The third part treats of those modern criminals, like Holmes and Peace, who accomplish their misdeeds in a refined and elegant manner, substituting for the more brutal knife or hammer, the resources of chemistry, physics, and modern toxicology. In other cases, some product of modern times, such as the motor-car or bicycle, forms the motive for the crime, or is of assistance in its accomplishment.
"From the data we have been able to gather relating to crime in by-gone ages," continues my father in his preface, "we are led to conclude that crimes of a violent and bloody nature predominated exclusively in more barbarous times, and that fraudulent offences are characteristic of modern communities. Violence is more primitive than trickery and must always precede it, exactly as a more barbarous state in which property is gained or maintained by force, at the point of the sword, precedes a state in which ownership is regulated by means of contracts; and crime always adapts itself to the prevailing customs.
"The admirable work of Coghlan shows criminality in Australia to be of this latter type, as contrasted with its semi-barbarous nature in states like Mexico, and gives us a picture of the character it will assume a century or two later in Europe.
"As the fundamental nature of the criminal has not changed, his actions are still of the same character; and violence and cunning are mingled or alternate in modern crime. But though the individual remains unchanged, he is subordinated to a more powerful factor than himself—modern progress. It is true that many modern crimes are facilitated by modern contrivances; but the same contrivances often furnish means for their defeat; and so we may foresee a time, perhaps not very remote, when such anti-social elements shall partially, if not totally, have disappeared."
VIII
Diagnostic Methods of Legal Psychiatry (La Perizia Psichiatrica Legale)
This work was not intended to introduce the doctrines of modern criminology to the general public, but as a text-book for the guidance of jurists, doctors, experts—in short, all those whose professions bring them, into contact with criminals.
It consists of two parts, the first of which contains about fifty cases diagnosed according to the new methods, and collected by the author of the work and his followers. These cases include all types of delinquents: born criminals, morally insane individuals, hysterical, insane, inebriate, and epileptic criminals, criminaloids, criminals of passion, etc.
In each case, as the diagnosis was intended to serve a practical purpose, the criminal is examined physically, psychologically, and psychiatrically; and his antecedents are investigated with great care.
In the second part, "The Technical Aspect of Criminal Anthropology," a detailed description is given of the methods to be employed in the examination of a supposed criminal, the rules for determining to what class he belongs, the manner in which the physical examination should be conducted, a list of the necessary measurements, a description of the most suitable apparatus, and the mode of using them, the methods of procedure in the interrogation of a criminal, in order to elicit useful information, and instructions for analysing his intellectual manifestations (handwriting, drawing, and work), movements, attitude, and gestures.