The female offender / by Cæsar Lombroso and William Ferrero.

  • Cesare Lombroso
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The female offender / by Cæsar Lombroso and William Ferrero. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/398 (page 4)
    The average among the first named is 1,295 with respect to 13 brachycephalic crania, and 1,266 with respect to 45 dolichocephalic crania, the latter being, as Calori had already remarked, always of inferior capacity. Among female criminals we find the smaller capacities to be more common in the serial averages than among normal subjects, while the larger capacities fall off more than one half. Arithmetically speaking, the average of criminals (1,322) is higher than the average shown by prosti- tutes (1,244), and is a little even above the normal (1,310—1,316). But according to Mingazzini, who is a far better and more trustworthy observer, the average cranial capacity is 1,265, a very inferior average to that furnished by normal Italian women, for whom the figure found by Nicolini is 1,310, and by Mantegazza and Amadei, 1,322. And there is much importance in the fact that he observed a capacity inferior to 1,200 in 20 per cent, of these criminals, and in only 5 per cent, a capacity above 1,400 ; while among the normal women noted by Amadei and Morselli, only 14 per cent, fell below the former figure and 29 per cent, rose above the latter : a result which establishes the inferiority of criminals. Coming now to separate delinquencies, we find the figures of highest capacity to be under the different heads as follows :— Poisoning 1,3S4 Wounding 1,314 Arson 1,328 Infanticide i,2So