ENRICO FERRI ON HOMICIDE, 831 



the indifference to the number of their condemnations, and, in 

 more direct mode, satisfaction in the crime consummated or re- 

 morse at not having achieved their aim; and, finally, in many- 

 cases the explicit confession that they feel no remorse or repent- 

 ance. However, the lack of repugnance to crime and of remorse 

 can not be said to be universal and to manifest itself in every 

 direction of criminal activity, because, excepting in those crimi- 

 nals who have never had either the one or the other sentiment 

 for any species of offense, there is often verified a kind of moral 

 Daltonism which, though lacking in criminals who, having a very 

 obtuse moral sense of certain crimes, on the other hand have a 

 most delicate perception. One among many salient examples is 

 that of a thief who has a horror of homicide, and of the homicide 

 to whom the thought of theft is repellent. This moral Daltonism 

 extends also to the impelling causes, and to the execution of the 

 crime, that is committed for one reason and rejected for another. 

 It extends itself to the very instruments used to commit the homi- 

 cide. It may also arise from caste prejudices, as, for example, 

 in the man who killed his brother because they were both in love 

 with their housemaid, and who cried out in the court, " You had 

 every right to kill me, but none to dishonor me ! " 



It is thus in cold blood, so to speak, that Ferri studies the 

 psychological constitution of born homicides and the manifes- 

 tation of their moral sense. He also examines their sentiments. 

 Religious sentiment is extraneous to the genesis of crime, and 

 hence moral and immoral men are found indifferently among 

 atheists and believers, though the number of atheists is rare 

 among homicides, who, as a rule, have the religious sentiment 

 highly developed, a proof of which is found, among other things, 

 in being tattooed with religious symbols, their superstitious piety, 

 and lastly their true and real religious cultus, even to seeking a 

 comfort in crime and to finding a convenient faith in pardon. As 

 a general rule, indeed, nearly all delinquents are deeply pious. 

 The egotistic sentiment of homicide may be resolved into the 

 forms of amour propre and the sense of enjoyment, including 

 under the latter heading pride, vanity, love of display, vendetta, 

 covetousness, and prodigality. Homicidal thieves have also other 

 characteristics of the true homicide, such as a reckless squander- 

 ing of money acquired by murder, a passion for play, for women, 

 and for alcohol. The ego-altruistic sentiments or those purely 

 altruistic, such as love, family affection, etc., are not lacking in 

 homicides when they are not in conflict with the egotistic. Mur- 

 derers are even not incapable of noble actions, but their immoral 

 temperament renders these unstable and contradictory, and thus 

 it may occur that the same altruistic sentiment finds expression 

 in their very crime. 



