spring upon them at any moment, they are almost sure either to destroy
themselves or else to develop some form of insanity. There are cases of
murder and assassination (apparently hereditary crime) where the
conditions are so similar that the hypnotic power of circumstances may
likewise be urged as sufficient cause.

So far, an attempt has been made to show that whatever the influence of
heredity may be, it is restricted outside the sphere of morality. It
cannot transmit an IMMORAL IDEA. So far as certain forms of
vice and crime are concerned it most probably is limited entirely to its
effect upon the physical structure of man. Combined with family
tradition and working upon a diseased, or weakened will, it accounts for
similarities of conduct. Suicides, murderers and assassins do not then
receive by transmission from their ancestry any taint or tendency which
may be called the direct cause of their crime. Another factor is
present, a hypnotising power, and this is the final and directing power.
It is a different influence to imitation, although its first result is
the same, viz: the lowering of the moral idea. But crimes where the act
is the imitation of another person's act are generally committed from
the desire to become notorious and to be the centre of observation. The
spirit of vanity, very strong in the low type, is appealed to and
aroused. Or perhaps, the example of another's crime affords a suggestion
for the method of accomplishing a certain desired end. On the other
hand, the ancestral example, after having broken down the moral barrier
depends entirely upon its power to fascinate. Those of weak will or
guilty conscience, alone succumb to its influence. If we consider the
cases of thieves, vagabonds and paupers we find their crimes and vices
likewise running in families. It is nevertheless quite a mistake to jump
at the conclusion that heredity accounts for all these coincidencies.
Exempting all cases of transmitted mental alienation and observing only
those who are quite responsible for their action, it is impossible to
suppose that there is, somewhere in their organism, a power which will
direct their lives into the channels of vice or crime just as
irresistibly as the influence which makes the hair grow on the crown of
their heads. It is unthinkable. It supposes a responsible person who
cannot control himself. Which is a contradiction.

M. Moleschott, at the International Congress of Criminal Anthropology