Italian psychiatrist Lombroso Cesare: biography, books, activities and achievements

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

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 we althy, 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. A decisive role in his intellectual formation was played by the philosophy of positivism. Its main postulate is the statementpriority of scientific knowledge that 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 perpetrator should be the focus of study.

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 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 werepublished 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 their anthropometric data. In his opinion, the offender is a degenerate, lagging 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 look, 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. Concerningthe scientist demanded that sociologists, anthropologists and doctors be involved in judges, and the question of guilt should be replaced with a 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).

Flaws 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 geniusesit was 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 the utopian ideal of social justice. 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 by Cesare Lombroso - "Love of the Lunatics". She reveals the manifestation of this feeling in mentally ill people.

Introduction of physiological response control

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. A device for measuring blood pressure and pulsewas called…

Pletysmograph

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 the use of a lie detector recorded in the literature, which led to an acquittal. And he talked about how controlling 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 publicRussia's way of life is for police arbitrariness ("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 was contrary to the principle of legality, 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 achievements in researching 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 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.