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Page 51
[42] _Die Continuit�t des Keimplasma als Grundlage einer Theorie
der Vererbung_. A. Weismann. Jena, 1885. _Natural Inheritance_.
F. Galton.
If we do not inherit the acquired faculties and habits of our parents,
it is unfortunately too true that we inherit their diseases and the
connection between disease and crime is a fact which cannot be denied.
In many cases it is perfectly true that persons suffering from disease
or physical degeneracy do not become criminals, in most cases they do
not; at the same time a larger proportion of such persons fall into a
lawless life than is the case with people who are free from inherited
infirmities. The undoubted tendency of physical infirmity is to
disturb the temper, to weaken the will, and generally to disorganise
the mental equilibrium. Such a tendency, when it becomes very
pronounced, leads its unhappy possessor to perpetrate offenses against
his fellow-men, or, in other words, to commit crime. In a recent
communication to a German periodical, Herr Sichart, director of
prisons in the kingdom of Wurtemburg, has shown that a very high
percentage of criminals are the descendants of degenerate parents.
Herr Sichart's inquiries extended over several years and included
1,714 prisoners. Of this number 16 per cent. were descended from
drunken parents; 6 per cent. from families in which there was madness;
4 per cent. from families addicted to suicide; 1 per cent. from
families in which there was epilepsy. In all, 27 per cent. of the
offenders, examined by Herr Sichart were descended from families in
which there was degeneracy. According to these figures more than one
fourth of the German prison population have received a defective
organisation from their ancestry, which manifests itself in a life of
crime.
In France and Italy the same state of things prevails. Dr. Corre is of
opinion that a very large proportion of persons convicted of bad
conduct in the French military service are distinctly degenerate
either in body or mind. Dr. Virgilio says that in Italy 32 per cent.
of the criminal population have inherited criminal tendencies from
their parents. In England there is no direct means of testing the
amount of degeneracy among the criminal classes, but, in all
likelihood, it is quite as great as elsewhere. According to the report
of the Medical Inspector of convict prisons for 1888-9, the annual
number of deaths from natural causes, among the convict population, is
from 10 to 12 per 1000. Let us compare those figures with the death
rate of the general population as recorded in the Registrar-General's
report for 1888. The annual death rate from all causes of the general
population, between the ages of 15 and 45, is about 7 per 1000. I have
selected the period of life between 15 and 45 for the reason that it
corresponds most closely with the average age of criminals. If deaths
from accident are excluded from the mortality returns of the general
population, it will be found that the rate of mortality among
criminals, in convict prisons, is from one third to one half higher
than the rate of mortality among the rest of the community of a
similar age. If the rate of mortality of the criminal population is so
high inside convict prisons, where the health of the inmates is so
carefully attended to, what must it be among the criminal classes when
in a state of liberty? Independently of the premature deaths brought
on by irregularity of life, it is certain that a high proportion of
criminals bear within them the seeds of inherited disorders, and it is
these disorders which largely account for the high rate of mortality
amongst them when in prison.
The high percentage of disease and degeneracy among the English
criminal population may be seen in other ways. The population in the
local gaols in 1888-9, between the ages of 21 and 40, constituted 54
per cent. of the total prison population, whilst the same class between
the ages of 40 and CO formed only 20 per cent. of the prison
population. One half of this drop in the percentage of prisoners
between 40 and 60 may be accounted for by the decreased percentage of
persons between these two ages in the general population. The other
half can only be accounted for by the extent to which premature decay
and death rage among criminals who have passed their fortieth year. In
other words, the number of criminals alive after forty is much smaller
than the number of normal men alive after that age.
A direct proof of the extent of degeneracy in the shape of insanity
among persons convicted of murder can be found in the Judicial
Statistics. The number of persons convicted of wilful murder, not
including manslaughter or non-capital homicides, from 1879 to 1888
amounted to 441. Out of this total 143 or 32 per cent. were found
insane. Of the 299 condemned to death, no less than 145, or nearly one
half, had their sentences commuted, many of them on the ground of
mental infirmity. The whole of these figures decisively prove that
between 40 and 50 per cent. of the convictions for wilful murder are
cases in which the murderers were either insane or mentally infirm.
Murder cases are almost the only ones respecting which the antecedents
of the offender are seriously inquired into. But when this inquiry
does take place the vast amount of degeneracy among criminals at once
becomes apparent.
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