Cesare Lombroso and the origins of criminology: Rethinking criminological tradition1
نویسنده
چکیده
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) is widely recognized as one of the first people to bring scientific methods to bear on the study of crime. A physician, psychiatrist, and prolific author, Lombroso is best known as the founder of criminal anthropology, the study of the body, mind, and habits of the “born” criminal. Lombroso's theory of the atavistic offender dominated criminological discussions in Europe, North and South America, and parts of Asia from the 1880s into the early twentieth century. But critics attacked his theory even during his lifetime, and by the time he died, criminologists outside Italy had moved on to other explanations of crime. Today, criminology textbooks continue to acknowledge Lombroso as the “father” of the field, but they tend to be vague as to the nature of his contribution, and in U.S. courses on criminology, Lombroso and his work are sometimes ridiculed. The time is ripe to reassess Lombroso’s work and significance to the field. While I have no intention of defending Lombroso as a researcher, I have spent the last decade immersed in the originals of his books, which has led me to conclude that what we thought we knew about Lombroso differs in important respects from what he actually said. And because our view of his work has been unavoidably narrow and distorted, we have also reached some inaccurate conclusions about the nature of his contribution to criminology.
منابع مشابه
Some Recent Research on Sex Offenders and Society’s Responses to Them
Criminological Highlights is produced by a group of faculty (at the University of Toronto and at nearby universities), criminology doctoral students, and librarians. To find items appropriate for Criminological Highlights, we scan everything that comes into the Centre of Criminology library and over 100 journals that are available electronically. From time to time, we also consider papers publi...
متن کاملCritical Ethnographic Reflections from Baltimore and Ferguson: Contextualizing the Absence of Criminology By,
While using the criminological imagination and intersectionality as analytical frameworks, this paper will highlight preliminary ethnographic findings from fieldwork in Baltimore and Ferguson following the untimely deaths of Freddie Gray and Michael Brown. The paper will underscore some of the author’s intimate field notes and thoughts as well as themes found in data collected. In addition, the...
متن کاملWhither the Sociological Study of Crime ?
The study of crime and deviance has always been one of the most theoretically fertile areas in sociology. Fundamental questions on why individuals violate norms, the origins of social order, official reactions to deviance, and macro-level sources of violence—to name but a few—have attracted some of the best minds in the discipline. The result is a rich lineage of sociologically oriented crimino...
متن کاملQabusnama of Persian Architecture: Rethinking the history of making Gunbad-i Qābus
This study aims to investigate the origins, concepts, and symbolic and formal functions of the Gunbad-i Qābus tomb-tower based on interpretation of its inscription. This hermeneutic analysis addresses the historical context of the building formation, rethinking the concepts presented in its ten-piece inscription using philological methods, and compares it with the inscriptions of some other to...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2005