Lombroso Cesare is a famous forensic scientist, psychiatrist and sociologist. He is the founder of the Italian school of criminal anthropology. This article will describe his biography.
Youth and study
Lombroso Cesare was born in Verona in 1836. The boy's family was quite wealthy, as he owned a lot of land. In his youth, Cesare studied Chinese and Semitic languages. But he could not make a quiet career. The imprisonment in the fortress on charges of conspiracy, material deprivation, participation in the war aroused interest in psychiatry in the young man. Cesare published his first articles on this subject when he was 19, while studying at the Faculty of Medicine (University of Pavia). In them, the future psychiatrist talked about the problem of cretinism. The young man independently mastered such difficult subjects as social hygiene and ethnolinguistics. In 1862, he was awarded the title of professor of medicine, and later - criminal anthropology and legal psychiatry. Lombroso also led the clinic of mental illness. The decisive role in its intellectual formation was played by the philosophy of positivism. Its main postulate is the approval of the priority of scientific knowledge, which was obtained experimentally.
Anthropological Direction
Cesare Lombroso is the founder of the anthropological trend in criminal law and criminology. The main features of this trend are that it is necessary to introduce the method of natural science into criminology - observation and experience. And the identity of the offender should become the center of study.
The first anthropometric studies
They were carried out by a scientist in the 60s of the nineteenth century. Cesare then worked as a doctor, and also participated in a company to eradicate banditry in southern Italy. The statistical material collected by the professor was a huge contribution to the development of criminal anthropology and social hygiene. The scientist analyzed empirical data and concluded that poor socio-economic living conditions in southern Italy contributed to the birth of psychologically and anatomically anomalous people in this area. In other words, these are ordinary criminal individuals. Cesare revealed this abnormality by psychiatric and anthropometric examination. Based on this, a prognostic assessment of the dynamics of the development of crime was made. By his conceptual approach, the scientist challenged the position of official criminology, which blamed only the person who violated the law.
Craniograph
Lombroso was the very first of the researchers to apply the anthropometric method using a craniograph. With this device, Cesare measured the size of the parts of the head and face of the suspects. The results were published by him in the work "Anthropometry of 400 violators", which saw the light in 1872.
The theory of the "natural born criminal"
The scientist formulated it in 1876. It was then that his work “The Crime Man” came out. Cesare believes that they do not become delinquents, namely they are born. That is, according to Lambroso, crime is the same natural occurrence as death or birth. The professor came to this conclusion by comparing the results of studies of pathological psychology, physiology and anatomy of criminals with their anthropometric data. In his opinion, the offender is a degenerate who is behind in his development from the evolution of a normal person. Such an individual cannot control his own behavior, and the best way out is to get rid of him, depriving him of life or freedom.
There is also a classification of offenders formulated by Cesare Lombroso. Types of criminals, in his opinion, are: crooks, rapists, thieves and murderers. Each of them has innate features of an atavistic nature, which indicate the presence of a criminal propensity and a lag in development. The professor highlighted stigmata (physical characteristics) and mental traits, the presence of which will help to identify a person endowed with criminal inclinations from birth. Cesare considered the main signs of the offender to be a look from below, large jaws, a low forehead, a wrinkled nose, etc. Their presence allows the identification of the offender even before he committed the crime. In this regard, the scientist demanded the involvement of sociologists, anthropologists and doctors in judges, and replace the question of guilt with the question of social harmfulness.
By the way, at the moment, anthropometric measurements are carried out in almost all countries of the world. Moreover, this is characteristic not only for special services and the army. For example, knowledge of anthropometry is necessary in the construction of civil things and objects, as well as for the study of labor markets (labor force).
Theory flaws
The scientific views of Cesare Lombroso were quite radical and did not take into account the social factors of crime. Therefore, the theory of the scientist was sharply criticized. Cesare even had to soften his own position. In his later works, he ranked only 40% of offenders as a congenital anthropological type. The scientist also recognized the importance of non-hereditary - sociological and psychopathological - causes of crime. Based on this, his theory can be called biosociological.
"Genius and insanity"
Perhaps this is the most famous work of Cesare Lombroso. "Genius and insanity" was written by him in 1895. In this book, the professor put forward one main thesis. It sounds like this: "Genius is an abnormal brain activity bordering on epileptoid psychosis." Cesare wrote that in physiological terms, the similarity of geniuses with the obsessed is simply amazing. They have the same reaction to atmospheric phenomena, and heredity and racial affiliation affect their birth equally. Many geniuses had insanity. These included: Schopenhauer, Russo, Newton, Swift, Cardano, Tasso, Schumann, Comte, Ampère and a number of artists and artists. In an appendix to his book, Lombroso described anomalies of the skull of geniuses and gave examples of literary works by crazy authors.
Sociology of Political Crime
Cesare left his most valuable part of the legacy in the form of research precisely in this discipline. The essay "Anarchists" and "Political Revolution and Crime" - these are two works written by him on this topic. These works are still popular in the homeland of the scientist. The phenomenon of political crime was common in Italy in the 19-20 century in the form of anarchist terrorism. The professor examined him from the perspective of examining the identity of the criminal, who is sacrificially devoted to the utopian ideal of social justice. The scientist explained the nature of such behavior by devaluing the highest goals of public justice, corruption of politicians and the crisis of democracy in the Italian parliament.
Another famous work by Cesare Lombroso is “Love by the Crazies.” She reveals the manifestation of this feeling in mentally ill people.
Introduction of control of physiological reactions
Cesare Lombroso, whose books are known throughout the world, was one of the first to use the achievements of physiology in forensics. In 1880, the scientist began to measure the suspects' pulse and pressure during the interrogation procedure. Thus, he could easily determine whether a potential criminal is lying or not. And the device for measuring pressure and pulse was called ...
Plethysmograph
In 1895, Lombroso Cesare published the results obtained after using laboratory devices during interrogation. In one of these studies, the professor used a plethysmograph. The experiment went like this: a murder suspect was asked to do a series of mathematical calculations in his mind. At the same time, the device connected to it recorded the pulse. Then, a potential criminal was shown several photos of wounded children (among them was a picture of a dead girl). In the first case, his pulse jumped, and in the second he was close to normal. From this, Cesare concluded that the suspect was innocent. And the results of the investigation confirmed that he was right. This was probably the first case of using a lie detector in the literature, which led to an acquittal. And he said that the control of the physiological reactions of a person can not only reveal the information hidden by him, but also establish innocence.
A scientist died in Turin in 1909.
Lombroso in Russia
The criminological ideas of the professor were widely known in our country. They are represented by a number of intravital and posthumous publications by Cesare Lombroso: “Woman-criminal and prostitute”, “Anti-Semitism”, “Anarchists”, etc. In 1897, the scientist came to the congress of Russian doctors, who gave the Italian an enthusiastic welcome. In his memoirs, Cesare reflected that period of his biography. He condemned the social structure of Russia for police arbitrariness ("suppression of character, conscience, personal thoughts") and authoritarianism.
Lombrosianism
This term was widely used in the Soviet period and denoted the anthropological school of criminal law. Cesare’s teachings on a natural born offender were especially criticized. Soviet lawyers believed that such an approach contradicts the principle of legality, and also has a reactionary and anti-people orientation, as it condemns the revolutionary actions of the exploited people. Such a biased ideologized approach marked many of the professor’s merits in studying the root causes of protest and extremist types of social struggle.
Conclusion
Despite the fallacy and fair criticism of some of the postulates of his own theory, Lombroso Cesare is one of the most outstanding scientists of the nineteenth century. He was a pioneer in introducing objective methods into legal science. And his works gave a significant impetus to the development of legal psychology and criminology.