80 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
The truths that have been overlooked are that these deviations, 
described as significant of criminality, are the inevitable concomi- 
tants of inferior stature and defective intelligence: both of which 
are the differentia of the type of persons who are selected for im- 
prisonment. The thief who is caught thieving, has a smaller head 
and narrower forehead than the man who arrests him; but this is 
the case, not because he is more criminal, but because, of the two, 
he is the more markedly inferior in stature. The incendiary is 
more emotionally unstable, and more lacking in control, more 
refractory in conduct, and more dirty in habit, etc., than the thief; 
and the thief is more distinguished by the above peculiarities 
than the forger; and all criminals display these qualities to a more 
marked extent than does the law-abiding public; not because any 
one of these classes is more criminal than another, but because of 
their interdifferentiation in general intelligence. On statistical 
evidence one assertion can be dogmatically made: it is, that the 
criminal is differentiated by inferior stature, by defective intelli- 
gence, and, to some extent, by his anti-social proclivities; but that 
apart from these broad differences, there are no physical, men- 
tal, or moral characteristics peculiar to the inmates of English 
prisons.” 
The influence of heredity in the production of crime according 
to Goring is very strong. Criminality, as most other students of 
the subject have found, shows a marked tendency to run in 
families. To the question whether heredity or environmental 
factors are the most potent in producing criminals, Goring re- 
marks: “We think our figures, showing the comparatively insig- 
nificant relation of family and other environmental conditions 
with crime, and the high and enormously augmented association of 
feeble-mindedness with conviction for crime, and its well-marked 
relation with alcoholism, epilepsy, sexual profligacy, ungovern- 
able temper, obstinacy of purpose, and willful anti-social activ- 
ity—every one of these, as well as feeble-mindedness, being heritable 
qualities— we think that these figures, coupled with those showing 
the marked degree of ancestral resemblance in regard to the fate 
of imprisonment, go far to answering this question.” 
