The Sunday Oregonian., September 21, 1913, SECTION SIX, Page 4, Image 70

THE SUNDAY OREONIAN, ' PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER 21, 1913.
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You Cannot, Says Noted English Investigator, Who Shatters the Lombroso
Theory There Is No Difference, He Finds, in Measurements of Law-Abiding
Heads and Those of Criminals Oxford Graduates Are Not to Be Told at a
Glance, Nor by Head Measurements, From Criminals Photos Show Law
Breakers in Local Crime Annals Who Do Not Look Desperate Parts Played
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the trolley-car or train an habitual
criminal of the most depraved kind
or a university graduate of the best
type, the highest product of modern
civil Izatlon?
Is there any way of telling the dif
ference between the two by face, form
or feature T
Lombroso claimed that there was and
established what has come to be known
as the science of criminal anthropol
ogy. His theories have eminent ad
herents ail over the world, and In no
country more so than In the United
States, where the teachings of the Ital
ian have had an enormous effect on
criminal legislation during the past
decade.
Now along comes Dr. Charles Gor
log, an English medico, who apparently
knocks Lorabroao's theories as high
as the Woolrich building; who does not
mince words and who declares that
Professor Cesare Lombroso, founder of
the now world-famous positive school
of criminology, was an enthusiastic
but hopelessly unscientific investigator.
JLnd lest any one should pause to
gasp and wonder at this shattering of
Idols and challenging ol theories mat
have had almost general acceptance.
Dr. Goring has backed up his statement
by a huge tome of more than 400 pages
and an almost endless series of most
convincing looking tables and draw
ings.
To put the Englishman's epoch-
making conclusions into the fewest pos
sible words, there Is no difference, ex
cept in degree, between the criminal
and the law-abiding citizens who never
commit any of the various acta that
land a man behind the bars.
This conclusion has not been hastily
arrived at but is the result of a 12
years' study of 8000 of the inmates of
English prisons. Dr. Goring and his
busy assistants have measured, ruled,
taped, weighed and quizzed them all
and the multitudinous results are all
aet forth in the report which has Just
been given to the world by th British
government.
In order to prove hla negative con
tentions Dr. Goring has not hesitated
putting them to the most severe of
testa. Taking his average criminal a
happy blend of a forger, a murderer, a
thief and a bigamist, with a touch of
the various minor crimes that add va
riety and flavor to the modern crim
inal's career he has compared his
measurements in turn with those of
the average Oxford. Cambridge and
Aberdeen University students with the
astonishing and alarming result that,
having mixed the sheets, her found it
almost impossible to identify the on
from the other.
At any rate, that Is the conclusion to
be drawn from his statement that In
head measurements the four average
men are as alike as so many peas. In
deed. If there is any difference. It la
all in the criminal's favor, for he mors
nearly approaches each of the other
of the quartet than Oxford does Cam
bridge or Aberdeen, or Cambridge the
latter. -
Almost without exception Dr. Gor
lug's remarkably complete figures
knock the underpinnings from beneath
the theories of Lombroso and his nu
merous school. Taking each of the
feature in turn he shows that there Is
no relation between the vast majority
of them such as. for Instance, the
shape of the head, the distance between
the eyes, the snape or tne nose, the
length of the ears, the thickness of the"
lips or the projection of the chin and
crime.
Writing on this point Dr. Goring says
early in his book:
in the present investigation we
have exhaustively compared, with re
grard to many physical characters, dif
ferent kinds of criminals with eao
other, and criminals, as a class, with
the law-abiding public. From these
comparisons no evidence has emerged
confirming the existence of a physical
criminal typo, such as Lombroso and
his disciples have described. Our data
do show that physical difference ex
Ists between different kinds of crim
Inula, precisely as they exist between
different kinds of law-abiding people.
But, when allowance Is made for a cer
tain range of probable variation, an
when they are reduced to a common
standard of age. stature. Intelligence
and class, etc., these differences tend
entirely to disappear. Our results no
where confirm the evidence nor justify
the allegations of criminal anthropolo
gists. They challenge their evidence
at almost every point.
"In fact.. both with regard to meas
urements and the presence of physical
anomalies in criminals, our statistics
present a startling conformity wltn
similar statistics of the law-abiding
classes. The final conclusion we are
bound to accept until further evidence
in the train of long series of statistics
may compel us to reject or to modify
an apparent certainty our inevitable
conclusion must be that there Is no
such thing as a physical criminal type.
This, then, is our contention: admit
ting the criminal does possess all the
characteristics that have been attrlb
uted to him; admitting, even that he
Is marked by a Vlome-ehaped' head and
by a face like a T)lrd of prey: admit
ting that he Is drunken. Impulsive, ob
stinate, dirty and without control
despite all this, we maintain he is not
an abnormal man.
"He may represent a selected class
of normal man; many of his qualities
may present extreme degrees from the
normal average; yet the fact remains
that. In the pattern of his mind and
body. In his feelings, thoughts, desires.
and recognition of right and wrong;
and in his behavior, however out
rageous it may be, he exists by the
same nature, and Is moved by the same
springs of action that affect the con
duct and constitute the quality of
normal human beings."
In speaking, of Lombroso and his
methods. Dr. Goring says:
rue preconceived, and, in our opinion.
totally unfounded, Lombroslan notion
was that criminality Is a specific con
dition of mind or soul; Is a definite
state of psychical instability. And this
psychical state, with Its outward and
physical signs of an inward and spirit
ual darkness, this mental and moral
Instability, underlay, according to the
above supposition, any and every form
of lawlessness and potentiality for
crime, and was Its own explanation
and Its sole promoter.
"Murder, larceny, fraud, every kind
of lawbreaklng. from the most elabo
rate to the simplest instances, were all.
n varying degrees. exDressiona or
revelations of an identical abnormal
state of being. Not the petty thief in
prison today, nor the supreme crim
inals oi nistoryt neither Gasparonne,
the brigand, nor Charlotte Cordar. th
patriot, were exempt from the law
Lombroso had laid down.
TTiere Is. In ehort. according . tn
Lombroso, a definite line of demarca
tion, an absolute difference In nature,
as opposed to degree, between those
human beings who are and those who
lief of Lombroso's was arrived at, not I
by methods of disinterested lnvestiga-1
tlon, but, rather, by a leap ot tne
Imagination, the notion thus reached
then forming the basis upon which he
conducted his researches and construct
ed his theory the whole fabric of the
Lombroslan doctrine, judged by the
standards of Bclence, is fundamentally
unsound.
"Preconceiving criminality to be a
diseased or anomalous mental condi
tlon. he realized although not, be it
noted, until measurements had failed
him that .this conception could only
become universally acceptable by
demonstration of the presence in the
criminal of physical and mental ab-J
normalities, 1. e., of structures and
conditions in him by which the crim
inal could be qualitatively differen
tiated from the law-abiding com
munity. .
"But, unfortunately, there are no
signs peculiar to the criminal by which
he can be Inevitably detected. And 80,
to circumvent this rather formidable
obstacle to the development of this
plan. Lombroso availed himself of a
series of Bubterfuges, among which
figured conspicuously his Invention of
a 'theory of anomaly."
"The theory of anomaly, so ruthless
ly rejected by Toplnard and Manouv
rier, presupposed that all marked de
viations from the mean value of any
character in man were 'anomalies,' and
that a definite line of demarcation ex
isted between characters which were
and were not thus designated anoma
lous, and that, according to the anoma
lies stigmatizing them, the degree of
moral alienation In Individuals could be
4 r
diagnosed. The following is a list of
some of the principal characters that
have been enrolled as 'human anoma
lies.'
The various form of cranial asym
metry:
"Size of head Very large heads, very
small indeed; low, narrow and receding
foreheads.
"Facial asymmetry Great develop
ment of lower jaw.
Projecting cheekbones:
Projecting ears:
Prognathism:
Virile, ferocious, idiotlo physiogono
mles: Defective teeth:
Shape and deflection of nose:
Thin lips:
Hairiness:
"Wrinkles:
Tatooing:
High, narrow, v-shaped, saddle
shaped palates.
In commenting on the amazing table
of measurements which demonstrate
that there is very little or no differ
ence between the "average" criminal
and the "average" university student,
at least so far as his head dimensions
are concerned, the English investigator
conoludes:
' "We conclude that the convicted felon
has the same shape and girth of head
as Oxford students, but that, in their
three principal head diameters, prison
Inmates fall short of Oxford univer
sity students by 1 to 2 mm."
"Before drawing hasty conclusions,
however, from these small reported
differences, two facts must be remem
bered. The one is that heads of con
victs are closely cropped of hair a
fact which necessarily leads to a rela
tive depreciation of recorded head mea
surements: the other Is that the record
ed differences of cephalic measure
ments between criminals and Oxford
or Cambridge students are not greater
than similar differences between the
respective students of these two uni
versities.
"In breadth of head, Cambridge ex
ceeds Oxford to about the same extent
that Oxford men exceed criminals; but
criminals and Oxford men are equally
longer-headed than the Cambridge
men index 78 as against 79.6. And II
we allot a casting vote to a third uni
versity by Introducing (4) Aberdeen
undergraduates into the contrast, the.
verdict Is that prison inmates, as a
whole, approximate closer In head
measurements to the universities gen
erally, than do students of different
universities conform with each other
in this regard.
"In fact, the mean length, breadth,
height, index and circumference of
head, which are 194.8, 153.4, 132.3, 78. J
1 J .Its I VklJAvL?
THEODORE:
errr "-w f -
HE fog wag driving in, topping' the
edge of a cliff like a herd of gray
mist monsters and crawling on
across the scanty pastures of Trader's
Bay. The time was early evening and
the season late October. The men of the
bay had returned only a few days be
fore from Labrador fishing. Two of
them stop In the steaming mist, ont
of sight or tne cluster of cabins. One
was Jake McMann. a big fellow with
an insolent eye and a curling brown
beard. The other was young Nicholas
Dever, the gentlest youth in the har
bor. Like all the Devers of Trader's
Bay. his hair was flaming red in
color. -
"What I wants to tell you," said Mc
Mann, "be this: If I sees you 'round
Skipper Dent's Slrl again, ril hat you
dead. Just now I'll give you a taste
my belt to learn, you not to try
sallln' to windward o' your betters!"
He drew the heavy belt from his
waist and made a grab at the other's
shoulder. The Injustice of this was
too much for even Dover's mild temper.
The few calls he had made at Dent's
'htg 3aw and lodged the screaming
swoop of the buckled strap. Mad with
fear and righteous indignation, he
sprang at his bulky enemy and planted
both flats, with all the weight of his
body behind them, square on the
bearded Jaw, With a curse of surprise
and anger McMann reeled back over
the edge of the cliff.
Nicholas crouched there for fully a
minute, staring into the driving fog
and listening .to the booming of the
surf below the white curtain. Then,
uttering an inarticulate cry, he turned
and ran inland across the scanty pas
tures. And so Nicholas Dever became a
fugitive, with the horror of his deed
always at his heart and fear of the law
at his heels. He slunk along the coast,
between the empty sea and the voice
less wilderness for days, sometimes,
without sighting a human habitation.
He was hard put to it for food. He
hunted like a wild beast, creeping after
hare or- grouse, and at last leaping
upon the quarry with a club. Day by
day his strength dwindled; but bis ter
ror knew no diminution.
'picked up by s schooner bonnd for St
John's. Privation, fear, and loneliness
had reduced him to a state verging
upon insanity. He was found wading
along the edge of the tide, . laughing
to himself. Six hours between warm
blankets, and some liquid food, did
wonders for him.
"Where d'ye hail from, lad 7" asked
the skipper.
Dever was on bis guard In an In
stant.
"Dunk's Cove, skipper," said he.
"Then your name is Pike, or Tobln.
or Kelly, for sure," said the master of
the fore-and-after.
"Aye, my name be Pat Tobln, sir,
lied Nicholas with furtive eyes on the
skipper.
"However did you happen to be wan-
derin' 'round that-a-way?"
"I don't rightly remember, sir."
"I'll take you safe to St. John's, boy."
the old fisherman assured him. "Good
grub an' lots o' company will soon
clear your memory."
In St. John s Nicholas signed on for a
voyage to Brazil under the name of
Pat Tobln. He went aboard the bar-
left her once during the eight days
she lay against the charter party's
wharf and snatched in her cargo be
tween squalls of rain. She carried
dried codfish in wooden "drums" the
only freight from Newfoundland to the
Brazils.
Safe on the high seas, the tragedy
of Traders' Bay continued to haunt
him. Fear of detection fear of the
long arm of the law dogged his feet,
aloft and alow. His 'Bleep was em
bittered by dismal dreams. His mess
mates found him an uncongenial com
rade. They hinted to one another that
the condition of his upper rigging was
not what it should be. For all that, he
was a capable and willing seaman.
Despite the light in his pale eyes he
was the best helmsman aboard the
barkentine and the smartest man aloft.
Now, the boatswain of the Nellie
G. knew Dunk's Cove by heart. He
whispered the word that never a Tobin
since the voyage of the ark, had been
guilty of foxy hair.
"That poor devil," said he. "don't
even know his name. I'm not sayln'
he don't hall from Dunk's Cove, mind
you, for maybe he do. Like enough
he be a Kelly. But he ain't no Tobln,
that's sure, wid them rorry-borryali
whiskers.
From Brazil the barkentine headed
north and raced for Barbados, with
sand-ballast in her hold. In Bridge
town the captain found orders awaiting
him to load with molasses. He entered
the stagnant Careenage and moored
against the stone wharf. All day th
dock rang with the mallets of the
coopers, and the whole ship reeked with
the fumes of the leaking molasses. The
crew worked "shore time' from 8 to
6. After supper they were at liberty
to leave the vessel and seek amusemen
In those squalid fringes of the town
known to sailormen.
Nicholas, who trembled at the sight
of every negro policeman that he hap
pened to spy from the Nellie G., had
no heart for rollicking. He had swung
his hammock under one of the lifeboats
and every night as soon as his supper
was eaten and his pipe smoked out, he
climbed to his high retreat and brooded
over the affair of Trader's Bay.
On the third night after his arrival
in Barbados, Just tthen sleep was
creeping over him, he felt a prod from
below. He looked over the edge of
his hammock. Under him stood the
boatswain, garbed In his shore clothes
and bowler hat, with his collarless and
tleless shirt front agleam In the moon
light. He held a capstan-bar in his
hand.
"Come ashore, Pat, he whispered.
Nicholas shook his head.
"Go 'lontr with your foolin,' boy." oon
tlnnorl th boatswain. vhat for do
you lay up there like a hidln' criminal?
Come ashore when your superior officer
axes you."
Nicholas droppea-to tne aecK. was
he suspected? His heart thumped des.
perately at the thought.
That's right, .rat," saia tne other.
smacking him on the back with a heavy
hand. "Come, tneyu De tninKin' you
be ashamed o somethin if you lay
aboard all- the time. They'll take you
for a thief."
Dover's heart quieted at that. A thief
that was nothing so terrible!
Diving Into the forecastle, he pulled
on his best trousers and a clean shirt.
and perched a cap on the back of his
carroty head. Later, with the boat
swain's arm linked In his, he traversed
the narrow streets In fear and trem-
and 662.6, respectiyely in Scottish un
dergraduates, are all remarkably close
to, and three out of five are almost
identical with, lengths and head
breadths of university students and ot
convicts, duly corrected for age and
stature.
"Clearly, In cephalic characters,
criminals are not conspicuously differ
entiated from the well nourished, well
developed, university section of the up
per middle class: a section which In
other respects in education, in intel
ligence and in physique, as measured
by stature are the most distantly re
moved from the criminal classes.
"In mean head-length, there Is no
difference between criminals and Cam
bridge students; in mean head-breadth,
there Is only 1 mm. difference, and In
head height, there Is no difference, be
tween convicts and the university col
lege staff; in mean head-index, Oxford
students, as well as the university
staff, are almost identical with crim
inals; and in mean circumference of
head, criminals and Scottish students
correspond In a similarly close degree.
In fact, from a knowledse only of an
undergraduate's cephalic measure
ments, a better judgment could be
given as to whether he were studying;
at an English or Scottish university
than a prediction could be made as to
whether he would eventually become a
university professor or a convicted
felon."
Dr. Goring has something Intensely
Interesting to say about the enormous
discrepancy in stature between the
criminal class and the law-abiding cit
izen. 'We have concluded," he says, "that
the inferior stature and weight of
criminals is the result of selection, and
is not an inbred criminal trait. A
possibility, however, not to be lost
sight of Is that this physical Inferior
ity, although originating in and fos
tered by selection, may tend with time
to become an Inbred characteristic 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 down on the social
scale."
We shall show in a later section ths.t
Imprisonment for crime Is a tendency
that runs in families in the same way
as, and with much the same intensi
ties that, diminutive stature tends to
be restricted to certain stocks. Con
victed parents, selected from the gen
eral community, as already explained,
by inferior stature have sons who,
while tending to bo similarly convicted.
Inherit the diminutive stature of their
fathers. Here we have the conditions
which In the course of generations
would lead to an inbred physical differ
entlatlon of the criminal classes.
"In the report already referred to of,
the British Association Anthropometri
cs! Committee, statistics of stature
and weight of various grades of school
children are presented; and a faot of
singular suggestlveness revealed by
these comparative statistics in that In
dustrial land reformatory school chil
dren are consistently on the average
one Inch shorter in stature, and sev
eral pounds less in weight than any
other class of school children of the
same age In the United Kingdom.
"Unfortunately, the data In question
consists of a very short series only,
and are unsatisfactory in other ways,
and we would be loth to emphasize an
argument based upon them until they
have been amplified and supported by
the analyzed results of larger series.
But If it be a statistical fact that in
dustrial school children are differen
tiated In stature and weight from other
children this is a very strong argu
ment for the supposition that Inferior
stature and weight are tending to be
come inbred criminal characteristics.
"To sum up: All English criminals
with the excpetlon of those technically
convicted of fraud are markedly dif
ferentiated from the general popula
tion In stature and body weight; In
addition, offenders convicted of vio
lence to the person are characterized by
an average degree of strength and of
constitutional soundness considerably
above the average of other criminals.
and of the law-abiding community;
finally, thieves and burglars, who con
stitute, it must be borne In mind, 90
per cent of all criminals, and also In
cendiaries, as well as being inferior
In stature and weight, are also, rela
tively to other criminals end the popu.
lation at large, puny in their general
bodily habit.
These are the facts; and. accoraing
to the results of our statistical in
quiry, they are the sole faots at the
basis of criminal anthropology; they
are the only elements of truth out of
which have been constructed the elabo
rate, extravaeantand ludicrously un
critical criminological doctrines of the
great protagonist of the criminal type
theory.
The utmost we can conceae rrom our
final conclusion is that criminal an
thropology Is not entirely without
basis In fact, but iaci perverted by
credulity and fanaticism. i
The danger of tne xomDrosiaa doc-i '
trine Is not a theoretical one. Per
sistently In the past, and progressively
In the future, this doctrine has im- ,
peded and will continue to Impede
until Its Interment be officially regis
tered the rational treatment of crim- .
inologlcal problems, that caji urgently
keatlas NaUia- U, & and cvac
r