Verbrechen und Wahnsinn beim Weibe mit Ausblicken auf die Criminal-Anthropologie überhaupt: klinisch-statistische, anthropologisch-biologische und craniologische Untersuchungen (translated: Crime and Insanity in women with an outlook on the criminal-anthropology overall: clinical-statistical, anthrological-biological and craniological investigation) is the first book written by Dr. med Paul Näcke (1851-1913), which was published in 1894. The author aims to fill the gaps present at the time into the research of mentally ill and criminal women based on his own psychiatric observations in the psychiatric institution Hubertusburg, making it unlike literature already available in the era. With his work Näcke goes against the predominant notion of the time that criminals are born, which was based in the positivist school movement at the time and initiated by the "father of criminology": Cesare Lombroso. The main ideas Näcke proposes in his work are that criminals who are insane at time of crime should not be punished as harshly and one should view criminals not solely as objects under the penalty of law but also as subjects who could potentially suffer from mental diseases.
Context In the time that Näcke published the book, the view on the mentally ill and the field of psychiatry as a whole changed fundamentally. Prior to the end of the 19th century the mentally insane were viewed as outcasts of society and often merged with criminals to be locked away from society. Prior to the publication of Näcke's work, the Italian doctor and professor Cesare Lombroso established the positivists criminology movement and the field of criminology. Lombroso's influential ideas included the notion of the "born criminal", believing that there are biological predisposition factors, making criminality heredity. Lombroso based his ideas on anatomical research into the physical attributed of criminals by for example measuring their skull size. These findings were used by him to argue that psychiatrists should be involved and consulted with in the criminal process. Despite his beliefs that people are predispositioned to be criminals, he did not support reduced penalties for criminals with a psychiatric disease. While opposing the idea of the 'born criminal', Näcke's ideas for the book and his future publications were largely influenced by the positivist movement. Apart from Verbrechen und Wahnsinn beim Weibe, Näcke and his friend justice and criminologist Hans Gross established the magazine Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie und Kriminalistik (translated: archive for criminal-anthropology and criminology) to give professionals surrounding the field of criminology a platform to discuss their new ideas and scientific findings to bring the field forward. This platform was also used to discuss and criticize Näcke's book and future works of his. During his time at Hubertusburg, Näcke frequently worked with female perpetrators inspiring him to do more research into the differences of insane females, taking into account that most research into mentally ill patients was based on a predominantly male sample, which is pointed out in the preface of his book. In the preface of the book, Näcke gives the reader a clear idea on what he is aiming to achieve with his book. He mentioned that he has been noticing an increase in crime and the number of insane people and wants to shine light on the issues analytically and discuss possible ways of solving it. The book is written with the intention to mainly address academics and professionals in the field of medicine, especially psychiatry, legislators, theologians and pedagogues because the book is pointed at merging all these topics together. In his work as a psychiatrist at Hubertusburg he has noticed that some criminals are psychiatrically ill at the time of crime, while others develop psychosis in the penal institutions. With his book he wants to help judges and legislators to rethink punishing mentally ill as harshly as the average criminal while also pointing at the negative overall treatment patients endure at penal institutions. The lack of research into female perpetrators is also addressed by the book and it tries to draw comparisons to already established research about criminal and mentally ill males to see if there are any major differences. While presenting Näcke's research and observations the book circles back to the works of other researchers to compare the findings and claims made by the book. Despite trying to refute most of Lombroso's core ideas, it is largely influenced by Lombroso's works and the positivist movement as a whole.
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