Ernst S. is a hereditary burdened, pathologically predisposed individual, a superior degenerate, a psychopath. As such, he has a pathologically diminished resistance to criminal impulses without his fault and should therefore be considered only as partially accountable. A person who reaches such a low level, morally so depraved and dulled, must be classified as a danger to society. Expert reports from the Bern psychiatric institution Münsingen from 1908. In the last third of the 19th century, more and more men and women who had committed a crime came under the scrutiny of psychiatry. Fifty years later, psychiatric experts who were tasked with assessing the accountability and need for confinement of accused individuals had long become a part of everyday court proceedings. Humanistic and deterministic explanations of delinquency gained increasing significance.