The Criminal

Context

Italian Cesare Lombroso is recognised worldwide as the founding father of criminal anthropology since he was the first to perceive the study of crime as a self-standing scientific field. Lombroso is credited to be the first to regard criminality as a physical anomaly that can be measured and weighted. Lombroso founded his own school of thought on criminal anthropology, which attracted support from fellow scientists across Europe. Ellis highly regarded the Italian criminal anthropologist and considered that Lombroso's book, L'uomo delinquente, should have been considered as influential as On the Origin of Species. Havelock Ellis was one of Lombroso's followers and one of the few postulating the theory of the inborn criminal in the United Kingdom. The criminal was the only British book published between 1880 and 1918 based solely on Cesare Lombroso's theories on criminal anthropology.

Studies on criminals or criminality in general had been conducted in England prior to the publication of The criminal. These studies were conducted independently of the field of criminal anthropology, which was scarcely known in the second half of the nineteenth century. Regardless of the lack of enthusiasm in the British scientific community, Ellis found the topic relevant and important for society. When researching for his book, Ellis was disappointed that his peers did not share his enthusiasm and had little or no knowledge at all about criminal anthropology. He decided that The criminal could be a valuable contribution to the scarce British literature on criminal anthropology.

Ellis mentions Franz Joseph Gall as one of the founders of ''modern science of criminal anthropology''. Gall was convinced that intellectual capacities are influenced by the volume and the shape of the brain. The physical characteristics of the brain dictate the shape of the skull. The new study field established by Gall is known as phrenology. Gall applied his phrenological knowledge to criminal anthropology and concluded that physical characteristics of the skulls could predict criminal tendencies. His beliefs prove that, similar to Havelock Ellis, Gall was a follower of Cesare Lombroso.

The measure of culpability, and the measure of punishment cannot be determined by a study of the illegal act, but only by a study of the individual committing it.

Between 1886 and 1914, The Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, founded by doctor Alexandre Lacassagne, was published. It was the first French-language academic journal dedicated to the topic of criminology. It published theoretical and practical work regarding criminal anthropology and forensic medicine. Divided into four parts, The Archives are a comprehensive work. The last part of the journal addresses criminal anthropology studies from three different countries. The works of scientists from Italy, Spain, and Great Britain are contrasted with the French ones. The volume of literature on criminal anthropology from European countries, such as Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, Russia, is larger than the English one. Ellis ascribes it to criminal anthropology not being yet established, in the early 1880s, as an exact science.

Contents

Table of contents

Chapter I. Introduction

Chapter II. The study of the criminal

Chapter III. Criminal anthropology (physical)

1. Cranial and Cerebral characteristics

2. The face

3. Anomalies of the hair

4. Criminal physiognomy

5. The body and the viscera

6. Heredity

7. Motor activity

8. Physical sensibility

Chapter IV. Criminal anthropology (physical)-continued

1. Moral insensibility

2. Dreaming in criminals

3. Intelligence

4. Vanity

5. Emotional instability

6. Sentiment

7. Religion

8. Tattooing

9. Thieves' slang

10. Prison inscriptions

11. Criminal literature and art

12. Criminal philosophy

Chapter V. The results of criminal anthropology

Book summary

The criminal consists of seven chapters preceded by a preface written by Ellis. An appendix with forty illustrations is provided at the end of the volume. The appendix is divided into four parts. Appendix A provides detailed explanations for all the plates. Appendix B summarises the study of criminality in children. A picture of the life and treatment applied to prisoners in Elmira Reformatory is depicted in part C. Criteria for the physical medical investigation of criminals and their descriptions are outlined in appendix D.

The preface lays out how the book came in to existence and what is its purpose. The author explains that he felt the need to fill in a knowledge gap in his contemporary scientific knowledge regarding criminal behaviour and punishment. Ellis outlines in the preface what are the questions that his book aims to address. They refer to the nature and the motives of criminals and the required methods of punishment to be employed. Ellis shares Lombroso's theory of the born criminal whose hereditary physical characteristics illustrate their criminal tendencies.

What is a criminal? Is he [...] a normal person who has willingly committed an abnormal act? Is he the victim of acquired disease, such ad some form of epilepsy? Is he an atavistic reappearance of the savage in modern society? Is he a degenerate? What is the criminal type?

Ellis mentions his personal hypothesis regarding the nature of criminals. His opinion is biased and influenced his approach of the topic.

The criminal is a congenitally weak-minded person whose abnormality, while by no means leaving the mental aptitudes absolutely unimpaired, chiefly affects the feelings and volition, so influencing conduct and rendering him an anti-social element in society. [...] The criminal is certainly not insane, but neither is he normal, and while not wholly insensitive to the motives which influence the normal man, he is not affected by them in the same way or in the same degree as the normal man.

The introduction presents an overview of the existent chief varieties of criminals and makes reference to at least one case study for each category. Ellis mentions six different types of criminals: political, by passion, insane, instinctive, occasional, and habitual. Causes of crime are cosmic, biological, or societal. Ellis refers to the influences of diet, individual temperament, and the interactions with the external world. The author states that the criminal is a product of various influences, both internal (hereditary) and external. The second chapter summarises previously conducted anthropological studies on criminals all over the world. The cited literature belongs to Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri, Antonio Marro, von Baer, Schwalbe, Rafael Salillas, Arthure McDonald, Eugene Talbot, and Douglas Morrison. The main part of the book is constituted by the third and fourth chapter. They give a detailed description of the physical, moral, social, emotional, and religious aspects of criminals and their lives. The criminal discusses various topics related to criminality. These are the peculiar criminal slang, the inmates' literary productions and views on religion, prison inscriptions, and criminality viewed from the perspective of the prisoners. The fifth book chapter aims to answer the questions Ellis formulated in the preface. This chapters is an overview of the author's perspective on the nature of criminals. All the anthropological evidence discussed throughout the volume are summarised and linked together.

Reception

The structure and writing style of the book were praised as being clear, concise, and comprehensive, all being valuable characteristics of a work that aims to act as a literature review.

The criminal is considered an important addition to the literature on criminal anthropology, especially at the time of its publication. English studies on the topic were scarce at the end of the nineteenth century and Ellis' book allowed the English public to have access to a summary of findings on criminal anthropology. Arthur MacDonald states that Ellis challenges the nineteenth century view of criminality by proving that it is an intrinsic part of society and it has to be treated as such. MacDonald believes that The criminal is a valuable work because it shows the British society the complex nature of prisoners.

The author admits that his book contains no novel or original information. A.G. Warner praises the importance of The criminal. Ellis does not only resume criminal anthropological evidence from Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom, and United States, but also includes a part on the treatment of criminals. Ellis proposes a reform of prisoners, opposite to a reform of prisons, which is what authorities solely have focused on up to the end of 1890s. The criminal presents itself as a practical guide for changing the prison and sentencing systems and gives the example of the Elmira Reformatory to support its claims. Ellis argues that sentences are usually given for the crimes and not for the criminals. The punishment assigned by the judiciary system is unsuited and ineffective. The author argues that each criminal class should receive different sentences that match the motives behind the criminal act.

The scientific knowledge on criminality was limited at time when Ellis published his book. Because of that, A.G. Warner, in his review of the book, hopes that Ellis' volume would catch the interest of others undergoing studies in social sciences. Warner dreams that the field of criminal anthropology would be greatly enriched by students eager to fill in its knowledge gaps.

British criminologist or workers in the prison system have, since the beginning of the 1890s, unanimously adopted a position that opposed the theories favoured by various existent schools of thought. They valued hands-on experience gathered by interaction with the prisoners. This approach contrasts with the theoretical one adopted by Lombroso. Because of the clash in the British scientific community, criminal anthropology was not perceived as a real science. Why Ellis' book was not met with great success among the British criminologists could be ascribed to the wide disregard his peers displayed towards Ellis. In his Memoirs published in 1894, prison inspector Arthur Griffiths concludes: