YEARLY AVERAGE or CONDEMNED PERSONS.
ITALY, 1863-72. FRANCE 1877-81
CRIMES AND OFFENCES OF GREATEST
FREQUENCY
(not including those of Habitual Criminals).
p.c. p.c. p.c. p.c.
Wilful Assaulf and Wounding …
Illegally carrying Arms …… — 8 7 — 3 3
Resistance to Authority, Assaults and
Violence against Public Functionaries … 3 5 4 —2 10 10
Injury to Property … … … — 2 2 — I 1-6 1 5
Defamation and Abuse … … … — s-S 1-6 — I-6 1 5
Written or Spoken Threats … … — 1 4 1'2 — '2 —2
Illegal Games … … … … — I —8 — 2 1 'I
Political Crimes and Offences …… 31.7 — —2 — 4 2 —2
Press Crimes and Offences … … 4 4 —4 — —6 —6
Embezzlement, Corruption, Malfeasance
of Public Functionaries — —3 .3 — — —
Escape from Detention —1 —2 2 — —6 —6
False Witness .. … … … —7 2 —2 09 6 —6
Violation of Domicile … … … — 17 .15 — lo —9
Calumny … —. —1 I 1 —oS —o8
Exposure, Palming or ``Suppression''
of Infants — —12 1 —2 —1 —1
Bankruptcy Offences … … … I 1 —1 1'3 5 —6
Offences against Religion and Ministers
of Religion — 1 —1 — —7 .o7
Duelling … .. .. … … … — .04 .03 — — —
Abortion … … … … … — — — og — —OI
Offences against the Game Laws — — — — 13 12-7
Drunkenness — — — — 1 5 1 5
Offences against Public Decency — — — — I-8 1.7
Adultery … … … … … — — — —5 5
Offences against Morality, with Incitement
to Immorality … … — — — — —2 —2
Involuntary Homicide — — — — —2 —2
'' Wounding — — — — —6 —6
'' Incendiarism — — — — —2 —2
Illegal Practising of Medicine and
Surgery … … … … … — — — — —2 —2
Frauds on Keepers of Refreshment
Houses … … … … … — — — — I-4 1 4
Rural Offences … … … … — — — — 6 —6
— — m
__________________________________________________________________________
Yeally Average of Convictions,
Gross Totals 6,273 43,584 49,857 3,300 163,997 167,297
[1] Devastation of crops, destruction of fences. [2] Unauthorised gaming houses; secret lotteries. [3] An exceptional figure, owing to 528 convictions in 1863, whilst the average of the other years was nine convictions. [4] Electoral offences.
<p 23>are 4 per cent. in Italy, touch 9 per cent in France. Sexual crimes and offences (as we saw in the case of rape), such as abortion, adultery, indecent assaults, and incitement to immorality, which in Italy present very small and negligible figures, are more frequent in France. Whilst the illegal carrying of arms, threats, false witness, escape from detention, violations of domicile, calumny, are of greater frequency in Italy than in France, the contrary is true of bankruptcy offences, political and press crimes and offences, on account of a manifest difference of the moral, economic, and social conditions of the two countries, which are plainly discernible behind these apparently dry figures.
In addition to this demonstration, we have given anthropological and statistical proofs of the fundamental distinction between habitual and occasional criminals, which had been pointed out by many observers, but which had hitherto remained a simple assertion without manifest consequences.
This same distinction ought to be not only the basis of all sociological theory concerning crime, but also a point of departure for other distinctions more precise and complete, which I set forth in my previous studies on criminals, and which were subsequently reproduced, with more or less of assent, by all criminal sociologists.
In the first place, it is necessary to distinguish, amongst habitual criminals, those who present a conspicuous and clinical form of mental aberration, which accounts for their anti-social activity. <p 24>
In the second place, amongst habitual criminals who are not of unsound mind, however little the inmates of prisons may have been observed with adequate ideas and experience, there is a clear indication of a class of individuals, physically or mentally abnormal, induced to crime by inborn tendencies, which are manifest from their birth, and accompanied by symptoms of extreme moral insensibility. Side by side with these, another class challenges attention, of individuals who have also been criminals from childhood, and who continue to be so, but who are in a special degree a product of physical and social environment, which has persistently driven them into the criminal life, by their abandonment before and after the first offence, and which, especially in the great towns, is very often forced upon them by the actual incitement of their parents.
Amongst occasional criminals, again, a special category is created by a kind of exaggeration of the characteristics, mainly psychological, of the type itself. In the case of all occasional criminals, the crime is brought about rather by the effects of environment than by the active tendencies of the individual; but whilst in most of these individuals the deciding cause is only a circumstance affecting all alike, with a few it is an exceptional constraint of passion, a sort of psychological tempest, which drives them into crime.
Thus, then, the entire body of criminals may be classed in five categories, which as early as 1880 I described as criminal madmen, born criminals, <p 25>criminals by contracted habits, occasional criminals, and criminals of passion.
As already observed, criminal anthropology will not finally establish itself until it has been developed by biological, psychological, and statistical monographs on each of these categories, in such a manner as to present their anthropological characteristics with greater precision than they have hitherto attained. So far, observers continue to give us the same characteristics for a large aggregate of criminals, classifying them according to the form of their crime rather than according to their bio-social type. In Lombroso's work, for instance, or in that of Marro (and to some extent even in my work on homicide), the characteristics are stated for a total, or for legal categories of criminals, such as murderers, thieves, forgers, and so on, which include born criminals, occasional and habitual criminals, and madmen. The result is a certain measure of inconsistency, according to the predominance of one type or the other in the aggregate of criminals under observation. This also contributes to render the conclusions of criminal anthropology less evident.