Cesare Lombroso is one of the most famous psychiatrists and criminologists in Italy. Despite the fact that some consider the conclusions of his research questionable, Lombroso is the recognized founder of the anthropological branch of criminology.
Student years of the scientist
Born in 1835 in the Italian city of Verona. After graduating from high school, Lombroso began his studies at the University of Pavia, where he became particularly interested in anthropology, neurophysiology and psychiatry. The teachers were very fond of the student Lombroso - after all, he was very diligent, studying not only according to the program, but also overtime. In order to better understand the differences between ethnic groups, Cesare even began to learn foreign languages - Chinese and Aramaic. However, later he chose a slightly different path, thanks to which the anthropological theory of Cesare Lombroso became known to the whole world.
Experience in custody
At the age of 18, Lombroso was imprisoned because he participated in the movement for and became a suspect in a conspiracy against the government. The student was released in a fairly short time: he did not even accumulate academic debt. But being in the cell made an indelible impression on him. The young man was amazed at how rudely his cellmates behaved and what facial features they possessed. Cesare even suspected that these people might suffer from cretinism. Lombroso's theory of criminals and the idea of its creation may have come to the researcher during this sad period of his life.
Measuring the faces of criminals: experience gained using a caniograph
At the age of 27, Lombroso became a participant in the popular uprising that fought for the independence of his people from Austria. After the revolution ended in the defeat of the rebels, Lombroso continued his work in the military unit - now as a military doctor. At this time, he again creates his own proprietary device for identifying criminals. The caniograph, which the researcher used to measure the noses, chins and brow ridges of suspects in various offenses, did not leave the researcher for a day.
Over time, he collected such a large amount of data that he came up with an unexpected idea on which Lombroso's entire theory is based. The scientist thought: what if criminals are not made, but born? After all, according to the scientist, the tendency to commit crimes is the “inheritance” of a person, which he got from animals.
The criminals themselves, Lombroso believed, must be considered mentally retarded, or degenerates - this is the main point on which Lombroso’s theory was based. The types of criminals were identified by the researcher based on external data. All of whom Lombroso measured had features that made them resemble primitive people. A low forehead, large jaws, close-set eyes - these are the signs, according to the scientist’s conclusions, that individuals prone to breaking the law have.
Predecessor of the lie detector, invented by Lombroso
Visible manifestations of criminal tendencies were not the researcher’s only passion. It should be noted that the devices he invented received much less popularity than the anthropological theory of Lombroso. The scientist developed the predecessor of the modern polygraph. At that time, this device was called a “hydrosphygmometer.” With the help of his invention, Lombroso measured the pulse and blood pressure of those being interrogated, trying to find out their body's reaction to the questions posed.
Distinguishing an innocent from a criminal: first experiments with the device
The first time Lombroso used his device, he was interrogated by a suspected thief. During a conversation with the detainee, the readings of the device were no different from usual - the criminal had no reaction. When he was asked a question about fraud with other people's passports, the first lie detector recorded a change in the indicators. Later it turned out that the person being interrogated was actually a participant in this scam.
The next subject was a suspect in a rape case. Law enforcement agencies were fully confident that the person they caught was indeed an inveterate pimp. But when the investigator showed him a photograph of one of the victims, the hydrosphygmometer did not show any changes in the body of the alleged criminal. The investigator simply brushed aside all of Lombroso’s arguments - he believed that the interrogated was so ossified in his crimes that remorse, like a feeling of fear, was unknown to him.
Then the famous psychiatrist asked the suspect to solve a complex mathematical problem to find out if this was really the case. When the detainee saw the task, the device immediately recorded the changes - which meant that he was still aware of the fear. Soon Lombroso's theory was confirmed - additional investigation revealed the real criminal, and the suspect, who did not know how to solve problems, was rightly released.
Since then, the device invented by Cesare has undergone significant transformations. But the Italian criminologist is considered the pioneer in this area to this day. Today, lie detectors are used not only in law enforcement, but also in many large companies.
Cesare Lombroso's theory of genius
In 1863, Lombroso’s famous book entitled “Genius and Madness” was published. The basis for the work was information collected by the researcher while working in a psychiatric clinic. Lombroso paid close attention to the behavior of patients, their creativity, and the topics they chose for their drawings or notes. The scientist tried to find out how much one can judge a person’s mental health by his creative works.
Lombroso's theory of genius, formed on the basis of his observations, states: artistic abilities are hereditary - and are passed on from ancestors along with mental disorders. After Lombroso made his conclusions, he began to look for confirmation of them in history. The researcher began to study the biographies of great people and came to the conclusion that many of them were not only geniuses, but also madmen. Among them he included, for example, the composers Mozart, Beethoven, and Gluck.
Lombroso's theory of genius thus placed both neurotic tendencies and giftedness on a par. Lombroso considered one of the arguments in its favor to be the increased sensitivity of both the mentally ill and the genius. The difference between these two extremes, according to the scientist, is in people's reaction to the world around them. The same event for a genius can become the impetus for a discovery, but for a neurotic it can be the cause of an even greater mental disorder.
The anthropological theory of Cesare Lombroso: the giftedness of the Jews
The researcher discovered an interesting relationship between nationality and the number of talented people. In first place in terms of the number of both geniuses and neurotics are Jews. Lombroso explains this pattern as follows: the Jewish people were constantly persecuted, so they underwent a rather cruel selection. The researcher gives the following figures: for every 384 people, Jews have one crazy person.
Among representatives of the Catholic faith, this coefficient is five times lower. Lombroso also believed that it is genetic predisposition, as opposed to upbringing, that is a factor in genius. Lombroso's biological theory is confirmed by some of the arguments that the scientist gives. For example, he points to the fact that in the Bach family 8 generations were involved in music, and 57 people were popular in this field.
The famous Italian forensic psychiatrist and criminologist of the 19th century, Cesare Lombroso, called for types with “non-photogenic” faces to be executed or isolated: they say, a person’s criminal predilections are written on their faces. His theories have long been recognized as erroneous, but many of his developments are still valuable today. For example, a method for recording human anthropological data.
Mikhail Vinogradov: psychics in the service of the special services
Lombroso, born in 1836 in Verona, went down in history as one of the most famous criminologists of the century before last - he created the criminal anthropological direction in the science of criminal law. It is believed that he made a great contribution to the development of legal psychology. True, there is little practical benefit from his research today: often the most terrible maniacal criminals were no scarier or more beautiful than average citizens.
At the age of 19, while studying at the medical faculty of the University of Pavia, Lombroso published his first articles on psychiatry - on the problem of cretinism, which attracted the attention of specialists. He independently mastered such disciplines as ethnolinguistics and social hygiene.
In 1862, he was already a professor of mental illness, then director of the clinic for mental illness, professor of legal psychiatry and criminal anthropology. In 1896, Lombroso received the chair of psychiatry at the University of Turin.
While a military doctor back in the early 1860s, Lombroso had the opportunity to take part in campaigns to combat banditry in the south of the country - then he undertook his first research on anthropometry. Summarizing them, he came to the conclusion that the hardships of life in poor Southern Italy led to the appearance of an “abnormal” type of people with various anatomical and mental abnormalities. He classified them as a special anthropological variety - “criminal man.”
Cesare Lombroso strictly recorded the anthropometric data of lawbreakers, using a special device - a craniograph, with which he measured the size of parts of the face and head. He published his findings in the book “Anthropometry of 400 Offenders,” which became something of a textbook for many detectives of that time.
According to Lombroso's theory of the “born criminal,” criminals are not made, but rather born: criminals are degenerates. Therefore, it is impossible to re-educate them; it is better to preventively deprive them of freedom or even life.
How to determine criminal tendencies by appearance? This is served by distinctive signs - “stigmata”: a set of psychological and physical characteristics. For example, a flat nose, low forehead, massive jaws - all of them, from the scientist’s point of view, are characteristic of “primitive man and animals.”
However, Lombroso also had critics. Many of his contemporaries have already noted that his theory overlooks the social factors of crime. Therefore, at the end of the 19th century, the theory of anthropological crime was recognized as generally erroneous.
It is worth mentioning the curious work of Lombroso - “Genius and Madness” (1895). In it, the scientist put forward the thesis that genius is the result of abnormal brain activity on the verge of epileptoid psychosis. He wrote that the similarity between brilliant people and crazy people in physiological terms is simply amazing. Well, many agreed with him then - they still agree now: after all, often people of genius are truly “not of this world.”
By the way, it was Lombroso who was the first in the world to use knowledge of physiology to detect deception, that is, he used a kind of lie detector. In 1895, he first published the results of using primitive laboratory instruments to interrogate criminals.
Cesare Lombroso died on October 19, 1909 in Turin, despite all his mistakes and delusions, remaining in the memory of posterity as an outstanding scientist, one of the pioneers of introducing objective methods into legal science. His works played an important role in the development of criminology and legal psychology.
Cesare Lombroso's contribution to criminology was told to Pravda.Ru by a psychiatrist-criminologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor of psychiatry, creator and director of the Center for Legal and Psychological Assistance in Extreme Situations Mikhail ViktorovichVinogradov:
“Cesare Lombroso laid the foundation of modern psychiatric criminology. But at that time he did not have the opportunity to conduct a clear mathematical analysis of the signs that he identified. With what is written on a person’s face, in gestures, in gait, facial expressions, all this reflects its essence. But Lombroso shifted the concepts of man in a special way. After all, man is like a dual being: social and biological.
They don’t become criminals, said C. Lombroso, they are born criminals.
A criminal is an atavistic creature who reproduces in his personality the fierce instincts of primitive humanity and lower animals Gertsenzon A.A. Methodology for criminological study of the personality of a criminal. M., 2004, pp. 221..
Criminals have distinctly different physical traits. Innate individual factors are the main causes of criminal behavior, he argued.
Lombroso developed a table of signs of a born criminal - such traits (stigmas), by identifying which, by directly measuring the physical traits of a person, it was possible, as he believed, to decide whether we were dealing with a born criminal or not. Criminology: ed. N.F. Kuznetsova, V.V. Lunaeva, 2nd edition M; Wolters Kluwer-2005, p. 192.
The first checks of Lombroso's tables showed, however, that the presence of special physical features in a criminal that distinguish them from all other modern people and bring them closer to primitive man is nothing more than a myth.
In 1913, the English criminologist S. Goring tested Lombroso's research, comparing prisoners with students at Cambridge (1000 people), Oxford and Aberdeen (959 people), with military personnel and college teachers (118 people). It turned out that there were no differences between them and the criminals.
In the book, Lombroso attracted attention primarily to the thesis about the existence of an anatomical type of a born criminal, that is, a person whose criminality is predetermined by his certain lower physical organization, atavism or degeneration.
However, subsequent thorough examinations of criminals, including in Russia, did not confirm his conclusions.
Thus, pathologist D.N. Zernov, on the basis of specially conducted verification studies, came to the conviction that a “born criminal” does not exist; qualified research in the field of anatomy failed to confirm its existence.
Zernov noted that among criminals there are people with signs of degeneration in the same way as among non-criminal people. Their number, in all likelihood, is the same, both among criminals and non-criminals, therefore the average numbers are the same.
Ch. Lombroso attached great importance to the dissemination and development of his theory, which received wide resonance at the International Legal Congress, which opened in Lisbon on April 4, 1889. Lombroso Ch. Crime. The latest advances in science. Anarchists. M., 2004. P. 211.
At the same time, already in the 19th century. C. Lombroso's theoretical constructions were criticized. One of these critics was the famous German lawyer F. von List.
Recognizing the importance of addressing the personality of the criminal, F. von List, however, pointed out: C. Lombroso is far from the truth, believing that most criminals are susceptible to epilepsy and that in almost any criminal one can find characteristic signs of a wild person. List F. von. Tasks of criminal policy. Crime as a socially pathological phenomenon. M., 2004. P. 15.
F. von List, in his publications, sought to show that it is necessary to take into account both the social conditions that give rise to crime and the personality characteristics of the criminal. Ibid. P. 92..
This led to the conclusion that the anthropological and sociological schools of criminology without each other would not be able to give an accurate answer regarding the crime.
A consistent critic of the exclusive anthropologization of criminology was, as already noted, S.Ya. Bulatov.
In the monograph “Criminal Policy of the Age of Imperialism,” he showed the inconsistency of the so-called natural science experiments,” which served as the basis for considering criminals as a supposedly special group of people, something akin to a special race Bulatov S.Ya. Criminal policy of the era of imperialism. M., 1933..
S.Ya. Bulatov saw the reasons that prompt a person to take the path of committing crimes in social life, in social relations that develop in conditions of class struggle.
C. Lombroso developed his views over time, paying attention to certain socio-economic reasons for the emergence and growth of crime.
He, in particular, noted that “poverty is a source of crimes, although not very gross and cruel in their form, but rather limited in number.
Meanwhile, the artificial endless needs of rich people create numerous types of special crimes."
The evolution of C. Lombroso's views did not go unnoticed by S.Ya. Bulatov. He provides a detailed analysis of the views of the founder of the anthropological school of criminology and the approaches of his followers.
As a result of a comprehensive study, he comes to the conclusion: “The anthropological school is not a school of determinism, but of fatalism, a school not of materialism, but of idealism disguised as materialism, since it turns a class historical phenomenon - a crime - into a supra-class, ahistorical phenomenon, “eternal, like birth.” like death."
At the same time, of course, it is necessary to keep in mind that the views of scientists are largely determined specifically by the historical situation in which they live.
It is in this light that one should evaluate the achievements of a scientist, his real contribution to the development of science, and not those opportunities that were not realized for one reason or another.”
Despite the fallacy of Lombroso’s position about the existence of a type of born criminals, his contribution to the development of criminology cannot be denied. Begimbaev S.A. Ideas of S.Ya. Bulatov on the anthropological theory of crime. State and law. No. 10. 2008. pp. 25 - 27..
It was Lombroso who began researching factual material, raising the question of the causality of criminal behavior and the identity of the criminal. His main idea is that cause is a chain of interconnected causes.
Photo from cyclowiki.org
The Italian psychiatrist and professor of forensic medicine of the 19th century, Cesare Lombroso, is often called the founder of criminal anthropology. This science tries to explain the connection between a person’s anatomical and physiological characteristics 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 apes. Thus, criminals are not made, but rather born. Whether a person will be a criminal or not depends only on his innate predisposition, and each type of crime has its own anomalies.
Lombroso devoted his entire life to the development of this theory. He examined 383 skulls of deceased and 3839 skulls of living criminals. In addition, the scientist studied the body characteristics (pulse, temperature, bodily sensitivity, intelligence, habits, illnesses, handwriting) of 26,886 criminals and 25,447 respectable citizens.
Appearance of the criminals
Lombroso identified 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, and overdeveloped jaws. Red-haired criminals are extremely rare. Most often, crimes are committed by brunettes and brown-haired men. Brunettes prefer to steal or commit arson, while brown-haired men are prone to murder. Blondes are sometimes found among rapists and scammers.
Appearance of a typical rapist
Large bulging eyes, plump lips, long eyelashes, a flattened and crooked nose. Most often they are lean and rickety blonde, sometimes hunchbacked.
Appearance of a typical thief
An irregular small skull, an elongated head, a straight nose (often turned up at the base), a running or, conversely, tenacious gaze, 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 curved down), square jaws, huge eye orbits, protruding quadrangular chin, fixed 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, on the contrary, too small earlobes.
Appearance of a typical scammer
The face is pale, the eyes are small and stern, the nose is crooked, the head is bald. In general, the appearance of scammers is quite good-natured.
Features of criminals
“I myself have observed that during a thunderstorm, when epileptics have more frequent seizures, prisoners in prison also become more dangerous: they tear their clothes, break furniture, beat servants,” wrote Lombroso. In his opinion, criminals have reduced sensitivity of sensory organs and pain sensitivity. They are not able to realize the immorality of their actions, so repentance is unknown to them.
Lombroso was also 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, curvilinearity and definite features at the end of letters. Thieves' handwriting is characterized by extended letters, without sharp outlines or curvilinear endings.
The character and lifestyle of criminals
According to Lombroso's theory, criminals are characterized by a desire for vagrancy, shamelessness, and laziness. Many of them have tattoos. Persons prone to crime are characterized by boasting, pretense, weakness of character, irritability, highly developed vanity bordering on delusions of grandeur, rapid mood swings, cowardice and morbid irritability. These people are aggressive, vindictive, they are incapable of repentance and do not suffer from remorse. Graphomania can also indicate criminal tendencies.
Lombroso believed that people from the lower class become murderers, robbers and rapists. Representatives of the middle and upper classes are more likely to be professional swindlers.
Criticism of Lombroso's theory
Even during Lombroso's lifetime, his theory was criticized. Not surprising - 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 component and completely did not take into account the social component in the cause of crime. Perhaps this is what made Lombroso, towards the end of his life, reconsider some of his views. 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 tendency to commit illegal acts. If a person of criminal appearance is prosperous, 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 sending them to the ovens. During the Soviet period, the doctrine of the born criminal was also criticized for its contradiction to the principle of legality, anti-nationality and reactionary nature.
As far as we were able to find out, Lombroso’s theory was never used in legal proceedings - even the scientist himself did not see any practical value in it, as he stated at one scientific debate: “I am not working in order to give my research practical application in the field of jurisprudence; As a scientist, I serve science only for science's sake." Nevertheless, the concept of a criminal person proposed by him has come into common use, and his developments are still used in physiognomy, criminal anthropology, sociology and psychology.
* Information taken from the following books: Cesare Lombroso. "Criminal Man" Milgard. 2005; Mikhail Shterenshis. "Cesare Lombroso". IsraDon. 2010
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) - an outstanding Italian psychiatrist, criminologist and criminologist. Born on November 6, 1835 in Verona, then ruled by Austria. In 1858 he received the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences from the University of Pavia. In 1859-1865 participated as a military doctor in the Italian War of Independence. In 1867 he was appointed professor at the mental health clinic in Pavia, in 1871 he was appointed head of the neurological institution in Pesaro, and in 1876 he was appointed professor of forensic medicine at the University of Turin.
Psychiatrists consider C. Lombroso the forerunner of several scientific schools, in particular the morphological theory of temperament. His book Genius and Madness is a classic of psychiatry. Criminologists see C. Lombroso as one of the creators of the theory of forensic identification. None other than Lombroso, in his book “The Criminal Man,” outlined the first experience of the practical application of the psychophysiological method of “lie detection” (using a device - the prototype of the polygraph) to identify persons who have committed crimes.
In criminology, C. Lombroso is known for being the founder of the anthropological school. In his work “The Criminal Man” (1876), he hypothesized that a criminal can be identified by external physical signs, reduced sensitivity of the senses and pain sensitivity. Lombroso wrote: “Both epileptics and criminals are characterized by a desire for vagrancy, shamelessness, laziness, boasting of a crime, graphomania, slang, tattoos, pretense, weak character, momentary irritability, delusions of grandeur, rapid changes of mood and feelings, cowardice, a tendency to contradictions, exaggeration, morbid irritability, bad temper, whimsicality. And I myself observed that during a thunderstorm, when epileptics have more frequent seizures, prisoners in prison also become more dangerous: they tear their clothes, break furniture, and beat servants.” Thus, the criminal is in special pathological conditions, determined in most cases by different processes or different special conditions. Impressed by his discovery, C. Lombroso began to study the anthropological characteristics of a large array of criminals. Lombroso studied 26,886 criminals; his control group was 25,447 good citizens. Based on the results obtained, C. Lombroso found out that a criminal is a unique anthropological type who commits crimes due to certain properties and characteristics of his physical build. “The criminal,” wrote Lombroso, “is a special creature, different from other people. This is a unique anthropological type that is driven to crime due to the multiple properties and characteristics of its organization. Therefore, crime in human society is as natural as in the entire organic world. Plants that kill and eat insects also commit crimes. Animals deceive, steal, rob and rob, kill and devour each other. Some animals are characterized by bloodthirstiness, others by covetousness.”
Lombroso's main idea is that the criminal is a special natural type, more sick than guilty. Criminals are not made, but born. This is a kind of two-legged predator, which, like a tiger, makes no sense in reproaching it for bloodthirstiness. Criminals are characterized by special anatomical, physiological and psychological properties that make them, as it were, fatally doomed from birth to commit a crime. To anatomo-physiol. signs of the so-called Lombroso’s “born criminal” includes: irregular, ugly shape of the skull, bifurcation of the frontal bone, slight jagged edges of the cranial bones, facial asymmetry, irregular brain structure, dull susceptibility to pain and others.
The criminal is also characterized by such pathological personality traits as: highly developed vanity, cynicism, lack of a sense of guilt, the ability to repent and remorse, aggressiveness, vindictiveness, a tendency to cruelty and violence, to exaltation and demonstrative forms of behavior, a tendency to highlight the characteristics of a special community (tattoos, speech slang, etc.)
Innate crime was first explained by atavism: the criminal was understood as a savage who could not adapt to the rules and norms of a civilized community. Later it was understood as a form of “moral insanity” and then as a form of epilepsy.
In addition, Lombroso creates a special typology - each type of criminal corresponds only to its characteristic features.
The killers. In the type of killer, the anatomical features of the criminal are clearly visible, in particular, a very sharp frontal sinus, very voluminous cheekbones, huge eye orbits, and a protruding quadrangular chin. These most dangerous criminals have a predominant curvature of the head, the width of the head is greater than its height, the face is narrow (the back semicircle of the head is more developed than the front), most often their hair is black, curly, the beard is sparse, there is often a goiter and short hands. Characteristic features of killers also include a cold and motionless (glassy) gaze, bloodshot eyes, a downturned (eagle) nose, overly large or, on the contrary, too small earlobes, and thin lips.
The thieves. Thieves have long heads, black hair and a sparse beard, and their mental development is higher than that of other criminals, with the exception of swindlers. Thieves predominantly have a straight nose, often concave, upturned at the base, short, wide, flattened and in many cases deflected to the side. Eyes and hands are mobile (the thief avoids meeting the interlocutor with direct gaze - shifting eyes).
Rapists. Rapists have bulging eyes, a tender face, huge lips and eyelashes, flattened noses, moderately sized, tilted to the side, most of them are lean and rickety blonde.
Scammers. Fraudsters often have a good-natured appearance, their face is pale, their eyes are small and stern, their nose is crooked, and their head is bald. Lombroso was also 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, curvilinearity and definite features at the end of letters. Thieves' handwriting is characterized by extended letters, without sharp outlines or curvilinear endings.
The atomistic teaching of Ch. Lombroso was of great importance in the search for ways and means of diagnosing the personality of a criminal, the development of psychology and pathopsychology of a criminogenic personality, in the formation of the foundations of criminology and forensic psychology, and in the search for appropriate measures to influence the personality of a criminal. Many of the results of Lombroso's empirical research have not lost their relevance (experimental data on the genetics of behavior at the end of the 20th century demonstrated that genetic factors are indeed the cause of some types of aggressive, including criminal, behavior). And, most importantly, they are not reduced to primitive schemes for the biological explanation of criminal behavior. C. Lombroso's conclusions are always multivariate and imbued with a constant desire to identify the real mutual influence of biological and social factors on each other in antisocial behavior.
