Note 28 — Chapter III · OPPOSITION TO LOMBROSO’S VIEWS—WOMAN AS CRIMINAL—THE POLITICAL CRIMINAL—CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY

Very various significations are attached to the term “criminal psychology.” Some denote by it a general theory of responsibility; some, an account of the mental disorders which have forensic importance; some, the theory of the will, of purpose, of deliberation, of design, of resolve, of the associations with and the aids to crime; some, the developmental history of individual criminals, or a description of the means by which they have been led to commit some particular crime, or which they have adopted in the course of its performance; some, finally, denote by the term a classification of the world of criminals in accordance with character, after the manner of Benedikt and Krauss. The teaching of Lombroso is concerned solely with the elements of the criminal nature which possess an anthropological interest, just as the ethnologist endeavours to elucidate the natural character of a race.