Average Person
Average person
ALTERNATIVE NAME/S: none
DETAILS: The concept of an “average person” was developed by 18th century statistician, Lambert Adolphe Quetelet*, of Belgium. He spent years gathering data on humans, regarding their physical makeup. Measurements included height, weight, and physical proportions. Quetelet theorized the moral nature of a person could possibly be determined by this data. That is, it might be possible to connect a certain body type with a particular crime. In addition, he studied mental aptitudes, age, education and social climate to try to predict one’s propensity to commit a crime, and plotted them on bell shaped curves. Quetelet called his new science “social mechanics”. He wrote a lengthy detailed summary of it in 1835: A Treatise on Man, and the Development of His Faculties.
ONELINER: The average person
OTHER CONNECTIONS: None
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Lambert Adolphe Quetelet.” World of Criminal Justice. 2 vols. Gale Group, 2002. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2003. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRc
“Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group. 2003. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRc