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The author has studied the origins of crime from the history of entire families and from the life and personal observation of identical and fraternal twins (65 pairs). He questioned them personally. Of some he also visited the parents and siblings. Important information was obtained from mayors, teachers, pastors, physicians, and officials.
Studies in criminal biology made by Lange have tended to show that heredity may play a great role in the origin of crime. From intense research the conclusion was reached that the internal origin of criminality is based upon a hereditary simultaneity of certain character anomalies. Law offenders with a tendency to relapse and those without this tendency show certain types of character traits and anomalies which exclude each other. There is an innate tendency for crime in certain types of abnormal personalities and even a tendency for a particular type of crime (for instance: illegitimate identical twins have both committed sex crimes on minors). One has to decide if certain personality types can be influenced or not by environment.
As in psychiatry not all patients are subjected to the same treatment, law offenders too, should not be treated equally but the different types of personality should be considered. In most identical twins there is— analogous to the physical similarity—also a close similarity, if not identity, of the character structure and anti-social behavior. This is much less the case with fraternal twins. Studies on families of criminals have shown that the connection between character-structure and crime is strongest in severe habitual criminals. In these, the most important causes are hereditary character-anomalies.
In mild single offenders and in late offenders (after the twenty-fifth year of age) exciting environmental factors play a greater rôle than in