Lombroso, Cesare: The Criminal Man

Chiara Beccalossi

Cesare Lombroso, who lived from 1835 to 1909, was an Italian physician best known for his studies in the field of criminal anthropology and his theories of the “criminal type”—an individual whose physical structure and psychological characteristics possessed the atavistic and degenerative traits that differentiated him from the civilized, socially well-adjusted human. Lombroso is also remembered for shifting the focus of legal thinking from crime to the criminal, and his theory on the constitutional and hereditary roots of criminal conduct. His theories have heavily influenced developments in criminology throughout both Europe and the United States, although they have been challenged and often discredited. His most famous work, L'uomo delinquente ( The Criminal Man ), considered by many historians the founding text of modern criminology, went through five editions between 1876 and 1897, and during Lombroso's lifetime was translated into French, German, Russian, and Spanish. Each edition contained additional data, observations, ...

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