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In "Ornament and Crime" Loos equates the evolution of society with the removal of ornament from utilitarian objects. Unlike Das Andere, where Loos uses the idea of 'the Other' in a positive light to encourage modernization, "Ornament and Crime" draws on the fear of the unknown and the primitive. Similar to his article "Architecture", which discusses the progression of classical architecture, "Ornament and Crime" traces the progression of everyday objects from complexity to simplification, where America, Classical Antiquity, and England are the ideal models to emulate. In Loos' s opinion, Austria was lagging too far behind the more "civilized" societies, so he combined information about the Papuan natives with Lombroso's criminal profiling to create a cautionary tale for those who do not evolve with the times.

The Papuan slaughters his enemies and devours them. He is not a criminal. But if a modern person slaughters someone and devours him, he is a criminal or a degenerate. The Papuan covers his skin with tattoos, his boat, his oars, in short everything he can lay his hands on. He is no criminal. The modern person who tattoos himself is either a criminal or a degenerate. There are prisons in which eighty percent of the inmates have tattoos. People with tattoos not in prison are either latent criminals or degenerate aristocrats. Loos uses the Papuan natives' desire to ornament everyday objects as an example of cultural primitivism. The Papuan had not evolved to the moral and civilized circumstances of modern man who, should he tattoo himself, would either be either a criminal or a degenerate. Loos then goes on to compare this ornamentation of the body to the ornamentation of buildings, saying that anyone who has the urge to ornament the walls is either a criminal or a degenerate. To ornament everyday objects is a misdirected effort for Loos, because it impedes cultural development.