Cesare Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃeːzare lomˈbroːzo; -oːso]; born Ezechia Marco Lombroso; 6 November 1835 – 19 October 1909), was an Italian criminologist and physician, founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology, often referred to as the father of criminology. Lombroso rejected the established classical school, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature. Instead, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, degeneration theory, psychiatry and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone "born criminal" could be identified by physical (congenital) defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage or atavistic.

Lombroso was born in Verona, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, on 6 November 1835 to a wealthy Jewish family. His father was Aronne Lombroso, a tradesman from Verona, and his mother was Zeffora (or Zefira) Levi from Chieri near Turin. He studied literature, linguistics, and archæology at the universities of Padua, Vienna, and Paris, but changed his plans and became an army surgeon in 1859. In 1866 he was appointed visiting lecturer at Pavia, and later took charge of the insane asylum at Pesaro in 1871. He became professor of forensic medicine and hygiene at Turin in 1878. That year he wrote his most important and influential work, L'uomo delinquente, which went through five editions in Italian and was published in various European languages. However, it was not until 1900 that his work was published in English. Lombroso later became professor of psychiatry (1896) and criminal anthropology (1906) at the same university. He died in Turin in 1909.

Face measurements based on Lombroso's criminal anthropology

Lombroso's general theory suggested that criminals are distinguished from noncriminals by multiple physical anomalies. He postulated that criminals represented a reversion to a primitive or subhuman type of person characterized by physical features reminiscent of apes, lower primates, and early humans and to some extent preserved, he said, in modern "savages". The behavior of these biological "throwbacks" will inevitably be contrary to the rules and expectations of modern civilized society.

Through years of postmortem examinations and anthropometric studies of criminals, the insane, and normal individuals, Lombroso became convinced that the "born criminal" (reo nato, a term given by Ferri) could be anatomically identified by such items as a sloping forehead, ears of unusual size, asymmetry of the face, prognathism, excessive length of arms, asymmetry of the cranium, and other "physical stigmata". Specific criminals, such as thieves, rapists, and murderers, could be distinguished by specific characteristics, he believed. Lombroso also maintained that criminals had less sensibility to pain and touch; more acute sight; a lack of moral sense, including an absence of remorse; more vanity, impulsiveness, vindictiveness, and cruelty; and other manifestations, such as a special criminal argot and the excessive use of tattooing.

Besides the "born criminal", Lombroso also described "criminaloids", or occasional criminals, criminals by passion, moral imbeciles, and criminal epileptics. He recognized the diminished role of organic factors in many habitual offenders and referred to the delicate balance between predisposing factors (organic, genetic) and precipitating factors such as one's environment, opportunity, or poverty.

In Criminal Woman, as introduced in an English translation by Nicole Hahn Rafter and Mary Gibson, Lombroso used his theory of atavism to explain women's criminal offending. In the text, Lombroso outlines a comparative analysis of "normal women" opposed to "criminal women" such as "the prostitute." However, Lombroso's "obdurate beliefs" about women presented an "intractable problem" for this theory: "Because he was convinced that women are inferior to men Lombroso was unable to argue, based on his theory of the born criminal, that women’s lesser involvement in crime reflected their comparatively lower levels of atavism."

Lombroso's research methods were clinical and descriptive, with precise details of skull dimension and other measurements. He did not engage in rigorous statistical comparisons of criminals and non-criminals. Although he gave some recognition in his later years to psychological and sociological factors in the etiology of crime, he remained convinced of, and identified with, criminal anthropometry.

Lombroso's theories were disapproved throughout Europe, especially in schools of medicine, but not in the United States, where sociological studies of crime and the criminal predominated. His notions of physical differentiation between criminals and non-criminals were seriously challenged by Charles Goring (The English Convict, 1913), who made elaborate comparisons and found insignificant statistical differences.

Lombroso published The Man of Genius in 1889, a book which argued that artistic genius was a form of hereditary insanity. In order to support this assertion, he began assembling a large collection of "psychiatric art". He published an article on the subject in 1880 in which he isolated thirteen typical features of the "art of the insane." Although his criteria are generally regarded as outdated today, his work inspired later writers on the subject, particularly Hans Prinzhorn.

Later in his life Lombroso began investigating mediumship. Although originally skeptical, he later became a believer in spiritualism. As an atheist Lombroso discusses his views on the paranormal and spiritualism in his book After Death – What? (1909) which he believed the existence of spirits and claimed the medium Eusapia Palladino was genuine. In the British Medical Journal on November 9, 1895 an article was published titled Exit Eusapia!. The article questioned the scientific legitimacy of the Society for Psychical Research for investigating Palladino a medium who had a reputation of being a fraud and imposter and was surprised that Lombroso had been deceived by Palladino.

The anthropologist Edward Clodd wrote "[Lombroso] swallowed the lot at a gulp, from table raps to materialisation of the departed, spirit photographs and spirit voices; every story, old or new, alike from savage and civilised sources, confirming his will to believe." Lombroso's daughter Gina Ferrero wrote that during the later years of his life Lombroso suffered from arteriosclerosis and his mental and physical health was wrecked. The skeptic Joseph McCabe wrote that because of this it was not surprising that Palladino managed to fool Lombroso into believing spiritualism by her tricks.

Historian Daniel Pick argues that Lombroso serves "as a curious footnote to late-nineteenth-century literary studies," due to his referencing in famous books of the time. Jacques in Émile Zola's The Beast Within is described as having a jaw that juts forward on the bottom. It is emphasized especially at the end of the book when he is overwhelmed by the desire to kill. The anarchist Karl Yundt in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, delivers a speech denouncing Lombroso. The assistant prosecutor in Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection uses Lombroso's theories to accuse Maslova of being a congenital criminal. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Count Dracula is described as having a physical appearance Lombroso would describe as criminal.

Lombroso was used for the name of the institute in Philip Kerr's techno-thriller A Philosophical Investigation.

• 1859  Ricerche sul cretinismo in Lombardia
• 1864  Genio e follia
• 1865  Studi clinici sulle mallatie mentali
• 1871  L'uomo bianco e l'uomo di colore
• 1873  Sulla microcefala e sul cretinismo con applicazione alla medicina legale
• 1876  L'uomo delinquente
• 1879  Considerazioni al processo Passannante
• 1881  L'amore nel suicidio e nel delitto
• 1888  L'uomo di genio in rapporto alla psichiatria (English translation:  Man of Genius, London, 1891; see below)
• 1890  Sulla medicina legale del cadavere (second edition)
• 1891  Palimsesti del carcere
• 1892  Trattato della pellagra
• 1894  Le più recenti scoperte ed applicazioni della psichiatria ed antropologia criminale
• 1894  Gli anarchici
• 1894  L'antisemitismo e le scienze moderne
• 1897  Genio e degenerazione
• 1898  Les Conquêtes récentes de la psychiatrie
• 1899  Le crime; causes et remédes (English translation:  Crime, its Causes and Remedies, Boston, 1911; see below)
• 1900  Lezioni de medicina legale
• 1902  Delitti vecchi e delitti nuovi
• 1909  Ricerche sui fenomeni ipnotici e spiritici

In 1906, a collection of papers on Lombroso was published in Turin under the title L'opera di Cesare Lombroso nella scienza e nelle sue applicazioni.

in English translation

• 1888/1891  The Man of Genius, Walter Scott.
• 1895/1980 (with William Ferrero)  The Female Offender, D. Appleton & Company. Littleton, Colorado: Fred Rothman.
• 2004. ''Criminal Woman, the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (Introduction by Nicole Hahn Rafter and Mary Gibson).
• 1899/1911  Crime: Its Causes and Remedies, Little, Brown, and Company.
•  ?1909/?  After Death - What?, Small, Maynard & Company.
• 1911/1972 (with Gina Lombroso-Ferrero)  Criminal Man, According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso. New York: Putnam; Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith.
• 2004  The Criminal Anthropological Writings of Cesare Lombroso, Edwin Mellen Press.

Selected articles

• "Illustrative Studies in Criminal Anthropology," The Monist, Vol. I, No. 2, 1890.
• "The Physiognomy of the Anarchists," The Monist, Vol. I, No. 3, 1890.
• "Innovation and Inertia in the World of Psychology," The Monist, Vol. I, No. 3, 1890.
• "The Modern Literature of Italy Since the Year 1870," The Monist, Vol. I, No. 3, 1890.
• "Criminal Anthropology Applied to Pedagogy," The Monist, Vol. VI, No. 1, October 1895.
• "The Heredity of Acquired Characteristics," The Forum, Vol. XXIV, 1898.
• "Was Columbus Morally Irresponsible?," The Forum, Vol. XXVII, 1899.
• "Why Criminals of Genius Have No Type," The International Quarterly, Vol. VI, 1902.

Other

• Arthur MacDonald, Criminology, with an Introduction by Cesare Lombroso, Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1893.
• August Drahms, The Criminal, with an Introduction by Cesare Lombroso, The Macmillan Company, 1900.

• Michael Schwab, "A Convicted Anarchist's Reply to Professor Lombroso," The Monist, Vol. I, 1890.