Through the study of all types of individuals we find that the kind of failure which causes criminals is similar to that which results in problem children, suicides, drunkards, and sexual perverts, as well as in neurotics and psychotics. They all fail in both their approach and their adjustment to life, and above all they are unified in their lack of social interest and any form of creative cooperation.

Even here, however, we cannot distinguish between these individuals and those who are considered "normal." There are no born criminals. No one person can be held up as an example of perfect cooperation or perfect social conscien­tiousness, and those with criminal tendencies have only failed more drastically than is usual. There is no true compulsion in either environment or heredity; children from the same family and environment can and do develop in different ways. Sometimes a criminal type appears in a family of irre­proachable record and, inversely, a family with a very poor record sometimes produces children of good character and behavior. It happens, too, that some criminals change in later life, and criminologists have often been hard put to ex­plain how a burgler may settle down, at the height of his maturity, and become a useful citizen. If crime were an in­born defect, or if it were indelibly imposed by the environ­ment, we could not be able to understand such improvement.

Character is not fixed, but is always a fine and complicated structure which yields to the influence of thousands of ex­ternal and internal pressures. Misery and the demands of necessity are at times responsible for an unfavorable develop­ment of any character. A weak and pliable nature gives way to destructive influences more easily than a firm and steady one.

A series of varied samples of handwritings will help to explain how the demands of life and the mistakes in fulfilling them are apt to bring criminal characteristics to the surface, making it difficult for individuals to help save themselves. They are not inherently responsible; their crimes are the re­sult of their complete failure to understand and adjust to society's restrictions.

Sample 85. This sample is written by a girl of fourteen, the daughter of a laborer, who has a very low social and moral standard. Her teachers report that she is vain, egotistic and untruthful, lazy and undutiful. Her exhibitionism and domi­neering nature are discovered in occasional heavy down strokes, while the sharp, angular style expresses her lack of consideration. Her weak will is expressed in the wavering pressure and slant; the slowly written and unequally spaced words and letters show her laziness and poor sense of duty. While the stumpy lower loops indicate gluttony, and espe­cially a precocious sensuality, the whole writing appears to be the work of a much younger child. She conceals her indo­lence with lies and dissimulation which are expressed in broken back and involved letters. This handwriting is a com­bination of the three components of a fraudulent character: idleness, vanity, and gluttony. This girl attaches importance to herself alone. The lack of development in her social con­sciousness is due, in all probability, to her unfavorable envir­onment.

Sample 86. This is the handwriting of a convict who specializes in rifling luggage in trains. The relatively slow writing reveals the laziness of a person who prefers to make money in the easiest possible way. The leftward flourishes are written with practised agility, and are graphic symbols of the technique of this thief, who could steal with rapidity and inconspicuousness. His leftward flourishes take the shape of snares, symbolizing his criminal tendencies.

Sample 87. Here, again, we see the skillful leftward flour­ishes with endings formed like slings. This man has com­mitted far greater thefts than the train robber of Sample 86, acting in a shrewder and more original manner. His specialty is stealing diamonds. He has been imprisoned several times, but, immediately upon release, he repeats the pattern which his criminality has assumed.

While thieves are not always social parasites, they are morally unsound, and their writing vacillates with weak and uneven pressure, denoting the average petty thief, such as the pickpocket or small swindler. The thief who robs banks, counterfeits, or perpetrates a large-scale swindle, is one of two types: either he is aggressive and material, writing with heavy pressure and close connecting strokes, as in Sample 87, or he is a leader in the great criminal world, where he has found expression for his drive for personal power.

Sample 88. This handwriting is surprising in its pleasing formation, and in the clear spacing of words which betray the forty-year-old writer's clarity of ideas. This man displays logic, reason and a talent for accounting. He has an excep­tionally charming personality, excellent manners, and a fine appearance; he is a swindler on a grand scale. The heavy terminals, flung downwards into a hook, indicate his aggres­siveness and obstinacy. His deceptions take the form of in­troducing himself as a prince and gaining the confidence of his victims through his amiability and persuasion, thus pav­ing the way for his borrowing large sums of money, only to vanish into thin air. The large and graceful flourishes mirror his self-confidence and arrogance. The initial letters reveal great presence of mind and a tremendous amount of aggres­sive vitality.

Society in endangered by the duplicity of such criminals as swindlers and confidence men, who conceal their true nature behind a mask of honesty. We find a typical example of this criminal group posing as a respectable employee who fulfills his duties faithfully, while he is planning to take full advan­tage of his trusted position. Again, we see that the irre­proachable behavior of the pupil on whom the teacher invariably relies, conceals a personality which secretly grati­fies every corrupt desire. While these types seem to adapt themselves admirably to social life, or rather to its exploita­tion, they really have no interest either in cooperation, or in anything that is not to their advantage. These people are very difficult to unmask because their honesty and industriousness appear to be unshakably genuine. We know of cases where a man has spent many years of continued and success­ful frauds which did not excite the least suspicion in anyone, and whose treachery was only detected by accident.

Sample 89. Through its uniform regularity, this script characterizes the above-mentioned attitude of guilt. This fifty-year-old director of an insurance company embezzled huge funds over many years of apparently conscientious serv­ice, and has been detected only through the analysis of hand­writing. Paradoxically, the regularity of his writing reveals him to be a diligent man who accomplishes his daily tasks with a great sense of duty. His value as a superior worker is revealed in the high capital letters; he knows how to conduct his business with tact, and inspires great confidence. His let­ters are written with incredible regularity, while the long lower loops of the capital letter B uncover his materialistic drive for money and possessions. Beneath his pose of trust­worthiness, we can observe many graphic examples of dis­simulation in the very narrow angle of crowded and involved vowels. The letters which are formed with an up and down stroke, as /, b, and h, are painstakingly retraced so that their natural loops become a cramped and continuous line, a ges­ture typical of veiled deception. A neurotic anxiety and con­stant fear of discovery are reflected in the narrow and rigid writing. Although he carried off the fraud with such secrecy that it was exceedingly difficult to convict him, his neurotic fears prevented him from enjoying his success. The hand­writing typifies not only the deceptive-criminal type, but also a materialistic and selfish personality.

Sample 90. The initial letters of many words reveal the writer's arrogance, while the garlands uncover the evasive nature of a man who successfully conceals his real intentions and desires. Some letters which are hardly legible—the capi­tal T and V are easily confused—and the numerous involved traits reflect his moral turpitude. The heavy pressure typifies his great strength of personality and power of sugges­tion which attract people to him, and make them an easy prey. The sharpness of the letters gives the reader a most un­pleasant impression of this sensual man, and the long descending loops testify to his brutal nature and violent pas­sions.

This is the handwriting of a forty-year-old director of a musical institute and college for girls which he established and financed with funds which he had fraudulently solicited. This institute was only a pretext for his realization of a per­verted and uncontrollable sensuality. Choosing only those girls who had weak and servile characters, he maintained this school for the sole purpose of ravishing his "pupils," whom he kept there by presents and compliments at their own wish. Through years of blatant activity he was able to conduct this scheme with great skill until he was denounced by a girl and given a severe sentence.

Criminality is almost always a psychopathic tendency. At this point, it is well to realize that the graphologist must carefully investigate all writing of abnormal proportions, where the letter formation is nevertheless completely usual. Thus, extreme expansion or contraction, in an otherwise un­distinguished writing, is an indication of some serious mental abnormality. In contrast to the normally proportionate for­mation and size of letters, we can see that, for example, the combination of sharply disconnected letters and a preponder­ance of the upper zone in a very small script, is an exagger­ated example of the case at hand. Again, a totally undis­tinguished writing where the size is abnormally exaggerated or minimized reveals delusions which easily lead to criminal action.

Sample 91. The flourishes which we see in the sample are signs of exaggerated feelings, while the spasmodic increase of pressure reveals the writer's violent reactions to every emo­tional stimulus, and his sharpened endings show aggressive­ness and violence. Inconsistent traits show his lack of control, and the wavering basic line reveals sudden changes in mood, with a basic depression and discontent.

This writer belongs in the cicloid group, which corre­sponds with Jung's extrovert. He is weak, impressionable, and extremely emotional. Acting upon every stimulus and impulse, he is easily swayed by the super-abundance of im­petuous feelings and desires. As a result, his emotional life is restless and unstable. When he was thirty, he worked him­self into a furious scene of jealousy by threatening his sweet­heart with a revolver. When she tried to escape by jumping out of the window, he lost the little control which he had left, and killed her. Some minutes later his mood changed from frenzy to despair, and he committed suicide.

The schizoid type, corresponding with Jung's introvert, is unsociable and unadaptable. Many schizoids appear indiffer­ent towards everything; some are indolent or phlegmatic, and others dispassionately cruel; but this type, though apathetic and even indolent, sometimes shows great anger and violence. On the other hand, there are schizoids who commit dreadful atrocities with incredible heartlessness and a total lack of any normal feelings.

The schizoid's unsocialibility and his criminal propensities are often manifested in his early childhood, through his re­sentful unmanageability and his total refusal to study, or plan for a future career. Schizoids display a hostile reserve in their relationships and tend to prefer an easy and vagabond life, unhampered by personal bonds, in which they can pros­per through fraud and robbery. As children, they show no affection whatever for parents and relatives, and any slight in­convenience may provoke brutal and violent reactions.

Sample 92. The handwriting of this schizoid type belongs to a man of thirty. It is slow and the childish letters are formed with a leftward angle. This writer never studied any­thing thoroughly and has no idea of the meaning of the word duty. Since childhood, he has led a lazy and self-in­dulgent life, stealing money to make this feasible. The sharp, angular writing together with a leftward angle show him to be a man who goes his own way recklessly without accepting any guidance; he will not adapt himself to society. The heavy t bars and smeary pressure mirror his violence and mental unbalance, while the pointed angular style indicates his cruelty.

Sample 93. The sharp and ugly traits of this sample are graphic symbols of the writer's aggressive destruction. This man is dishonest and cannot be trusted with anything. The fact that he is deceitful, cunning, evasive and conceals his real personality is revealed in his poorly defined letters. He is un­balanced and an extremist, a cicloid who at the time of writ­ing this sample was undergoing a typical state of sensual elation. He is negatively over-sexed and has a perverted imagination. He is, however, intelligent enough to know how to avoid detection. He is obviously abnormal and totally lack­ing in moral sense. If caught in a lie he will baldly assert that he has been misunderstood. Since he is excitable, he lacks self-control and any sense of responsibility. At one time he was convicted of brutal rape.

In the handwritings of murderers we frequently find char­acteristic shapes which symbolize their basic tendency to kill. Cesare Lombroso, the Italian scientist, was the first to write a book on the handwriting of the criminal, reproducing the signatures of murderers which flaunt the terrible symbols of blood and death.

Sample 94. The slowness with which this sample was writ­ten reveals the girl's laziness and indolence, while the muddy pressure betrays her concealed but ardent sensuality. The long lower loops reveal her materiality, the double closed vowels her dissimulation and untruthfulness. There is no true vitality in this writing. The smeary pressure discloses a definitely psychopathic disposition. The father of this twenty-five-year-old girl was a brutal and violent drunkard. In this script, we notice some signs of her mental degeneration which has taken the form of a decline in intelligence, insensibility and apathy, as well as a sudden and aggressive temper, a mind closed to education, and unrestrained sexual desires. An only child, she was brought up in different countries. She has always been totally insincere, even with her mother, who had recently divorced the girl's father and remarried. The girl had no connection with either her mother or her step­father and, hating to be under any obligation to them, stole money for her expenses, though she lived in a luxurious home. This is a marked characteristic of an hysterical per­sonality, where the subject would rather behave like a crim­inal than allow himself to be discommoded in any way. This girl indulged in many affairs in her mother's house. When she was discovered with one of her lovers she ran away only to be found, after a long search, in a sanatorium where she had been confined by the local authorities because of her pro­nounced mental condition.

Psychiatry devotes a great part of its studies to the psycho­pathic epileptic character. The physical manifestations are far more pronounced and perverse than those of the "nor­mal" epileptic.

Sample 95. This epileptic man, transported by an impetu­ous and uncontrollable sexual desire, attacked a girl in broad daylight and raped her publicly, unable to consider the obvious consequences. His writing is very unequal and tan­gled. Wavering lines and senselessly involved traits which resemble superimposed letters mirror his confusion, and the heavy horizontal strokes reflect his insane violence. The en­tangled letters symbolize a mind which is unable to reason out the simplest problems. The writer lacks any sense of judgment, can only vaguely comprehend a small part of life, and is unable to profit by even the most drastic experience. The unsteady traits with light pressure reflects the weakness of his will-power. Lacking in self-control, he yields to every impulse and thought, while the irritability is revealed by the sporadic pressure.

This thirty-year-old pervert could only finish elementary school, and was supported by his relatives. When questioned as to the motive behind his crimes, he only grins stupidly.

Alcoholism has a destructive influence on the character, weakening the will-power and intelligence, and increasing emotional excitability. The drunkard neglects his family obligations and tries his best to avoid regular work which re­quires any responsibility. This vice weakens the drinker's moral sense, and certainly leads him to corruption.

Sample 96. This thirty-four-year-old woman has been con­fined in an insane asylum because of a fit of drunkenness in which she injured several members of her family. Her rising pathological excitement is revealed in an abnormal pressure; the down strokes of the terminal r, especially in the word "for," uncover her unrestrained violence. The unequal traits and the slant both ways reflect her deficient will-power and lack of self-control. The slow and disconnected letters, which are immaturely formed, look as though they had been written by a child. The whole writing is unsteady and trembling, showing the writer's pronounced lassitude, and slow and dis­tracted thoughts. Her memory is unsure and fragmentary. This deficiency of will-power, intelligence, and emotional stability has turned the writer into a most deplorable indi­vidual. Her unrestrainable violence has caused so much danger both to herself and to others that she cannot yet be released from the asylum.

Sample 97 shows another criminal case caused by alcohol­ism. This handwriting contains regular traits and graceful and individually shaped letters. It is written by an educated and intelligent woman. The continual change of slant, how­ever, together with the smeary pressure and wavering basic line uncover her unrestrainable desire for liquor. She was divorced by her husband because he considered her an unfit mother for their child. Although his accusation was entirely justified, she exaggerated her unhappiness, and aroused local resentment against her husband. During an argument, she became so enraged that she threw a heavy object at him which, had she not missed, might have killed him. Because of this incident, her husband forced her to leave the com­munity.

Unnatural quarrels in the family circle lead some individ­uals to harbor feelings of resentment and desperation. Hate can lead to cruelty and vengeance, but in order to commit any criminal act, there must always be an acquired criminal disposition.

Sample 98. This is the handwriting of a farmer's widow who, until she was fifty, worked hard and dutifully to support her family. Her relationship with her daughter-in-law was, however, very strained, especially over the question of an impending inheritance. Because of this ill-feeling, she carried tales of the daughter's misbehavior to all her neighbors. This enmity was not, however, pronounced enough to justify her unpredictable violent revenge upon the young woman.

One morning as her daughter-in-law left communion, this woman met her at the church door with a vindictive diatribe, at the end of which she drew a knife and stabbed the girl.

The large and unequal handwriting with long, pointed traits reveals her intense irritability, violence, and lack of self-control. The abnormally uneven pressure reveals a con­stantly increasing excitability, probably provoked by meno­pause, or some other disturbance.

Many such criminal acts as those mentioned above have their origin in what the individual calls "difficult and ad­verse life," such as continued unemployment or a miserable social standard of life. These people, having nothing to hold on to, neither a faith in God nor in themselves, become criminals.

Sample 99. This is the handwriting of another quite dif­ferent case of a forty-three-year-old lawyer who, on an impulse, left his office and embarked on a pleasure trip with the money entrusted to him by his clients. Since he had al­ways been an honest and reliable man, this unpremeditated act was not the result of criminal tendencies, but the sudden manifestation of a progressive and general paresis. The pasty pressure together with unequal and disconnected traits and a wavering basic line reflect the writer's diseased mind. While paresis often manifests itself in confused and extravagant im­pulses, in this case, however, it developed secretly until this final outburst. The senselessly disconnected letters show the writer's confusion.

From these many samples of handwriting we can see the multiple reasons which are the basis of a criminal life. Gradual deficiency of the character, physical and mental ab­normalities, and, most of all, any basic moral weakness can produce a criminal type. Every day our newspapers are full of reported crimes, of children who have been abandoned or, even worse, oppressed and warped by a corrupt environment. These poor youngsters, kept from a positive development, often become a danger to the community.

Delusions of grandeur can also lead to criminality. A care­ful study of the handwriting of many notorious criminals will show how much tragedy could have been avoided if the crim­inal disposition had been discovered and re-channeled before it had a chance to take tangible form.

In studying the script of a man who has surprised society by becoming a criminal at an advanced age, the graphologist can trace the gradual rise of what have always been latent criminal tendencies, but which have, until the last, been con­strained.

In dealing with the criminal problem in general, the graphologist must not be prejudiced by the pressure of public hysteria. In order to explain even the most atrocious murder, we must accept the fact that our thoughts are the most vital factors in our lives, and that they are the basis for all actions. Thoughts are things, they are the lever with which we can control circumstances. The detailed history of any murderer will show that the handwriting never lies. It contains special characteristics which clearly reveal what can happen when this writer comes face to face with adverse circumstances.

The graphologist is forced to take the attitude of many philosophers and psychologists, that a great many criminal acts are only explosions of energy which are disastrous in their misdirection. If we knew the former history of many a criminal we might be able to determine just how he came to his present plight. We perhaps might perceive how a kind word or a loving deed at the beginning of his career could have halted him and turned him to a career of usefulness and success. Most people go wrong because they seem to lack the incentive to go in the right direction, either because of faulty education in early years or because of wrong example.

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