The Criminal is a book by Havelock Ellis published in 1890. A third revised and enlarged edition was subsequently published in 1901. The book is a comprehensive English summary of the main results of criminal anthropology, a field of study which was scarcely known at the time of the publication of the volume. The criminal is the first book published by the author and helped establish his reputation in the scientific world.
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, , 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, solely based 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.
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 Chapter VI. The treatment of criminals Chapter VII. Conclusions Appendix A. Explanation of plates B. Criminality in children C. Elmira D. The investigation of criminals Index of authors Index of subjects