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Cesare Lombroso, an Italian psychiatrist and professor of forensic medicine of the 19th century, is often called the founder of criminal anthropology. This science tries to explain the relationship between the anatomical and physiological characteristics of a person and his propensity to commit crimes. Lombroso came to the conclusion that there is such a connection, and it is direct: crimes are committed by people with a certain appearance and character *.

As a rule, criminals have congenital physical and mental defects, Lombroso believed. We are talking about anomalies of the internal and external anatomical structure, characteristic of primitive people and great apes. Thus, criminals are not made, but born. Whether a person is a criminal or not depends only on an innate predisposition, and each type of crime has its own anomalies.

Lombroso devoted his entire life to developing this theory. He examined 383 skulls of the dead and 3839 skulls of living criminals. In addition, the scientist studied the characteristics of the body (pulse, temperature, bodily sensitivity, intelligence, habits, diseases, handwriting) of 26,886 criminals and 25,447 respectable citizens.

Appearance of criminals

Lombroso singled out a number of physical signs ("stigmata"), which, in his opinion, characterize a person endowed with criminal inclinations from birth. This is an irregular shape of the skull, a narrow and sloping forehead (or a bifurcated frontal bone), asymmetry of the face and eye sockets, overdeveloped jaws. Red criminals are extremely rare. Most often, brunettes and brown-haired people commit crimes. Brunettes prefer to steal or set fires, while brown-haired people are prone to murder. Blondes are sometimes found among rapists and scammers.

Appearance of a typical rapist

Big bulging eyes, plump lips, long eyelashes, flattened and crooked nose. Most often lean and rickety blondes, sometimes humpbacked.

Appearance of a typical thief

Irregular small skull, elongated head, straight nose (often upturned at the base), running or, on the contrary, tenacious eyes, black hair and a sparse beard.

Appearance of a typical killer

Large skull, short head (width greater than height), sharp frontal sinus, voluminous cheekbones, long nose (sometimes bent down), square jaws, huge eye sockets, protruding quadrangular chin, motionless glassy gaze, thin lips, well developed fangs.

The most dangerous killers most often have black, curly hair, a sparse beard, short hands, excessively large or, conversely, too small earlobes.

Appearance of a typical scammer

The face is pale, the eyes are small, stern, the nose is crooked, the head is bald. In general, the appearance of scammers is quite good-natured.

Features of criminals

“I myself observed that during a thunderstorm, when seizures become more frequent in epileptics, prisoners in prison also become more dangerous: they tear their clothes, break furniture, beat ministers,” Lombroso wrote. In criminals, in his opinion, the sensitivity of the senses and pain sensitivity is reduced. They are not able to realize the immorality of their actions, therefore, repentance is unknown to them.

Lombroso was able to identify the features of the handwriting of various types of criminals. The handwriting of murderers, robbers and robbers is distinguished by elongated letters, curvilinear and definite features in the endings of letters. The handwriting of thieves is characterized by extended letters, without sharp outlines and curvilinear endings.

The nature and lifestyle of criminals

According to Lombroso's theory, criminals are characterized by a desire for vagrancy, shamelessness, laziness. Many of them have tattoos. For persons prone to crime, boasting, pretense, weakness of character, irritability, highly developed vanity bordering on megalomania, rapid mood swings, cowardice and painful irritability are characteristic. These people are aggressive, vengeful, they are not capable of repentance and are not tormented by remorse. Graphomania can also indicate criminal inclinations.

Lombroso believed that people from the lower class become murderers, robbers and rapists. Representatives of the middle and upper class are more likely to be professional scammers.

Criticism of Lombroso's theory

Even during the life of Lombroso, his theory was criticized. Not surprisingly, many senior government officials had an appearance that completely coincided with the description of born criminals. Many are sure that the scientist exaggerated the biological and completely did not take into account the social component in the cause of crime. Perhaps this is what forced Lombroso to reconsider some of his views towards the end of his life. In particular, he began to argue that the presence of a criminal appearance does not necessarily mean that a person has committed a crime - it rather speaks of his propensity for illegal acts. If a person of criminal appearance is well-off, he falls into the category of hidden criminals who have no external reason to break the law.

Lombroso's reputation suffered greatly when the Nazis began to use his ideas - they measured the skulls of concentration camp prisoners before they were sent to the ovens. In the Soviet period, the doctrine of a born criminal was also criticized for its contradiction with the principle of legality, anti-people and reactionary.

As far as we were able to find out, Lombroso's theory was never used in lawsuits - even the scientist himself did not see any practical value in it, as he said at one scientific dispute: "I work not in order to give my research applied application in the field of jurisprudence; in as a scientist, I serve science only for the sake of science." Nevertheless, the concept of a criminal person proposed by him came into use, and his developments are still used in physiognomy, criminal anthropology, sociology and psychology.

* The information is taken from the following books: Cesare Lombroso. "Criminal Man" Milgard. 2005; Mikhail Shterenshis. "Cesare Lombroso". IsraDon. 2010

Cesare Lombroso, an Italian psychiatrist and professor of forensic medicine of the 19th century, is often called the founder of criminal anthropology. This science tries to explain the relationship between the anatomical and physiological characteristics of a person and his propensity to commit crimes. Lombroso came to the conclusion that there is such a connection, and it is direct: crimes are committed by people with a certain appearance and character.

As a rule, criminals have congenital physical and mental defects, Lombroso believed. We are talking about anomalies of the internal and external anatomical structure, characteristic of primitive people and great apes. Thus, criminals are not made, but born. Whether a person is a criminal or not depends only on an innate predisposition, and each type of crime has its own anomalies.

Lombroso devoted his entire life to developing this theory. He examined 383 skulls of the dead and 3,839 skulls of living criminals. In addition, the scientist studied the characteristics of the body (pulse, temperature, bodily sensitivity, intelligence, habits, diseases, handwriting) of 26,886 criminals and 25,447 respectable citizens.

Appearance of criminals

Lombroso singled out a number of physical signs ("stigmata"), which, in his opinion, characterize a person endowed with criminal inclinations from birth. This is an irregular shape of the skull, a narrow and sloping forehead (or a bifurcated frontal bone), asymmetry of the face and eye sockets, overdeveloped jaws. Red criminals are extremely rare. Most often, brunettes and brown-haired people commit crimes. Brunettes prefer to steal or set fires, while brown-haired people are prone to murder. Blondes are sometimes found among rapists and scammers.

Appearance of a typical rapist

Big bulging eyes, plump lips, long eyelashes, flattened and crooked nose. Most often lean and rickety blondes, sometimes humpbacked.

Appearance of a typical thief

Irregular small skull, elongated head, straight nose (often upturned at the base), running or, on the contrary, tenacious eyes, black hair and a sparse beard.

Appearance of a typical killer

Large skull, short head (width greater than height), sharp frontal sinus, voluminous cheekbones, long nose (sometimes bent down), square jaws, huge eye sockets, protruding quadrangular chin, motionless glassy gaze, thin lips, well developed fangs.

The most dangerous killers most often have black, curly hair, a sparse beard, short hands, excessively large or, conversely, too small earlobes.

Appearance of a typical scammer

The face is pale, the eyes are small, stern, the nose is crooked, the head is bald. In general, the appearance of scammers is quite good-natured.

Features of criminals

“I myself observed that during a thunderstorm, when seizures become more frequent in epileptics, prisoners in prison also become more dangerous: they tear their clothes, break furniture, beat ministers,” Lombroso wrote. In criminals, in his opinion, the sensitivity of the senses and pain sensitivity is reduced. They are not able to realize the immorality of their actions, therefore, repentance is unknown to them.

Lombroso was able to identify the features of the handwriting of various types of criminals. The handwriting of murderers, robbers and robbers is distinguished by elongated letters, curvilinear and definite features in the endings of letters. The handwriting of thieves is characterized by extended letters, without sharp outlines and curvilinear endings.

The nature and lifestyle of criminals

According to Lombroso's theory, criminals are characterized by a desire for vagrancy, shamelessness, laziness. Many of them have tattoos. For persons prone to crime, boasting, pretense, weakness of character, irritability, highly developed vanity bordering on megalomania, rapid mood swings, cowardice and painful irritability are characteristic. These people are aggressive, vengeful, they are not capable of repentance and are not tormented by remorse. Graphomania can also indicate criminal inclinations.

Lombroso believed that people from the lower class become murderers, robbers and rapists. Representatives of the middle and upper class are more likely to be professional scammers.

Criticism of Lombroso's theory

Even during the lifetime of Lombroso, his theory was criticized. Not surprisingly, many senior government officials had an appearance that completely coincided with the description of born criminals. Many are sure that the scientist exaggerated the biological and completely did not take into account the social component in the cause of crime. Perhaps this is what forced Lombroso to reconsider some of his views towards the end of his life. In particular, he began to argue that the presence of a criminal appearance does not necessarily mean that a person has committed a crime - it rather speaks of his propensity for illegal acts. If a person of criminal appearance is well-off, he falls into the category of hidden criminals who have no external reason to break the law.

Lombroso's reputation suffered greatly when his ideas began to be used by the Nazis - they measured the skulls of concentration camp prisoners before they were sent to the ovens. In the Soviet period, the doctrine of a born criminal was also criticized for its contradiction to the principle of legality, anti-people and reactionary.

As far as we were able to find out, Lombroso's theory was never used in lawsuits - even the scientist himself did not see practical value in it, as he said at one scientific dispute: "I work not in order to give my research an applied application in the field of jurisprudence; as a scientist, I serve science only for the sake of science." Nevertheless, the concept of a criminal person proposed by him came into use, and his developments are still used in physiognomy, criminal anthropology, sociology and psychology.

Original entry and comments on

Notable students: Known as:

Founder of the anthropological school in criminology

Cesare Lombroso(Italian Cesare Lombroso; November 6, Verona, Austrian Empire - October 19, Turin, Italy) - Italian prison psychiatrist, founder of the anthropological trend in criminology and criminal law, whose main idea was the idea of ​​​​a born criminal. Lombroso's main merit in criminology is that he shifted the focus of study from crime as an act to a person - a criminal.

Biography

Lombroso was born on November 6, 1835 in Verona to a wealthy Jewish family. He studied literature, linguistics, and archeology at the universities of Padua, Vienna, and Paris, but changed his plans and became a surgeon in the army in 1859. In 1866 he was appointed as a visiting lecturer in Pavia, and later, in 1871, in charge of the psychiatric hospital in Pesaro. Lombroso became professor of forensic medicine and public hygiene at the University of Turin in 1876. In the same year he wrote his most important and influential work, " L'Uomo delinquent”(“Criminal Man”), which went through five editions in Italian and published in various European languages.

Since 1862 professor at the University of Pavia, and since 1896 professor of psychiatry at the University of Turin and criminal anthropology (1906) at the same university.

He died in Turin in 1909.

Scientific activity

Developed a formula that underlies the most popular formula in criminology of criminal defeat. In his formula, the great founder of the Anthropological Institute proposes to correlate the average size of the anthropological features of convicts with the number of minors who drink alcohol. The result obtained, multiplied by the conditional indicator "E", is considered as a frequency feature of the station wagon. This formula made it possible to identify the causality of crime, which at the general level has always been reduced to the length of certain parts of the body.

Works

"Genius and Madness"

In 1863, Lombroso published his book "Genius and Madness" (Russian translation by G. Tetyushinova,), in which he draws a parallel between great people and lunatics. Here is what the author himself writes in the preface of the book:

When, many years ago, being, as it were, under the influence of ecstasy, during which the relationship between genius and insanity was clearly presented to me in a mirror, I wrote the first chapters of this book in 12 days, then, I confess, even I myself did not have it is clear what serious practical conclusions the theory I created can lead to ...

In this book, Lombroso draws conclusions, practically diagnoses, the greatest representatives of mankind. All the celebrities Lombroso wrote about were dead by the time the book was written and, therefore, did not have the opportunity to refute what was written. There is no evidence that any of the geniuses described by Lombroso in his book sought his medical help, or that Lombroso personally met any of the celebrities he described. The psychiatrist makes all “diagnoses” in absentia, based solely on his own credulity or predilection for various rumors about the characters and habits of great people, whose biographies, by the very fact of their celebrity, were overgrown with all sorts of legends. This book is a prime example of medical abuse. Lombroso refers in the preface to the fact that he wrote this book "under the influence of ecstasy, as it were", but this fact, according to his own theories, conclusions and observations, puts him on the verge of turning from a psychiatrist into a patient.

In his work, Lombroso writes about the physical similarity of brilliant people with crazy people, about the influence of various phenomena (atmospheric, heredity, etc.) on genius and insanity, gives examples, numerous medical evidence about the presence of mental abnormalities in a number of writers, and also describes special features brilliant people who suffered at the same time and insanity.

These features are as follows:

1. Some of these people discovered the unnatural. So, for example, Ampère was already a good mathematician at the age of 13, and Pascal at the age of 10 came up with a theory of acoustics based on the sounds made by cymbals when they are placed on the table.
2. Many of them were extremely drug and alcohol abusers. So, Haller absorbed a huge amount of opium, and, for example, Rousseau - coffee.
3. Many did not feel the need to work quietly in the quiet of their office, but as if they could not sit in one place and had to constantly travel.
4. They also changed their professions and specialties no less often, as if their powerful genius could not be satisfied with any one science and fully express itself in it.
5. Such strong, captivating minds passionately indulge in science and greedily take on the solution of the most difficult questions, as perhaps most suitable for their morbidly excited energy. In every science they are able to grasp new outstanding features and, on the basis of them, draw sometimes ridiculous conclusions.
6. All geniuses have their own special style, passionate, tremulous, colorful, which distinguishes them from other healthy writers and is characteristic of them, perhaps precisely because it is developed under the influence of psychosis. This position is confirmed by the own admission of such geniuses that, after the end of ecstasy, all of them are not able not only to compose, but also to think.
7. Almost all of them suffered deeply from religious doubts, which involuntarily presented themselves to their minds, while a timid conscience forced them to regard such doubts as crimes. For example, Haller wrote in his diary: “My God! Send me just one drop of faith; my mind believes in you, but my heart does not share this faith - that is my crime.
8. The main signs of the abnormality of these great people are already expressed in the very structure of their oral and written speech, in illogical conclusions, in absurd contradictions. Wasn't Socrates, the genius thinker who foresaw Christian morality and Jewish monotheism, crazy when he was guided in his actions by the voice and instructions of his imaginary Genius, or even just a sneeze?
9. Almost all geniuses attached great importance to their dreams.

In the conclusion of his book, C. Lombroso, however, says that on the basis of the foregoing it is impossible to conclude that genius in general is nothing but insanity. True, in the turbulent and anxious life of brilliant people there are moments when these people resemble madmen, and in mental activity and others there are many common features - for example, increased sensitivity, exaltation, replaced by apathy, originality of aesthetic works and the ability to discover, unconsciousness creativity and strong absent-mindedness, alcohol abuse and enormous vanity. Between brilliant people there are lunatics, and between crazy people there are geniuses. But there were and are many brilliant people in whom one cannot find the slightest sign of insanity.

"Types of Criminals"

Lombroso identified four types of criminals: the murderer, the thief, the rapist and the crook. Moreover, this typology persists to this day.

"Woman criminal and prostitute"

The work examines the relationship of women to three objects: love, prostitution and crime. Lombroso comes to the conclusion that for a woman the main instinct is motherhood, which determines their behavior throughout life.

• Love
  • Love in animals
  • Love in a person
• Prostitution
  • History of prostitution
    • Shame and prostitution among savage peoples
    • Prostitution among historical peoples
  • Congenital prostitutes
  • Random prostitutes
• Crime woman
  • Crime woman
    • Female delinquency in the animal kingdom
    • Female crime among savage and primitive peoples
  • Born criminals
  • Random criminals
  • Criminals of passion
  • Suicides

List of works

• Ricerche sul cretinismo in Lombardia, (Gazz. Medico, Italiana, No.13, ) - « Studies on cretinism in Lombardy»

• Genio e follia: prelezione ai corsi di antropologia e clinica psichiatrica presso la R. Universita" di Pavia. - Milano: Tipografia e Libreria di Giuseppe Chiusi, editore, . - 46, p. - « Genius and madness»; in Russian translation - " Genius and insanity»
  (subsequent edition: Genio e follia: prelezione ai corsi di antropologia e clinica psichiatrica presso la R. Universita "di Pavia. - 3a edizione ampliata con 4 appendici: i giornali dei pazzi, una biblioteca mattoide, i crani dei grandi uomini, polemica. - Milano: U Hoepli, 1877. - VIII, 194 p.)
  • Genius and insanity: A parallel between great people and crazy people: From the portrait. ed. ... / C. Lombroso; Per. from 4 ital. ed. [and foreword] K. Tetyushinova. - St. Petersburg: F. Pavlenkov, 1885. -, II, VIII, 351 p.
  • many modern publications:
    • Genius and insanity / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G. Tetyushinova]. - M.: RIPOL classic, 2009. - 397, p. ISBN 978-5-7905-4356-2
    • Genius and insanity: [translated from Italian] / Cesare Lombroso. - St. Petersburg: Leningrad Publishing House, 2009 (St. Petersburg: IPK "Leningr. Publishing House"). - 364, p. ISBN 978-5-9942-0238-8 (in translation)
    • Genius and insanity [Text] / Cesare Lombroso. - M.: Academic project, 2011. - 237, p. - (Psychological technologies). ISBN 978-5-8291-1310-0
    • Genius and insanity / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G.Tyutyushinova]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012. 348 p.
    • Genius and insanity / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G.Tyutyushinova]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012. 352 p.
    • Genius and insanity. From genius to madness one step?.. [Text] / Cesare Lombroso; [per. from Italian. G. Tetyushinova]. - Moscow: RIPOL classic, 2011. - 397, p. - (World bestseller). ISBN 978-5-386-02869-5 (in translation)

• L'uomo bianco e l'uomo di colore. Letture sull" origine e le varietà delle razze umane. - Padova: F. Sacchetto, . - 223 p. - « White man and colored man. Readings on the Origin and Diversity of the Human Races»

• L'Uomo delinquente, ( ; L "uomo delinquente in rapporto all" antropologia, alla giurisprudenza ed alle discipline carcerarie: aggiuntavi La teoria della tutela penale del Prof. Avv. F. Poletti / Cesare Lombroso; Francisco Poletti. - 2 ed. - Torino: Bocca, . - 746p.) - « Criminal»; in Russian translation - " criminal man»
  • Criminal man: [transl. from it.] / Cesare Lombroso. - M.: Eksmo; MIDGARD, 2005 (St. Petersburg: AOOT Tver. polygr. comb.). - 876, p.: illustrations, portraits, tables; 24 cm. - (Giants of thought). ISBN 5-699-13045-4

• L'amore nel suicidio e nel delitto, . - " Love and insanity»
  • Lunatic love: For doctors and lawyers / Cesare Lombroso, prof. psychiatry in Turin; Per. from Italian. Dr. med. N. P. Leinenberg. - Odessa: type. "Odes. news", 1889. - 41 p.
  • Sexual psychopathy: (Love in lunatics) / Caesar Lombroso, prof. psychiatry in Turin; Per. from Italian. and ed. dr med. N. P. Leinenberg. - 2nd Russian ed. - Odessa, 1908. - 46 p.

• L'Uomo di genio, . ( L "Uomo di genio in rapporto alla psichiatria, alla storia ed all" estetica. - 5a edizione del "Genio e follia", completamente mutata... . - Torino: fratelli Bocca, 1888. - XX, 488 p.) - « Man of genius»

• Palimsesti del carcere; raccolta unicamente destinata agli uomini di scienza. - Torino: Bocca, 1888. - 328 p. - « Prison scribbling, Study of prison inscriptions»

• Il delitto politico e le rivoluzioni in rapporto al diritto, all "antropologia criminale ed alla scienza di governo / Cesare Lombroso, Anthropologe Mediziner Italien; Rodolfo Laschi. - Torino: Bocca, . - 10, 555 p. - (Biblioteca antropologico-giuridica. Serie 1, Vol 9). - « Political crime» co-authored with Rodolfo Laski
  • Political crime and revolution in relation to law, criminal anthropology and state science: In 2 hours / Lombroso and Lasky; In the lane K. K. Tolstoy. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg. commercial type-lit. Vilenchik, . - 255 p.
    • Political crime and revolution with respect to law, criminal anthropology and state science = Politicalcriminality and revolution with respect to law, criminal anthropology and state science: In 2 hours / C. Lombroso, R. Lasky. - St. Petersburg: Jurid. Center Press, 2003 (Academic type. Nauka RAS). - 472 p. ISBN 5-94201-200-8

• L'anthropologie criminelle et ses recents progrès. - Paris: F. Alcan, 1890. - (Bibliothèque de Philosophie contemporaine).
  • The latest advances in the science of the criminal = (L'Anthropologie criminelle et ses re'cents progre's par C. Lombroso) / Cesare Lombroso; Per., with permission. ed., ed. and with preface. Master of Criminal Law L. M. Berlin, Dr. S. L. Rappoport. - St. Petersburg: N. K. Martynov, 1892. -, 160 p.

• La Donna delinquente Criminal»
  • Woman criminal and prostitute / C. Lombroso & G. Ferrero; Per. [and foreword] by Dr. G. I. Gordon. - Kiev; Kharkov: F. A. Ioganson, 1897 (Kiev). - , 478, IV, VII p.
    • Woman criminal and prostitute: [Translation / C. Lombroso, G. Ferrero (English) Russian ; Foreword V. S. Chudnovsky]. - Stavropol: Torba Publishing House, 1991. - 223, p. ISBN 5-87524-002-4
    • ... - AVAN-I, 1994. - 220 p. ISBN 5-87437-004-8
    • A woman - a criminal or a prostitute / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G. Gordon]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012
    • A woman - a criminal or a prostitute / Cesare Lombroso; [per. with it. G. Gordon]. Moscow: Astrel, 2012

• L'origine du baiser, 1893 (La Nouvelle Revue 1893/06, A13, T83)
  • The origin of the kiss = (Cesare Lombroso - "L'origine du baiser"): Per. from fr. / Caesar Lombroso. - St. Petersburg: V. Vroblevsky, qualification. 1895. - 15 p.

• Le piu recenti scoperte ed applicazioni della psichiatria ed antropologia criminale /C. Lombroso. - Torino; firenze; Palermo; Messina; catania; Roma: Fratelli Bocca, 1893. - 431 p.

• Gli anarchici: con 2 tavole e 5 fig. nel testo. - Torino: fratelli Bocca, . - 95, p. - « Anarchists, a study in criminal psychology and sociology»
  • Anarchists: Crimin.-Psych. and sociol. essay / C. Lombroso; Per. from 2 ital. add. ed. N. S. Zhitkova. - Leipzig; St. Petersburg: "Thought" A. Miller, 1907 (Odessa). - 138 p.

• L'Antisemitismo e le scienze moderne, - " Anti-Semitism in the light of modern science»
  • Anti-Semitism / Cesare Lombroso; Per. with it. G. Z.; Instead of preface Art. O. Ya. Pergamenta: "The Jewish Question and People's Freedom". - Odessa: Tribune, qualification. 1906. - , VI, 73 p.
  • Anti-Semitism and Modern Science / Cesare Lombroso; Per. from Italian. Ephraim Parkhomovsky. - Kiev: F. L. Isserlis and Co., 1909. - 146 p.
    • ... - Kraft +, 2002. - 360 p. ISBN 5-93675-038-8

• Genio e degenerazione, (Remo Sandron, Palermo), . - " Genius and degradation»

• Le crime, causes et remedes, . - " Crime, its causes and methods of eradication»
  • Crime / C. Lombroso; Per. Dr. G. I. Gordon. - St. Petersburg: N. K. Martynov, 1900. - 140 p.;
    • Crime [Text]; The latest advances in criminal science; Anarchists / Cesare Lombroso; [foreword V. S. Ovchinsky]. - Moscow: INFRA-M, 2011. - VI, 313, p.: tab.; 22. - (Library of a criminologist). ISBN 978-5-16-001715-0

Other editions of works in Russian

• Madness before and now: Per. with it. / Cesar Lombroso, prof. psychiatry in Turin. - Odessa: N. Leinenberg, 1897. - 43 p.

• My visit to Tolstoy / Caesar Lombroso. - Carouge (Geneve): M. Elpidine, 1902. -, IV, 13 p.

• Kissing psychology: (Cesare Lombroso - "Psycologie du baiser"): Per. from fr. / Caesar Lombroso. - St. Petersburg: F. I. Mityurnikov, 1901. - 27 p.

Literature

• Wulfert A.K. Evaluation of Lombroso's doctrine after his death by the main representatives of the positive school of criminal law in Italy: A separate print from N 2, 1911 of the "Legal Notes" published by the Demidov Legal Lyceum. - Yaroslavl, 1911. - 26 p.
• Gertsenzon A. A. Against biological theories of the causes of crime. Essay first. // Issues of crime prevention. Issue 4. - M.: Jurid. lit., 1966. - S. 3-34.
• Gomberg B. The experience of presenting the main principles of the etiology of crime: Part 1- / B. Gomberg. - Kiev: type. 2 artels, 1911.
  • ... Cesare Lombroso and criminal anthropology. - 1911. - IV, 160 p.
  • Lublinsky P. Gomberg B. Experience of presentation of the main principles of the etiology of crime. Part 1. Cesare Lombroso and criminal anthropology. St. Petersburg and Kiev, 1911 [Text] / P. Lyublinsky. // Journal of Criminal Law and Procedure, published by the Russian Group of the International Union of Criminalists. - 1912. - No. 1. - S. 261-263.
• Zernov D.N. Critical essay on the anatomical foundations of Lombroso's criminal theory: Speech, delivered. in celebrations. coll. Imp. Moscow un-ta 12 Jan. 1896 honored. ord. prof. honey. fak. D. Zernov. - Moscow: Univ. type., 1896. - 55 p.
• Margolin A. D. The role and significance of Lombroso in the evolution of the concepts of crime and punishment. - Kiev: Printing house of S. G. Slyusarevsky, 1910. - 20 p.
• Orshansky I. G. Our criminals and the teachings of Lombroso: Medical and psychological essay: (Report read at the Congress of Naturalists and Physicians in January 1890 in St. Petersburg). Kharkiv. University of I. G. Orshansky. - St. Petersburg: Type. E. Arngold, 1891. - 20 p.
• Pavlov V. G. Theoretical and methodological problems of the study of the subject of the crime . // Jurisprudence. - 1999. - No. 2. - S. 156-165.
• Shanis L. The theory of Tarda and Lombroso about the crimes of anarchists / L. Sheinis. // Herald of law. - 1899. - No. 10. December. - S. 312-323.
• Shcherbak A. E. Criminal man [congenital criminal - morally lunatic - epileptic] according to Lombroso. - St. Petersburg: Tipo-lit. P. I. Schmidt, 1889. -, 52, p.
• Sterenshis M. Cesare Lombroso. - Herzliya: Isradon, 2010. - 144 p. - (Jews and civilization). - ISBN 978-5-94467-092-2
• edit] See also

Price Realized: $6,325

LOMBROSO, Cesare (1836-1909). L "Uomo Delinquente, studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie. Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1876. 8o (229 x 156 mm). Mounted lithographed illustration on p. 65, some wood-engraved illustrations in text. (Title- and half-title reinforced along inner margin, some light foxing.) Modern quarter vellum. PMM 364.

Care: $6,325. Auction Christie "s. The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine. Part III. October 29, 1998. New York, Park Avenue. Lot No. 1175.

FIRST EDITION. Lombroso derived the basis of his thesis from the work of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), and as the leader of an influential school of criminologists maintained that criminal behavior was the result of either inherited physical and mental abnormalitites, or from physical degeneration. Although it contained some fallacies, L"Uomo Delinquente ("Criminal Man") "was a revolutionary work which not only caused a considerable stir when it first came out but had a practical effect which was wholly beneficial. The division which it indicated between the congenital criminal and those who were tempted to crime by circumstances has had a lasting effect on penal theory. Again, by connecting the treatment of crime with the treatment of insanity, Lombroso initiated a branch of psychiatric research which has cast new light on problems, such as criminal responsibility, which lie at the root of human society" (PMM). Garrison-Morton 174 ("Lombroso inaugurated the doctrine of a "criminal type""); PMM 364; Norman 1384.

As you know, the Italian psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso was a follower of the views of the French psychiatrist B.O. Morel (Morel's doctrine of degeneration). Lombroso's youth was spent in poverty and deprivation. He even had to go to prison on suspicion of an anti-government conspiracy, later, based on his prison experience, he created a theory about a born criminal and compiled a classification of his external signs. Based on his own conclusions about biological characteristics, and above all external morphological features (the shape of the skull, the irregular structure of the auricle, etc.), in his opinion, inherent in criminals, Lombroso argued that violators of legal norms are people of abnormal physical, and therefore mental organizations, people of a special breed and that crime is a consequence of their innate characteristics, the result of atavism. Lombroso considered crime inevitable for such people and declared that punishment could not fix them; based on a judgment about the danger of such persons to society, he considered it necessary to incarcerate for indefinitely long periods and the frequent use of the death penalty. He called people who are innately prone to criminal acts "homo delinquent" and declared that such people are subject to destruction. Lombroso also singled out political "crimes", which, in his opinion, are also rooted in the biological nature of the criminal. He substantiated this thesis by asserting that the nature of a normal person is characterized by hatred for the new - “mizoneism”, and he considered love for the new (“philoneism”) to be a disease inherent in “congenital criminals under the influence of affect - affective degenerates”. Lombroso developed a formula that underlies the formula of criminal defeat most in demand in criminology. In his formula, the founder of the Anthropological Institute proposes to correlate the average size of the anthropological characteristics of convicts with the number of minors who drink alcohol. The result obtained, multiplied by the conditional indicator "E", is considered as a frequency feature of the station wagon. This formula made it possible to identify the causality of crime, which at the general level has always been reduced to the length of certain parts of the body. Lombroso identified four types of criminals: the murderer, the thief, the rapist and the crook. Moreover, this typology persists to this day.

Lombroso's early work in the field of medicine, especially on cretinism, drew the attention of Rudolf Virchow to him. From 1855, his journal articles on psychiatry begin to appear, the chair of which he took at the University of Pavia in 1862, being at the same time director of the asylum in Peisaro; now prof. Turin University. Lombroso drew particular attention to himself with the theory of the neuropathy of brilliant people, on the basis of which he built a bold parallel between genius and an unconscious state, as well as mental anomalies. He was one of the first to apply the anthropometric method to the study of criminals. Having set himself the goal of highlighting the study of the "criminal" and not the "crime", on which, according to Lombroso, the so-called classical direction of the science of criminal law that dominated before him was exclusively concentrated, he subjected to the study of various physical and mental phenomena in a large number of criminals. population and in this way clarified the nature of the criminal man, as a special variety. Studies of the pathological anatomy, physiology and psychology of criminals gave him a number of features that distinguish, in his opinion, a born criminal from a normal person. Guided by these signs, Lombroso considered it possible not only to establish the type of a criminal person in general, but even to note the features inherent in certain categories of criminals, such as thieves, murderers, rapists, etc. Skull, brain, nose, ears, hair color, tattoo, the handwriting, the sensitivity of the skin, the mental properties of criminals were observed and measured by Lombroso and his students, serving as the basis for their general conclusion that in a criminal person live, by virtue of the law of heredity, the psychophysical characteristics of distant ancestors. The kinship of a criminal man with a savage, derived from this, is revealed especially clearly in a dulled sensitivity, in a love for a tattoo, in an underdevelopment of a moral feeling, which causes an inability to repent, in a weakness of reason, and even in a special letter, reminiscent of the hieroglyphs of the ancients. Not only these signs, however, but even the main views of Lombroso on the criminal changed as his work developed, so that the atavistic theory of the origin of the criminal man developed by him did not prevent him from seeing in the latter also a manifestation of moral insanity and epilepsy.

The speed of change in views and the sharpness of the attacks of criticism prompted Lombroso to publish a summary of the views of the representatives of the school of criminal anthropology that had developed at that time ("L" anthropologie criminelle et ses recents progres ") in 1890. A critical attitude to the works of Lombroso reveals the major shortcomings of his teaching and detracts from the significance of the provisions he established. Considering criminal law as a branch of physiology and pathology, Lombroso transfers criminal law from the field of moral sciences to the field of sociology, bringing it closer, at the same time, to the natural sciences. The genesis of crime leads him to the conclusion that there must be an analogy between punitive activity of the state that protects social life, and those reactions that both animals and plants show to the external influences they experience.Operating with the concept of crime, not as a to unchanging things nature, explaining the crime as a criminal and not isolating the legal and anthropological point of view on it, Lombroso made a major methodological error, which was fatal for his works. At the Brussels International Criminal Anthropological Congress, the inconsistency of the concept of a criminal person as a special type, as well as all those particular provisions that Lombroso derived from this concept, was revealed with particular clarity. He met determined opponents, primarily from the criminologists, who rebelled against the attempt to destroy the foundations of the existing criminal justice and replace the current forensic judges with judges of a new formation, recruited from among representatives of the natural sciences. Regardless of the criminologists, Lombroso found himself dangerous opponents among anthropologists, who argued that criminal law is a social and applied science and that neither in its subject matter nor in its research method can it be brought closer to anthropology. In the struggle with his opponents, Lombroso discovered the same tireless energy that never left him in his creative scientific work. He works, according to him, not in order to give his research a practical, applied application in the field of jurisprudence; as a scientist, he serves science only for the sake of science. Objecting to the reproach made to him of illogicality, he did not hesitate to answer: "In everything that seems really new in the field of experiment, logic brings the greatest harm; the so-called. common sense is the most terrible enemy of great truths." Without being embarrassed by attacks, he created new, major works. So, after the op. random criminals who fell into crime due to an unfortunate coincidence (criminaloids), half-mad, with all the makings of crime (mattoid), and pseudo-criminals (punishable by law, but not dangerous to society), Lombroso wrote a book about political crime and about revolutions in relation to them to law, criminal anthropology and the science of government: "Il delitto politico e le rivoluzioni" (1890), in which, based on the aversion of the majority to innovation and the desire for it of geniuses and half-lunatics (Minoseism and Philoneism), he came to the conclusion that the revolution, as the historical expression of evolution, is a physiological phenomenon, while rebellion is a pathological phenomenon.

Assessing the views of Lombroso, the Russian lawyer A.F. Koni noted that he "has gone as far as reducing the punitive activities of the state, to hunting for a man-beast." Historian of psychiatry T.I. Yudin believed that Lombroso's views were the forerunners of fascist theories about "subhumans" - inferior races, and that Lombroso offered the same methods of dealing with an inferior race - destruction. Moscow anatomist Professor D.N. Zernov provided evidence that the irregularities of the skulls referred to by Lombroso are not properly atavistic. In the dissertation of the Russian and Soviet anatomist V.P. Vorobyov proved the inaccuracy of Lombroso's ideas about the degenerative ear. In the book The Oxford Manual of Psychiatry, professors of psychiatry M. Gelder, D. Gat and R. Mayo, mentioning that Lombroso believed that epileptics commit crimes much more often than non-epileptics, concluded with reference to studies that such a close relationship between epilepsy and crime does not exist.

Historically, another work by Cesare Lombroso has been better known and famous in Russia since the last third of the 19th century:

LOMBROSO, Cesare (1836-1909). Genio e follia: prelezione ai corsi di antropologia e clinica psichiatrica presso la R. Universita "di Pavia. - Milano: Tipografia e Libreria di Giuseppe Chiusi, editore, 1864. - 46, p. - "Genius and madness"; in Russian translation - "Genius and insanity".

Why do some people admire their abilities, even genius, while others bear the cross of dementia, vices, crimes? In his work, Lombroso traces a clear connection between genius and the unconscious state of a person, mental anomalies, the impact of the environment and society on him, considers the emergence and development of genius and dementia through the prism of biosociological theory.

In 1864, Lombroso published his book "Genius and Madness" (Russian translation by G. Tetyushinova, 1885), in which he draws a parallel between great people and lunatics. Here is what the author himself writes in the preface of the book:

“When, many years ago, being, as it were, under the influence of ecstasy, during which the relationship between genius and insanity was clearly presented to me in a mirror, I wrote the first chapters of this book in 12 days, then, I confess, even I myself it was clear to what serious practical conclusions the theory I had created could lead.”

In this book, Lombroso draws conclusions, practically diagnoses, the greatest representatives of mankind. All the celebrities Lombroso wrote about were dead by the time the book was written and, therefore, did not have the opportunity to refute what was written. There is no evidence that any of the geniuses described by Lombroso in his book sought his medical help, or that Lombroso personally met any of the celebrities he described. The psychiatrist makes all “diagnoses” in absentia, based solely on his own credulity or predilection for various rumors about the characters and habits of great people, whose biographies, by the very fact of their celebrity, were overgrown with all sorts of legends. This book is a prime example of medical abuse. Lombroso refers in the preface to the fact that he wrote this book "under the influence of ecstasy, as it were", but this fact, according to his own theories, conclusions and observations, puts him on the verge of turning from a psychiatrist into a patient. In his work, Lombroso writes about the physical similarity of brilliant people with crazy people, about the influence of various phenomena (atmospheric, heredity, etc.) on genius and insanity, gives examples, numerous medical evidence about the presence of mental abnormalities in a number of writers, and also describes special features brilliant people who suffered at the same time and insanity.

These features are as follows:

1. Some of these people discovered the unnatural. So, for example, Ampère was already a good mathematician at the age of 13, and Pascal at the age of 10 came up with a theory of acoustics based on the sounds made by cymbals when they are placed on the table.

2. Many of them were extremely drug and alcohol abusers. So, Haller absorbed a huge amount of opium, and, for example, Rousseau - coffee.

3. Many did not feel the need to work quietly in the quiet of their office, but as if they could not sit in one place and had to constantly travel.

4. They also changed their professions and specialties no less often, as if their powerful genius could not be satisfied with any one science and fully express itself in it.

5. Such strong, captivating minds passionately indulge in science and greedily take on the solution of the most difficult questions, as perhaps most suitable for their morbidly excited energy. In every science they are able to grasp new outstanding features and, on the basis of them, draw sometimes ridiculous conclusions.

6. All geniuses have their own special style, passionate, tremulous, colorful, which distinguishes them from other healthy writers and is characteristic of them, perhaps precisely because it is developed under the influence of psychosis. This position is confirmed by the own admission of such geniuses that, after the end of ecstasy, all of them are not able not only to compose, but also to think.

7. Almost all of them suffered deeply from religious doubts, which involuntarily presented themselves to their minds, while a timid conscience forced them to regard such doubts as crimes. For example, Haller wrote in his diary: “My God! Send me just one drop of faith; my mind believes in you, but my heart does not share this faith - that is my crime.

8. The main signs of the abnormality of these great people are already expressed in the very structure of their oral and written speech, in illogical conclusions, in absurd contradictions. Wasn't Socrates, the genius thinker who foresaw Christian morality and Jewish monotheism, crazy when he was guided in his actions by the voice and instructions of his imaginary Genius, or even just a sneeze?

9. Almost all geniuses attached great importance to their dreams.

In the conclusion of his book, C. Lombroso, however, says that on the basis of the foregoing it is impossible to conclude that genius in general is nothing but insanity. True, in the turbulent and anxious life of brilliant people there are moments when these people resemble madmen, and in mental activity and others there are many common features - for example, increased sensitivity, exaltation, replaced by apathy, originality of aesthetic works and the ability to discover, unconsciousness creativity and strong absent-mindedness, alcohol abuse and enormous vanity. Among the people of genius there are lunatics, and among the lunatics there are geniuses. But there were and are many brilliant people in whom one cannot find the slightest sign of insanity.

Content:

1. Introduction to the historical overview

2. The similarity of brilliant people with crazy people

physiologically

3. The influence of atmospheric phenomena on brilliant people

and on the lunatics

4. The influence of meteorological phenomena on birth

brilliant people

5. The influence of race and heredity on genius

and insanity

6. Brilliant people who suffered from insanity:

Harrington, Bolian, Codazzi, Ampere, Kent, Schumann, Tasso,

Cardano, Swift, Newton, Rousseau, Lenau, Scheheny, Schopenhauer

7. Examples of geniuses, poets, humorists and others

between crazy people

8. Crazy entertainers and artists

9. Mattoid graphomaniacs, or psychopaths

10. "Prophets" and revolutionaries. Savonarola, Lazaretti

11. Special features of brilliant people who suffered

at the same time madness

12. Exceptional features of brilliant people. Conclusion

Lombroso Cesare is a famous criminologist, psychiatrist and sociologist. He is the founder of the Italian school of criminal anthropology. This article will describe his biography.

Youth and studies

Lombroso Cesare was born in Verona in 1836. The boy's family was quite wealthy, as they owned a lot of land. In his youth, Cesare studied Chinese and Semitic languages. But he did not manage to make a quiet career. Imprisonment in a fortress on charges of conspiracy, material deprivation, participation in the war aroused in the young man an interest in psychiatry. Cesare published his first articles on this topic at the age of 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 of criminal anthropology and legal psychiatry. Lombroso also headed the clinic for mental illness. The decisive role in its intellectual formation was played by its main postulate - the affirmation 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 should become the center of study.

First anthropometric studies

They were carried out by scientists in the 60s of the nineteenth century. Cesare then worked as a doctor, and also participated in the campaign to eradicate banditry in southern Italy. The statistical material collected by the professor has become 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 people of a mentally and anatomically abnormal type in this area. In other words, these are ordinary criminal personalities. Cesare identified this anomaly by psychiatric and anthropometric examination. Based on this, a prognostic assessment of the dynamics of the development of crime was made. With his conceptual approach, the scientist challenged the position of official criminology, which placed responsibility only on 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 dimensions of parts of the head and face of suspects. The results were published by him in the work Anthropometry of 400 Violators, which was published in 1872.

The "born criminal" theory

The scientist formulated it in 1876. It was then that his work "Criminal Man" was published. Cesare believes that offenders are not made, but born. That is, according to Lambroso, crime is as natural a phenomenon 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 them. In his opinion, the offender is a degenerate who has lagged 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 his life or freedom.

There is also a classification of offenders formulated by Cesare Lombroso. The 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 inclination and a developmental lag. The professor identified stigmata (physical characteristics) and mental traits, the presence of which will help identify a person endowed with criminal inclinations from birth. Cesare considered the main signs of the offender to be a scowling glance, large jaws, a low forehead, a wrinkled nose, etc. Their presence makes it possible to identify the offender even before he commits the atrocity itself. In this regard, the scientist demanded that sociologists, anthropologists and doctors be involved in judges, and the question of guilt should be replaced with the question of social harm.

By the way, at the moment anthropometric measurements are carried out in almost all countries of the world. And this is typical not only for the special services and the army. For example, knowledge of anthropometry is necessary in the design of civilian things and objects, as well as for the study of labor markets (labor force).

Shortcomings of the theory

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 subjected to sharp criticism. Cesare even had to soften his own position. In his later works, he ranked only 40% of offenders as an innate 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 Madness"

Perhaps this is the most famous work of Cesare Lombroso. "Genius and Madness" was written by him in 1895. In this book, the professor put forward one main thesis. It sounds like this: "Genius is an abnormal activity of the brain, bordering on epileptoid psychosis." Cesare wrote that physiologically, the resemblance of geniuses to lunatics is simply amazing. They have the same reaction to atmospheric phenomena, and heredity and race affect their birth in the same way. Many geniuses have had insanity. These included: Schopenhauer, Rousseau, Newton, Swift, Cardano, Tasso, Schumann, Comte, Ampere and a number of artists and artists. In the appendix to his book, Lombroso described the anomalies of the skull of geniuses and gave examples of the literary works of crazy authors.

Sociology of political crime

Cesare left his most valuable part of the legacy in the form of research in this discipline. The essay "Anarchists" and "Political Revolution and Crime" 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 widespread in Italy in the 19th and 20th centuries in the form of anarchist terrorism. The professor studied it from the perspective of considering the personality of a criminal who is sacrificially devoted to a utopian ideal. The scientist explained the nature of such behavior by the depreciation of the highest goals of social justice, the corruption of politicians and the crisis of democracy in the Italian parliament.

Another famous work of Cesare Lombroso is "Love of the Lunatics". It reveals the manifestation of this feeling in mentally ill people.

Introduction of control of physiological responses

Cesare Lombroso, whose books are known all over the world, was one of the first to apply the achievements of physiology in forensic science. In 1880, the scientist began to measure the pulse and pressure of suspects during the interrogation procedure. Thus, he could easily determine whether a potential criminal was lying or not. And the device for measuring pressure and pulse was called ...

Plethysmograph

In 1895, Lombroso Cesare published the results obtained after the use of laboratory instruments during interrogation. In one of these studies, the professor used a "plethysmograph". The experiment went like this: the suspect in the murder was asked to make a series of mathematical calculations in his mind. At the same time, the device connected to it recorded the pulse. Then the potential criminal was shown several photographs of injured children (among them was a picture of a murdered girl). In the first case, his pulse jumped, and in the second it was close to normal. From this, Cesare concluded that the suspect was innocent. And the results of the investigation proved him right. This was probably the first case of using a lie detector recorded in the literature, which led to And he said that the control of a person's physiological reactions can not only reveal the information he is hiding, but also establish innocence.

The scientist died in Turin in 1909.

Lombroso in Russia

The professor's criminological ideas were widely known in our country. They are represented by a number of lifetime and posthumous publications by Cesare Lombroso: "Woman-criminal and prostitute", "Antisemitism", "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 (“the suppression of character, conscience, thoughts of the individual”) and authoritarianism.

Lombrosianism

This term was widespread in the Soviet period and denoted the anthropological direction of the school of criminal law. Cesare's doctrine of a born criminal was especially criticized. Soviet lawyers believed that such an approach contradicted and also had a reactionary and anti-people orientation, as it condemned the revolutionary actions of the exploited people. Such a biased ideologized approach dismissed many of the professor's merits in the study of 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 Cesare, he is one of the most prominent 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.