The times., 1899-05-28
WOMEN AS CRIMINALS.
What AnthropoIosists Have Discor-
cred on This Subject.
CFrom the Kansas City Star.)


CFrom the Kansas City Star.)
Anthropclogists who have given their at
tention of late to the study of women GRIM
inals have arrived at some peculiarly inter-
esting results. 1t has been found that the
woman criminal differs in SO wide a degree
from the man criminal that she must be
put in a class by herself and studied by
herself. The old laws that applied to the
man criminal do not fit her. New theories
have been advanced in considering the
subject of crime among women.
Woman being weaker than man 1t would
naturally follow that her offences against
society would not be such as would re-
quire the exercise Of great bodily strength.
and her nature being different she is IN
spired by motives that are peculiar to her
self. The born offender among women Is
an exception. Her greatest crimes are
committed under the spur OF PASSION
largely sporadic. and are often accompah-
led By instances of the sublimist selt-sac-
rifice. Charlotte Corday was gillotined Tor
a deed that was regarded at the time as
great crime. and the anthropologists have
not vet stricken her from the list OF the
worlds noted criminals. They have care
fully noted in her skull "an extraordinary
number of anomalies. Charlotte Corday rs
murder OF Murat is classed as crime
cf passion and it is observed that though
she was a woman Of noble and eXtraordln-
ary beauty. there was in her countenance
an expression unusually masculine ana
viTile. So Charlotte Corday is pronounced
by the anthropologists as abnormal
The woman becomes 4 criminal from the
peculiar passions that her nature exem-
pIifes. The woman kills because she loves
too passionateiy. She kills because she
hates too ferociOusly. She Kills because
her jealousy becomes uncomfortable But
I of U-N
show so often a generous purpose accom-
panying them that she appears in far
more favorable light than the male type OF
the same kind. She kills to make her lover
happy or to do his bidding. Often she Kills
| for those very sentiments which II but
| trihe less intense would make her the
noblest of creatures.
But the woman who is born criminal
| is a totally different person. AS rule
her crimes are those of weakness and i'm
morality. She is a thief, a calumniator.
disturber of the peace. She quarrels, falls
| into fits of rage and commits offences of
| spite against those who. she fincies have
| insulted her. But sometimes one finds in
| the woman criminal the rare type OF the
persistent and vicious offender-the wom-
an who commits great and Shocking
crimes from selfish and debased motives.
| And in her the offence becomes all the
| type among women is at once the mcst
| terrible and the rarest known to society.
In her, cruelty and evil are thousand Zines
| worse than in the man. AnthroPo ogists
| such as Cesare Lombroso explain her fe-
rocity upon the theory that the ordinary
woman, though she may be possessed OF
many evil passions and instincts of cruel
| ty which would break out in positive acts
| in man, is still able to repress them by
the strong forces of gentleness. truthful
ness, and maternal love which. as q wom-
an, she possesses. But when these forces
are absent, or when the woman's
passions have broken down the bar
riers, she becomes a monster OF
wickedness. Then indeed she is unsexed
and she becomes a tigress, ferocious. dread
ful, a creature to shudder at and avoid
She strangles her babes because her ma.
ternal love is dried in her breasts. Sh'
poisons and tortures her husband. She
finds means to kill her neighbors. She i!
consumed with great and terrible hatred
toward all the world. The man is as moth
ing in his wickedness to her, for she is
rare and unusual monster. A few womeI
in history have survived as examples o
this dreadful creature and modern records
show that she still exists.
The researches OF the anthropologist
have disclosed the interesting fact tha
existence in the body. not always mad
manifest by outward and visible signs-b.
abnormal growths or developments-bu
more often by some inward growth or de
ficiency. especially in the brain. A 5trang
tissue over certain part of the brain,
| fissure in the brain, peculiar and unnatura
substances, are the inyariable aecompani
ments of an evil or anomalous tempera
ment. In the woman the outward siga
of this degeneracy are. however, yer
few, and only the closest anthropometrica
tests can discover them.
1t is therefore often beyond the powe
OF the most expert anthropologist to dis
cover a deficiency in a woman crimint
unless it be an extreme yirility shown b
the massiveness of the jaws. The perfeC
: criminal type among women is extremel
rare, and the peculiar reason which scIen
: fists give for this is that the woman be
) ing so much more nearly like the prim
tive species OF her sex than the man, sh
, is much less subject TO changes from eve
the most violent pessions. Her figure
less subject to changes from even the mo-
+. violent of passions. Her figure is les
2 liable to change, and degeneration is les
l marked in her than in many. Anotht
Y physical peculiarity she possesses is thi
e she can live longer in vice and criminalit
e than man. She can better resist misfoi
tune and grief. In the prisons of Ital
+ there are women. says Lombroso, wi
4 have been confined sixty-one years al
s are more than ninety years old.
i Anthropology is far as yet from being q
t exact science; it lays no claim to infallibi
ity. But its generalities at least are ia!
cinating and even valuable.
Y