Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/801

 REVIEWS.

Criminal Sociology. By Enrico Ferri. Edited by W. D Morrison. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1896.

This work is a translation of that portion of Professor Ferri's volume on criminal sociology which is immediately concerned with the practical problems of criminality. The first chapter deals with "the data of criminal anthropology." Criminal anthropology "studies the criminal man in his organic and psychical constitution, and in his life as related to his physical and social environment." The results of this study are the data for criminal sociology. They relate to certain physical and psychical marks of abnormal men, as irregularities in skull, brain, viscera, or indications of vicious mental conditions in slang, symbols and literature of criminals. Five cate- gories of criminals are described : Criminal madmen, whose anti- social acts can be directly traced to some form of insanity ; born or instinctive criminals, who most frequently present the characteristics established by criminal anthropology ; habitual criminals, whose crimes begin early and are generally attacks on property, and who share with born criminals the marks of precocity and relapse ; occasional criminals, who more frequently violate property rights ; and criminals by passion who generally injure the person. With the latter classes the environment is the more important factor ; with the born criminal heredity determines character. The author thinks that born and habitual criminals are about 40 or 50 per cent, of all, and occasional criminals also about 40 or 50 per cent. The ordinary legal classifica- tion by the character of crimes throws little light on the nature of criminals. The man must be studied in relation to the causes of his condition.

The second chapter is devoted to the data of criminal statistics. Here Professor Ferri's main contention is that force and repression are greatly overestimated as a means of social protection against crime. European statistics are employed to prove this thesis. Three factors must be measured, the personal or bio-psychical, which are studied in

785