G38 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 



secondary dift'erences in social conditions which may ho found even 

 ainon^ the nuMubers of tlie same family are evidently not sutiicient in 

 themselves to explain the enormous ditferences of these resulting 

 actions. 



It is necessary, therefore, to consider this question in a relative sense 

 and to discover which of the three orders of natural causes of crime has 

 the greatest influence in the determination to the commission thereof. 



A general or categoric answer can not be given, for the relative influ- 

 ence of the anthropological, physical, and social conditions, vary with 

 each criminal action according to the psychologic and social characters 

 of the individual. 



When we consider, for example, the three classes of crimes, those 

 against persons, those against property, those against morality and 

 virtue, it is evident that each order of the determining conditions, and, 

 above all, the biologic conditions and the social conditions, have an in- 

 fluence altogether ditterent in the determination to the crimes of mur- 

 der, robbery, or violation. And this can be repeated for all categories 

 of crime. 



The undeniable influence of social condition, and above all — economic 

 condition in the determination to rob or steal, has much less effect 

 in the determination to murder or violation. And in each category 

 of crimes the influence of the determining conditions is much accord- 

 ing to the special forms of criminality. Certain classes of murders 

 (those of occasion) are evidently the effect of social conditions, as, 

 for instance, alcoholism, gambling, public opinion, etc., while cer- 

 tain other murders are the effect of the ferocity or the moral insensi- 

 bility of the criminal, or else arising from the psycho-pathologic con- 

 dition which corresponds to organic abnormal conditions. And it is 

 the same with certain ofienses against good morals which are in a great 

 l^art the effect of a social condition which condemns some communities 

 to live together in habitations more as herds of wild beasts than as 

 human beings, with a brutal promiscuity of sexes and ages, parents, 

 children, strangers, boys, girls, etc., w'hich will have the effect to pre- 

 vent every normal sentiment of virtue or modesty and to efl'ace any 

 such sentiment already formed. 



Other crimes of the same nature, but more brutal, are derived from 

 the biologic conditions of the criminal, whether they be the result of 

 a sexual psychopathy or a biologic anomaly. While simple theft or 

 larceny may be somewhat the elfect of social or economic conditions, 

 yet these influences have but slight eflect in comi)arison with the im- 

 pulsion given by the individual constitution, whether organic or 

 psychic, in higher crimes, as robbery with violence, or in murder with 

 intent to rob or steal, or other crimes committed in cold blood. 



The same observation can be applied to the conditions of the phys- 

 ical surroundings, for example, the augmentation in the number of 

 crimes against property committed during the cold or winter months, 



