(see page 246)
(see page 249)

Sight—Acuteness of Vision—Chromatic Sensibility—Field of Vision. Visual
acuteness is tested by holding letters of a specified size at a certain distance.
Sight is generally more acute in criminals than in normal persons; not so,
chromatic sensibility, which is tested by giving the patient a number of skeins of
different coloured silks, and requesting him to arrange them in series. Persons
afflicted with dyschromatopsia confuse the different colours and the different
shades of the same colour. Colour-blind people confuse black and red.

Especially important is the examination of the field of vision, as the seat of one
of the most serious anomalies discovered by the Modern School, the presence of
peripheral scotoma, frequently found in epileptics and born criminals. To test
this anomaly, use should be made of Landolt's apparatus (Fig. 36). This consists
of a semicircular band, which can revolve around a column. The patient rests his
chin on a support placed in front of the semicircle in such a manner that the eye
under examination is exactly in the centre, and looks directly at the middle point
of the semicircle, corresponding to 0 in the scale: the testing object, a small ball,
is passed backwards or forwards along the semicircle. A graduated scale, placed
on the semicircle, marks the point limiting the field of vision, and the result is
registered on a diagram. The average limit of the normal field of vision is 90
mm. on the temporal side, 55 mm. on the nasal side, 55 mm. above and 60 mm.
below (see Fig. 37). If a suitable instrument is not available, a series of
concentric circles may be traced on a slate and the patient placed at a certain
distance with one eye covered. The examiner then touches the different points of
the circles with his hand and asks the patient whether he can see it when his eye
is fixed on the central point. In this way the various points limiting the field of
vision are noted and furnish, when united, the boundary line.

Fig. 37
Diagram Showing Normal Vision

Hearing is generally less acute in the criminal than in the normal individual,
but does not show special anomalies. It may be tested by speaking in a low
voice at a certain distance from the patient, or by holding an ordinary watch
a little way from his ear.
Smell. Olfactory acuteness is tested by solutions of essences of varying
strength, which the patient should be requested to place in order, indicating
the one in which he first detects an odour. Ottolenghi has invented a
graduated osmometer which is easy to use. The criminal generally shows
olfactory obtuseness.
Taste is tested in the same way as smell, by varying solutions of saccharine
or strychnine dropped on to the patient's tongue by means of a special
medicine dropper. The mouth should be rinsed out each time. Normal
persons taste the bitterness of sulphate of strychnine in a solution
1:600,000; the sweetness of saccharine in a solution 1:100,000. The sense
of taste is less acute in criminaloids than in normal persons, and is specially
obtuse in born criminals, 33% of whom show complete obtuseness.

Movements. Normal individuals in a state of repose remain almost
motionless, and their gestures are always appropriate. Lunatics and
imbeciles have a habit of speaking and gesticulating even when they are not
interrogated. Nervous diseases manifest themselves in facial contortions or
slight spasmodic contractions. In melancholia and all forms of depression,
the patient does not gesticulate but remains immovable like a statue with his
eyes cast down. Degenerates manifest a fairly varied series of involuntary
motions,—twitchings of the muscles, as in chorea, tonic and clonic
convulsions and tremors. In senility, chorea, and Parkinson's disease, the
tremors are incessant and continue even when the body is in a state of
repose; in sclerosis, goitre, and chronic inebriety they accompany voluntary
movements, and in this case they are easily detected by making the patient
lift the tip of his finger to his nose or a filled glass to his lips. The nearer the
hand approaches its goal, the more intense the oscillations become. Above
all, the examiner should not fail to ask the patient to put out his tongue. If it
protrudes on one side, it is a sign of a serious nervous alteration and nearly
always denotes the beginning or remains of paralysis, or partial apoplectic
strokes.
Muscular Strength is measured by a common dynamometer (Fig. 38),
which the patient is requested to grasp with all his might. Compressive
strength is tested by compressing the oval. In order to test tractive strength,
the dynamometer is fastened to a nail at the point C, and the patient pulls
with all his strength at D. The effort is registered on a graduated scale and is
of importance for detecting left-handedness and measuring the
extraordinary force that is displayed in certain states of excitement.

Fig. 38
Dynamometer

Reflex Action consists of movements and contractions produced by an
impression exciting the nerves of the cutis (cutaneous reflex) or tendons
(tendinous reflex).
Cutaneous Reflex Movements may be tested by placing the patient in a
recumbent position and stroking methodically certain parts of the body, the
sole of the foot (plantar reflex), the under side of the knee-joint (popliteal
reflex), the abdominal wall (abdominal reflex). Certain reflex movements
are of special importance: the cremasteric reflex, on the inner side of the
thigh (obtuse in old people and individuals addicted to onanism), the reflex
action of the mucous membrane covering the cornea (suspended during
stupor, coma, and epileptic convulsions), and the pharyngeal reflex along
the isthmus of the fauces (absent in hysterical persons).
The dilatation and contraction of the pupil in accommodation to the
distance of the object viewed or in response to light stimuli is undoubtedly
the most important cutaneous reflex movement. It may be tested by
requesting the patient to look at a distant object and immediately afterwards
at the examiner's finger, placed close to his eye, or bringing him suddenly
from semi-darkness into the light. If the pupil reacts very slightly to the
light, it is called torpid: if it does not react at all, it is called rigid. Rigidity
of the pupil always denotes some serious nervous disturbance. In certain
diseases, especially tabes, the pupils do not respond to light stimuli, but
accommodate themselves to objects.
Tendinous Reflex Action may be tested in every part of the body, but the
rotular reflex movement is generally sufficient. The patient is asked to sit
on the edge of the bed or on a chair with his legs crossed. If he is healthy,
the reflex movement is fairly strong, but in some illnesses spastic
movements may be provoked and extend to the abdomen (exaggerated
reflex action); in others no reflex is forthcoming. This is one of the first
symptoms of tabes.

Fig. 39

Head of an Italian Criminal

Urine and Feces. As the functions are anomalous, the chemical changes
must also be anomalous, owing to the correlation of organs. In born
criminals there is a diminished excretion of nitrogen, whereas that of
chlorides is normal. The elimination of phosphoric acid is increased,
especially when compared with the nitrogen excreted. Pepton is sometimes
found in the excretions of paralytic persons in whom there is always an
increased elimination of phosphates and calcium carbonate.
The temperature is generally higher than in normal persons, and, more
important still, varies less in febrile illnesses.

For the reader's convenience, I have drawn up a list of the different points
that should be noted in a careful examination.
Table showing the Anthropological Examination of Insane and Criminal
Patients (drawn up by Tamburini, Strassmann, Benelli, and Mario

Carrara).

A Anamnesis. Name—surname—nationality—domicile
— —profession—age—education.
Economic and hygienic conditions of native place.
Family circumstances—pre-natal conditions—infancy
—puberty.
Causes to which decease of parents may be attributed.
Cases of insanity—neurosis—imbecility—perversity—
suicide—crime—or eccentricity in the family.
Progressive diseases or trauma in the subject.
Offence and causes thereof.

B Physique. Skeletal development—height—span of the
— arms.

C
Physical Examination. Muscular development.
—
Colour of hair and eyes.
Quantity and distribution of hair.
Tattooing.
Craniometry: Antero-posterior diameter—transverse
diameter— antero-posterior curve—transverse curve—
cephalic index—type and anomalies of the skull—
circumference—probable capacity—semi-
circumference (anterior, posterior)—forehead—face,
length, diameter (bizygomatic and bigoniac)—facial
type—facial index—anomalies of conformation and
development in the skull, in the face, in the ears, in the
teeth, in other parts.

D
Functions.
—

E Animal Life. Sensibility: meteoric—tactile—thermal—
— dolorific and muscular—visual—auditory—of the
other senses.
Motivity: Sensory left-handedness—motory left-
handedness—voluntary and involuntary movements—
reflex action (tendinous or muscular, abnormal,
chorea).

F
Vegetative Life. Muscular strength.
—
Circulation.
Respiration.
Thermo-genesis.
Digestion: Rumination—bulimy—vomiting—
dyspepsia—constipation—diarrhœa.
Secretions: Milk—saliva—perspiration—urine—
menstruation.
Dyscrasia: poisoning.

G
Psychic Examination. Language—writing—slang.
—
Attention—perception.
Memory (textual)—reason.
Dreams—excitability—passions.
Sentiments: Affection—morality—religion.
Instincts and tendencies.
Moral character—industry.
Physiognomical expression.
Education—aptitudes.

H Morbid Phenomena. Illusions—hallucinations—
— delusions—susceptibility to suggestion.

I
Offences.
—
Cause of first offence: Environment—occasion—
spontaneous or premeditated—drunkenness.
Conduct after the offence: Repentance—recidivation.

CHAPTER II

SUMMARY OF THE CHIEF FORMS OF CRIMINALITY TO
AID IN DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN CRIMINALS AND
LUNATICS AND IN DETECTING SIMULATIONS OF
INSANITY. A FEW CASES SHOWING THE PRACTICAL
APPLICATION OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY

T HE cases described in this chapter show the necessity of being able to
estimate correctly accusations made against insane persons by criminals
or normal individuals. Since, moreover, criminals are prone to sham
insanity in order to avoid punishment, I sum up the characteristics that
distinguish the various types of criminals. With regard to insane criminals,
it must be remembered that every form of mental alienation assumes a
specific criminality.
The idiot is addicted to bursts of rage, savage assaults, and homicide. His
unbridled sexual appetite prompts him to commit rape. He is sometimes
guilty of arson in order to gratify a childish pleasure at the sight of the
flames.
The imbecile or weak-minded egotist is a frequent though unnecessary
accomplice in nearly every crime, owing to his susceptibility to suggestion
and incapability of understanding the gravity of his actions.
Melancholia is often the cause of suicide or homicide (as a species of
indirect suicide). The sufferer generally confesses and gives himself up to

the police. Delusions that he is being poisoned or insulted are often the
cause of the murders committed by this type of lunatic.
Maniacs commit robbery, rape, homicide, and arson, and behave indecently
in public.
Stealing is common among those afflicted with general paralysis, who
believe everything they see belongs to them, or do not understand the
meaning of property.
Dementia causes general cerebral irritation, which frequently results in
murder and violence.
Hysterical persons invent slanders, especially of an erotic nature. They are
given to sexual aberrations and delight in fraud and extravagant actions to
make themselves notorious.
Persons subject to a mania for litigation offend statesmen and others.
Epileptics, of whom born criminals and the morally insane are the most
dangerous variety, are familiar with the whole scale of criminality. Their
special offences are assault and battery, rape, theft, and forgery. The first
offences are committed intermittingly at the prompting of attacks of cortical
irritation, the last two almost continuously owing to a state of constant
irritation.
To distinguish between genuine insanity and simulation, it must be
remembered that exaggeration of the symptoms is one of the chief
characteristics of shamming. The simulator exaggerates the morbid
phenomena and manifests a greater inco-ordination of ideas than does the
genuine lunatic who gives sensible replies to simple questions, whereas the
simulator talks nonsense. For instance, if a simulator is asked his name, his
answer will show no connection with the question. He will say, perhaps:
"Did you bring the bill?" or if asked how old he is, will answer: "I am not
hungry."
Above all, in order to distinguish between dementia, idiocy, cretinism, and
an imitation of these forms, a minute somatic examination is necessary. It
should be remarked that in idiots, imbeciles, and cretins we generally find
hypertrophy of the connective tissues, earthen hue, scanty beard,

stenocrotaphy, malformations of the skull, ears, teeth, face, and especially
jaws, and there are invariably anomalies in the field of vision, lessened
sensibility to touch and pain (which cannot be simulated since pain
invariably produces dilatation of the pupils), meteoric sensibility, attacks of
hemicrania, neuralgia, hallucinations, and even convulsions, epileptic fits,
tremors disposing to propulsive forms, and, psychologically, absence of
natural feeling, sadism, and the inability to adopt a regular occupation.
When dealing with a simulation of epilepsy, it must be borne in mind that
the epileptic always manifests salient degenerate characteristics, especially
asymmetry of the face, skull, and thorax; and a careful investigation reveals
neurosis of some kind in the family and trauma or serious illness in
childhood. During the seizure, the pupil does not react (this cannot be
simulated) or there is excessive mydriasis. The sudden pallor, and the
exhaustion which follows the fit, are absent in the simulator, nor does he
bite his tongue or injure himself in other ways. Furthermore, he reacts at the
application of ammonia, and as he is not in that state of asphyxia in which
the epileptic lies during the fit, the closing of his mouth and nostrils
likewise produces a reaction.
Hysteria. Here the detection of shamming is more difficult, since deceit is a
characteristic of this disease. Tests with metals, to which hysterical persons
are extremely sensitive, suggestion and hypnotism should be resorted to.
The character of the crime should be specially considered, because, as we
stated, the foundation of hysteria is an erotic one, and offences committed
by the hysterical are nearly always of this nature in the means or the end.
An examination of sensibility with suitable instruments, and of reflex
action, is to be recommended in all cases.

Practical Application of Criminal Anthropology

The minute study of the criminal admits of infinite applications. It is
generally used in deciding to which category of crime a particular offender
belongs, whether he is a born criminal, a morally insane subject, an
occasional criminal, or a criminaloid; but in certain cases the examination
may be of value in establishing the innocence of an accused person, or in

recognising in an accuser an insane individual whose accusation originates
in some delusion and not in a knowledge of the facts.

An Accused Man Proved Innocent by The Anthropological
Examination

On the 12th of January, 1902, a little girl of six, living at Turin, suddenly
disappeared. Two months later, the corpse was discovered hidden in a case
in a cellar of the very house the little victim had inhabited. It bore traces of
criminal violence and the clothing was in disorder. Various persons were
arrested, among them a coachman named Tosetti, who had been seen joking
and playing with the child on several occasions.
Tosetti was of honest extraction, his grandparents and parents having died at
an advanced age (between sixty and ninety) without having manifested
nervous anomalies, vices, or crimes. Tosetti himself, although fond of
drinking, was rarely, if ever, intoxicated, and was an individual of quiet,
peaceful aspect with a benevolent smile and serenity of look and
countenance. His hair had become grey at an early age, and he was devoid
of any degenerate characteristics except excessive maxillary development.
[Height 5 feet, 7 inches (1.70 m.); weight, 158 lbs. (72 kilogrammes);
cranial capacity, 93 inches (1531 c.c.); cephalic index, 84 (brachycephaly;
characteristic of the Piedmontese); tactile sensibility, 3 mm. left, 2.5 mm.
right; general sensibility, 83 right, 78 left; sensibility to pain, 55 right, 45
left. The sensibility was, therefore, almost normal without any trace of left-
handedness. Analysis of urine—absence of earthy phosphates common to
born criminals. Tendinous reflex action feeble, few cutaneous reflexes, no
tremors. The field of vision was not much reduced but manifested a few
peculiarities, due no doubt to the abuse of alcohol.]
Psychologically, Tosetti appeared to be a man of average or perhaps slightly
less than average intelligence. He was quiet, very respectful, not to say
servile, entirely devoid of impulsiveness of any form, and averse to
quarrels, on which account he was rather despised by his companions. His
natural affections were normal, and he was a good son and brother; he was
excessively timid and disconcerted by the slightest reproof from his
employer. He was rather fond of wine, though not of liquors. His sexual

instincts he had lost very early, a fact which caused his companions to
indulge in many jokes at his expense. His stinginess bordered on avarice,
and he had never changed his trade.
During his trial he showed no resentment against anyone, not even the
police and warders, of whom he said on one occasion, "They have treated
me like a son."
The examination proved beyond a doubt that Tosetti was not a born
criminal, and was incapable of committing the action of which he was
suspected—the murder of a child for purely bestial pleasure.
To obtain stronger proof, my father adopted the plethysmograph and found
a slight diminution of the pulse when Tosetti was set to do a sum; when,
however, skulls and portraits of children covered with wounds were placed
before him, the line registered showed no sudden variation, not even at the
sight of the little victim's photograph.
The results of the foregoing examination proved conclusively that Tosetti
was innocent of a crime which can only be committed by sadists, idiots, and
the most degenerate types of madmen, like Vacher and Verzeni and all
bestial criminals, who have reached the summit of criminality and unite in
their persons the greatest number of morbid physical and psychic
characteristics.
A few months after my father had diagnosed this case, an assault of the
same nature was committed on another little girl living in the same house.
In this case, however, the victim survived and was able to point out the
criminal—an imbecile, afflicted with goitre, stammering, strabismus,
hydrocephaly, trochocephaly, and plagiocephaly, with arms of
disproportionate length, the son and grandson of drunkards, who confessed
the double crime and entreated pardon for the "trifling offence" since he had
always done his duty and swept the staircase, even on the day he committed
the crime.
Other cases of this kind might be cited, but one instance will suffice. I may,
however, mention a case in which my father demonstrated the innocence of
an unfortunate individual who had been sentenced to ten years' penal
servitude and released at the expiration of his sentence. By means of a

thorough examination, which showed a complete absence of criminal
characteristics, my father declared the man to be innocent of the crime for
which he had been imprisoned; and subsequent investigations resulted in
his rehabilitation and the discovery of the actual culprit.

Accusation Proved To Be False by the Anthropological Examination

An individual named Ferreri suddenly disappeared, and ten days later his
corpse was found down a well. The evidence of several persons led to the
arrest of the owner of the well, a certain Fissore, a man of very bad
reputation, with whom Ferreri had been seen on the day of his
disappearance.
On being arrested, Fissore admitted having committed the crime, but not
alone, and named as his accomplices three others, Martinengo, Boulan, and
a prostitute, named Ada. All three strenuously denied their guilt. They all
appeared perfectly normal.
But after a month of investigations, Martinengo, a tipsy porter of thirty-five,
the son and grandson of drunkards, who at first had advanced an alibi, after
being confronted several times with Fissore, admitted his complicity, and in
the latter's absence added various details to his (Fissore's) version.
The four accused persons were examined anthropologically with the
following results:
Boulan had the appearance of an honest country notary with broad
forehead, precocious grey hairs and baldness, small jaws and a well-shaped
mouth. He was a quiet man and had only once come into conflict with the
law, but for an action which is not a crime in the eyes of an anthropologist
(striking a carabinier who had ill-treated his father). He worked hard at his
trade, which was that of a journeyman baker, and showed his kindly nature
by substituting for sick comrades. He showed great attachment to all his
companions, relatives, and family, and was generally beloved. In short, he
was an honest, hard-working man. His alibi was corroborated by several
persons who had been playing cards with him on the evening of the crime.

The second prisoner, Ada, although a prostitute, had never shown other
criminal tendencies; she had adopted her calling in order to maintain her
father and children, of whom she was very fond.
Martinengo, who had admitted his complicity, had no previous convictions.
He was, however, an individual of earthy hue, with precocious wrinkles.
Height, 5 feet, 3 inches (1.60 m.); span of the arms, 5 feet, 7 inches (1.70
m.); flattened, nanocephalous head, normal urine (phosphates 3.1), but
anomalous reflex action and senses. Rigid, unequal pupils, tongue and lips
inclined towards the right, shaky hand, astasia, aphasia, strong rotular reflex
action, absence of cutaneous and cremasteric reflexes, illegible handwriting
—a defect of long standing, since it was also found in writing dating back
nine months before his arrest, uncertainty and errors of pronunciation
(bradyphasia and dysarthria), complete insensibility to touch and the
electric current, which gave him no sensation of pain. On the other hand, he
was subject to unbearable pains in various parts of the body.
He was in the habit of laughing continually, even when reprimanded, or
when sad subjects were mentioned. In spite of sharp pains in the epigastric
region, he appeared to be in a strange state of euphoria or morbid bodily
well-being, which prevented him from realising that he was in prison. He
manifested regret when taken from his cell, where he said he had enjoyed
himself so much in passing the hours in reading. Occasionally he had
hallucinations of ghosts, lizards, mice, etc.
At night, he seemed to suffer from acute mental confusion, which caused
him to spring out of bed. Sometimes he was seized by a fit of chorea,
followed by deep sleep.
These phenomena led my father to the conclusion that Martinengo was an
inebriate in the first stage of paralytical dementia.
The demented paralytic and the imbecile, like children, are easily
influenced by the suggestions of others or their own fancies. Mere reading
may produce a strong impression on such minds, as in the case of the little
girl who accused the Mayor of Gratz of assault, because she had listened to
the account of a similar case; and the impression is intensified when, as in
the case of Martinengo, it is preceded by arrest, seclusion in a cell, the
remarks of magistrates, warders, etc.

In order to test Martinengo's susceptibility to suggestion, my father told him
that his cell was a room in the "Albergo del Sole," the name of a hotel in his
native town. At first the idea amused him, but after a few days he began to
mention it to other persons and at last he firmly believed in it. A few months
later, he was transferred in a state of paralysis to the asylum, and there he
was fond of boasting of the "Albergo del Sole" where he had been staying a
few months before, and where they had treated him to choice dishes, etc.
We now come to Fissore, the accuser of the other three. Investigation of his
origin showed that a male cousin had died raving mad, a female cousin had
died in an asylum, a great-uncle on the maternal side had been crazy and
had committed suicide; another cousin was weak-minded and subject to
fits; another, a deaf-mute, had died in an asylum; another great-uncle was a
drunkard and a loafer; one sister was an idiot, the other had run away from
home, and a brother had been convicted several times.
Giuseppe Fissore had suffered from somnambulism and pavor nocturnus
(fear of darkness) when quite a child; when a little older, he used to get up
in the night, walk about and try to throw himself out of the window. At
school he shunned the company of other boys and grew violently angry
when called by his name. When ten years old, he was bitten by a mad dog
and while being tended in Turin by the wife of an inn-keeper, had an
epileptic seizure. At thirteen, he was seized by another fit, and in falling
broke his arm. His restless and capricious character led him to change his
occupation a great many times; he became, in turn, baker, carpenter,
forester, and farm-labourer. He appeared to have little affection for his
mother and still less for his father, with whom he had come to blows on one
occasion. At the age of twenty, in a quarrel with some companions, one of
them struck him with a sickle and fractured his skull. He had been
convicted several times of theft, assault, etc.
He manifested only a few physical anomalies,—exaggerated facial
asymmetry, due to the disproportionate development of the left side of his
skull, Carrara's lines in the palm of his hands, and a scar resulting from the
fracture of his skull; but the convulsions, the pavor nocturnus, the two fits,
and other characteristics showed him to be an epileptic and an abnormal
individual, and explained how he could have accomplished a murder single-
handed, which was moreover rendered more easy by the fact that the victim

had been drinking heavily. Nor was the crime without a motive, since the
murdered man had been robbed of a large sum of money. The total lack of
moral sense that distinguished Fissore explains why he should have sought
to implicate three persons who had never wronged him for the pleasure of
harming and enjoying the sufferings of others. In fact, during his trial he
made many false accusations against the police merely for the sake of lying,
which is characteristic of degenerates.
Irrefutable alibis and a mass of evidence in favour of the three others
corroborated the anthropological diagnoses and led to their acquittal, while
Fissore was convicted of the crime.

Simulation of Dementia and Aphasia by Morally Insane Subject

In August, 1899, a certain E. M. (see Fig. 44) was removed from prison to
an asylum. Although only eighteen, he had been convicted several times of
theft and robbery. As a child he had always shown a strong dislike to school
and was given to inventing strange falsehoods. In one instance, he asserted
that he had killed and robbed a man, although it was known that he had not
left the house during the time.
After six months in prison, he began to show signs of mental alienation,
with insomnia, loss of speech, and coprophagy. Whenever the cells were
opened, he made wild attempts to escape by climbing up the grating. He
was often seized with epileptic convulsions.
On the 30th of August, 1899, he was examined medically with the
following results:
Stature, 5 ft., 1 in. (1.55 m.); weight, 130 lbs. (59 kilogrammes). Other
measurements could not be obtained, owing to the subject's obstinate
resistance. His skeletal constitution appeared to be regular and his body
well nourished. His skull was brachycephalic, with strongly developed
frontal sinuses, and fine, long, dark-brown hair. In the parieto-occipital
region were a scar and lesion of the bone, the marks of a wound received
during one of his dishonest adventures. He had a normal type of face with
frequent contractions of the mimic muscles; the hair-growth on the face
scanty for his age. Extremely mobile eyes of vivacious expression, slight

strabismus. An examination of the mouth showed a slight obliqueness of the
palate, and the mucous membrane was rather pale. The colourless skin was
inclined to sallowness.
The functions showed an extraordinary degree of cutaneous anæsthesia and
analgesia. In winter and summer the patient wore only a pair of trousers and
a thin jersey covering his chest and leaving the arms bare; these he was
fond of adorning with ribbons and medals. He was in the habit of slipping
pieces of ice between his clothing and skin, and pricking himself on the
chin with a needle for the purpose of inserting hairs in the holes. On one
occasion, one of the doctors came quietly behind him and thrust a needle
rather deeply into the nape of his neck, apparently without producing any
sensation. Various tests were made by pricking him with a needle when
asleep, but without causing the slightest reflex movement on his part.
Psychology. He was subject to strange impulses, which appeared to be
irresistible. On one occasion he was caught cutting off the head of a cat, and
at times he would devour mice, spiders, nails, excrements, and the sputum
of the other patients. He committed acts of self-abuse publicly, with
ostentatious indecency; was in the habit of snatching at bright objects and
frequently tore his clothes. His obstinate mutism procured him the
nickname of "the mute," but he talked in his sleep and replied to questions
by signs.
At first, medical men judged him to be in the first stages of dementia, but
the course of the symptoms and certain biological and psychic data obtained
from the examination led them to the conclusion that the case was one of
simulation by a morally insane individual.
In the first place, the patient's look expressed a certain amount of confusion
and constant distrust; furthermore, it was noticed that the filthy, indecent,
and cruel acts practised by him were committed only when he knew he was
being observed. The warders often saw him retire to a quiet spot and vomit
all the nauseous substances he had swallowed publicly. As soon as he
believed himself to be secure from observation, the usual apathetic look on
his face was replaced by one of vivacity and intelligence.
In November of the same year, although he had not discarded his air of
imbecility, he gave abundant proofs of intelligence. He helped the asylum

barber, and showed skill and neatness in the way he soaped the other
patients' faces, but if a doctor appeared on the scene, he would daub the
soap clumsily in their eyes and mouths. In playing cards he showed no lack
of skill and never missed an opportunity of cheating.
All these facts pointed to shamming, and the suspicions of medical men
were amply confirmed by his escape on the 26th of November. The manner
in which he had prepared and executed this plan showed great astuteness on
his part. Some time before, he had completely changed his clothes and
dressed with a certain amount of elegance. He left a note bidding an
affectionate farewell to everyone. Later on, he confessed to a fellow-
prisoner that he had prepared everything beforehand for his escape as soon
as he should have sufficient money. He also asserted that he had felt pain
when pricked.
Some of the peculiarities manifested in this case, aphasia, insensibility, and
coprophagia, have been noticed in other simulators, and it is easy to see
why morally insane persons, who are naturally insensible and filthy in their
habits, should adopt these peculiarities as traits of their insanity. The
stubborn resistance offered by the subject to all attempts to apply diagnostic
instruments, except those for measuring insensibility, may be explained by
fear lest the simulation should be detected.
Simulators of insanity are generally psycho-physiologically, and often
anatomically, degenerate, and their inferiority obliges them to resort to
violence and trickery—the traits of savage races—to counter-balance their
natural disadvantages. The simulation of insanity resembles in its motive
the mimicry of certain insects which assume a protective resemblance to
other and noxious species. Naturally inferior individuals tend to imitate
characters of a terrifying nature (psychic in this case) which serve to protect
them and enable them to compete with others who are better equipped for
the battle of life.

Mental Derangement and Criminal Monomania Demonstrated by the
Anthropological Examination

In June, 1895, Michele Balmi, aged 30, was arrested for stabbing Maria
Balmi in the neck and hands. The deed had been committed in broad

daylight and apparently without any motive, but the accused asserted that it
was done in revenge, because the girls were always jeering at him.
From evidence given, it appeared that far from insulting Balmi, the girls of
the village were in the habit of avoiding him as much as possible on
account of his lubricity. The testimony of other witnesses, including the
mayor of the place, showed that he was looked upon generally as a semi-
insane person, because in a very short time he had squandered all his
inheritance and had quite ceased to work.
Somatic Examination. Body fairly well nourished, height 5 ft., 3 in. (1.60
m.), weight 150 lbs. (68 kilogrammes). Shape of the skull apparently
normal but more exaggeratedly brachycephalic than the mean cephalic
index of the Piedmontese, which is 85; probable capacity 90 cu. in. (1475
c.c.), or slightly below that of a normal male skull, but proportioned to the
low stature.
General sensibility and sensibility to pain and touch more obtuse on the left,
the general sensibility of the right hand being 68 and the left 81. Dolorific
sensibility, 35 right and 41 left; tactile sensibility, 1.5 right, 3.5 left. The
strength tested by the dynamometer showed 47 on the right and 54 on the
left, which proved that the subject was left-handed.
The field of vision manifested extraordinary irregularities, with serious
scotoma on the inner side of the right eye; on the left side the eye showed
only slight scotoma but there was myopia on the inner side.
Psychic Examination. The behaviour of the subject was very strange. From
the very first day of his imprisonment he seemed to be perfectly calm and
composed, as though nothing had happened. When asked how he found
prison life, he only remarked: "I certainly thought the food was better."
When asked why he had committed the crime, he replied:
"Crime indeed! I have only done my duty. Those women were always
annoying me. Even in the night, they would come tapping at my window
and calling me [acoustic hallucinations] and they insulted me because they
wanted me to marry them."
"Did they insult you during your absence from Italy?"

"Yes, they worried me all the time I was in America. It was no use changing
my occupation. I tried everything; first I was a musician, then a barber, then
I tried weaving, but they went on just the same, until I lost my situations
through them and had to leave the country."
"Have you ever been insane or suffered from pains in the head?"
"At Chicago, all of a sudden, a doctor called on me, but I have never been
mad and should be all right if those women would leave me alone. After all,
I only wanted to give them a lesson."
He showed a profound and unshaken belief in his own assertions, such as is
rare in simulators or in sufferers from melancholia, but is peculiar to
monomaniacs, especially if subject to delusions and convinced that they are
the object of general persecution.
Careful investigation of the crime showed that it was entirely without
motives and had been committed openly without any attempt to escape or to
establish an alibi. It bore no resemblance to ordinary crimes and was clearly
a case of monomania with hallucinations. This diagnosis was confirmed by
the fact of the anomalies in the field of vision and sensibility, the acoustic
hallucinations, and, psychologically, the anomalous nature of the affections
and moral sense.
It was impossible to suppose that any of these peculiarities had been
simulated, because the subject was far too ignorant to be aware of the
importance of hallucinations and alterations in the senses and affections.
Moreover, his whole bearing was that of a man profoundly convinced that
he had done his duty, and he had no motive for shamming to escape
punishment, since it evidently never entered his head that he ran any risk of
incurring it. He was sent to an asylum.

APPENDIX
WORKS OF CESARE LOMBROSO (BRIEFLY
SUMMARISED)

I

The Man of Genius (L'Uomo di Genio)

I N 1863, my father was appointed to deliver a series of lectures on
psychiatry to the University of Pavia. His introductory lecture, "Genius
and Insanity," showed the close relationship existing between genius and
insanity; and the theme proved so absorbingly interesting to him that he
threw himself into the study of the problem with all the ardour of which he
was capable.
Those who have never come into contact with mentally deranged persons
may deem it absurd to mention genius and insanity in the same breath, and
still more absurd to seek to demonstrate the existence of flashes of
inspiration in insane persons. In the minds of most people, the word lunatic
has from earliest childhood conjured up the vision of an incoherent, stupid,
or demented being, with wildly streaming hair, raging in paroxysms of
maniacal fury, or sunk in imbecile apathy; not, certainly, a sharp-witted
individual capable of reasoning logically. But the briefest of visits to an
ordinary asylum will make it plain to any observer that such extreme types
form only a very small minority. The greater number, when drawn outside
the small circle of their delusions, often reason with greater acumen than
normal persons; and their ideas, unhampered by stale prejudices which
hinder freedom of thought, are remarkable for their originality. Fine
fragments of prose and poetry and really beautiful snatches of melody, the
work of inmates of lunatic asylums, were collected by my father and
published, as special monographs, in The Man of Genius; and his museum
at Turin contains specimens of embroidery of marvellously beautiful design
and execution, and carvings of extreme delicacy.

The well-known cases of mathematical, musical, and artistic prodigies and
somnambulists with prophetic gifts, who nevertheless appear to be perfectly
imbecile apart from their special talents, are interesting examples of the
transition from madness to genius. The solving of equations of the fourth
and fifth degree or mental calculations involving the multiplication or
division of a large number of figures, are difficult operations for normal
persons; yet individuals barely able to read and write, and often afflicted
with insanity or imbecility, have been known to possess marvellous
mathematical faculties. Imualdi was a cretin, and Dase, Juller, Buxton,
Mondeur, and Prolongeau, men of feeble intellect. Among the inmates of
asylums, we may find cretins and idiots that are able to play on a whistle
any melody they have heard. The drawings of cats, executed by a
Norwegian cretin, have been deemed worthy of a place among the treasures
of art-galleries and museums. Such cases prove that the possession of one
highly developed faculty does not imply a corresponding development of
all the intellectual powers. Unintelligent, unbalanced, or even mentally
deficient women, when in a somnambulistic or hypnotic state, are able to
predict future events, an impossible feat for normal persons, or to discover
the whereabouts of objects hidden at a distance, a marvellous phenomenon,
which can be explained only by presuming the existence of a far-seeing
vision, and the working of a powerful synthetic process resembling the
inspirations of genius.
Although not a difficult task to prove the existence of traits of genius in
mentally diseased persons, the bringing to light of instances of insanity in
men of genius was a much simpler matter.
These instances, carefully classified, form the longest and most important
part of The Man of Genius, but it is not necessary to give space to any of
these instances here. The proofs of the connection between genius and
insanity were supplemented by data supplied by the physical examination
of a number of geniuses, compared with insane subjects, and a careful
investigation of the ethnical, social, and geographical causes which
influence the formation of both types. All the facts elicited demonstrated
their complete analogy.
But my father's studies did not stop short at the discovery of this analogy, or
that of the sources whence the diverse varieties of genius spring, which is

perhaps the most interesting part of the book, or even at the application of
the new doctrines for the purpose of clearing up obscure points in history
and shedding light on the lives of great men. He pursued his investigations
until he found the keystone of the edifice reared by insanity and genius—
epilepsy.
It is a well-known fact that a great many men of genius have suffered from
epileptic seizures and a still greater number from those symptoms which we
have shown to be the equivalent of the seizure. Julius Cæsar, St. Paul,
Mahomet, Petrarca, Swift, Peter the Great, Richelieu, Napoleon, Flaubert,
Guerrazzi, De Musset, and Dostoyevsky were subject to fits of morbid rage;
and Swift, Marlborough, Faraday, and Dickens suffered from vertigo.
But it is in the descriptions written by men of genius of their methods of
working and creating that we find the strongest resemblance to the different
phenomena of epilepsy, which have already been described in detail in this
work, in the part treating of the connection between epilepsy and crime.
While writing his poems, Tasso appeared to be out of his senses; Alfieri felt
everything go dark around him; Lagrange's pulse became irregular; Milton,
Leibnitz, Cujas, Rossini, and Thomas could work only under special
conditions. Others have encouraged inspiration by using those stimulants
which provoke epileptic attacks. Baudelaire made use of hashish; and wine
evoked the creative spirit in Gluck, Gerard de Nerval, Verlaine, De Musset,
Hoffmann, Burns, Coleridge, Poe, Byron, Praga, and Carducci. Gluck was
wont to declare that he valued money only because it enabled him to
procure wine, and that he loved wine because it inspired him and
transported him to the seventh heaven. Schiller was satisfied with cider; and
Goethe could not work unless he felt the warmth of a ray of sunlight on his
head. Many have asserted that their writings, inventions, and solutions of
difficult problems have been done in a state of unconsciousness. Mozart
confessed that he composed in his dreams, and Lamartine and Alfieri made
similar statements. The Henriade was suggested to Voltaire in a dream;
Newton and Cardano solved the most difficult problems in a similar
manner; and Mrs. Beecher Stowe, George Eliot, and George Sand asserted
that their novels had been written in a dream-like state, and that they
themselves were ignorant of the ultimate fate of their personages. In a
preface to one of her books Mrs. Beecher Stowe even went to the length of
denying her authorship. Socrates and Tolstoi declared that their works were

written in a condition of semi-unconsciousness; Leopardi, that he followed
an inspiration; and Dante described the source of his genius in those
beautiful lines:
"... quando
Amore spira, noto, ed a quel modo
Che detta dentro, vo significando."

"When love inspires, I write,
And put my thoughts as it dictates in me."

"I call inspiration," says Beethoven, "that mysterious state during which the
whole world seems to form one vast harmony, and all the forces of Nature
become instruments, when every sentiment and thought resounds within
me, a shudder thrills through my frame, and every hair on my head stands
on end."
These expressions show that when a genius attains to the fulness of his
development and, consequently, to the widest possible deviation from the
normal, he is more or less in that condition of unconsciousness which
characterises psychic epilepsy and is represented by a series of unconscious
psychic activities.
Having demonstrated the frequent existence of a spice of insanity in the
genius and flashes of genius in the insane, and, further, that geniuses are
subject to a special form of insanity, my father, who was no mere theorist,
but an admirer of facts and eager to turn them to account, considered next
the possibility of making practical use of these discoveries. This he had no
difficulty in doing.
The prevalence of insanity in men of genius explained innumerable
contradictions and mad traits in their lives and works, the true meaning of
which had hitherto escaped biographers, who either ignored them altogether
or covered reams of paper with vain attempts to represent them as
inspirations or, at any rate, reasonable actions. It also explained the origin of
some of the extraordinary errors committed by great men; for example, the
absurdly contradictory actions of Cola di Rienzi, who, after making himself

master of Rome when the city was in a state of chaos, restoring peace and
order, reorganising the army and conceiving the vast idea of a united Italy,
ended his patriotic mission with a series of extravagances worthy of a
madhouse.
The fact that traits of genius are so often found in mentally unsound persons
and vice versa, permits us to suppose that lunatics have not infrequently
held the destinies of nations in their hands and furthered progress by
revolutionary movements, of which by reason of their natural tendencies
and marked originality they are so often the promoters.
It may seem a simple idea to class great men, who have exercised such an
enormous influence on civilisation, with wretched beings, to whom no
brilliant part has been allotted, and to estimate mad ideas at their true worth;
yet it had never occurred to any one before.
It is in the minor works of geniuses that the greater number of absurdities
abound, but they are little known to the general public, who are acquainted
only with the masterpieces. Critics either ignored the absurdities and
heresies contained in these works, or, dazzled by the genius of the author,
made them the subject of infinite studies, in the conviction that they were
merely allusions or symbols demanding interpretation. All the defects of
great men, all the extravagant notions written or spoken by them were
covered with the magic veil of glory; and there was no innocent little child,
as in Andersen's charming story, to tell the world of the nakedness of
geniuses.
Thus idiocy, epilepsy and genius, crimes and sublime deeds were forged
into one single chain; and the brilliant lights of some of its links, and the
gloomy shadows thrown by others, were reduced to a play of molecules,
like those which transform carbon into a refulgent diamond or a sombre
lump of graphite.

II

Criminal Man (L'Uomo Delinquente) considered in relation to
Anthropology, Jurisprudence, and Psychiatry

Although my father's theories on the male criminal have already been set
forth in the volume now presented to the public, I feel that it would not be
inappropriate to add to the descriptions of his other important works a brief
survey of the original book for the use of readers desirous of studying the
subject more thoroughly.
The first volume is devoted to an investigation of the atavistic origin of
crime among plants, animals, savages, and children. This is followed by an
exhaustive study of the physical nature of the born criminal and the
epileptic, modern craniology, the anomalies connected with the different
classes of offences, the spine, pelvis, limbs, and physiognomy. The data
given are based on the results obtained from the examination of about 7000
criminals.
In the study of the brain, the macroscopic anomalies in the convolutions and
histological structure of the cerebral cortex of criminals and epileptics are
the object of special consideration, since these anomalies solve the problem
of the origin of criminality.
Certain additional degenerate characters, the prehensile foot, wrinkles, lines
on the finger-tips, the ethmoid-lachrymal suture, anomalies of dentition, the
existence of a single horizontal line on the palm of the hand, etc., are further
described, and a careful examination made of the field of vision and
olfactory and auditory sensibility.
The psychological examination of the criminal includes psychometry, the
discovery of new characteristics, such as neophily, lack of exactitude,
frequent existence of traits of genius, pictography, hieroglyphics, gestures,
and the arts and crafts peculiar to the criminal.
Finally, the different types of offenders—epileptic and morally insane
criminals, political and passionate offenders, inebriate, hysterical, and
mentally unbalanced (mattoid) criminals—are described separately and
compared with each other, their diversities and analogies being thrown into
relief. Around these types are grouped juridical figures of crimes,
reproduced from psychiatric forms. These are followed by an examination
of occasional or pseudo-criminals, criminaloids, latent criminals, and
geniuses.

The second volume treats of epileptics, and discusses, among other things,
their ergography, psychology, graphology, and anomalies of the field of
vision. The studies on criminals of passion are supplemented by
observations on suicides and political offenders, those on the insane include
investigations of their age, psychology, sex, tattooing, heredity, and the
difference between insane and ordinary criminals with respect to the
motives that prompt their crimes, and the manner in which these are carried
out, thus furnishing a new theory of sexual psychopathy.
The third volume of the fifth edition treats of the etiology and cure of crime.
In the part dealing with the etiology of crime, the geological, ethnical,
political, and economical factors determining or influencing criminality, as
well as other causes,—density of population, food, alcoholism, sex,
heredity, instruction, religion, etc., are examined statistically and sifted with
critical care. For the first time, light is thrown on the influence exercised by
criminality and wealth on the increase or decrease of emigration.
My father demonstrates by means of data, contributed for the most part by
Bodio and Cognetti, that the importance attributed to poverty as a factor of
criminality, especially by certain socialistic schools, has been largely
exaggerated; while, at the same time, the fact that both wealth and
education have their specific crimes, has been ignored by these schools.
In dealing with collective criminality, my father merely repeats the original
theories on the subject, expressed by him in 1872 and constantly confirmed
since then. These theories have been utilised and illustrated by a number of
writers: Ferri, Sighele, Ferrero, Le Bon, and Tarde.
In the prophylaxis and cure of crime, not content with mere criticism of
present methods, the new doctrines suggest practical and efficacious means
of repressing crime.
In view of the fact that criminality is assuming a changed aspect, adapted to
the conditions of modern life and civilisation, it should be combated by the
very means furnished by progress,—the telegraph, press, all measures for
fighting alcoholism, popular places of recreation, etc.
For the prevention of crime, besides those measures designed to minimise
the influence of physical and economic factors,—baths, sanitary

regulations, clearing of forests, prevention of over-crowding, social
legislation, limitation of wealth, graduated system of taxation, collective
services, expropriation, etc.,—my father suggests special measures for
diminishing certain kinds of crime,—divorce for sexual offences, affiliation
orders for infanticide and government of a truly liberal character, with
freedom of the press and public opinion to combat political crime. He also
emphasises the importance of provident and charitable institutions,
specially for orphan and destitute children, to aid in suffocating germs of
criminality, in view of the fact that it is to ragged schools and similar
institutions that the decrease of crime in England is certainly due.
Finally, with regard to the direct repression of crime, the new methods of
identification devised by Bertillon and Anfosso, and all modern aids for the
detection and apprehension of criminals, such as rapid communication and
publicity, should be utilised in all countries where the police aspire to be
considered scientific in their methods.
A minute and intelligent individualisation of penalties is suggested as being
far more efficacious than the uniform and injurious punishment of detention
in prison; so that while society defends itself, it tends to improve the
perverted faculties of criminals, or where improvement is impossible, to
utilise them in their natural state, following the example set by nature in the
transformation of injurious parasitical relationships into pacific and
mutually beneficial symbioses.

III

The Female Offender (La Donna Delinquente); The Prostitute and the
Normal Woman

(In Collaboration with Guglielmo Ferrero)
The first part of this book is devoted to a study of the normal woman, or
rather the female of every species, beginning with the lowest strata of the
zoölogical world and working upwards through the higher mammals and
primitive human races to civilised peoples.

As a result of this study, it is shown that although in the lower species, the
female is the superior in intelligence, strength, and longevity, among the
higher mammals she is surpassed in strength, intelligence, and beauty by
the male, who is developed and perfected by the struggle for the possession
of the female; while on the other hand, owing to her maternal functions, the
female tends to a perpetuation of her physical and psychic characters; and
this prevents variation and evolution.
The same phenomenon is encountered in the human race. After a careful
examination of the normal woman (height, weight, brain, nervous system,
hair, senses, physiognomy, and intellectual and moral manifestations), the
authors arrived at the conclusion that the physical, anatomical,
physiological, functional, and sensory characters of the female show a
lower degree of variability than those of the male.
In the same way, cases of monstrosity, degeneration, epilepsy, and insanity
are less frequent in the female of the human race; and the percentage of
genius and criminality is decidedly lower. The examination of the senses
showed that the normal human female possesses a lower degree of tactile,
olfactory, auditory, and visual sensibility than the male, and also, contrary
to the hitherto accepted opinion, a diminished moral and dolorific
sensibility. Among savage peoples, the female appears to be less sensitive,
—that is, more cruel than the male and more inclined to vindictiveness.
But when we consider woman from the point of view of her maternal
functions, her physiological, psychological, and intellectual nature assumes
an entirely changed aspect; for maternity is the natural function of the
female, the end to which she has been created. Lofty sentiments, complete
altruism, and far-sighted intelligence develop all of a sudden when she
becomes a mother. Maternity neutralises her moral and physical inferiority,
pity extinguishes cruelty, and maternal love counteracts sexual indifference.
Maternity stimulates her intelligence and sharpens her senses, explains and
exalts those characteristics which have hitherto constituted her inferiority
until they become signs of superiority when considered from the point of
view of the reproduction of the species.
A lessened sensibility enables woman to bear with greater ease the pains
inherent to childbirth; her refractoriness to all kinds of variation—also that

of a degenerate nature—serves to correct morbid heredity and to bring back
the race, which owes its continuation to her, to its normal state.
Women commit fewer crimes than men; and offenders of the female sex,
generally speaking, exhibit fewer degenerate characteristics. This is due in
part to the tenacity with which the female adheres to normality, but also to
the deviation caused in her criminality by prostitution. The history of this
social phenomenon, and an examination of the anatomy and functions of
the types representing this variation of criminality show that the prostitute
generally exhibits a greater number of degenerate and criminal characters
than the ordinary female offender.
Prostitution is therefore the feminine equivalent of criminality in the male,
because it satisfies the desire for licence, idleness, and indecency,
characteristic of the criminal nature.
In addition to prostitutes and ordinary offenders, who constitute the larger
part of female criminality, there exists a small number of born criminals of
the female sex, who are more ferocious and terrible even than the male
criminal of the same type. The criminality of this class of women develops
on the same foundation of epilepsy and moral insanity. The physical
characters are those peculiar to the male born criminal—projecting ears,
strabismus, anomalies of dentition, and abnormal conformation of the skull,
brain, etc.; in addition, an absence of feminine traits. In voice, structure of
the pelvis, distribution of hair, etc., she tends to resemble the opposite sex
and to lose all the instincts peculiar to her own.
From this brief description it may be gathered that this work on the female
offender owes much of its interest to the light it throws on the normal
woman. It is true that it casts doubt on many of the postulates of feminism;
but, on the other hand, it lays stress on and exalts the many invaluable
qualities characteristic of the female sex.
The preface to the work concludes with the following remarks:
"Not one of the conclusions drawn from the history and examination of
woman can justify the tyranny of which she has been and is still a victim,
from the laws of savage peoples, which forbade her to eat meat and the
flesh of the cocoanut, to those modern restrictions, which shut her out from

the advantages of higher education and prevent her from exercising certain
professions for which she is qualified. These ridiculous, cruel, and
tyrannical prohibitions have certainly been largely instrumental in
maintaining or, worse still, increasing her present state of inferiority and
permitting her exploitation by the other sex. The very praises, not always
sincere, alas, heaped on the docile victim, are often intended more as a
preparation for further sacrifices than as an honour or reward."

IV

Political Crime (Delitto Politico)

(In Collaboration with Rodolfo Laschi)
The law of inertia governs nature. Every organism tends to adhere
indefinitely to the same mode of life and will not change unless forced to do
so.
In the depths of the ocean, where existence, comparatively speaking, is
uniform and undisturbed, we still find organisms allied to the species of
pre-historic epochs. Those stars and suns, which are outside the sphere of
action of other worlds, continue eternally their vertiginous gyrations in the
trajectories assigned to them at the beginning of all things.
Every progress in nature is the result of a struggle between the tendency to
immobility, manifested by misoneism, or the hatred of novelty, and a
foreign force which seeks to conquer this tendency.
As in nature, misoneism dominates every human community. It is most
invincible in children and neuropathic and insane individuals, very
powerful among barbarous peoples, and more or less disguised among
civilised nations. But the world progresses: every day new conditions and
new interests arise to combat the law of inertia and render impossible the
realisation of the much-desired invariability; and progress, unwelcome yet
inevitable, prevails.
By political crime we understand every action which attacks the laws, the
historical, economical, political and social traditions of a nation or, in fact,

any part of the existing social fabric, and which comes into collision with
the law of inertia.
Any attempt to obtain forcibly a change in existing systems, to enforce by
violence, for instance, the claims of free trade in a protectionist country, to
plunge a nation into war or to incite workers to strike—all such actions
represent the first steps in political crime, which reaches its climax in
revolts and insurrections, and which victory alone can exalt above a host of
blameworthy and base deeds, and crown with glory.
Revolution is the struggle between the tendency to immobility innate in a
community, and the force which urges it to move. Revolution is the
historical expression of evolution and has always great and sublime ends in
view. It is the struggle against an institution or a system which hinders the
progress of a nation, never against any temporary oppression, no matter
how unbearable it may be. The French revolution was not a struggle against
an individual king or even a dynasty, but against the institutions of
monarchy and feudalism; nor was Lutheranism a revolt against any pope,
but against the corruption that had invaded the Roman Catholic Church.
The Italian revolution was not directed against foreign rule, which indeed
was mild and generous in some parts of the country, but it voiced an
imperious demand for independence indispensable to every people that
desires to become truly civilised.
A revolution is therefore a slow, constant effort towards progress, preceded
by propaganda. In some instances, it may last for years; in others, for
centuries, until an entire nation, from the humblest citizen to the most
wealthy patrician, is convinced of the necessity of the proposed change, and
the habitual misoneism of the masses overcome, the existing order of things
being defended by only a few, whose personal interests are bound up in the
old system. The ultimate triumph is inevitable, even when the leaders of the
movement perish and the first risings are suffocated in blood; nay, death
and martyrdom serve only to kindle greater enthusiasm for an ideal, if it be
worthy to live. This becomes apparent when we consider the impulse given
to Christianity by the crucifixion of its Leader, and to Italian independence
by the death of the two brothers, Emilio and Attilio Bandiera.

But bloody episodes are not always essential to the march of a revolution.
The triumph of Hungary over Austria was almost a bloodless one, and that
of Free Trade in England was effected practically without violence.
Since a revolution implies a change in the ideas of the masses and not of a
minority, be this of the elect or merely of turbulent spirits, revolutions are
rare occurrences in history and their effects are lasting. In fact, after the
death of Cromwell, feudalism was extinct in England.
Like the pear which falls in autumn when the process of ripening has
caused the gradual reabsorption of the juices in the stalk, revolution
triumphs and the ancient system perishes when an entire people is
persuaded of the necessity for a change. The fall of the pear, however, is not
always the result of a slow physiological process, but may be caused by a
gust of wind, which dashes it to the ground before the pulp has developed
the sweet juices that are the sign of its maturity. In the same way, a revolt or
an armed rising of men, whose demands are enforced by threats, may result
in the carrying into effect of some programme of reform which is
nevertheless too progressive or reactionary, or otherwise unsuited to the
country.
In fact, nearly every revolution is preceded by an insurrection, which is
suppressed by violence, because it seeks to realise premature ideals, and on
this account is frequently followed by a counter-revolution, provoked by
reactionary elements.
Unlike revolutions, insurrections are always the work of a minority,
inspired by an excessive love or hatred of change, who seek forcibly to
establish systems or ideas rejected by the majority. Unlike revolutions, also,
they may break out for mere temporary causes—a famine, a tax, the tyranny
of some official, which suddenly disturbs the tranquil march of daily life; in
many cases they may languish and die without outside interference.
In practice, however, it is extremely difficult to distinguish a revolt from a
revolution since the results alone determine its nature, victory being the
proof that the ideas have permeated the whole mass of the people.
Political offenders, insurrectionists, and revolutionists are the men who
seize the standard of progress and contest every inch of the ground with the

masses, who naturally incline towards a dislike of a new order of things.
The army of progress is recruited from all ranks and conditions—men of
genius, intellectual spirits who are the first to realise the defects of the old
system and to conceive a new one, synthesising the needs and aspirations of
the people; lunatics, enthusiastic propagandists of the new ideas, which they
spread with all the impetuous ardour characteristic of unbalanced minds;
criminals, the natural enemies of order, who flock to the standard of revolt
and bring to it their special gifts, audacity and contempt of death. These
latter types accomplish the work of destruction which inevitably
accompanies every revolution: they are the faithful and unerring arm ready
to carry out the ideas that others conceive but lack the courage to execute.
Finally, there are the saints, the men who live solely for high purposes and
to whom the revolution is a veritable apostolate. They rank high above the
mass of mankind, from whom they are frequently distinguished by a
singular beauty of countenance, recalling ancient paintings of holy men.
They are consumed by a passion for altruism and self-immolation, and
experience a strange delight in martyrdom for their ideals. These men
sweep the masses along with them and lead to victory with their
propaganda, their inspired songs, and thrilling accents. Tyrtæus was not the
only poet who led soldiers to war: every insurrection has had its own songs,
in which the love of a whole people is crystallised.
Lunatics, unbalanced individuals, and saints are the promoters of progress
and revolutions. These types have one thing in common—their passionate
devotion to a sublime ideal and their love for humanity, which torments and
crushes them in every case where they fail to attain that for which they have
fought. But whether victorious or defeated, on the throne or on the scaffold,
their efforts are not lost. Love is the spiritual sun of mankind. A ray shed by
a human heart may spread far and wide, traversing unknown regions and
sojourning with unknown races; and if powerless to revive some timid
flower that has been numbed by the chilly night, it may still be stored up in
the songs of a people, like the sunlight in green plants, to be retransformed
at some future time into light and warmth.

V

Too Soon! (Troppo Presto!)

(A Criticism of the New Italian Penal Code)
In this book, which was written during the interval between the publication
of the new Penal Code and its sanction by the Italian Parliament, my father
makes a rapid criticism of the Code, which he considered premature. Only a
few decades had elapsed since the proclamation of Italian Unity; and the
widely differing races that people the provinces constituting the kingdom of
Italy had not been able in that brief period to acquire sufficient uniformity
of customs to make a single code of laws desirable.
But the book is not merely a criticism. It also contains an exposition of the
fundamental principles that, according to my father, should underlie every
serious and efficacious code of laws. It is this part that makes this somewhat
hastily written book of such importance to criminologists; because it sets
forth under the chief heads the juridical desiderata of the New School.
The following brief extract gives an indication of the nature of these
principles:
1. The legislation of a country should always be regulated by the customs of
the people whom it is to govern; and although a system of different penal
codes to suit the varying races and customs in the different regions of one
State may offer certain disadvantages, they are always of less importance
than the difficulties caused by a uniform code.
2. The object of every code should be the attainment of social safety, not the
careful weighing of guilt and individual responsibility. The worst and most
dangerous criminals should be treated with the greatest severity; but
indulgence should be shown towards minor offenders. The former should
be segregated for life in prisons or asylums; the latter should never be
allowed to become acquainted with prison life, but should be corrected by
means of other penalties, which would not bring them into contact with true
criminals, nor necessitate their temporary retirement from civil life.
3. Certain reprehensible actions (abortion, infanticide, suicide or complicity
therein, passionate crimes, duelling, swearing, adultery, etc.), which are not

considered criminal by the general public, should be non-criminal in the
eyes of the law.
4. Born criminals, the morally insane, and hopeless recidivists, whose first
convictions are not followed by any signs of improvement, should be
regarded as incurable and confined for life in criminal lunatic asylums,
relegated to penal colonies, or condemned to death.
A second edition of this book was published shortly afterwards with the title
Notes on the New Penal Code. In this edition, each of the most notable
adherents of the new doctrines: Ferri, Garofalo, Ballestrini, Rossi, Masé
Dari, Carelli, Caragnani, and others, discussed one special point of the code
and suggested the necessary modifications.

VI

Prison Palimpsests (I Palimsesti del Carcere)

(A Collection of Prison Inscriptions for the Use of Criminologists)
"Ordinary individuals, and even scientific observers, are apt to regard
prisons, especially those in which the cellular system prevails, as mute and
paralytical organisms, deprived of speech and action, because silence and
immobility have been imposed on them by law. Since, however, no decree,
even when backed up by physical force, avails against the nature of things,
these organisms speak and act, and sometimes manifest themselves in brutal
assaults and murders; but as always happens when human needs come into
conflict with laws, all these manifestations are made in hidden and
subterranean ways. Walls, drinking-vessels, planks of the prisoners' beds,
margins of books, medicine wrappers, and even the unstable sands of the
exercise-grounds, and the uniform in which the prisoner is garbed, supply
him with a surface on which to imprint his thoughts and feelings."
With this paragraph my father begins the introduction to his book Prison
Palimpsests, a collection of inscriptions and documents revealing the
inmost thoughts of prisoners.

In the first part, these inscriptions are classified under different headings:
opinions on prison life, penalties, morality, women, etc., and according to
the surface on which they are inscribed—books, walls, pitchers, clothing,
paper, etc.
For the psychologist and the student of degenerate types of humanity, this
collection is of the greatest interest. The inscriptions are followed by a
series of poems, autobiographies, and letters written by intending suicides,
and criminals immediately before their execution. The comments made by
criminals on the margins of books belonging to the prison library are
especially interesting, because they enable the student to compare the effect
produced on criminals by certain works with the impressions of normal
individuals. The poems written by prisoners are equally interesting, since,
like popular songs, they represent the intimate expression of the poet's
desires and aspirations.
In the second part, these prison inscriptions are compared with the remarks
commonly found scribbled in the streets, on school benches, and on the
walls of public buildings of all kinds—courts of justice, places of worship,
and even those edifices in which the legislation of the State is framed. All
the inscriptions are classified according to the sentiments they express and
the sex of the writer, distinction being made between the writings of
prisoners and those of the ordinary public.
The book closes with practical suggestions regarding the use to which
similar collections might be put, as critical hints on the present methods of
dealing with criminals and as an aid in investigating the characters of
accused persons.
All offenders, except the most degenerate types, born criminals or the
morally insane, desire work or occupation of some kind, and books of an
interesting character. This demand emanates from innumerable inscriptions
on the walls of cells and the margins of prison books: "How unbearable is
enforced idleness for a man who has always been accustomed to work and
study, and in whom activity and the desire of some ennobling pursuit are
not quite extinct!" ... "The nun of Cracow cried, 'Bread, bread!' but my
voice pleads from my solitary cell, 'Work, work!'"

"If jurists would leave their desks and libraries," says my father in
conclusion, "put aside all pre-conceived notions, enter the prisons and study
the problem of criminality not on the walls of the cells, but on the living
documents they enclose, they would speedily realise that all reforms
evolved and applied without the aid of practical experience are only
dangerous illusions."

VII

Ancient and Modern Crimes (Delitti Vecchi e Delitti Nuovi)

"This volume contains a collection of facts, sometimes valuable, at other
times merely curious, that I was able to glean during long years of study in
the field of criminal anthropology and psychiatry. They all tend to show the
great difference that exists between ancient and modern crimes."
With these words my father begins the preface to this book, in which cases
of recent crimes are described and compared with those committed in by-
gone ages.
It is divided into three parts. The first part contains a comparative and
statistical study of criminality in Europe, Mexico, the United States, and
Australia.
The second part describes the careers of typical criminals of former times,
such as the Tozzis of Rome, a family of anthropophagous criminals, and
Vacher, Ballor, and other assassins of the Jack-the-Ripper type, whose
perverted sexual instincts prompted them to murder a number of women
and mutilate the corpses in a horrible fashion.
The third part treats of those modern criminals, like Holmes and Peace, who
accomplish their misdeeds in a refined and elegant manner, substituting for
the more brutal knife or hammer, the resources of chemistry, physics, and
modern toxicology. In other cases, some product of modern times, such as
the motor-car or bicycle, forms the motive for the crime, or is of assistance
in its accomplishment.

"From the data we have been able to gather relating to crime in by-gone
ages," continues my father in his preface, "we are led to conclude that
crimes of a violent and bloody nature predominated exclusively in more
barbarous times, and that fraudulent offences are characteristic of modern
communities. Violence is more primitive than trickery and must always
precede it, exactly as a more barbarous state in which property is gained or
maintained by force, at the point of the sword, precedes a state in which
ownership is regulated by means of contracts; and crime always adapts
itself to the prevailing customs.
"The admirable work of Coghlan shows criminality in Australia to be of this
latter type, as contrasted with its semi-barbarous nature in states like
Mexico, and gives us a picture of the character it will assume a century or
two later in Europe.
"As the fundamental nature of the criminal has not changed, his actions are
still of the same character; and violence and cunning are mingled or
alternate in modern crime. But though the individual remains unchanged, he
is subordinated to a more powerful factor than himself—modern progress.
It is true that many modern crimes are facilitated by modern contrivances;
but the same contrivances often furnish means for their defeat; and so we
may foresee a time, perhaps not very remote, when such anti-social
elements shall partially, if not totally, have disappeared."

VIII

Diagnostic Methods of Legal Psychiatry (La Perizia Psichiatrica Legale)

This work was not intended to introduce the doctrines of modern
criminology to the general public, but as a text-book for the guidance of
jurists, doctors, experts—in short, all those whose professions bring them,
into contact with criminals.
It consists of two parts, the first of which contains about fifty cases
diagnosed according to the new methods, and collected by the author of the
work and his followers. These cases include all types of delinquents: born
criminals, morally insane individuals, hysterical, insane, inebriate, and
epileptic criminals, criminaloids, criminals of passion, etc.

In each case, as the diagnosis was intended to serve a practical purpose, the
criminal is examined physically, psychologically, and psychiatrically; and
his antecedents are investigated with great care.
In the second part, "The Technical Aspect of Criminal Anthropology," a
detailed description is given of the methods to be employed in the
examination of a supposed criminal, the rules for determining to what class
he belongs, the manner in which the physical examination should be
conducted, a list of the necessary measurements, a description of the most
suitable apparatus, and the mode of using them, the methods of procedure
in the interrogation of a criminal, in order to elicit useful information, and
instructions for analysing his intellectual manifestations (handwriting,
drawing, and work), movements, attitude, and gestures.
Thanks to the methodical instruction imparted by this book, the
inexperienced student is enabled to progress gradually until he is in a
position to conduct a complete psychiatric and medico-legal examination.
The third part treats of the methods for discriminating between criminals
and lunatics. The various forms of mental alienation are described in detail;
and an examination of cases of feigned insanity shows that simulators of
lunacy are generally mentally unsound.
In the concluding part are discussed the various uses to which a careful
diagnosis may be applied.
The Appendix contains studies on the application of mental tests in medico-
legal practice, and a glossary, alphabetically arranged, of the terms
commonly employed in criminal anthropology, compiled by Dr. Legiardi-
Laura.

IX

Anarchists (Gli Anarchici)

The book opens with an examination of the theories of anarchists, from
which the author arrives at the conclusion that in view of the importance
generally conceded to economic ideals to-day and the universal abuse of

power, these theories in reality are not so absurd as they are supposed to be.
It is the methods adopted by anarchists for the realisation of their ideals that
are both absurd and dangerous.
"However valuable many of the proposals of anarchism may be," says the
author, "they become absurd in practice; because all reforms should be
introduced very gradually in order to escape the inevitable reaction which
neutralises all previous efforts."
The crimes of anarchists tend to mingle with ordinary crimes when certain
dreamers attempt to reach their goal by any means possible—theft, or the
murder of a few, often innocent, persons. It is easy to realise, therefore,
why, with a few exceptions, anarchists are recruited from among ordinary
criminals, lunatics, and insane criminals. Investigations made by the author
showed that 12 per cent. of the communards were of a criminal type, and
this percentage was still higher in anarchists (31 per cent.). Of forty-five
anarchists examined at Chicago, 40 per cent. had faces of a criminal cast.
The majority of anarchists possess the passions and vices peculiar to
ordinary criminals: impulsiveness, love of orgies, lack of natural affections
and moral sense; and similar intellectual manifestations, such as slang,
ballads, tattooing, hieroglyphics. But there are a greater number of genuine
epileptic and hysterical subjects, lunatics, and indirect suicides among
anarchists than among ordinary criminals; greater, too, is the proportion of
criminals from passion. These truly heroic natures, profoundly convinced
that the remedy for so many social evils lies in the murder of certain
personages of high standing, who appear to bear the greatest share of
responsibility for the existing system, do not hesitate to have recourse to
violence when they deem it necessary; although it is distasteful to them and
although they have hitherto disassociated themselves from the excesses of
their companions. The anarchists Caserio and Bresci were of this type. The
crimes of these passionate criminals are always accomplished single-
handed; they always surrender to the police immediately afterwards and
make no attempt to defend themselves. On the contrary, when in court, they
frequently give a lucid explanation of the motives that have induced them to
commit their crimes and affront the penalty with stoicism.
Such being the origin, and such the promoters of anarchism, it is evident
that the methods for curing crimes deriving from this source should differ

greatly from those used in suppressing ordinary crime.
In spite of the fact that anarchists are frequently criminals, their ideas,
although often absurd, imply a greater elevation of character than the
cynical apathy in which the worst types of criminals are sunk.
Instead of combating violence by violence and dealing out death sentences
with a prodigality almost rivalling that of anarchists themselves, the
authorities should segregate the most dangerous types or relegate them to
distant islands, and adopt exile as a penalty for genuine criminals of
passion. However, political liberty and some safety-valve, whereby lawless
instincts may be turned into harmless channels, are the best methods for
preventing anarchism. Constitutional government and freedom of speech
and the press may go a long way towards combating anarchism; but the
restoration of popular tribunates, like those to which Rome owed her
balance and tranquillity, would be still more efficacious. If the governing
bodies were to favour, instead of hindering, the formation of such
institutions, which tend to spring up everywhere and to voice the grievances
of the people, just causes would not be abandoned exclusively to the
advocacy of extremists.

X

Lectures on Legal Medicine (Lezioni di Medicina Legale)

This book, as the preface explains, was an attempt to present in a concise
and popular form the theories of criminal anthropologists, on which the
author had previously delivered a series of university lectures, and which he
feared might have been erroneously or imperfectly understood by those of
his hearers who were diffident or insufficiently prepared.
It is divided into three parts, criminal anthropology, mental alienation, and
the relation of serious offences (assault, murder, poisoning, etc.) to legal
medicine.
The first part contains a summing-up of the author's ideas on the atavistic
and pathological origin of the criminal. He examines the equivalents of
crime among plants, animals, savages, and children, describes the

pathological causes which call forth atavistic instincts and alludes to other
special kinds of degeneration peculiar to criminals. Finally, the anatomy,
functions, and internal organs of the criminal are examined, and a careful
study made of his intellectual manifestations and psychology. Similar
studies on epileptics and the morally insane show that the three forms are
only variations of the same degeneration.
We have an examination of occasional, habitual, and latent criminals, who
represent an attenuated type of delinquency, following on the investigations
of these serious forms, admitting of correction, prevention, or cure. It
develops much later in life than the vicious propensities of instinctive
criminals or may even remain latent; yet at the root we always find the
same anatomical and pathological anomalies, although less marked and
fewer in number.
The origin of passionate and political criminals is entirely diverse. Their
criminality springs from an excess of noble passions, the impetuosity of
which prevents them from exercising sober judgment and urges them to
unpremeditated actions that afterwards cause them the deepest remorse.
After a rapid survey of feminine criminality and its equivalent, prostitution,
the author discusses juridical and social methods of curing crime.
In the second part, mental alienation in relation to legal medicine, the
author examines the anthropological and psychic characters of lunacy,
which he divides into various classes: congenital mental alienation
(cretinism, idiocy, imbecility, eccentricity); acquired mental alienation
(mania, melancholia, paranoia, circular insanity, dementia); mental
alienation in conjunction with neurosis (epilepsy, hysteria, progressive
general paralysis); alienation resulting from toxic influences (alcoholism,
including forms produced by indulgence in absinthe and coca, saturnine
encephalopathy, pellagra). An investigation is made into the etiology of
these various forms with special reference to their juridical importance.
The third part is devoted exclusively to medico-legal questions, to an
examination of the various forms of violent death: by heat, electricity,
starvation, hanging, strangulation, asphyxia, and poisoning, the symptoms
which distinguish each type being carefully defined. This is followed by a
study on wounds produced by firearms, pointed weapons or blades, on

living and dead bodies, in order to determine the exact situation of the
wound and the manner in which it has been inflicted. Finally, we have an
examination of the different forms of poisoning.
A separate lecture treats of sexual psychopathy and offences against
morality; and other lectures discuss questions of legal obstetrics: abortion,
infanticide, and matrimonial questions.

XI

Recent Discoveries in Psychiatry and Criminal Anthropology and the
Practical Application of these Sciences

This volume was published in 1893. It contains a complete summary of the
latest research of criminologists in jurisprudence, psychiatry, and
anthropology, during the interval between the publication of the fifth and
that of the last edition of Prof. Lombroso's Criminal Man.
The research includes anthropological discoveries in the skull, skeleton,
internal organs, and brains of criminals, as well as others of a biological and
functional nature. They are followed by a study of the methods to be
employed for the cure and punishment of crime.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE CHIEF WORKS OF CESARE
LOMBROSO

Archivio di Psichiatria, antropologia criminale e scienze affini (Archives of
Psychiatry, Criminal Anthropology and Kindred Sciences). Thirty-two
volumes. Published by Fratelli Bocca, Turin and Lausanne.
L'Uomo Delinquente (Criminal Man). Fifth Edition. Vols. I, II and III of
xxxv + 650, 576, and 677 pages respectively, with separate volume of
plates, maps, etc. Bocca, Turin, 1906, 1907.

Translations:
L'Hommea criminel. Vols. I and II published 1895, Vol. III (Le
crime, ses causes et remèdes) 1907, by F. Alcan, Paris.
Die Ursachen und Bekâmpfung des Verbrechens. Bermuheler
Verlag, Berlin, 1902.
El Delito, sus causas y remedios. Librería de Victoriano Suárez,
Madrid, 1902.
La Donna Delinquente, la prostituta e la donna normale. (With Guglielmo
Ferrero.) New Edition. Bocca, Turin, 1903.
Translations:
Das Weib als Verbrecherin und Prostitute. Verlagsanstalt und
Druckerei, Hamburg, 1894.
The Female Offender. Fisher Unwin, London, 1895.
Il Delitto Politico e le Rivoluzioni. (With R. Laschi.) Bocca, Turin, 1890.
Translations:
Das politische Verbrechen und die Revolutionen. Two vols.
1890.
Le Crime politique. Two vols. Félix Alcan, Paris, 1890.
Le piu recenti scoperte ed applicazioni della psichiatria ed antropologia
criminale. Bocca, Turin, 1893.
Translations:
Neue Fortschritte in den Verbrecherstudien. Wilhelm Friedrich,
Leipzig. 1894.
Neue Fortschritte der kriminellen Anthropologie. Marhold,
Halle, 1908.
Neue Verbrecherstudien. Marhold, Halle, 1908.

Nouvelles recherches de Psychiatrie et d'Anthropologie
criminelle. Alcan, Paris, 1890.
Gli anarchici. Bocca, Turin, 1894.
Translations:
Die Anarchisten. Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Hamburg, 1895.
Les Anarchistes. E. Flammarion, Paris, 1896.
La Perizia psichiatrico-legale. Bocca, Turin, 1905.
Lezioni di Medicina legale. Bocca, Turin, 1900.
Troppo Presto: Appunti al nuovo codice penale. Bocca, Turin, 1888.
Palimsesti del carcere. Bocca, Turin, 1888.
Translations:
Kerker Palimpsesten. Hamburg, 1899.
Les Palimpsestes des prisons. Stock, Lyon.
La Delinquenza e la rivoluzione francese. Treves, Milan, 1897.
Criminal Anthropology. (Twentieth Century Practice of Medicine, Vol. XII,
pp. 372-433.) New York, 1897.
Luccheni e l'antropologia criminale. Bocca, Turin, 1899.
Il caso Olivo. (With A. G. Bianchi.) Libreria Editrice Internazionale, Milan,
1905.
Ricerche sui fenomeni ipnotici e spiritici. Unione Tip. Edit. Turin, 1909.
L'Uomo di genio. Sixth Edition. Bocca, Turin, 1894.
Translations:
L'Homme de génie. Alcan, Paris, 1889.
The Man of Genius. Walter Scott, London, 1891.

Genio e degenerazione. Second Edition. Remo Sandron, Palermo, 1908.
Translations:
Entartung und Genie. Wiegand, Leipzig, 1894.
Nuovi studi sul genio. Two vols. Sandron, Palermo, 1902.
Translations:
Neue Studien über Genialität (Schmidt's Jahrbücher der
gesammten Medizin, 1907).
Pazzi e anormali. Lapi, Citta di Castello, 1890.
In Calabria. Niccolo Giannotta, Catania, Sicily, 1898.
L'Antisemitismo e le scienze moderne. Roux, Turin, 1894.
Translations:
Der Antisemitismus und die Juden. Wiegand's Verlag, Leipzig,
1894.
L'Antisémitisme. Giard et Brière, Paris, 1899.
Problèmes du jour. Flammarion, Paris, 1906.
Il momento attuale in Italia. Casa Editrice Nazionale, Milan, 1905.
Grafologia. Ulrich Hoepli, Milan, 1895.
Translations:
Graphologie. Reclam, Leipzig.
Trattato profilattico e clinico della pellagra. Bocca, Turin, 1890.
Translations:
Die Lehre von der Pellagra. Oscar Coblenz, Berlin, 1898.

INDEX
A

Affection for animals, 62, 63

Affections, of born criminals, 27
in children, 133
examination of, 222-225

Age and crime, 102, 151, 152

Akkas, tribe of Central Africa, 15

Alcoholism, and hallucinations, 30, 82-84
chronic, 81, 142-143
physical characteristics, 81, 82
psychic disturbances caused by, 82-84
results of, 83
apathy and impulsiveness of victims, 84, 85
crimes peculiarly due to, 85, 142
course of the disease, 86
hereditary, 138
important factor in criminality, 138, 141
temporary, 141-142
and epilepsy, 142
effect on handwriting, 229

Algometer, 25, 246

Anfossi's tachyanthropometer, 237
craniograph, 239

Angelucci (Actes du Congrès d' Anthropologie), case of epileptic moral

insanity, 69

Anomalies, of criminals, 7, 10-24, 231-235
of morally insane, 53

Anthropology, criminal, defined, 5
most important discovery of, 137
practical application of, 262-279

Aphasia, simulation of, 272 ff., 275

Arson, 121

Arts and industries of criminals, 44, 135

Assaulters, 25

Asylums for criminal insane, 205-208

Asymmetry, 13, 53, 242, 261

Atavism, 18, 135, 136

Atavistic origin of the criminal, 8, 9, 19, 48, 135

Australia, probation system in, 189, 191

Austria, percentage of illegitimates among criminals, 144
percentage of women among criminals, 151

Auto-illusion, 108, 109

Aymaras, the, an Indian tribe of South America, 6

Azara, d' (Travels in America, 1835), 126

Azeglio, Massimo d' (Reminiscences), 148

B

Bain, 130

Ballvé, Señor, director of Penitenciario Nacional of Buenos Ayres, 201

Bank of Rome case, 106, 107

Barnardo, Dr., work for orphans and destitute children of London, 158-160

Beccaria, Cesare, founder of Classical School of Penal Jurisprudence, 3, 4

Bedlam, 207

Belgian Government, agricultural colony founded at Meseplas by, 202

Belgium, probation system in, 191

Bernard, experiments with dogs, 60

Blasio, de, explanation of hieroglyphics of the Camorristi, 43, 44

Booth, General, 156, 157

Born criminals, 3-51
percentage of, among criminals, 8, 100
physical characteristics, 10-24, 231-255
sensory and functional peculiarities, 24-27
affections and passions, 27, 28
moral characteristics, 28-40
intelligence, 41
relation to moral insanity and epilepsy, 58-73, 87, 259
professional characteristics, 71
difference between epileptics and, 72
no criminal scale among, 152

institutions for, 205 ff.

Bosco and Rice (Les Homicides aux Etats-Unis), on crime in
Massachusetts, 173

Brigands, 35, 113-115, 215

Broadmoor, 207, 208

Brockway, 192

Büchner, on instincts in bees and ants, 142

Burglars, 25

Burton (First Footsteps in East Africa), 128

C

Cabred, Professor, 203, 204

Camorra, 44, 48, 117, 230

Camorristi, hieroglyphics of, 43, 44
dress, 230

Canada, homes for destitute children, 160

Capital punishment, 208, 209

Carrara, Francesco, 4

Carrara, Prof. Mario, on neglected children, 130

Cephalic index, 10, 241

Children, destructive tendency, 65
instincts, 130 ff.
affection, 133
effect of environment on, 144
institutions for destitute, 156 ff.
methods of dealing with, 176 ff.
susceptibility to suggestion, 226

Children's courts. See Juvenile courts

Cinædus, 231, 244

Classical School of Penal Jurisprudence, 4, 9

Classification of criminals, 8

Colour-blindness, 26, 249

Confession of criminaloids, 105

Connon, Richard, 53

Coprophagia, 274, 275

Corporal punishment, 191

Cretins, physical characteristics, 227, 234, 236, 260
dress, 231

Crime, origin of the word, 125
among primitive races, 125 ff.
in civilised communities, 134
atavistic origin, 135, 136, 137
ætiology of, 136
pathological origin, 137
organic factors, 137
percentage of, among Jews, 140

social causes, 143
prevention, 153 ff.
curability, 153, 156

Criminal, the, defined, 3

Criminal type, 24, 48

Criminaloids, 100-121
percentage of, among criminals, 8
physical characteristics, 102, 251
psychological distinctions between born criminals and, 102 ff.
cases of, 103, 104
reluctance to commit crimes, 105
easily induced to confess, 105
moral sense and intelligence, 106
natural affections and sentiments, 106
social position and culture, 107 ff.
clever swindlers, 108
development into habitual criminals, 111-113
and certain crimes, 121
punishment, 186

Cruelty, 39

Cynicism, 31

D

Dalton (Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal), 129

Danish prisons, 195

"Darwin's tubercle," 15, 235

Dejerine, 138

Delirium, 98

Dementia, 76, 227, 259, 260
simulations of, 272 ff.

Despine's method of punishment, 195, 196

Destitute children, care of, 156
institutions for, 156 ff.

Dewson, Miss Mary, 189

Disease and its relation to crime, 8, 220

Don Bosco, the Black Pope, 157, 173

Drunkenness, temporary, 141. See also Alcoholism

Du Bois-Reymond's apparatus, 25, 246

Dundrum, Ireland, 207

Dynamometer, 252, 253

E

Economic conditions, relation to crime, 150

Education, and moral insanity, 143
and crime, 143, 149
in Elmira Reformatory, 193

"Educational Alliance," for Jewish emigrants, 172

Egypt, theft in, 128

Elmira Reformatory, 192-194

England, crime in, 173
juvenile court in, 176
probation system in, 189, 191
asylums for criminal insane, 207

Environment, 8, 144, 145

Epilepsy, ancient application of the term, 58
characteristic phenomena, 58
mild forms, 59, 60
multiformity, 59, 60, 87
psychological characteristics, 61
effect on character, 62
relation to crime, 69, 71
motory and criminal, 71
psychic, 88
ambulatory, 89, 90
alcoholic psychic, 142

Epileptics, brain cells of, 22
relation to born criminals and morally insane 58 ff., 87
physical anomalies common to criminals and, 60, 61, 234
psychological characteristics, 61 ff.
cases, 64-65
criminal, 66-69, 70, 259
difference between born criminals and, 72
non-criminal, 89-92
obsessions, 226
dress, 230
special offences, 259, 260

Epileptoids, 101

Erotomania, 96

Esthesiometer, 245

Examination of criminals, 219-257
antecedents and psychic individuality, 220-222
intelligence, 222
affections, 222-225
morbid phenomena, 225-226
speech, 226-228
memory, 228
handwriting, 228-230
dress, 230-231
physical, 231-245
sensibility, 245-251
movements, 251-255
functions, 255
table of, 255-257

F

Fines, 187, 191

Fisherton House, 207

Forgers, 46, 140, 245

France, percentage of illegitimates or orphans among minors arrested, 144
system for minor offences, 187
probation system in, 191

Frank, Francis, 223

French Panama Scandal, 106, 107

G

Gambling, 40

Games, 40

Garofalo, Senator, his table of penalties, 210

George, Henry, 164

George Junior Republic, 160, 164-167

Germans, ancient, theft among, 128, 129

Gilmour (Among the Mongols), 130

Gipsies, 140

Goitre, 220, 244

H

Habitual criminals, 44, 110-115, 198

Hallucinations, 30, 82-84

Hamburg, percentage of illegitimates among prostitutes, 144

Handwriting, 228-230

Harwick, quoted, on sense of right and wrong, 33

Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society in New York City, 160-164

Heredity, indirect, 137
direct, 57, 137-139
influence of, 144, 220, 235

Hieroglyphics, 43, 44

Homicide, among criminaloids, 121
in Italy, 140
relation of temperature to, 145
in Massachusetts, 173
and melancholia, 259

Hydrosphygmograph, 223

Hypnotism, 101

Hysteria, 92-99
relation to epilepsy, 92
physical and functional characteristics, 93
psychology, 94
susceptibility to suggestion, 95, 226
and delirium, 98
sensibility to metals, 248, 261
special offences of, 259
simulation of, 261

I

Idiots, impulses, 74, 258
speech, 227
physical characteristics, 235, 260

Idleness, 40, 150

Illegitimates, percentage of, among criminals, 144

Imbeciles, 75, 259, 260, 269

Imitation, 146

Immigration and its relation to crime, 147, 148

Imprisonment, 154, 186, 187

Impulsiveness, 36, 85

Incendiaries, 26

Indemnity, 191

India, infanticide in, 126
theft in, 129

Industrial Homes of the Salvation Army, 168

Inebriates, crimes peculiar to, 85-86
hallucinations of, 226

Infanticide, 121, 126, 127

Insane, the morally, relation to born criminals, 53, 57, 58
cases, 53 ff.
relation to epileptics, 61, 65 ff.
professional characteristics, 71
institutions for, 206
dress, 230
special offences, 259, 260

Insane criminals, 74-99, 234
characteristics distinguishing them from habitual criminals, 77, 78
antecedents, 78
motives, 78
typical cases, 79
institutions for, 205 ff.
two classes, 208

Insanity, moral, 56, 65-69, 272 ff.
criminal, 74-99
genuine and simulation of, 260, 276. See also Lunacy

Institutions, for destitute children, 156
for destitute adults, 167
for women criminals, 180
for minor offenders, 185
for habitual criminals, 198
for born criminals and the morally insane, 205. See also Reformatories,
Penitentiaries

Intellectual manifestations of born criminals, 42-44

Intelligence, of born criminals, 41
of criminaloids, 106
examination, 222

Invulnerability of criminals, 64

Italy, hot-beds of crime in, 140
percentage of illegitimates among criminals, 144
percentage of women among criminals, 151
institutions for orphans, 157

J

Jackson, on epileptic fits, 60

Jews, percentage of crime among, 140

Jukes family, the, 138, 139

Juridical criminals, 115-117

Juvenile courts, 176, 178, 179

Juvenile offenders, 139
methods of dealing with, 176 ff., 192

K

Kleptomania, 141

Kowalewsky (Archivio di Psichiatria, 1885), 63

Krafft-Ebing, 84
quoted, on somnambulism and epileptics, 63

L

Labour, in reformatories, 166, 199
enforced, profitable to the State, 202, 203, 213

Lacassagne, 47

Ladelci (Il Vino, 1868), 37

Landolt's apparatus for testing the field of vision, 249

Lewisohn, Mr., 161

Lombroso, Cesare, discovery of median occipital fossa, 6
new theory as to criminals, 52, 56, 57
view of hysteria and epilepsy, 99
on percentage of criminals of inebriate families, 138
on criminal associations, 146
Criminal Man, 9, 288-291
Modern Forms of Crime, 9
Recent Research in Criminal Anthropology, 9, 309
Prison Palimpsests, 9, 155, 300-302

The Female Offender, 180, 291-294
Crimes, Ancient and Modern, 173, 302-303
The Man of Genius, 283-288
Political Crime, 294-298
Too Soon, 298-300
Diagnostic Methods of Legal Psychiatry, 303-305
Anarchists, 305-307
Lectures on Legal Medicine, 307-308

Luciani, experiments of, 59

Lunacy, general forms, 74, See also Insanity

M

Maccabruni, Dr. (Notes on Hidden Forms of Epilepsy, 1886), 89

Mafia, 117, 230

Magnaud, 187

Maniacs, 76, 259

Manzoni (Promessi Sposi), on instinctive tendency to law-breaking, 152

Marey's tympanum, 224

Marro (Annalidi Freniatia, 1890), 64

Massachusetts, crime in, 173
probation office in Boston, 189
reformatories at Boston, 190

Mattoids, 228, 229

Median occipital fossa, discovery of, 6

Melancholia, 75, 227, 252, 259

Memory, 228

Mendacity, 96-98

Meseplas, agricultural colony at, 202, 203

Metchnikoff, 14

Meteoric sensibility, 26

Modern School of Penal Jurisprudence, 4, 5, 9, 153, 155, 156

Monomaniacs, impulses and motives, 77
cases, 78, 276 ff.
handwriting, 228, 230
dress, 231
examination of, 276 ff.

Moral sense, of criminals, 28-40
of criminaloids, 106

Moreau, 130
(De l' Homicide chez les enfants, 1882), 131

Morel, 53, 98

Mülhausen (Diary of a Journey from the Mississippi to the Pacific), 129

Murder, among gipsies, 140
among Jews, 140
in United States, 145

Murderers, physical characteristics, 16, 18, 26, 46, 236
moral sense, 29, 38

imprisonment, 182
dress, 230

N

Newspaper reports of crimes, influence of, 146, 147

Nothnagel's thermo-esthesiometer, 247

O

Obermayer's methods in prisons, 195, 196

Obscenity, 63

Occupations suitable for prisoners, 197, 203, 204

"Open Door," the, penal institution in Buenos Ayres, 203, 204

Orange, 208

Orgies, 40

Osmometer, 251

Ottolenghi, discoveries of, 61

P

Paralysis, 75, 226, 229

Paralytic, demented, 269

"Paranza," 48

Paresis, 82, 83

Parkinson's disease, 252

Passion, criminals of, 117-121, 186

Patrizi, 224

"Patta, La" 41

Pears (Prisons and Reform, 1872), 196

Pederasts, 232

Pellagra, 76, 150

Pelvimeter, 239

Penal codes, 176, 178

Penal colonies, 201-204

Penalties, 153
table of, proposed by the Modern School, 210-212

Penitenciario Nacional of Buenos Ayres, 198-203

Penitentiaries, 194-198

Penta, on percentage of criminals of inebriate families, 138

Perez,(Psychologie de l'enfant), quoted, on anger in children, 131

Perth, Scotland, 207

Peruvian Indians, 6, 7

Physical anomalies of criminals, 7, 10-24, 231-245

Pictet, 125

Pictography, 43

Pinel, 37, 53

Plethysmograph, 223, 225, 264

Poisoners, 31, 182

Political offenders, 186

Polyandry, 127

Population, density of, effect on criminality, 146, 148

Positive School of Penal Jurisprudence. See Modern School of Penal
Jurisprudence

Pott, 125

Poverty and crime, 150

Precocity in crime, 222

Preventive methods, 175 ff.

Primitive races, tattooing among, 45
views of crime, 125-129, 134
death penalty among, 209

Prison life, effect upon criminals, 148, 149, 153, 154, 186

Probation Office in Boston, 189

Probation system, 178, 179, 188-191

Professions and crime, 149, 150, 221

Progeneismus, 13, 60, 243

Prognathism, 7, 12

Prostitution, 144, 151, 180

Proverbial sayings concerning criminals, 49, 50

Prussia, percentage of illegitimates among criminals, 144

Psychology of born criminals, 27 ff.

Ptosis, 14, 236

Punishments, 185
corporal, 191
capital, 208, 209

R

Race and crime, 139, 140

Recidivists, 46, 222

Reformatories, 182, 192

Reformatory Prison for Women at South Framingham, near Boston, 183-
185

Remorse, 29

Repentance, 29

Rescue Homes of the Salvation Army, 169

Revue d'Anthropologie, 1874, 128

Ribaudo, Brancaleone, 138

Richet, experiments with dogs, 59, 60
on hysteria, 95

Roncoroni, discoveries of, 21, 22, 61, 100

Rosenbach, experiments of, 59

"Rota, La" 41

S

Salvation Army, 167-170

Samt, on epilepsy, 88, 90, 91

San Stefano, island, convict population, 34

Sensibility, general, 24, 245, 246, 277
to touch and pain, 25, 245, 246, 277
to the magnet, 26
meteoric, 26
of the senses, 26, 249-251
localisation of, 247
to metals, 248

Simulation, 97, 261, 272

Sisterhoods founded by Rabbi Gottheil, 170-172

Skin diseases, 232

Skull, formations, 10-12
measurements, 239-242

Slang, 28, 33, 42, 152

Smugglers, 114

Snow (Two Years' Cruise round Tierra del Fuego), 129

Social causes of crime, 143

Somatic examination, 260, 277

Somnambulism, 63, 141

South America, institutions for orphans, 157
Salvation Army in, 170
reformatories, 192
penal institution in Buenos Ayres, 203

Spain, percentage of women among criminals, 151

Spencer (Principles of Ethics, 1895), 129

Strabismus, 14, 236

Strength, 27, 252

Suggestion, susceptibility to, 95, 269
examination of, 226
case, 269

Suicide, 119, 259

Swindlers, characteristics, 16, 18, 20, 25, 46, 231, 245, 246
percentage among criminaloids, 108
cases, 109
imprisonment of, 182

Sydenham, on hysteria, 95

Symbiosis, 212-215

T

Tachyanthropometer, 237

Tamburini, quoted, 37

Tardieu (De la Folie, 1870), 85

Tattooing, 39, 45-48, 232

Temperature, relation to crime, 145

Theft, instincts of, 37, 38
petty, 117
percentage of, among criminaloids, 121
among primitive races, 128-130
and paralysis, 259
and epileptics, 260

Thieves, physical characteristics, 20, 46, 150, 236, 243-244
cases, 28, 29, 37, 38
moral sense, 32-35
handwriting, 230

Tissié (Les alienés voyageurs, 1887), 88

Tonnini, 62, 64, 65

Traumatism, 140, 141

Treachery, 34

U

United States, institutions for destitute children, 160
percentage of crime in, 173, 174
probation system in, 178, 189, 190
juvenile courts in, 178
reformatories in, 192

V

Vanicek, 126, 127

Vanity, 35

Vidocq, 35

Vindictiveness, 38

Volumetric glove, 224

Volumetric tank, 223

W

Weber's esthesiometer, 245

Where the Shadows Lengthen, 168

Women, percentage of criminality among, 151, 180