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galton.org 43
 
Criminals and the Insane
43
the pointer, and the bull-dog, have their several instincts. There can be no
greater popular error than the supposition that natural instinct is a
perfectly trustworthy guide, for there are striking contradictions to such an
opinion in individuals of every description of animal. The most that we
are entitled to say in any case is, that the prevalent instincts of each race
are trustworthy, not those of every individual. But even this is saying too
much, because when the conditions under which the race is living have
recently been changed, some instincts which were adapted to the old state
of things are sure to be fallacious guides to conduct in the new one. A
man who is counted as an atrocious criminal in England, and is punished
as such by English law in social self-defence, may nevertheless have acted
in strict accordance with instincts that are laudable in less civilised
societies. The ideal criminal is, unhappily for him, deficient in qualities
that are capable of restraining his unkindly or inconvenient instincts; he
has neither sympathy for others nor the sense of duty, both of which lie at
the base of conscience; nor has he sufficient self-control to accommodate
himself to the society in which he has to live, and so to promote his own
selfish interests in the long-run. He cannot be preserved from criminal
misadventure, either by altruistic sentiments or by intelligently egoistic
ones.
The perpetuation of the criminal class by heredity is a question
difficult to grapple with on many accounts. Their vagrant habits, their
illegitimate unions, and extreme untruthfulness, are among the difficulties
of the investigation. It is, however, easy to show that the criminal nature
tends to be inherited; while, on the other hand, it is impossible that women
who spend a large portion of the best years of their life in prison can
contribute many children to the population. The true state of the case
appears to be that the criminal population receives steady accessions from
those who, without having strongly-marked criminal natures, do
nevertheless belong to a type of humanity that is exceedingly ill suited to
play a respectable part in our modern civilisation, though it is well suited
to flourish under half-savage conditions, being naturally both healthy and
prolific. These persons are apt to go to the bad; their daughters
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