Although Goddard's research contained some serious flaws, and were openly challenged over the years, his ideas took hold on the general public.
Fuelling this new movement was an underlying belief that criminal behaviour could be controlled by genetics, a notion that had harsh racial undertones. In the Supreme Court decision Beck v. Bell, Holmes wrote in defense of forced sterilization: 'It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for their crime society can prevent those persons who are palpably unfit from continuing their kind.' The Beck v. Bell ruling was used as the justification to forcibly sterilize thousands of American citizens against their will. This process continued until 1942 when the Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional in Skinner v. Oklahoma. This was because of the influence of one Emile Durkheim.
The 'father of sociology', Emile Durkheim, had a life-long interest in crime and its role in society. His pioneering ideas on how social structure affects human behaviour influenced sociologists for generations to come.
In 1927, a deeply disturbed farmer in Michigan named Andrew Kehoe, 55, committed a despicable crime. Embittered by years of illusory persecution by a local school board and a burdensome tax code which threatened to take away his farm, Kehoe planted as much as 1,000 pounds of dynamite under the floors of the Bath Consolidated School. He detonated this bomb on the morning of May 18, 1927, while school was in session, killing 42 children and injuring over 60 others. When police later searched his farm, they found a sign, painted earlier by Kehoe, which read; 'Criminals are made, not born.'.
Some modern-day research projects have found provocative links between weather and crime rates. Even certain types of crimes like larcenies and burglaries. In fact, Department of Justice (Australia) statistics confirm that most property crimes are committed in the warm summer months.