Thanks to the methodical instruction imparted by this book, the inexperienced student is enabled to progress gradually until he is in a position to conduct a complete psychiatric and medico-legal examination.
The third part treats of the methods for discriminating between criminals and lunatics. The various forms of mental alienation are described in detail; and an examination of cases of feigned insanity shows that simulators of lunacy are generally mentally unsound.
In the concluding part are discussed the various uses to which a careful diagnosis may be applied.
The Appendix contains studies on the application of mental tests in medico-legal practice, and a glossary, alphabetically arranged, of the terms commonly employed in criminal anthropology, compiled by Dr. Legiardi-Laura.
IX
Anarchists (Gli Anarchici)
The book opens with an examination of the theories of anarchists, from which the author arrives at the conclusion that in view of the importance generally conceded to economic ideals to-day and the universal abuse of power, these theories in reality are not so absurd as they are supposed to be. It is the methods adopted by anarchists for the realisation of their ideals that are both absurd and dangerous.
"However valuable many of the proposals of anarchism may be," says the author, "they become absurd in practice; because all reforms should be introduced very gradually in order to escape the inevitable reaction which neutralises all previous efforts."
The crimes of anarchists tend to mingle with ordinary crimes when certain dreamers attempt to reach their goal by any means possible—theft, or the murder of a few, often innocent, persons. It is easy to realise, therefore, why, with a few exceptions, anarchists are recruited from among ordinary criminals, lunatics, and insane criminals. Investigations made by the author showed that 12 per cent. of the communards were of a criminal type, and this percentage was still higher in anarchists (31 per cent.). Of forty-five anarchists examined at Chicago, 40 per cent. had faces of a criminal cast. The majority of anarchists possess the passions and vices peculiar to ordinary criminals: impulsiveness, love of orgies, lack of natural affections and moral sense; and similar intellectual manifestations, such as slang, ballads, tattooing, hieroglyphics. But there are a greater number of genuine epileptic and hysterical subjects, lunatics, and indirect suicides among anarchists than among ordinary criminals; greater, too, is the proportion of criminals from passion. These truly heroic natures, profoundly convinced that the remedy for so many social evils lies in the murder of certain personages of high standing, who appear to bear the greatest share of responsibility for the existing system, do not hesitate to have recourse to violence when they deem it necessary; although it is distasteful to them and although they have hitherto disassociated themselves from the excesses of their companions. The anarchists Caserio and Bresci were of this type. The crimes of these passionate criminals are always accomplished single-handed; they always surrender to the police immediately afterwards and make no attempt to defend themselves. On the contrary, when in court, they frequently give a lucid explanation of the motives that have induced them to commit their crimes and affront the penalty with stoicism.
Such being the origin, and such the promoters of anarchism, it is evident that the methods for curing crimes deriving from this source should differ greatly from those used in suppressing ordinary crime.