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Title: Criminal Man - According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso
Author: Lombroso, Gina, 1872-1944
Language: English
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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 MORAL INSANITY AND EPILEPSY 52
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 CRIME 175
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 AND LUNATICS AND IN DETECTING SIMULATIONS OF
INSANITY 258
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
_III._ THE FEMALE OFFENDER. (In Collaboration with Guglielmo Ferrero.) 291
_IV._ POLITICAL CRIME. (In Collaboration with Rodolfo Laschi.) 294
_V._ TOO SOON: A Criticism of the New Italian Penal Code 298
_VI._ PRISON PALIMPSESTS: Studies in Prison Inscriptions 300
_VII._ ANCIENT AND MODERN CRIMES 302
_VIII._ DIAGNOSTIC METHODS OF LEGAL PSYCHIATRY 303
_IX._ ANARCHISTS 305
_X._ LECTURES ON LEGAL MEDICINE 307
_XI._ RECENT DISCOVERIES IN PSYCHIATRY AND CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND
THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THESE SCIENCES 309
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE CHIEF WORKS OF CESARE LOMBROSO 310
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. 10. DRAWINGS IN SCRIPT. DISCOVERED BY DE BLASIO 44
Fig. 11. ALPHABET. DISCOVERED BY DE BLASIO 45
Fig. 12. BOY MORALLY INSANE 56
Fig. 13. BOY MORALLY INSANE 56
Fig. 14. AN EPILEPTIC BOY 60
Fig. 15. FERNANDO. EPILEPTIC 60
Fig. 16. ITALIAN CRIMINAL. A CASE OF ALCOHOLISM 82
Fig. 17. SIGNATURES OF CRIMINALS 163
Fig. 18. CRIMINAL GIRL 114
Fig. 19. THE BRIGAND SALOMONE 114
Fig. 20. BRIGAND GASPARONE 166
Fig. 21. BRIGAND CASERIO 120
Fig. 22. TERRA-COTTA BOWLS. DESIGNED BY A CRIMINAL 134
Fig. 23. ART PRODUCTION FROM PRISON 136
Fig. 24. A COMBAT BETWEEN BRIGANDS AND GENDARMES. DESIGNED
BY A CRIMINAL 136
Fig. 25. A VOLUMETRIC GLOVE 224
Fig. 26. HEAD OF A CRIMINAL. EPILEPTIC 224
Fig. 27. ANTON OTTO KRAUSER. APACHE 236
Fig. 28. A CRIMINAL'S EAR 224
Fig. 29. ANTHROPOMETER 237
Fig. 30. CRANIOGRAPH ANFOSSI 238
Fig. 31. PELVIMETER 239
Fig. 32. DIAGRAM OF SKULL 241
Fig. 33. DIAGRAM OF SKULL 241
Fig. 34. ESTHESIOMETER 245
Fig. 35. ALGOMETER 248
Fig. 36. CAMPIMETER OF LANDOLT (MODIFIED) 248
Fig. 37. DIAGRAM SHOWING NORMAL VISION 250
Fig. 38. DYNAMOMETER 253
Fig. 39. HEAD OF AN ITALIAN CRIMINAL 254
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.]
It 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
HEAD OF CRIMINAL
(see page 14)=
=FIG. 5
HEAD OF CRIMINAL
(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
Figures made in Prison
MURDER OF A SLEEPING VICTIM
Work of a Prisoner
(see page 31)=
=FIG. 8
CRUCIFIX POIGNARD
(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.
=FIG. 10
Drawings in Script.
Discovered by De Blasio=
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).
_Carabineer_--a bugle.
_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.
=FIG. 11
Alphabet Discovered by De Blasio=
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. Forgers and
swindlers are rarely 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_
No 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
BOY MORALLY INSANE
(see page 55)=
=FIG. 13
BOY MORALLY INSANE
(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
Epileptic 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_
We 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
CRIMINAL GIRL=
=FIG. 19
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_
In 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_ from which pirate is derived, signifies to risk; the Greek
_chleptein_ 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.
Phoenicians, 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 foetus, 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_
The 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_
Preventive 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 or Prison, penal colony,
moral insensibility some other egotistical criminal insane
and instinctive object asylum, or
cruelty, capital punishment
convicted of Murder without if 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 convicted of Cruelty, assault Criminal insane
and battery, rape, asylum for epileptics,
kidnapping or
Indefinite seclusion
for a period equal
to one of the natural
divisions of a man's
life, with period of
supervision.
Minors convicted of Murder, cruelty Special reformatories,
and other offences criminal insane
against the person asylum if there are
without provocation congenital tendencies.
Offences against Penal colony and
decency deportation in cases
of recidivation.
Adults convicted of Homicide provoked by Exile from native
injury or place and from the
genuine grievances town in which the
victim's family live.
Adults convicted of Homicide in Exile, segregation
self-defence for an indefinite
period in some
Homicide to avenge remote town or
some wrong or settlement.
personal dishonour
Adults convicted of Assault in quarrels, Compensation for
or ill-treatment injury caused, fines,
when intoxicated, reprimand, security,
blows, insults, or conditional liberty.
slander
Adults convicted of Mutiny and revolt Reprimand, security,
imprisonment for a
definite period.
III. Criminals Devoid of a Sense of Honesty
_Offender_ _Crime_ _Penalty_
Adults (habitual Theft, fraud, arson, Criminal lunatic
offenders) convicted forgery, blackmail asylums (if insane
of or epileptic),
deportation (for
sane offenders).
Adults (occasional Theft fraud, forgery, Reformatories,
offenders) convicted blackmail, arson conditional liberty,
of exclusion from
particular profession.
Adults convicted of Peculation, concussion Loss of office,
exclusion from all
public offices,
fines, compensation
for damage done.
Adults convicted of Arson, malicious Compensation, or
damage to property as a substitute,
imprisonment.
Criminal lunatic
asylums (if insane).
Penal colonies
(for recidivists).
Adults convicted of Fraudulent Compensation for
bankruptcy damage caused,
exclusion from
business and
public offices.
Adults convicted of Counterfeiting, Reformatories,
forging cheques, fines, compensation
public title-deeds, for damage, exclusion
etc. from office.
Adults convicted of Bigamy, substitution Seclusion for an
or suppression indefinite period.
of child
Minors convicted of Theft, fraud, and Magisterial
picking pockets reprimand, probation,
reformatory, or
agricultural
colony.
IV. Offenders Lacking in Industry
_Offender_ _Penalty_
Beggars, vagabonds, Agricultural colony
loafers for country offenders,
workshop for city offenders.
V. Offenders Deficient in Misoneism (Hatred of Change)
_Offender_ _Penalty_
Political, social, and Temporary exile.
religious rebels
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_
Criminal 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.
=FIG. 28
Criminal's Ear=
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 apparatus. It consists of a
large gutta-percha glove, which 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
A VOLUMETRIC GLOVE
(see page 224)=
=FIG. 26
HEAD OF A CRIMINAL
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.
=FIG. 29
Anthropometer=
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.
=FIG. 30
Craniograph Anfossi=
_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 subject, but we can 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.
=FIG. 31
Pelvimeter=
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. (See Figs. 32, 33.)
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
ALGOMETER
(see page 246)=
=FIG. 36
CAMPIMETER OF LANDOLT
(Modified)
(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. 42). 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--
diarrhoea.
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_
The 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)_
In 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
nature of criminality among, 181, 182
Work, motive force of every institute, 197
Wormian bones, 12
Z
Zakka Khel, criminal tribe in India, 129, 140
Zehen, experiments of, 59
Zino, 41
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27.--+Criminal Man.+ According to the Classification of CESARE LOMBROSO.
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_In preparation:_
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Footnotes:
[1] For a description of the methods employed in measuring skulls see
Part III.
[2] For a description of the methods used in measuring the acuteness of
these senses, see Part III.
[3] As in the case of the Sicilian brigand Salomone (see Fig. 19).
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.
Passages in bold are indicated by +bold+.
Illustration captions are indicated by =caption=.
Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate
both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as
presented in the original text.
The original text includes Greek characters. These characters have been
removed from this text version because the original text provides a
translation.
The following misprints were corrected:
"possesssed" corrected to "possessed" (page xiv)
"Ethnolgy" corrected to "Ethnology" (page 129)
"pecuilar" corrected to "peculiar" (page 135)
"associaton" corrected to "association" (page 187)
"segregrated" corrected to "segregated" (page 206)
"distinguising" corrected to "distinguishing" (page 228)
"chlidren" corrected to "children" (page 321)
"his" corrected to "has" (advertisements)
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Criminal Man - According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso" ***
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