660 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 



According to the peual law there are but two terras : the criminal and 

 the punishment, while criminal anthropology, the new science, has three 

 terms : (1) tile crime, (2) the criminal, and (3) the punishment or the 

 adai)ted repressive measures. These repressive measures are to be 

 again divided according as they are applied to the different classes of 

 criminals. 



(5) In classing as criminals those who commit offenses against prop- 

 erty, such as robbers, thieves, swindlers, forgers, etc., psychology 

 plays a role even more important than authroi)ology. The sentiment 

 of probity is less instinctive than that of charity or pity and is not de- 

 pendent upon the organism because it is more recent and less trans- 

 missible by heredity. It happens that exterior causes, such as the 

 surroundings, conditions, examples, education, and economic conditions 

 may have a greater effect upon this species of criminality. In the case 

 of the robber or thief, along with the morbid form, kleptomania, there 

 is au instinct to steal caused by heredity or atavism, which is often 

 manifested by anthropologic signs and above all by special physiognomy. 

 The most striking characters are those mentioned by Lombroso of the 

 extreme mobility of the face and hands, small and bright eye, heavy 

 and continuous eyebrows, the camus nose, small and retreating fore- 

 head, etc. 



When these characteristics are found upon the recidivist, that is, 

 the incorrigible criminal, one can be sure that he has to do with a crim- 

 inal born. It is frequent that among vagabonds, robbers, thieves, 

 and other criminals against property there is a physical and moral 

 neurastheny, a term coined by Benedikt, of Vienna; that is to say, an 

 aversion to labor and to every moral combat far the right, derived from 

 a nervous constitution, and which is combined with, or perhaps has 

 jn'oduced a desire to enjoy the pleasures of life and to indulge in its 

 luxuries quite beyond his means. When the circumstances of life are 

 hard upon such au individual, and he is subjected to an economic or 

 social crisis, he is more likely to become a criminal, because crime may 

 aid him in the satisfaction of his desires. To this neurasthenic class 

 belong the vagabonds, thieves, and swindlers, whose improbity may 

 have commenced by unfortunate circumstances, such as being out of 

 work, loss of place, evil company, bad example, and improper moral 

 education, and which ends in his becoming au instinctive criminal. 

 The neurasthenic and the habitual or instinctive criminal ought there- 

 fore to be grouped together, because they are equally incorrigible, 

 until at least the social and economic situation of the former shall be- 

 come so changed as to offer them the enjoyment of all pleasures and 

 luxuries which they desire without the need to work. It is necessary, 

 however, to make exceptions for young persons who are driven into 

 vagabondage and are thieves by bad examples, and evil surroundings 

 and associations. Although they may have become habitual criminals, 



