Inasmuch as the nature and
conduct of a criminal person is largely a matter of his psychology the
most scientific classification of criminals must be upon a psychological
basis; and a simple psychological classification can be made upon the
basis of habit, that is, as to whether the habit of crime is inborn,
acquired, or not yet formed. According to this classification then there
are three main classes of criminals: (i) The instinctive or born
criminal. This is a person in whom the tendency to crime is inborn, and
this inborn tendency is always due to some congenital defect. The most
common type of the instinctive or born criminal is the moral imbecile, a
person only slightly mentally defective who cannot distinguish right
from wrong. It is evident that in the instinctive or born criminal
biological causes of crime predominate. This class is however relatively
small among the general criminal class, and it is estimated by experts
that it constitutes not more than from 10 per cent to 15 per cent of our
prison population.
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