CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY.* 



By Thomas Wilson, ll.d. 



The First International Congress of Criminal Anthropology was 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 ])ossible, what 

 share or proportion of responsibility therefor belonged to the criminal, 

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

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

 of crime f What good could 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 coinmission of crime — lnjw imluced : 



1. By lieredity. 



2. By edncjition : 



a. Environnient, 



h. Socioloj^'ic iiiUiieuceti, claielly in youth, 

 c. Economic iiiiiueuces; as poverty, famine, «&c. 

 II.— The prevention of crime : 



1. By fear of punishment : 



a. Execution. 



b. Imprisonment. 

 <\ Fine. 



2. By restraint: 



a. Imprisonment in reformatory institutions. 

 h. Education. 



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



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



this for the individual and for effect in tlie present. 



2. Restraint of marriaj^e or tlui prevention of the birth of children who are cer- 



tain to hecome criminals. 

 IV. — Reformation of criminals : 



1. By punishment after the commission of (irimo. 



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 f«t 

 Paris, August, ISdi). By Thomas Wilson, ll. i>., 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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