CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY.* 



By Thomas Wilson, ll.d. 



The First International Congress of Criminal Anthropology M'as held 

 at Rome in 1885. It opened a new epoch in the history of crime. It was 

 proposed to investigate crime scientifically, biologically, fundamentally; 

 to investigate it in its origin, its causes; to determine, if possible, what 

 share or proportion of responsibility therefor belonged to the criminal, 

 and what to the public. As the causes were to be investigated, so also 

 were the cures. What etiect did punishment have for the prevention 

 of crime ? What good coukl be done by education ? 



I formulate some of the propositions with regard to the commission 

 and prevention of crime and show the relations of different methods 

 to the end sought to be attained. 



I. — The commission of crime — how induced : 



1. By heredity. 



2. By education : 



a. Environment, 



b. Sociologic iutiueuces, chiefly in youth. 



c. Economic influences; as poverty, faraine, &c. 

 n. — The prevention of crime: 



1. By fear of punishment : 



a. Execution. 



b. Imprisonment. 



c. Fine. 



2. By restraint: 



a. Imprisonment in reformatory institutions. 



b. Education. 



III. — For the prevention of crime which had its cause in heredity : 



1. Restraint of liberty (of the born criminal) before commission of any crime; 



this for the individual and for etfect in the present. 



2. Restraint of marriage or the prevention of the birth of children who are cer- 



tain to become criminals. 

 IV. — Reformation of criminals : 



1. By punishment after the commission of crime. 



2. Restraint before the commission of crime. 



3. Education : 



a. Religion and morals. 



b. At home. 



c. At church. 



* A report ou the Second International Congress of Criminal Anthropology, held at 

 Paris, August, lSd9. By Thomas Wilson, ll. d., curator of prehistoric anthropol- 

 ogy of the U. S. National Museum, appointed as delegate from the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution to the said Congress. 



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