Is There Evidence of a Physical Basis for Criminal Behavior William B

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 31 Article 6 Issue 4 November-December

Winter 1940 Is There Evidence of a Physical Basis for Criminal Behavior William B. Tucker

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Recommended Citation William B. Tucker, Is There Evidence of a Physical Basis for Criminal Behavior, 31 Am. Inst. Crim. L. & Criminology 427 (1940-1941)

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. IS THERE EVIDENCE OF A PHYSICAL BASIS FOR CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR? William B. Tucker2 In the field of the social sciences the United States and abroad, has been there has been approximately as much concerned with efforts along many lines investigation into the cause of crime to ascertain more dearly the causes of as there has been, in the biological crime and the delineation of the crim- sciences, research into the etiology of inal. European investigations have cancer. In the one case crime may be more generally been concerned with broadly regarded as a malignant physical, biological and psychiatric fac- growth in a social body-anti-social be- tors; American research, for reasons havior. In the other, cancer is a ma- that do not need to be elaborated here, lignant growth in an organic body- has dealt primarily with the psychologi- anti-organic behavior. In the search cal and sociological parts of the picture. for the causes of either, in order to Each group has contributed facts to facilitate control, prevention and eradi- the mounting body of knowledge of cation, both environmental and heredi- the etiology of crime. Sutherland3 tary factors have been exhaustively groups the various theories of crime studied. The parallel of course is far as follows: (a) biological, (b) person- from perfect. No clear-cut answer to ality, (c) primary social groups, (d) the question of etiology in either case broader social processes. From the can be given at the present time. Lack- many theories expounded and the facts ing such a complete answer, known presented it has been inevitable that facts must be examined, to understand confusion should still exist, for, as either condition, and to guide us in Draper' has pointed out, "The causes our understanding of either problem. of crime in general are extremely com- As the physician will not have plex and multiple. No single cause has marked success in the control of can- been scientifically determined as the cer without greater understanding of responsible agent for criminality." its causes, so there seems to be general Perhaps because the biological fac- agreement among sociologists and crim- tors in the etiology of crime have re- inologists that there can be no appreci- ceived comparatively little attention in ably effective control of crime without this country, the recent contribution greater knowledge of its etiology. The of Hooton5, on the role of the physical research of the past twenty years, in make-up in etiology of crime, has re- I Revised version of address before the Chicago 4Draper, Paul A.: Mental Abnormality in Academy of Criminology, November 10, 1939. Relation to Crime, Amer. Jour. of Med. Juris- 2 Frank Billings Medical Clinic, University of prudence, 2: 161 (March-April), 1939. Chicago. 3 Sutherland, E. L: Principles of Criminology, 5Hooton, Earnest Albert: The American Philadelphia and New York, J. B. Lippincott Criminal: An Anthropological Study, Cam- Co., 1939, p. 55. bridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 1939. [427] WILLIAM B. TUCKER ceived extraordinary attention and Hooton is well aware of the fact that criticism. Hooton's thesis, briefly stated, he is walking on ground unpopular is that there is a physical basis for among students of crime. He says in criminal behavior, whatever other fac- this connection': tors play a role. He carefully delineated Distrust of anatomical guides through the scope of his investigation of 14,477 the maze of human conduct has resulted criminals, county jail inhabitants, and in a flat denial of the relationship of the deliquents (as compared with 3,203 body to the mind and to behavior, loudly non-criminal controls) when he said voiced by bigoted social scientists and feebly echoed by timorous students of in his summary volume of Lowell In- human biology. stitute Lectures6 : A finger here is put on a vital spot in It is no part of this research to examine the extent to which the criminal's be- our body of scientific knowledge, both havior is determined by his mental de- sociological and biological: is there any ficiency or sufficiency, or by the state of his mental health. Nor is it incum- relationship between morphology and bent upon us to ascertain to what pre- function? Hooton's work can be under- cise degree the career of the delinquent stood only in the light of the under- is an effect of his social environment. Our task is to study the physical charac- standing of this larger problem. teristics of criminals for the purpose of discovering whether or not these are As we have pointed out, a vast related to antisocial conduct. amount of work has been done in in- Aside from whatever crijicisms that vestigating the relations between man's may be made of Hooton's methodology constitution and his behavior. The idea and of his interpretation of his results, is ancient. Aristotle hypothecated a there should be no criticism of this relationship between form and be- approach. Man, criminal or non-crim- havior. Celsus, 2000 years ago, claimed inal, is an organic being, born with a a relationship between constitution and more or less immutable organic struc- function. Polemonis in the third cen- ture, functioning within the limits of tury A.D., Adamantius a century later, his genetic structure under the in- Avicenna in the eleventh century, and fluence of his environment. As Hooton Giambattista della Porta in the six- intimates, others have chosen to ex- plain crime in terms of intelligence, teenth century, claimed that similar mental deficiency, psychiatric states, correlations exist. Walkington in 1663 and many psycho-social conditions. correlated constitution with psychiatric Hooton chooses to test the validity of disturbances; John Hunter, recognizing the thesis that the physical structure the complex nature of constitution, of the individual is likewise a contrib- studied its relationship in disease in utory factor. fairly scientific fashion in the eight- 6Hooton, Earnest Albert: Crime and the Man, s Tucker, W. B., and Lessa, W. A.: Man: A Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, Constitutional Investigation, Quart. Rev. Biol. 1939, p. 5. 7Hooton, E. A.: Crime and the Man, op. cit., 15 no. 3 (Sept.) and no. 4 (Dec.), 1940. p. 3. EVIDENCE OF A PHYSICAL BASIS eenth century; and many others wrote crania of civilians of the same ethnic of such relationships. and racial origin, will provide the only solution of the problem. It was therefore perhaps natural that Not agreeing with Lombroso's unten- this tendency, to note a relationship able conclusions as to atavistic and de- between form and function, should generative traits, Hooton does caution have been carried too far. Gall and against drawing the conclusion that all Spurzheim, 9 at the end of the eight- of Lombroso's results are erroneous. eenth and in the early part of the The tide had turned. The philosophi- nineteenth centuries published their cal observations of early writers, the which has since work on phrenology, inadequate data of the earliest scien- that"constitutional been so discredited tists, the overdrawn conclusions of the from studies have not yet recovered phrenologists, the fairly obvious loop reflected from the over- the disrepute holes in many of Lombroso's argu- enthusiasm of the phrenologists. Yet ments, led to a mounting distrust of the there are in Spurzheim's work observa- constitutional approach, in the light of with tions which are in accordance the newer science. Dr. Charles Goring present-day scientific knowledge. set out avowedly to disprove Lom- It was in this setting, about forty broso's thesis, and his book, "The Eng- years after Gall and Spurzheim, that lish Convict"", published in 1913, is C6sare Lombroso published his famous widely accepted as having accomplished 0 book, "L'Uomo Deliquente"' . Its con- this purpose. But Goring, too, had in- tents, as well as the dicta later pro- adequate control data, in addition to a pounded by Lombroso and his follow- strong and open antagonism to the ers, Garofalo, Ferri, and others, are Lombrosian doctrine, and his conclu- too well known among criminologists sions must likewise be accepted with to need restating. As Ross" has pointed reserve. In spite of Goring's bias, his out, Lombroso "had poor and scanty inadequate controls, and his question- data and preceded the development of able statistical manipulations, it is im- 2 modern statistics." Hooton" says of portant to note that he says "there is Lombroso's work: no such thing as an anthropological No impartial and accurate investiga- criminal type", but 14 tor has taken the trouble to go into the question with sufficient thoroughness despite this negation and upon the evi- either to refute or to confirm Lombroso's dence of our statistics, it appears to be claims. A completely new survey of all an equally indisputable fact that there documented crania, carefully distin- is a physical, mental, and moral type of guished as to race and nationality and person who tends to be convicted of compared with adequate samples of the crime ... 0 Spurzheim, J. G.: Phrenology in Connexion ii Ross, Frank A.: Review of "The American with the Study of Psysiognomy, Boston, Marsh, Criminal," Amer. Jour. Sociol. 45: 477-480, 1939. Capen & Lyon, 1833; and Gall, F. I., and Spurz- 12 Hooton, E. A.: Crime and the Man, op. cit., heim, J. G.: Recherches sur le Syst6me nerveux, p. 14. Paris, 1809. 'a Goring, Charles: The English Convict, Lon- ioLombroso, C~sare: L'Uomo Deliquente, ed. don, H. M. Stationery Office, 1913; abridged edi- 4, Torina, Flli. Bocca, 1889, and Crime, Its Causes tion, 1919. and Remedies, by Horton, Boston, 1911. '4 Goring, op. cit., p. 269, abr. ed. WILLIAM B. TUCKER

There would be little excuse for sur- fields, as for example criminology: they veying these points in this fashion were studied man's physical structure as it it not for parallels occurring in other reacted to his environment, instead of branches of science. The constitutional emphasizing only the latter. Thus there problem is not one which applies only came into being the morphological to crime, but also to physiology, dis- school and the morphological method, ease, and psychological behavior. The of which Hooton may be considered challenge of the problem appealed to the legitimate descendent. workers in many fields. Beginnings of Recently in this country more atten- anthropometry appeared with Elshol- tion has been given to environment zius in 1654 and Quetelet in 1871. Soon influencing physical structure, espe- statistical procedures were to be elabo- cially during growth and maturation. rated to serve as precise instruments Child development centers in Boston, for the evaluation of scientific data. Washington, Cleveland, Iowa City, An- The Nineteenth Century was a pe- tioch, Minneapolis, Denver, and Berke- riod of emerging science, amid vast ley, to mention only a few of the better confusion. The researches of Robert known laboratories, have added to our Koch, Louis Pasteur, and many others knowledge of the relative role of hered- in the biological field, served to em- ity and environment. The nutrition- phasize the environmental factors in illness studies of Bakwin and Bakwin, human medical behavior. Advances in the generational studies of Boas, and psychological and sociological research the depression studies of Palmer"5 "as methodology tended to heighten this proof that the food environment, the effect with regard to other forms of socio-economic milieu, the socio-cul- human behavior. In the field of medi- tural background all register them- cine, for example, the main emphasis selves physiologically in skeleton, in research came to be on the role of muscle, and tissues" illustrate the com- environmental factors, with respect to plexity and difficulty of the problem infectious and other diseases. of accurately evaluating environ- Only in isolated areas did the con- mental and hereditary forces. But Mc- stitutionalists survive the period of en- Cloy and associates 5 at Iowa City vironmental enthusiasm. The Italian found little effect of the environment school, of di Giovanni, Pende, Viola, in the development of the hereditarily Naccarati; the German school, of Mar- determined physical status, allowing tius, Tandler, Bauer, Beneke; the for measurable fluctuations of nutrition French group, of de Troisv~vre, Rostan, and muscular development. Sigaud, MacAuliffe, and Tho6ris;- The problem of studying the rela- these, and others, did for medicine and tion of morphology to function has been biology what a few had begun in other complicated unnecessarily by anatom- is Krogman, W. M.: Trend in the Study of and the Selection of Measurements, voL 12, no. 2, Physical Growth in Children, Child Develop- 1936; and Appraising Physical Status: Methods ment, 11: 279-284, December, 1940. and Norms, vol. 15, no. 2, 1938, Univ. of Iowa 16 McCloy, C. H.: Appraising Physical Status Studies, Studies in Child Welfare. EVIDENCE OF A PHYSICAL BASIS ists, physical anthropologists, and other ectomorphy. He thus avoids the "type" morphologists. Seeking accuracy, they error common to many of the earlier have neglected the measurement of morphologists. large parts of the human organism. Based on such increasingly accurate Fortunately in recent years, in physical systems of morphological appraisal, and anthropology especially, there has been employing the careful techniques of the an awakened interest in a broader anthropometrist and the statistician, in viewpoint: indices are no longer being recent years workers in many fields studied per se but as part of an inte- have found definite correlations be- grated morphological picture; and re- tween variations in physique and in be- lationships with basic physiological havior. patterns are being 2 investigated. It is Petersen,'" Gildea, Kahn and Manl 0 to this group that Hooton belongs. and Bauer,2 1 to name but a few, found Any adequate study of morphology- evidence of correlations between mor- behavior relationships must rest on a phological and physiological variables. sound system of morphological classi- Lucas and Pryor 22 established differen- fication. Many classifications have been tial standards for basal metabolic rates, elaborated, most of them strikingly depending on variations in body build. 23 similar in pattern.'7 One of the most As has been summarized elsewhere, recent and promising of these is that biologists have demonstrated a relation- of Sheldon,"8 who is able to recognize ship between body build and such dis- and measure in every individual the eases as rheumatism, tuberculosis, pep- simultaneous existence, to some degree, tic ulcer, migraine, heart disease, and of three components, (1) a soft, round, gall-bladder disease, to give but a par- fat-bearing component, called endom- tial list. Even in the field of psychology orphy; (2) a rugged, firm component a number of satisfactory reports have composed- chiefly of musculo-skeletal indicated that psycho-social behavior elements, called mesomorphy; and (3) depends in part at least on morphologi- a component tending toward the rela- cal variations in structure. Especially tive absence of the other two, toward important in this connection is the work 24 25 2 fragility, leanness of structure, called of Naccarati, Heidbreder, Sheldon,

17 Tucker, W. B., and Lessa, W. A.: op. cit. 22 Lucas, W. P., and Pryor, H. B.: The Body '8 Sheldon, W. H., with the collaboration of Build Factor in the Basal Metabolism of Chil- W. B. Tucker and S. S. Stevens: The Varieties of dren, Am. J. Dis. Child. 46: 941-948 (Nov.), Human Physique, New York, Harpers, 1940. 1933, pt. 1. 19 Petersen, W. F.: Constitution and Disease, 23 Tucker, W. B., and Lessa, W. A., op. cit. Physiol. Rev. 12: 283-308, 1932. 24 Naccarati, Sante: The Morphologic Aspect 2o Gildea, E. F., Kahn, E., and Man, E. B.: of Intelligence, Arch. Psychol. no. 45 (Aug.), The Relationship Between Body Build and 1921. Serum iUpoids and a Discussion of These Quali- 25 Heidbreder, E.: Intelligence and the Height- ties as Pyknophilic and Leptophilic Factors in Weight Ratio, J. Appl. Psychol. 10: 52-62 the Structure of the Personality, Amer. Jour. (March), 1926. Psychiat. 92: 1247-1260, 1936. 26 Sheldon, W. H.: Social Traits and Morpho- 21 Bauer, J.: Innere Sekretion: Ihre Physi- logical Types, Personnel Jour. 6: 47-53, 1927; ologie, Pathologie, und Klinik, Berlin, Julius and Morphological Types and Mental Ability, J. Springer. 1927. Person. Res. 5: 447-451, 1927, WILLIAM B. TUCKER

Paterson,2" Kretschmer, 28 Wertheimer he finds clearly distinguishable differ- and Hesketh, 29 Cabot,30 and Connolly.3 1 ences between his various offense And Petersen and Reese 32 have re- groups. He finds, for example, that tall cently stated that psychological and thin men tend to murder and rob; tall psychopathic moods vary with shifts in heavy men tend to kill, to forge, to blood chemistry, the pyknic individual defraud; small thin men tend to steal experiencing more of a change of mood and to burglarize; short heavy men with a shift toward alkalinity of the show a tendency toward assault, rape, blood, the leptosome with a shift to- and sex crimes; and mediocre men tend ward greater acidity. to break the law without obvious dis- Such, then, very briefly, is the evi- crimination or preference. Note well dence of a physical basis for physiologi- the word "tend." Here is no valid cal behavior, medical behavior, and diagnostic criterion, used by itself, for psychological behavior. The earlier an individual case. Much as a physi- evidence of a physical basis for crimi- cian employs many factors such as age, nal behavior has been mentioned. After occupation, disease record, body build, Lombroso and Goring, along with these etc., as aids in diagnosis, Hooton sug- investigators in other fields, Hooton be- gests that a physical evaluation may aid lieves there is a physical basis for in the study of the criminal and the criminal behavior. But he carefully causes of crime. states that there is not a criminal These comparatively sound conclu- type: 11 sions of Hooton's are to be sharply dif- No one ... would conceive it possible ferentiated from much of the rest of to utilize for purposes of practical crim- his work. Throughout much of it recur inal diagnosis any rigid multiple com- bination of morphological features sup- references to "biological inferiority," posed to constitute a criminal type ... which relatively unsubstantiated con- All that can be expected of the... typing clusions serve Hooton as the basis for of criminals is that excesses of this kind or that kind of offense may be demon- his eugenical program. These two parts strated for the several sub-groups. of his work are irretrievably inter- On the basis of his studies, Hooton mingled. This has resulted in criti- believes that the criminal is differenti- cisms directed primarily toward the lat- ated morphologically from the non- ter aspect of his work being carried criminal, but not in an easily recogniz- over to all of it, probably without jus- able fashion. More important, perhaps, tice. Further, in evaluating Hooton's

27Paterson, D. G.: Physique and Intellect. sique in Adolescents, Genetic Psychology Mono- Century Psychology Series. New York, The graphs, vol. 20, no. 1 (Feb.), 1938. Century Co., 1930. 31 Connolly, C. J.: Physique in Relation to 2 Kretschmer, Ernst: Physique and Char- Psychosis, Stud. in Psychol. and Psychiat., Wash- acter, London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & ington, Catholic Univ. of America Press, Mono- Co., 1925 and 1936. graph serial no. 5, vol. 4, 1939. 29Wertheimer, F. I., and Hesketh, F. E.: The Significance of the Constitution in Mental Dis- 32 Petersen, W. F., and Reese, H. H.: Psychotic ease, Medicine Monographs, vol. 10, Baltimore, and Somatic Interrelations, J.A.M.A., 115: 1587- Williams and Wilkins Co., 1926. 1590 (Nov. 9), 1940. -o Cabot, P. S. de Q.: The Relationships Be- Hooton, E. A.: Crime and the Man, op. cit., tween Characteristics of Personality and Phy- p. 104. EVIDENCE OF A PHYSICAL BASIS work, it must be remembered that he and proceed to demolish them with fact was a Classical scholar before under- and logic. One may suspect that they taking his serious scientific studies. have fallen into the same trap in which The most serious objections to Hoot- they have placed Hooton. But on the on's conclusions have been concerned basis of their analysis of this portion of with his position with regard to the Hooton's work, and it is the most care- suspected "biological inferiority" of the ful if not the most studied that has yet criminals studied. Reuter 34 states that appeared in print, it is not possible at Hooton's "general theoretical position the present time to accept Hooton's is an extreme biological determinism," position"6 that "criminals as a group and states further that Hooton "is not represent an aggregate of sociological- clear, or at least not articulate, as to ly inferior and biologically inferior whether he considers race to be a bio- individuals." Sociologically inferior logical reality or a statistical construct." they may be, partly by definition, but Reuter "likes Mr. Hooton's book" but the case for biological inferiority must (9considers it the funniest academic be considered as not proved. Hooton performance that has appeared since may ultimately prove to be right. He the invention of movable type." Un- may be far ahead of his time, but mod- fortunately Reuter's justifiable criti- ern conceptions of "organic inferiority" cisms of Hooton's book are weakened and "biological inferiority" do not per- by an apparent failure to understand mit acceptance of his statements of the larger implications of the work. axiom in this connection as fact. Merton and Ashley-Montagu 5 have Less serious than these objections are focussed their criticism largely on others made by all critics of Hooton's Hooton's same position with regard to reports on his criminological studies. biological inferiority. They point out As Ross"7 states, that "two distinct interpretative tend- Hooton appears to have the mistaken encies run through the work: one, a idea that all data gathered in any fashion in jails, penitentiaries, etc., are "sam- cautious and admirably restrained ef- ple" data in the sense that they repre- fort to assay the significance of biologi- sent the universe of the criminal. He cal factors in the determination of the makes brave and convincing defense of his materials and acknowledges certain incidence of criminal behavior; the flaws, even going so far as to correct some other, a pugnacious and flamboyant in- deficiencies. But in the light of present- sistence on the biological determination day knowledge of sampling methods his data appear to be open at points to spe- the latter half of of crime." Tilting at cific challenge. Hooton's unbalanced armor, Merton The objections raised may be sum- and Ashley-Montagu do not find a clear (1) Hooton did not take non- definition of "organic inferiority," then marized: consider possible meanings of the term, physical factors into account sufflici-

34 Reuter, E. B.: Review of "Crime and the thropologist, n.s. vol. 42, 384-408, 1940. Man," Amer. Jour. Sociol. 45: 123-126, 1939. 36 Hooton, E. A.: The American Criminal, op. .5Merton, R. K., and Ashley-Montagu, M. F.: cit., p. 300. Crime and the Anthropologist, American An- 37 Ross, F. A., op. cit. WILLIAM B. TUCKER

ently; (2) his assumption that incar- istical allowance for the inadequacies. cerated criminals are representative of Pending the completion of publication all criminals is untenable; (3) his con- of his material and a careful analysis trols were inadequate; and (4) some of of all the data, it does not seem war- his statistics are open to challenge. ranted on the basis of this fault to Concerning the first of these objec- throw out entirely such conclusions as tions, it has already been pointed out "eight of ten offense groups of criminals that Hooton deliberately chose not to are anthropometrically distinct each study the non-physical basis of crime, from the total series," or "eight of leaving that aspect to the sociologists eleven occupational groups give clear and criminologists. Concerning the indication of being anthropometrically second, there is some evidence 38 that distinct from the total series of which prison samples are not characteristic of they form a part.' '40 Making due allow- all criminals, but this is a practical ances, therefore, for such relatively problem hard to overcome when one minor faults in Hooton's argument, it wishes to study a group of criminals, still may be conservatively stated that and, lacking the perfect group to be physical (anthropometric) differences studied, it may not be unwarranted to have been demonstrated, between accept tentatively the representative- criminals and non-criminals, but es- ness of the prison group. The fourth pecially among offense groups. objection is the weakest, for careful If this position is tenable-and it study fails to reveal serious misuse of seems to be, on the evidence now avail- statistical techniques, though one may able-there should be no cause for con- sometimes question the interpretations. cern, but rather cause for quickened In considering the third major objec- interest, to follow down a lead offering tion to the validity of Hooton's findings, greater or less promise of solving the the inadequacy of his controls, probably complex cause of crime. If, as Hooton too much attention has been paid to the finds, criminals are distinguished by 146 Nashville firemen, and not enough low and sloping foreheads, small brain to the fact that a total of 3,203 non- cases, small heads, straight hair, narrow criminals were employed in the analy- jaws, long necks, and so on, it follows sis. "In Massachusetts and in Colorado that further research is needed to fit criminal insane were matched with a these disjointed observations into a series of civil insane, and a similar pro- pattern. It must also be realized that' cedure was followed in the case of Hooton does not stand alone, in finding criminal insane Negroes in North Caro- significant physical differences among lina."39 Certainly the controls are far criminals. Langfeldt," studying from perfect, as Hooton readily admits. thieves, burglars and other criminals Hooton claims to have made due stat- comprehensively, from morphological

38 Sutherland, E. H., op. cit., pp. 29, 37, 45. 40 Hooton, E. A.: Crime and the Man, op. cit., 39 Hooton, E. A.: Crime and the Man, op. cit., pp. 70, 80. p. 21. 41 Langfeldt, Gabriel: Der Dieb und der Ein- brecher, Oslo, 1936, pp. 62-64. EVIDENCE OF A PHYSICAL BASIS

and psychological, but chiefly sociologi- covered, and in time may give us a cal standpoints, finds leptosomes and more complete picture of the problem. schizothymes to be the commonest of Tulchin, 47 for example, has made a the physical and psychological types careful study of the relation of intelli- among criminals, and quotes other in- gence, to crime, taking into account vestigators to the same effect. Berry such variables as age, sex, offense, race, and Biichner 42 found a correlation be- nationality, etc. He does not find that tween the size of the head and intelli- criminals as a group differ in intelligence from civil controls, but has de- gence, and found criminals to have monstrated a definite relationship be- lower brain capacity than other groups. tween certain types of crime and the Gray,43 in a careful anthropometric intelligence of the offender. More sig- study of Illinois convicts, found a great nificantly, it has been shown that men- many of his measurements affected by tal abnormality is important in the eti- the age of the individual, again demon- ology of crime. Draper" states that strating the difficulty of the problem. "mental abnormality is responsible for 4 De Pina " finds the nasal index useful about one-fourth to one-third of crimi- in distinguishing between normal and 45 nality"; and that delinquent individuals, but he also The mentally ill criminals come from advocates use of a more comprehen- the 2 per cent of the general population sive "morphological method" instead of who show mental abnormalities. There- fore, many more criminals are drawn relying on such indices as the cephalic from the class who are mentally abnor- index or nasal index alone. In this mal in proportion to their percentage of 4 the general population than from the contention Frassetto likewise concurs. rest. These and other studies indicate that This finding is the more important, in there is almost certainly a relationship understanding the causes of crime, in between certain morphological varia- the light of the findings of many work- tions and certain criminal proclivities, ers,4 9 that there is a definite relation- whatever other factors play a role. But ship between physique and mental ab- the thin trail of relationship is far from normality. being adequately mapped. Interesting It is true that eminent investigators leads in other fields have been dis- have published negative results. Hrd-

42 Berry, Richard J. A., and Biichner, L. W. G.: 45 de Pina, Luis: Deliqudncia, aliena ao mental The Correlation of Size of Head and Intelligence e morfologia craniana, Archivo da Repartigao as Estimated from the Cubic Capacity of Brain de Antropologia Criminal, Psicologia Experi- of 355 Melbourne Criminals, Proc. Roy. Soc. mental e Identificacao Civil do P~rto, fasc. 3, Victoria, ns. vol. 25, 229-253, 1913. 231-238 (Dec.), 1931. 43 Gray, H.: Body-Build in Illinois Convicts 46 Frassetto, Fabio: Les formes normales du with Special Reference to Age, Jour. Crim. Law crE.ne humain. Leur gense et leur classifica- and Criminology, 25: 554-575 (Nov.-Dec.), 1934. tion. Bull. de la Soc. d'2tude des Formes Hu- 44 de Pina, Luis: Indice Nasal em Deliquentes maines, nos. 3-4, Paris, 1929. 47Tulchin, Portuguese, Arquivo da Reparticao de Antro- Simon H.: Intelligence and Crime, Chicago, Univ. of Chicago pologia Criminal, Psicologia Experimental e Press, 1939. Identificarao Civil do P6rto, fasc. 3, 265-268 48 Draper, P. A., op. cit. (Dec.), 1931. 49 See references 28, 29, 30. WILLIAM B. TUCKER licka 50 in 1897-1899 measured 1000 in- in crime. The truth is probably some- mates of the New York Juvenile Asy- where close to both Hooton's and Hrd- lum, found 77 of these "criminal or vici- licka's positions; for Hooton does not ous," and stated that the transgressors claim more than that the physical could not be physically separated from make-up is one factor in the etiology the rest of the children in the institu- of crime, and further research may tion, and "in all probability" also from show its role to be a minor one com- children of similar social classes out- pared with other complex factors now side. Hrdlicka does admit 5' largely studied by criminologists. . . . that there are recognizable an- Criminological research today can be thropometric differences between the understood only in the perspective of of the main criminal groups- averages of man as an organic whole, the brutal killers, the highway robbers knowledge will in the average differ from thieves certainly not forgetting his physical or forgers, etc. But such differences are make-up. Sands 3 states that characteristic nor neither sufficiently as point of Today the human being is regarded universal. From the scientific a total personality, as a behavior organ- view, it must be acknowledged that there physical sign, nor a col- ism in which every part of his constitu- is not a single to situa- lection of such signs, which would per- tion participates in his reaction tions. All observers now realize the mit the diagnosis of anyone as a pros- pective criminal before he had com- importance of regarding the human be- mitted a crime. ing as a whole. Cantor,5' in an exhaustive survey of re- With this position Hooton probably cent tendencies in criminological re- would be in general agreement. But search, makes some highly pertinent unwarranted would seem to be such a interpretations: further statement of Hrdlicka's: -2 ... the student acquainted with the Crime is not physical; it is mental. It crimino-biological literature . . . cannot is not due to disorders or abnormalities ...get rid of the impression that the of the body, but partly to acquired anti- crimino-biological movement is tre- social habits, partly to brain, nervous mendously important. Currently in this system, and the internal glandular dis- country we have overemphasized ... the orders. The criminal "facies," of what- importance of environmental influences. ever sort, is not inborn, but acquired Hundreds of environmental studies in through the criminality and the reac- crime causation have been carried on tions of the criminal with other people. in this country. We are still far from Apart from the inferred inconsistency understanding the causes of crime. It meth- that there is no relation between the may well be that apart from faulty odolgy and inadequate techniques, the physical make-up and the brain, the barrenness of results is due to our over nervous system, and the endocrime emphasis upon the sociological or en- glands, the chief criticism to be made vironmental approach. of such a statement is that Hrdlicka He points out, as the result of careful denies in toto the role of the physical studies of criminal tendencies in mon-

5oHrdlicka, Ales: Anthropological Investiga- 52Hrdlicka, Ales: The Criminal, op. cit., p. 90. tions of One Thousand White and Colored Chil- 5.' Sands, Irving J.: Discussion of paper by dren of Both Sexes, New York and Albany, 1899. Petersen and Reese, 32. 51 Hrdlicka, Ales: The Criminal, Jour. of 54Cantor, Nathaniel: Recent Tendencies in Criminal Psychopathology, vol. 1, 87-90 (Oct.), Criminological Research in Germany, Jour. Crim. 1939. Law and Criminology, 27: 782-793, 1937. EVIDENCE OF A PHYSICAL BASIS ozygotic and dizygotic twins, that "it 4. No sharp distinction between the is highly improbable that the social en- methodology of the natural and the so- vironment alone" accounts for crime, cial sciences can be drawn. and reasons that 5. The majority of workers are more or less agreed upon the meagerness of Because behavior is manifested only results to date, upon the caution with in a cultural setting ("social environ- which conclusions must be drawn, and, ment") is no reason to deny the role of what is most important, upon the fact the organic structure. that out of their joint efforts the classi- Cantor thus joins researchers in all fication of crimino-biological types will eventually emerge. fields of behavior in maintaining that research into causes of behavior, crimi- Little can be added to this. A dis- nal or otherwise, must take into ac- passionate appraisal of the evidence count both physical and environmental available indicates that there is at least factors. Surveying criminological re- some physical basis for criminal be- search he finds that there already is havior, however small it may be. Re- agreement among many students of search in criminology, as in biology, criminology on a number of common medicine, and even psychology and points: sociology must be guided by the knowl- 1. They all agree upon the desir- edge that man is first an hereditary or- ability of understanding the criminal personality as a whole. ganic whole and secondarily influenced 2. This can be attained only by view- by his environment. The age-old ing his behavior as a configuration of the "heredity vs. environment" argument is interplay between objective environment factors and the subjective, consti- no longer entirely valid, for the versus tutional, biological, inherited tendencies. gives way, in compromise, to the prob- 3. Hence, the methods of any science ability that both factors are potent. The which may aid in this investigation are assessment of the legitimate, whether they are those of relative importance biology, anthropometry, psychology, of either in criminology must wait psychiatry or sociology. further joint bio-sociological research.