NCJ Number
218525
Journal
Criminology & Criminal Justice Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2007 Pages: 117-133
Date Published
May 2007
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews the influence of Caesare Lombroso's criminal anthropology in his day (the late 1800s) and how he has become a "signal" criminologist for current feminist criminologists who have resurrected Lombroso's ideas only to show why they should be buried.
Abstract
Lombroso promoted the concept that those who engage in habitually criminal behavior have a primitive biological composition that predetermines their behavior. He went so far as to describe the physical characteristics of the criminal. In his day, Lombroso's proponents were a mix of self-taught individuals and people of standing involved in the advancement of the young sciences of psychiatry, psychology, sexology, and criminology. These were scientists full of new theories to explain human behavior, but with little empirical data to support their theories via sound scientific methods of collecting data and subjecting them to statistical analysis. As the behavioral sciences became more scientifically based in empirical findings, Lombroso's initial supporters in the scientific community began to fall away, and writings that challenged his theory of criminality were generally accepted by criminologists. Emerging feminist criminologists selected Lombroso's writings as epitomizing what they opposed, i.e., the belief that criminal behaviors are rooted in biological characteristics, including gender-based biologies. As feminist criminology has evolved to more than just critiques of the male criminologists of the past, it is time to bury Lombroso for the last time and move on. 37 notes and 83 references