Aronne Lombroso Theory

Cesare Lombroso was an Italian criminologist who founded the Italian Positivist School of Criminology. Lombroso is famous for rejecting the Classical School of Criminology, which believed people have the free will in making decisions while committing crime and that the punishment must be swift and certain to deter people from crime. Lombroso Italian Positivist School considered phrenology and physiognomy had many influences on who would be a criminal, another popular term is the “atavistic born criminal” which states that criminality is inherited and that someone is a born criminal. In this paper I present Lombroso work and how his theories could identify a criminal by their outer physical traits. These early ideas and beliefs indicated that biology had a major influence on who would be a born criminal in society.

Life and Times of Cesare Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso was an Italian criminologist who founded the Italian Positivist School of Criminology. He was born November 6, 1835 in Verona, Italy to a wealthy Jewish family and died October 19, 1909. His father was Aronne Lombroso, he was a tradesman from Verona and his mother Zeffora Levi was from Chieri near Turin. Lombroso studied at the University of Padua, Vienna and Paris and was the professor of psychiatry at the University of Pavia. In 1859 he became an army surgeon for the Italian army and conducted a study called the “Southern Question”. He became the director of mental health at Pesaro Asylum in 1871 and in 1876 became the professor of forensic medicine at the University of Turin. In 1896 became a professor of psychiatry and anthropology in 1906 at the same university.

Famous individuals such as Cesare Becarria and Charles Darwin laid the foundation for Lombroso work an...

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...populations.

Criminological theories that are corresponding to Lombroso theory are not widely found in current day criminology. Mainstream theories such as the labeling theory, and broken windows are popular today compared to Lombroso theory during his time. Lombroso’s theory has been noticeably lost within mainstream theories. It can be said that Lombroso work has been forgotten but two books in the mid 1990’s on female offenders and one entitled Man Genius prove that his work has not been forgotten.

Cesare Lombroso’s accomplishments are not because of his own theories, but he laid the foundation for future criminologist. His imagination ignited new criminological thinking that has lasted over a 100 years. Lombroso’s theory is biological and that is a door that was opened in one of the world’s first theories to find the causality of crime within the criminal.