Three Millimeters of Evil

Three Millimeters of Evil presents Prosper Despine's extraordinary nineteenth-century investigation into moral insensibility, criminal behavior, insanity, homicide, parricide, fanaticism, alcoholism, and the psychological foundations of moral responsibility.

Originally published in 1868 as Volume II of Psychologie naturelle, this historical work brings together extensive case histories and psychological analyses of murderers, parricides, robber-murderers, persons acting under violent passions, and individuals whom Despine regarded as deprived of the moral sense.

Long before modern criminal psychology took shape as a discipline, Despine asked a disturbing question: how can intelligence remain intact while moral judgment appears radically absent?

This edition contains a complete, unabridged English translation of Volume II. Despine's historical terminology, arguments, classifications, and case material have been preserved rather than silently modernized, allowing the reader to encounter the work in its original intellectual context.

• Complete and unabridged English translation
• Historical cases of homicide and parricide
• Moral insanity and moral insensibility
• Crime, free will, and moral responsibility
• Alcohol, fanaticism, passion, and criminal behavior
• Original nineteenth-century psychological and medico-legal analysis

Three Millimeters of Evil is a striking historical document from the formative period of criminal psychology and psychiatry.