Charles Buckman Goring
Encyclopedia
Charles Buckman Goring (1870–1919) was a pioneer in criminology
. He was educated at the University of London, receiving his B.Sc. in 1895 and his M.D. in 1903. In 1893, he was awarded the John Stuart Mill Studentship in Philosophy of Mind and Logic, and four years later was elected a Fellow of Uni- versity College. From 1902 until his death in 1919, he was employed as medical officer in various English prisons. Under the sponsorship of the British government, Goring, Assisted by other prison medical officers, as well as Karl Pearson
and his staff at the Biometrics Laboratory, collected and analysed data bearing upon 96 traits of each of over 3,000 English convicts.
The reader who follows Goring is impressed with his scientific imagination, logic and excellent prose. The comment of Karl Pearson is apropos: The world has yet to realize that achievement in every field is the product of trained imagina- tion alone. Truth in science as in art is not the product of mere computation or careful observation, but of these guided by fertility of imagination. The creative mind has the potentiality of poet, artist and scientist within its grasp, and Goring's friends were never very certain in which category to place him. Perhaps the specification was as difficult and would be as unprofitable as it must ever be in the case of the Florentine, the master spirit of this type of mind.
Criminology
Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...
. He was educated at the University of London, receiving his B.Sc. in 1895 and his M.D. in 1903. In 1893, he was awarded the John Stuart Mill Studentship in Philosophy of Mind and Logic, and four years later was elected a Fellow of Uni- versity College. From 1902 until his death in 1919, he was employed as medical officer in various English prisons. Under the sponsorship of the British government, Goring, Assisted by other prison medical officers, as well as Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....
and his staff at the Biometrics Laboratory, collected and analysed data bearing upon 96 traits of each of over 3,000 English convicts.
The reader who follows Goring is impressed with his scientific imagination, logic and excellent prose. The comment of Karl Pearson is apropos: The world has yet to realize that achievement in every field is the product of trained imagina- tion alone. Truth in science as in art is not the product of mere computation or careful observation, but of these guided by fertility of imagination. The creative mind has the potentiality of poet, artist and scientist within its grasp, and Goring's friends were never very certain in which category to place him. Perhaps the specification was as difficult and would be as unprofitable as it must ever be in the case of the Florentine, the master spirit of this type of mind.