Criminal Faces

The idea that facial characteristics give clues to a person's nature has been out of fashion since the Victorian era. Yet I was intrigued to read in my daily tabloid trawl that one of the actors in the Harry Potter films seems to be a bit of a thug. He plays one of a pair of thuggish characters who flanked one of the main villains. Interestingly the other member of the pair has also been in serious trouble.

So the two young actors cast in roles due to their ability to appear thuggish turn out to actually be thuggish. Quite a coincidence.

These are the features associated with criminality by Cesare Lombroso:

• Unusually shaped ears, occasionally very small but more likely large “jug handle” types similar to those of chimpanzees;
• Upturned or twisted noses – hawk-like in murderers and flattened in thieves;
• Large, protruding jaws;
• High cheekbones;
• Fleshy, swollen, or protruding lips;
• Hard, shifty eyes; and,
• Excessively long arms.

Looks pretty convincing to me and as someone ticks at none of those features I can be trusted.