Контрольная работа № 7

I. Read the text. The face that fits the crime

The Victorians believed it was possible to spot a criminal ‘before the act’ by his set of features. In the nineteenth century, physiognomy, or the practice of telling people’s character from their faces, was very popular. All kinds of beliefs grew up – larger, more prominent jaws were a sign of passion, narrow, receding foreheads a sign of low intellect, and a larger forehead a sign of intelligence. All the features of the face were examined and commented on in great detail. Foe example, a book entitled Notes on Noses, which was published in 1864, stated that the Grecian nose ‘is the highest and most beautiful form which the organ can assume’. The wide-nostril led nose howed ‘strong powers of thought’ whereas a shrub nose showed weakness and an unpleasant character.

The nineteenth-century physiognomies were interested in crime and built up a picture of a ‘criminal type’, identified with narrow sloping brow, prominent jaw and snub nose. They believed they knew what a criminal looked like before any crime had been committed, because criminals were a race in themselves. The faces of actual convicted criminals were examined carefully to see how well they corresponded to the stereotype, and obviously some were more typical than others. But the public’s view of what a criminal looked like was heavily influenced by the stereotype.

Studies since then have shown that criminals display a variety of features just like anybody else, and the modern police force denies any interest in physiognomy, although there is still a great deal of interest in the public mind. When a tabloid newspaper carries a large picture headlined FACE OF THE BEAST or EYES OF A KILLER, it is trying to appeal to a basic instinct – our desire to know what characteristics lie behind a face.

If we look at the classic nineteenth-century criminal face again, we can see that it is savage in every way a beast. The way we think of a modern criminal is different, and so is the way we imagine his face. He is the person the neighbours do not really know a secretive, inward figure. The features are flat and the eyes fixed and dead. Where do we find this blank face? Where else, but in the police mug shot and the identikit picture?

II. Answer the questions on the text in written form.

1. What is a physiognomist?

2. What was the nineteenth-century stereotype of a criminal?

3. What belief was this stereotype based on?

4. What have scientists discovered about the appearance of criminals since the nineteenth century?

5. What is people’s attitude to the physiognomy of criminals today?

6. Do you think we are still influenced by a criminal today? Why / Why not?

7. Was it possible to spot a criminal before the act?

8. What were the most common features of a criminal?

9. What are the causes of criminal behaviour?

10. In what other spheres of life can physiognomy and criminology find a useful application?