Introduction
The Lombroso theory is termed as the beginning of the modern criminology. It influenced the thinking about criminal behavior throughout the 19th century and beginning of 20th century. Cesare Lombroso is the one who came up with this theory and it is also described as the father of modern criminology. Lombroso essentially believed that criminality existed in the genetic composition of a person and it is inherited. He was of the view that criminals could be identified by physical traits such as having a big nose and long strong arms. He was among the first people to perform scientific experiments and studies on crime. His work was written in Italian and later translated after his death.
Gina Lombroso was the daughter of Cesare Lombroso who summarized his work in Criminal Man. Criminal man contains conclusions arrived at from the original work of Cesare Lombroso. The influence of criminal mind cannot be ignored in today’s society although it has been discredited by criminologists and the ideas found to be invalid. He was the first man to realize that criminals can be scientifically studied and this thought has influenced the modern studies conducted to understand the thinking and influences of criminals.
For many years, many viewed crime as a sin against God and deserved to be punished accordingly. They believed that if someone committed a crime then they deserved to be punished. Jeremy Bentham stated all humans are rational beings and before they committed a crime they ought to have thought about the costs and benefits of committing the said crime. Bentham’s ideas were popular during the enlighten popular and other theorists such as Cesare Beccaria supported the same ideas. Lombroso challenged these ideas together with other criminal anthropologists hence is advocacy on study of criminals from a scientific perspective. Bentham’s ideas were found to be insufficient because not all people apply logic and some people are guided by their emotions in performing these crimes. This paper will discuss the Lombroso theory as interpreted by Gina Lombroso. It will also look at the recent applications and influence of the theory in the current society. It will analyses the theory and look at some of the ideas in the current society. What they present and how they can be viewed.
Theoretical Framework
The Lombroso theory is a theory of biological positivism. Positivism aims at establishing the causes of a person’s behavior. Lombroso uses biological explanations to prove that some people who have some defects are born criminals and their appearance differs from those that are not criminals. Theories based on individual traits imply that there are huge differences between criminals and non-criminals. Investigations and scientific experiments are carried out to determine these differences. Cesare Lombroso introduced the scientific study of criminal behavior. He made the first attempt to explain these behaviors using scientific explanations. Through his work more school of thoughts such as the biological positivism- intelligence era were born. They introduced mental deficiencies to physical differences while attempting to study criminal behaviors. Modern researchers and biologists have found out that biology plays a role in a person’s behavior but it cannot be proven to what extent. There has not been much studies on how behavioral differences affect individuals and make them prone to committing crimes. This paper will be analyzing the Lombroso theory and will be utilizing the Biological positivism theory.
The Lombroso Theory
Gina Lombroso, the daughter of Cesare Lombroso summarized his work in Criminal man. Cesare Lombroso, was an Italian criminologist and physician who was interested in learning the learning the connection between crime and physiology in the nineteenth century. He did numerous post-mortem examinations on criminals, mad people, and ordinary people. He had realized that there were so many commonalities between people who had committed crimes. One of the similarities is that criminals did not contemplate the consequences of their actions back then, as they do now. Even if their actions ended up hurting others, they engaged in crimes to fulfill their desires.
Unlike most criminologists, Lombroso was a firm believer in the scientific explanation of human behavior. During his time, his work Born Criminal Theory was not widely accepted; instead, it was scrutinized and critiqued. Lombroso’s results have inspired other thinkers to develop their own hypotheses. It is one of the most popular theories in criminology up to date, although it continues to get negative reviews.
Lombroso was a professor in the University of Turin in 1878 teaching forensic medicine. This is when Criminal Man was written and it has remained of his most influential works up to date (Gibson, 2002). In his book, criminals are referred to as atavistic. He was of the view that criminality was passed down from one generation to another. Genes and physical flaws of born criminals are used to identify them. He also believed that criminals were from the past during the existence of our ancestors who had come back. At some point, he compares criminals to monkeys calling them savages.
From his postmortem experiments, Lombroso discovered that there were some physical features that were common to criminals. He became more convinced that criminals do exist. Some of the common features among criminals include, unusually large ears, slanting forehead, sharp fingers, forehead wrinkles, broad nose, long arms, bumpy face and a receding hairline. These were common traits observed by Lombroso. According to him, these stigmata were connected to primitive man.
Apart from physical appearance, Lombroso also focused on the genetics. He believed that some genes were associated with criminality (Ferrero, 1911). Families which had cases of epilepsy, insanity, alcoholism and deafness were believed to produce criminals. With this in mind, Lombroso’s point view was that a “normal” person could not become a criminal. Normal in terms of their genetic composition and physical attributes that were considered to be “normal”. In one of his observations, he noticed that prisoners who were criminals had similar characteristics. Because man is a social being, living in a society and interacting with other people in different setting, a “normal” person can transition to become a criminal. This is contrary to Lombroso’s view who sees genes and physical attributes as the main contribution to one being prone to becoming a criminal.
Lombroso believed that criminals who performed similar acts of crime shared similar characteristics. Robbers have been shown to share similar physical characteristics. They are short, have grey eyes and black hair. In one of his great works, he notes that tattoos are also one of the shared characteristics if criminals. He wrote that tattoos reveal more about the “unfortunates” (Lombroso,1896, p.56). He also realized that criminals could tolerate more pain than the “normal” people. He saw men with tattoos as people living as savages. In today’s society, it is a stereotype to categories all people with tattoos as criminals. It is also judgmental as people have the right to express themselves through art and other means. In the modern society, tattoos are a mode of expression and they represent different things for different people (Machado, 2021). Nobody should be subjected to such judgements because of their sense of creativity and artistry.
In Criminal Man, Lombroso talks about race and how it influences crime. He studies criminals from different races such as Jews, African-Americans and Indians. He connects serious crimes such as homicide to African-Americans and Indians. He believed that African-Americans committed these serious crimes because they had the most physical stigmata of a criminal (Lombroso,1876). This theory is offensive and racist as it associates a certain race with crime. It is hateful and supports racism. In our modern society notions such as blacks are criminals have caused so much hate and damage and continue to divide people based on race. If this theory is to be applied, more deaths will be suffered and the world will never obtain peace. These are strong statements that need to be addressed especially now that we are living in different times. We have come a long way, centuries have passed and although such theories in criminology have received negative feedback and been abandoned, there are still in play. A man should not be defined by their race only and this is why I find this theory to be offensive to some races more than others.
In his studies, Lombroso classifies his findings. Insane criminals are said to be alcoholic, violent and they are not remorseful and this is because of their genes. He classified criminaloids as men who did not portray signs of insanity. There are those people who commit crimes every time an opportunity arises. He classified female criminals as the hysterical. Female criminals did not show any sign of mental illnesses(Lomroso,1876). Crimes committed by females were said to be driven by their passions. These female criminals were also said to have similar physical characteristics for example moles.
With time, Lombroso’s theory became very popular although it received a lot of criticism. His theories were discovered to feature many mistakes and weaknesses in his research. One of the weaknesses to his research is that it only focused on a group of convicted criminals and did not have a control experiment looking at other groups of people who were not in prison (History Extra, 2020). This made his theory flawed as his research was narrowed down to only a certain group of people (Gado,2014). His work was discredited by Charles Goring who was a criminologist. Goring argued that because a person has some traits of a criminal, it does not mean he is one and he does not become less normal than others (Goring,1913). Goring conducted his own study based on Lombroso’s theory studying many prisoners in Britain. He compared the appearance of the prisoners with that of the military men and engineers who were important people of the society.
Lombroso’s theory of atavistic was also discredited by Earnest Hooten. He believed that all men of the same generation were born equal. Hooten wrote criminology book called crime and the man to discredit Lombroso’s theory. There were very few people who actually believed Lombroso’s theory. He was well aware of this and he wanted to have more people believe in it. This is the reason for changing his theory from looking at biological traits to classification of criminals. The criminals were classified into abnormal criminals, occasional criminals and born criminals. Born criminals were thirty percent of all criminals, abnormal criminals were those that were alcoholic, idiots and imbeciles. Lombroso’s work was available in Italian language and was later translated to English language after his death. Criminal man written by Gina Lombroso was translated to English by an unknown man. Most people had concerns about Gina Lombroso’s work wondering if it was accurate given she was representing her father’s ideas (Rafter,20003).
In the 19th century, Lombroso’s theory was popular because people at that time were not as enlightened as today. Those were different times and the reasoning was different. Crimes were not normal activities and that is why criminals were seen as not normal people. It was believed that there must be something wrong with you physically or mentally if you portrayed the criminal traits or were involved in crimes. Lombroso’s theory was used as a reference to know about people and check those with criminal traits so that you can avoid them. With time, as the years progressed, Lombroso’s theory continued to lose its credibility as people became more aware of their behavior and surroundings. Some criminologists tried to use Lombroso’s ideas to come up with their own work. They however were not able to make their ideas popular.
As discussed, Lombroso only experimented on criminals and left out people who were not participating in crime. The notion that criminals are born and crime can be genetic was rejected. Crime cannot be classified as a natural action or a category of behavior because it is a social construct. Nobody was born to become a criminal. Being one is based on the surroundings and acquired behavior. Current studies have proven that there is no single gene assigned to criminal behavior. There is no such thing and hence it cannot be scientifically proven that genes affect the likelihood of one becoming a criminal or not (Sammons).
Up to date, Lombroso’s theory has not been proven to be valid. It is still considered to be stereotypical and it is not applied in criminology. Using physical traits to identify someone as a criminal is offensive because there are people with such characteristics and they are not criminals. A good example is athletes such as swimmers who have long strong hands. According to Lombroso, these long strong arms fits the traits of a criminal. Swimmers are not criminals but a swimmer can commit a crime and become a criminal. Categorizing people in classes based on their traits and labelling them as criminals is a dangerous act that is meant to divide people and make people lose trust in each other. Lombroso’s work rarely discussed the psychology of a criminal which maybe might be of a greater help in understanding those who commit crimes than looking at physical attributes (History Extra, 2020).
In our current society, Lombroso’s theory is not very relevant. This is because researchers are applying different criminology approaches to look at the effect and influence of environmental factors and how they contribute to criminal behavior. Research is also concentrated in looking at rehabilitating criminals so that they can get back to the society as better people. At no point are these criminals seen or regarded to be different from other people and them engaging in crime is not considered to be a s a result of their physical defects, but it is highly influenced by their surroundings. The environment a person is raised in and lives as the most influence on their behavior and actions.
Today, researchers carry out psychological tests, genetics and neurology to show that modern criminology approaches are valid and reliable more than fully relying on a person’s physical traits such as their skull. Lombroso’s theory has been found to be fully unjustifiable and it cannot survive in the modern society. Following the theory would mean that people ought to have perfect physical traits such as smaller nose to make sure that they are not labelled criminals. In recent discussions, there has been questions on whether Lombroso school of thought in terms of neurological evidence can be used to access criminal cases in courts. The Lombroso theory has also been used in research focused on identifying individuals at risks of engaging in crime. This assists in coming up with enforceable preventive measures. It was used to motivate and inspire criminologists during the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. Some criminologists even came up with their own ideas by critiquing Lombroso’s theory.
Conclusion
It is important to formulate necessary laws and policies to ensure equal rights and nondiscrimination and to solve problems that were introduced by theories such as the Lombroso Theory. Although the theory has contributed to the study of modern criminology, it also had negative effects on the society. Proposing that people be judged based on their physical traits and that criminal traits can be inherited cause division among people. In itself, people are not born with perfect features and having someone call you a criminal because of how you look would be disastrous. With current studies and advancement, people’s thinking has matured and is backed up with proven scientific facts. This is essential is ensuring that the 19th century prepositions by theorists such as Lombroso are not applied leading to conviction of innocent people.
The theory has many stenotypes and prejudices that are capable of creating serious societal problems such as racism. This has been an existing issue up to date and people are still judged as criminals because of their race. A good example is the African-Americans who are feared because people believe that race is associated to having the highest number of criminals. This is a stereotype that has caused deaths of so many innocent people. The principals and characteristics of Lombroso’s theory continue to act as relevant material for modern research on criminology. It is important to know that a criminal is not born but made. Also a person’s appearance has less to do with whether or not they engage in criminal behaviors.
References
Ferrero, G. L. (1911). The born criminal and his relation to moral insanity and epilepsy. Criminal man, according to the classification of Cesare Lombroso, 52-73. https://doi.org/10.1037/10912-002
Ferrero, G. L. (1911). Criminaloids. Criminal man, according to the classification of Cesare Lombroso, 100-121. https://doi.org/10.1037/10912-004
Gibson, M. (2002). Born to crime: Cesare Lombroso and the origins of biological criminology. Praeger Pub Text.
Goring, C., & Commission, G. B. (1913). The English convict: A statistical study.
History Extra. (2020, November 26). The ‘born criminal’? Lombroso and the origins of modern criminology. HistoryExtra. https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/the-born-criminal-lombroso-and-the-origins-of-modern-criminology/
Lombroso, C. (2006). Criminal man. Duke University Press.
Lombroso, C., & Lombroso-Ferrero, G. (2015). Criminal man: According to the classification of Cesare Lombroso briefly summarised by his daughter Gina Lombroso-Ferrero. CreateSpace.
Machado, D. D. (2021, May 18). Cesare Lombroso’s theory and its influence on society. https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/law/influence-on-society
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