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companions ; and it is then nothing more than 

 a political colouring given to some criminal 

 instincts which must not be confused 

 with political fanaticism a very different 

 phenomenon common to extreme and 

 romantic parties of all times. The positive 

 examination of each case in detail, with the 

 aid of anthropology and psychology, can alone 

 decide if the author of such or such violence 

 is a born criminal, an insane criminal, or a 

 criminal possessed by political fanaticism. 



I have in fact always maintained, and I still 

 maintain, that the "political criminal," whom 

 certain persons wish to put in a special 

 category, does not constitute a particular 

 anthropological variety, but can be attached 

 to some one of the anthropological categories 

 of the criminals of ordinary law, and 

 especially to one of these three : the born 

 criminal from congenital tendency, the insane 

 criminal, the criminal from fanatical passion. 



The history of the past and of recent times 

 offers us evident examples. 



In the Middle Ages religious beliefs 

 preoccupied the minds of all and coloured the 

 criminal or mad excesses of many, or indeed 

 really determined some cases of " sanctity " 

 more or less hysterical. 



At the end of our century (the igth) it is 

 politico-social questions which preoccupy, and 

 with what vehemence, the universal mind, 

 which is exalted by this universal contagion 

 that journalism creates with its great catch- 

 words, and it is these questions which colour 

 the criminal or insane excesses of many 



