Henry Forger: A Psychological Study Of the Criminal Alias
| Date | 01 March 1977 |
| Author | Roger Boshier |
| Published date | 01 March 1977 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587701000105 |
AUST &NZ
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY (March 1977) 10 (17-26)
HENRY FORGER: APSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY
OF
THE
CRIMINAL
ALIAS
Roger Boshier"
17
There
is no
way
of establishing the extent of alias use in any society.
Nevertheless
people
book
into hotels or travel under assumed names; we
know
of
people
who change their
name
as
part
of a total self-concept overhaul; we
know
of
women
who
have
left their
husband
and
changed
their name; we
know
of
people
who
modify
or
abandon
their
name
because of its connotations (eg
Ramsbottom to Ramage), we
know
of celebrities
who
travel incognito with an
assumed
name
and
people
who
change their
name
because it fails to confirm sex
role expectations.
The
number
of
people
using an alias is unknown,
but
New
Zealanders
were
surprised
when
the inter-island ferry Wahine
was
sunk by a
fierce storm
and
police
had
great difficulty in matching names
of
the
passenger
lists with the names survivors gave as they struggled ashore. All these behaviours
are of psychological significance. But although there is a literature on the
psychology of names (eg Boshier, 1968, 1968a, 1973;
Hartman,
1958, 1968) there
is little on alias use. Despite
the
fact criminality places a
premium
on anonymity
and
criminals are notorious users of
assumed
names, there
have
been
few
systematic studies on the subject. Despite asearch by UBC librarians through the
usual abstracts
and
information banks
the
only article found - an essay - was
by
apsychologist
Hartman
(1951).
The
criminology literature reveals only an
occasional mention of
the
subject.
The
studies cited by
Hartman
were
Glueck's
(1937), finding
that
38
per
cent
of 500 delinquents studied in a ten-year
longitudinal study used aliases, Sutherland &Van Vechten (1934) finding that 17
per
cent of 507 prisoners
had
used fictitious names,
and
Hartman's
own
finding
that in four
separate
samples of prison records, alias use
ranged
from
13 to 33
per
cent
of the sample.
An "alias" is an assumed name. Sometimes it results from amis-spelling of a
foreign or difficult
name,
the transposition of
two
names (Jacob Barry to Barry
Jacob),
and
the "booking" of a criminal in adverse circumstances
where
name
accuracy is unimportant. In these latter circumstances the
"name"
may
stick with
the
offender
throughout his entire criminal history. Institutions
are
often inert
and
when
the
error
is discovered no correction is made.
Casual observation suggests there are prison inmates
who
serve successive
sentences
under
different names, there are gradations in the
degree
of concealed
identity (ranging
from
minor to total name-change), there is
often
a
name
change
but
apersistence of initial combinations
(Fred
Smith
becomes
Francis
oAsst Professor of Adult Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver,
Canada.
This study
was carried out
when
the author was Lecturer in Psychology, University of Auckland, New
Zealand. Thanks are
due
to Jack Rogers, Superintendent, Mt.
Eden
prison
and
prison
officer
students of the 1973 University of Auckland Certificate in Criminological Studies class.
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