ceptive” and “A fair face may hide a foul heart”. Does person’s appearance really have something to do with his character? Are there any special facial features typical for ill-natured and criminally minded people?
   The belief that unusual physical characteristics mark off the evil and socially obnoxious person is often ancient origin. For example, Homer described the thoroughly despicable Thersites as follows:
  One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame;
  His mountain shoulders half his breast overspread,
  Thin hairs bestrewed his long misshapen head.
  The Iliad
   Physiognomy – judging character from facial features – was a recognized study in Europe. German physician and anatomist Franz Joseph Gall tried to establish relationships between skull structure and criminal proclivities. This theory, popular during the 19th century, is now discredited and has been abandoned. A more sophistical theory – a biological one – was developed late in 19th century by the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who asserted that crimes were committed by persons who are born with certain recognizable hereditary physical traits.
   In an enormous book called The Criminal, he set out the idea that there is a definite criminal type, who can be recognized by his or her appearance. Some of what he said is difficult to believe. For example, he said that left-handed persons have a criminal instinct.
   Some other physical characteristics, thought to indicate the atavistic type of person who became a criminal,

<<<назад<<< * перейти на стр. 1-44 * збірник літератури №69 * >>>далее>>>