The female offender / by Cæsar Lombroso and William Ferrero.

  • Lombroso, Cesare, 1835-1909.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

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    blows appear, indeed, to be for women what, in barbarous days, homicide was for men—namely, a natural method of resenting injury. “ A little water spilt upon the stairs,” writes Mac6, “will set two women quarrelling. One slaps the other; the slapped one flies to the police court and causes her enemy to be condemned to a fine, in default of paying which she is taken to prison.” Such incidents happen every day between neigh- bours, or competing retail shopkeepers ; between caretakers and tenants, between portresses and servant-girls, between servant-girls themselves, and so on. Nor are ladies of higher condition strangers to such methods, only that they often resort to modes of vindictiveness which do not always lead to a court of law. 8. Mendicity.—Even begging, which in men is almost always a result of degeneration, a congenital tendency developed by vagabondage and idleness, is sometimes in women an occasional delinquency. As we have pointed out already, women are less inclined than men to commit suicide from want, and one reason of this is that when reduced to misery they resort with less difficulty to begging, either because they are by nature more pliable to circum- stances, or because more moved by maternal affection. Mac6 tells the story of a widow with two daughters who, when no longer able to earn even a franc a day by sewing trousers, because one of the girls was ill and had to be nursed, sent the other one out to beg. The child was arrested, but would not give her address until she had exacted a promise that she should not