Female offender by Lombroso Cesare 1835-1909 & Ferrero Guglielmo 1871-1942

Author:Lombroso, Cesare, 1835-1909 & Ferrero, Guglielmo, 1871-1942
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Criminal anthropology, Female offenders, Prostitution
Publisher: New York, Philosophical Press
Published: 1958-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIII.

OCCASIONAL CRIMINALS.

The bom offender is more completely and intensely depraved than any other, but the case is quite different with the occasional criminals who form the large majority of female delinquents. In them perversity and vice are of a milder form, and there is no want of the higher virtues of the sex, such as chastity and maternal love.

1. Physical characteristics. —The first thing to be observed is the absence of any characteristics or features denoting degeneration. As we saw already 54 per cent, of female offenders are absolutely normal in these respects, and even as regards the special senses they show no peculiarity, 15 per cent having fineness of taste, and 6 per cent fineness of smell.

2. Moral character. —The same may be said of their moral equipment. Guillot unconsciously described the occasional criminal exactly when recording his observations on female prisoners, in the following words :—

" The guilty woman, with a few exceptions in which all vices are combined, is more easily moved to peni-

tence than men, recovers the lost ground more quickly, and relapses into crime less frequently."

And he quotes a lady visitor of St Lazare who, speaking of the female prisoners, said : " When one knows them it is easy to love them ; " thus showing that their natural perversity is not excessive.

" The writings on prison walls in the male cells," continues Guillot, " breathe violence, impiety, threats, and obscenities ; those in the female cells are much more reserved, and speak only of repentance and of love." And he gives a few examples ;—

" In this cell where my love perishes, far from thee, my adored one, I moan and suffer."

" John loves me no longer, but I shall love him always."

"You who enter the cell, called souridère, if not separated from your loved one you only suffer one-half."

" What should my heart find to say to you in this mournful cell, unless it expresses all its pain and agony, its longing and despair at the thought of my loved one ? "

" Henrietta once loved her lover more than any woman ever loved, but now she detests him."

" I swear never to begin again, for I am sick of men ; love brought me here, for I killed my lover. Beware of men, they are liars ali."

" The judgment of men ÌS nothing—only God's matters."

" God is so good. He pities the unfortunate."

"Mary, our Lady, Holy Vii^in, I throw myself at your feet, and place myself under your protection."

And in these female criminals the sense of chastity is very strong. In France, for instance, they shrink with horror from the idea of going to St Lazare where they might come into contact with prostitutes.

Mace refers to occasional offenders and not to the shameless and dissolute born criminal in the following remarks :—

" The women are reluctant They are alarmed at the idea of St Lazare, because associating with it an indelible brand of ignominy and disgrace. They sec themselves brought

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