Explore "Edgar Wallace by Himself" by Edgar Wallace on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I break my narrative here to deal with a matter on which I am regarded as an authority--it is not a claim which I should advance on my own behalf--namely, the criminal. There are practically no books on the criminal which are in any way helpful to those who have a scientific interest in crime. Lombroso only wrote one book that was worth a hoot, and, generally speaking, the Italian school of anthropologists devoted their explorations in this science to meaningless and deceptive measurements and tabulations. It may be interesting I to know that the majority of murderers have asymmetrical faces, but then so have quite a number of people who aren't murderers. It is a fact that one seldom sees normal features in the dock of the Old Bailey, but an examination of the well of the court where eminent counsel are sitting reveals the same abnormalities.
To understand the criminal you must know him and have or affect a sympathy with him in his delinquencies. You have to reach a stage of confidence when he is not showing off or lying to impress you. In fact it is necessary that he should believe you to be criminally minded.