CRIM 2650 Chapter Notes - Chapter Chapter 2: Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri, Atavist
The Positivist School: Criminal as Determined
The Birth of the Positivist School: Lombroso’s Theory of the Criminal Man!
-Cesare Lombroso was an Italian who often is called the Father of Modern Criminology. !
-Lombroso’s interest in biological explanations of criminal behaviour developed between 1859 and 1863 when he
was serving as an army physician on various military posts. During this time he developed the idea that diseases,
especially cretinism and pellagra, contributed to mental and physical decencies, in which result in violence and
homicide. !
-He began to publish his research on the idea the biology - especially brain pathologies - could explain criminal
behaviour in a series of papers that first started to appear in 1861. !
-By 1876 when he published his findings in On Criminal Man, his work contained not only a biological focus
but an evolutionary one as well. !
Central Tenet of Lombroso’s Books
-The central tenet of Lombroso’s early books on crime is that criminals represent a peculiar physical type
distinctively different from that of noncriminals. !
•In general terms, the claimed that criminals represent a form of degeneracy that was manifested in physical
characteristics reflective of easier forms of evolutionary life. !
-For example, he believed that the ears of unusual size, sloping foreheads, excessively long arms, receding
chins, and twisted noses were indicative of physical characteristics found among criminals !
Four Kinds of Criminals:
-Lombroso classified criminals into four major categories: !
•Born Criminals or people with atavistic characteristics !
•Insane Criminals including idiots, imbeciles, and paranoiacs as well as epileptics and alcoholics !
•Occasional criminals or criminaloids, whose crimes are explained primarily by opportunity, although they too
have innate traits that predispose them to criminality; and !
•Criminals of passion, who commit crimes because of anger, love or honour and are characterized by being
propelled to crime by an irresistible force !
It is important to mention that overtime he revised his book, with each new edition he gave more attention to
environmental explanations (climate, rainfall, sex, marriage, customs, laws and structures of government, church
organizations, and the effects of other factors) - but he never gave up on the idea of the existence of a born criminal
type. !
Was Lombrosso the First?
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-The idea was developed during the 1760s by the Swiss scholar Johann Kaspar Lavater who claimed that there was
a relationship between facial features and behaviour. !
-Later, Franz Joseph Gall, an eminent European anatomist, expanded the idea and argued that the shape of an
individuals head could explain his or her personal characteristics This was called phrenology and by the 1820s it
was stimulating much interest in the United States !
-The importance of phrenology is that it indicates the popularity of biological explanations of behaviour nearly 50
years before Lombroso received his degree in medicine in 1858 ad long before he was called the father of modern
criminology!
If he was not the first, why do we study him? - test question
-Most noteworthy is the attention that he gave to a multiple-factor explanation of crime that included not only
heredity but also social, cultural, and economic variables. The multiple factor explanation is common in today’s
study of crime !
-we cant just rely on rationality- but we must acknowledge that crime is spread out (not a universal
phenomenon) but it is also biological !
-We care about him because of his methods !
-falsification method: in the social science there is no falsification (like in the hard sciences we do not go back
and learn about the old theories of gravity because they have been disproven !
-He is also credited for pushing the study of crime away from abstract metaphysical, legal, and justice explanation
as the basis of penology to a scientific study of the criminal and the conditions under which he commits crime. !
-Also, for the lessons he taught on research methods, importance of clinical and historical records, and that nod
stain should be overlooked when searching for explanations of criminal behaviour !
-He was the only criminologist of his time who can qualify as a paradigm shifter - he took the topic of the causes of
crime away from sin and placed it in the realm of science, where it remains today (Rafter) !
Lombroso’s Legacy: The Italian Criminological Tradition !
-Lombroso’s legacy of positivism was continued and expanded by the brilliant career and life of a fellow Italian,
Enrico Ferri. !
-Ferri gave more emphasis to the interrelatedness of social, economic, and political factors that contribute to crime. !
-He argued the criminality could be explained by studying the interactive effects among: !
-Physical Factors: race, geography, temperature !
-Individual Factors: age, gender, psychological variables !
-Social Factors: population, religion culture !
-He also argued that crime could be controlled by social changes, many of which were directed toward the
benefit of the working class. He advocated birth control, subsidized housing, freedom of marriage, divorce,
and public recreation facilities, each reflective of his socialist belief that the state is responsible for creating
better living conditions. !
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-When Mussolini came to power during the early 1920s, Ferri was invited to write a new penal code for Italy.
However it was rejected for being too much a departure from classical legal reasoning. !
-After 50 years of social liberalism, he changed his philosophy and endorsed fascisim as a practical way to reform.
It appealed to Ferri because it offered a reaffirmation of the state’s authority over excessive individualism, which
had criticized often !
-Why did he change?!
-He wanted changes to produce a better society. He believed that to accomplish this individuals must be legally
responsible for their actions instead of being only morally responsible to God.!
-This approach to responsibility was a radical departure from tradition because it was offered within a framework
that called for scientific experts not only to explain crime but also to write laws and administer punishment. In
essence it was a call to the state to act scientifically in matters of social policy. !
Sociologia Criminale:
-He listed only five classes of criminals: !
•the born or instinctive criminal whom Lombroso had identified as the atavist !
•The insane criminal who was clinically indemnified as mentally ill !
•the passion criminal who committed crime as a result of either prolonged and chronic mental problems or an
emotional state !
•The occasional criminal who was more the product of family and social conditions than of abnormal personal
physical or mental problems !
•The habitual criminal who acquired the habit from the social environment !
•(5th edition added this criminal) the involuntary criminal!
Raffaele Garofalo !
-He is remembered for his practical solutions to concrete problems located in the legal institution of his day and for
his doctrine of natural crimes !
-His arguments on the nature of crime and the nature of criminals were constant with social darwinism. For
example, he argued that because society is a natural body, crimes are offences against the law of nature. Therefore
criminal action was a crime against nature. !
-He identified acts that no society should refuse to recognize as criminal and to repress by punishment - natural
crimes. These offences, according to Garfalo, violated two base human sentiments among people of all ages: !
-the sentiments of probity and pity!
-Pity is the sentiment of revulsion against the voluntary infliction of suffering onto others!
-Probity refers to the respect for the property rights of others !
-The social Darwinian influence on Garofalo’s thinking is apparent in his explanation of where sentiments of probity
and pity could be found. !
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