The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-07

ever, not to be lost sight of is that this
physical inferiority. although originating
in and fostered by selection, may tend
with time to become an inbred character
istic of the criminal classes, just as with
the passage of generations, the upper
classes of the non-criminal community
have become differentiated in physique
from those lower in the social scale. We
shall show in O. later section that impris-
onment for crime Is a tendency that runs
in families in the same way as and with
much the same lntensities that diminutve
stature tends to be restricted to certain
stocks. Conviced parents, selected from
the general community, as already ex-
planned by inferior stature, have sons
who. while tending to be similarly con-
victed. inherit the diminutive stature of
their fathers Here we have the condi-
tions which in the course of generations
would lead to an inbred physical differen-
tiation of the criminal classes. In the re-
port already refWred to of the British
Association Anthropometrical committee,
statistics of stature and weight of various
grades of school children are presented,
and fact of singular suggestiveness re-
vealed by these comparative statistics is
that industrial and reformatory school
children are consistently on the average
one inch shorter in stature, and several
pounds less in weight, than any other
class of school children of the same age
in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately
the data in question consist of a very
short series only, and are unsatisfactory
in other ways, and we would be loath
to emphasize an argument based upon
them until they ahve been amplifed and
supported by the analysed results of larg-
them until they have been amplified and
that Industrial school children are differ
entiated in stature and weight from other
ic y0rt- CT at-pyaff aa,,t
for the supposltion that inferior stature
and weight are tending to become inbred
criminal characteristics.
ITO sum up: all English criminals, with
the exception of those technically con-
victed of fraud, are markedly differentat-
ed from the general population In stature
and body-weight; in addition, offenders
convicted of violence to the person are
characterized by an average degree of
strength and of a constitutional sound
ness considerably above the average of
other criminals, and of the law abiding
community; finally, thieves and burglars
(who constitute, 1t must be borne in mind,
80 per cent of all criminals), and also in
cendiaries, as well as being inferior in
stature and weight, are also relatively to
other criminals and the population at
large, puny in their general bodily habit.
These are the facts. and, according to the
results of our statistical inquiry, they are
the sole facts at the basis of criminal
anthropology; they are the only elepents
of truth out of whicl. ave. been con-
structed the elaborate, extravagant and
ludicrously uncritical archaeological doc
trines of the great protagonist of the
criminal type theory. The utmost we
can concede from our final conclusion is
that criminal anthropology is not entirely
without basis in fact. but fact perverted
by credulity and fanaticism. The danger
of the Lombrosian doctrine Is not the
oretical one; persistently in the past, and
progressively in the future, this doctrine
has impeded and win continue to impede
until its internent be officially regis
tered-the rational treatment of criminol-
ogicsl problems that call urgently for So
luton.