Description

Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) was a doctor of medicine, psychiatrist and founder of the Italian School of Positive Criminology, for which he is called "father of criminology". He established the theoretical and practical foundations of criminal anthropology. Born in Verona, he studied in Padua, Vienna, Paris and Turin, worked as a military doctor (1859), supervisor of a psychiatric clinic (1871), lecturer in forensic medicine (1878), professor of psychiatry (1896) and of criminal anthropology (1906).

His theory of the pathological nature of criminality is built on the notion that there are a number of physical and psychological characteristics that allow the so-called criminal to be distinguished by birth from the normal human individual. The basis of these characteristics is Prof. Lombroso sees genetically inherited atavistic traits and instincts, along with latent disease states, apparent from an early age. Therefore, the 'social environment' - considered by his opponents to be the determining factor - cannot be more than a stimulant or an obstacle to the manifestation of criminal tendencies in man.

Can we recognize a criminal by outward signs alone, before he has committed a criminal act, and is crime curable like any other disease - these are the questions this book attempts to answer.