Cesare Lombroso was born in Verona. He graduated from the universities of Padua, Vienna and Paris, and from 1862 to 1876 he was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pavia. In 1871 he also became director of the mental hospital in Pesaro; in 1876 he was invited to the University of Turin, where he served as professor of psychiatry and criminal anthropology.
In 1876, he published his work “The Criminal,” in which he put forward the thesis about the existence of a special type of person predisposed to committing crimes due to certain biological characteristics (anthropological stigmata).
Books (5)
Do you want to know everything about prostitution? Then the book "Woman Criminal and Prostitute" is for you! Civil prostitution, hospitable prostitution, polyandry, religious prostitution, legal prostitution, prostitution of different times and peoples, congenital prostitutes, casual prostitutes...
Just like crime, prostitution was a normal phenomenon in the life of civilized peoples at the dawn of their development, as it is now in the life of savages.
Love among the crazy
“In psychiatric statistics we can always find a decent round number of madness from love. Esquirol found among 1375 insane people 37 people who lost their minds from love, 18 from jealousy and 146 due to a depraved life.
I, however, think that the number of actual madness from love is much less than what the statistics indicate. And indeed, throughout my long practice, during which I had to observe many thousands of insane people, I can hardly count a dozen such cases.”
Anarchists
The book "The Anarchists" gave rise to the main discussion of modern criminology - about the priority of biological and social factors in criminal behavior.
The book is intended for students, graduate students, teachers of law universities and faculties, as well as for a wide range of readers interested in the problems of fighting crime.
Genius and madness
In the works presented in this collection, Cesare Lombroso seeks the answer to the question of why some people admire their abilities, even genius, while others bear the cross of dementia, vices, and crimes.
Criminal man
Scientist and criminologist Cesare Lombroso went down in history as the author of the theory about the biological predisposition of a number of people to commit crimes - a theory that, to a certain extent, laid the foundations of modern criminal anthropology and criminal psychology. The richest factual material, unexpected for an Italian, truly German meticulousness and scrupulousness in systematizing data, and finally, the scale of research - thanks to all this, the works of C. Lombroso remain in demand to this day.
This publication includes the classic studies of C. Lombroso - from the “Criminal Man” that made the Italian scientist famous in professional circles to the work “Genius and Insanity” that brought him worldwide fame.
Reader comments
Reader1989/ 02/07/2016 I made an inaccuracy in my review.
There were heroes or just good people who had large jaws and brow ridges. So, if they had been caught by Lombroso on the path of life, instead of criminals, he would have argued that large jaws and brow ridges are characteristic of good and kind people
Reader1989/ 02/07/2016 Lombroso saw that some of the criminals had large jaws and heavy brow ridges and began to argue that people with such features are more prone to crimes than other people. He dealt with criminals, he saw criminals and talked about criminals. But I am sure that there were many heroes who risked their lives and died for others during disasters, natural disasters or wars.
Perhaps if he had been a doctor at the front, in the war, he would have argued that people with large jaws and brow ridges are prone to heroism
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.
The founder of the anthropological trend in criminology and criminal law, the main idea of which was the idea of a born criminal. Since 1862, professor at the University of Pavia, since 1896, professor at the University of Turin. Lombroso's main merit in criminology is that he shifted the focus of study from crime as an act to a person - a criminal.
Works
Genius and madness
In 1863, Italian psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso published his book “Genius and Madness” (Russian translation by K. Tetyushinova), in which he draws a parallel between great people and madmen. This is what the author himself writes in the preface of the book: “When, many years ago, being as if under the influence of ecstasy, during which the relationship between genius and insanity was clearly presented to me as if in a mirror, I wrote the first chapters of this book in 12 days , then, I admit, even I myself was not clear to what serious practical conclusions the theory I created could lead to. ..."
In his work, C. Lombroso writes about the physical similarity of genius people with madmen, about the influence of various phenomena (atmospheric, heredity, etc.) on genius and insanity, gives examples, numerous medical evidence about the presence of mental disorders in a number of writers, as well as describes the special characteristics of brilliant people who at the same time suffered from insanity.
These features are as follows:
- 1. Some of these people showed unnatural, too early development of genius abilities. For example, Ampere at the age of 13 was already a good mathematician, and Pascal at the age of 10 came up with the theory of acoustics, based on the sounds produced by plates when they are placed on the table.
- 2. Many of them extremely abused drugs and alcoholic beverages. Thus, Haller consumed enormous amounts of opium, and, for example, Rousseau consumed coffee.
- 3. Many did not feel the need to work quietly in the quiet of their office, but as if they could not sit in one place and had to constantly travel.
- 4. No less often they also changed their professions and specialties, as if their powerful genius could not be content with one science and fully express itself in it.
- 5. Such strong, enthusiastic minds are passionately devoted to science and greedily take on the solution of the most difficult questions, as perhaps the most suitable for their painfully excited energy. In every science they are able to grasp new outstanding features and, on the basis of them, draw sometimes absurd conclusions.
- 6. All geniuses have their own special style, passionate, vibrant, colorful, which distinguishes them from other healthy writers and is characteristic of them, perhaps precisely because it is developed under the influence of psychosis. This position is confirmed by the own recognition of such geniuses that all of them, after the end of ecstasy, are not only incapable of composing, but also of thinking.
- 7. Almost all of them suffered deeply from religious doubts, which involuntarily presented themselves to their minds, while a timid conscience forced them to consider such doubts as crimes. For example, Haller wrote in his diary: “My God! Send me at least one drop of faith; “My mind believes in you, but my heart does not share this faith - that is my crime.”
- 8. The main signs of the abnormality of these great people are expressed in the very structure of their oral and written speech, in illogical conclusions, in absurd contradictions. Was not Socrates, the brilliant thinker who foresaw Christian morality and Jewish monotheism, crazy when he was guided in his actions by the voice and instructions of his imaginary Genius, or even simply by a sneeze?
- 9. Almost all geniuses attached great importance to their dreams.
- In the conclusion of his book, C. Lombroso, however, says that based on the above, one cannot come to the conclusion that genius in general is nothing more than insanity. True, in the stormy and anxious life of brilliant people, there are moments when these people resemble madmen, and in mental activity and others there are many common features - for example, increased sensitivity, exaltation, giving way to apathy, originality of aesthetic works and the ability to discover, unconsciousness of creativity and severe absent-mindedness, alcohol abuse and enormous vanity. Among the brilliant people there are crazy people, and among the crazy people there are geniuses. But there were and are many brilliant people in whom one cannot find the slightest sign of insanity.
"Types of Criminals"
Lombroso identified four types of criminals: murderer, thief, rapist, swindler.
"The woman is a criminal and a prostitute"
Major works
- "Genius and Madness";
- "Criminal Man";
- "The latest advances in the science of the criminal";
- "The woman is a criminal and a prostitute";
- "Political Crime" (co-authored with Rodolfo Laschi);
- "Anarchists";
- "Love among the Crazy";
- "A Child's Life"
see also
Links
- Audiobook “Genius and Madness” by Cesare Lombroso
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See what "Lombroso Cesare" is in other dictionaries:
LOMBROSO CESARE- LOMBROSO, CESARE (Lombroso, Cesare) (1835 1909) sociologist, founder of the school of criminal anthropology in Italy. Born in Verona on November 6, 1835 into a family of wealthy landowners. He received his medical education at the universities of Pavia... Legal encyclopedia
Lombroso, Cesare- Cesare Lombroso. LOMBROSO (Lombroso) Cesare (1835 1909), Italian forensic psychiatrist and criminologist, founder of the anthropological trend of Lombrosianism in criminology and criminal law. He put forward the proposition about the existence of a special type... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Lombroso) (1835 1909), Italian forensic psychiatrist and criminologist, founder of the anthropological movement (Lombrosianism) in criminology and criminal law. He put forward the proposition that there is a special type of person predisposed to... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Cesare Lombroso Italian. Cesare Lombroso ... Wikipedia
Lombroso Cesare- Cesare Lombroso and the Sociology of Crime The sociology of crime arose during the period when Italian society entered the phase of industrialization with all its attendant social and human problems. The National Association also... Western philosophy from its origins to the present day
Lombroso Cesare (11/6/1835, Verona, ≈ 10/9/1909, Turin, Italy), Italian forensic psychiatrist and anthropologist, founder of the anthropological trend in bourgeois criminology and criminal law (see Anthropological school ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (Lombroso, Cesare) (1835 1909), Italian criminologist, born in Verona on November 6, 1835 into a Jewish family. He studied in Turin, Padua, Vienna and Paris. In 1862 he was appointed professor of psychiatry in Pavia, in 1871 he became director of a psychiatric hospital... Collier's Encyclopedia
Lombroso Cesare - famous criminologist, psychiatrist and sociologist. He is the founder of the Italian school of criminal anthropology. This article will describe his biography.
Youth and study
Lombroso Cesare was born in Verona in 1836. The boy's family was quite wealthy, as they owned a lot of land. In his youth, Cesare studied Chinese and Semitic languages. But he failed to make a quiet career. Imprisonment in a fortress on charges of conspiracy, material deprivation, and participation in the war aroused in the young man an interest in psychiatry. Cesare published his first articles on this topic at the age of 19, while studying at the Faculty of Medicine (University of Pavia). In them, the future psychiatrist talked about the problem of cretinism. The young man independently mastered such difficult subjects as social hygiene and ethnolinguistics. In 1862 he was awarded the title of professor of medicine, and later - of criminal anthropology and legal psychiatry. Lombroso also headed the clinic for mental illness. The decisive role in his intellectual formation was played by its main postulate - the affirmation of the priority of scientific knowledge, which was obtained experimentally.
Anthropological direction
Cesare Lombroso is the founder of the anthropological movement in criminal law and criminology. The main features of this trend are that it is necessary to introduce the method of natural science into criminology - observation and experience. A should become the center of study.
First anthropometric studies
They were carried out by a scientist in the 60s of the nineteenth century. Cesare then worked as a doctor, and also participated in a campaign to eradicate banditry in southern Italy. The statistical material collected by the professor became a huge contribution to the development of criminal anthropology and social hygiene. The scientist analyzed empirical data and concluded that poor socio-economic living conditions in southern Italy contributed to the birth of mentally and anatomically abnormal people in this area. In other words, these are ordinary criminals. Cesare identified this anomaly through psychiatric and anthropometric examination. Based on this, a prognostic assessment of the dynamics of crime development was made. With his conceptual approach, the scientist challenged the position of official criminology, which placed responsibility only on the person who broke the law.
Craniograph
Lombroso was the first researcher to use the anthropometric method using a craniograph. With this device, Cesare measured the size of parts of the head and face of suspects. The results were published by him in the work “Anthropometry of 400 Violators,” which was published in 1872.
The "born criminal" theory
The scientist formulated it in 1876. It was then that his work “Criminal Man” was published. Cesare believes that criminals are not made, but rather born. That is, according to Lambroso, crime is as natural a phenomenon as death or birth. The professor came to this conclusion by comparing the results of studies of pathological psychology, physiology and anatomy of criminals with their In his opinion, the offender is a degenerate who has lagged behind the evolution of a normal person in his development. Such an individual cannot control his own behavior, and the best way out is to get rid of him, depriving him of life or freedom.
There is also a classification of offenders formulated by Cesare Lombroso. The types of criminals, in his opinion, are: swindlers, rapists, thieves and murderers. Each of them has innate characteristics of an atavistic nature, which indicate the presence of a criminal tendency and a developmental delay. The professor identified stigmata (physical characteristics) and mental traits, the presence of which will help identify a person endowed with criminal tendencies from birth. Cesare considered the main signs of a criminal to be a sullen look, large jaws, a low forehead, a wrinkled nose, etc. Their presence makes it possible to identify the criminal even before he commits the crime itself. In this regard, the scientist demanded that sociologists, anthropologists and doctors be involved as judges, and that the question of guilt be replaced by the question of social harmfulness.
By the way, anthropometric measurements are currently carried out in almost all countries of the world. Moreover, this is typical not only for special services and the army. For example, knowledge of anthropometry is necessary in the design of civil things and objects, as well as for the study of labor markets (labor).
Disadvantages of the theory
The scientific views of Cesare Lombroso were quite radical and did not take into account the social factors of crime. Therefore, the scientist’s theory was subjected to severe criticism. Cesare even had to soften his own position. In his later works, he classified only 40% of offenders as an innate anthropological type. The scientist also recognized the importance of non-hereditary - sociological and psychopathological - causes of crime. Based on this, his theory can be called biosociological.
"Genius and Madness"
Perhaps this is the most famous work of Cesare Lombroso. “Genius and Madness” was written by him in 1895. In this book, the professor put forward one main thesis. It sounds like this: “Genius is abnormal brain activity, bordering on epileptoid psychosis.” Cesare wrote that, physiologically, the similarity between geniuses and madmen is simply amazing. They have the same reaction to atmospheric phenomena, and heredity and race affect their birth in the same way. Many geniuses had insanity. These included: Schopenhauer, Rousseau, Newton, Swift, Cardano, Tasso, Schumann, Comte, Ampere and a number of artists and performers. In the appendix to his book, Lombroso described the anomalies of the skulls of geniuses and gave examples of the literary works of crazy authors.
Sociology of political crime
Cesare left his most valuable part of his legacy in the form of research in this discipline. The essay “Anarchists” and “Political Revolution and Crime” are two works he wrote on this topic. These works are still popular in the scientist’s homeland. The phenomenon of political crime was widespread in Italy in the 19th and 20th centuries in the form of anarchist terrorism. The professor examined it from the perspective of examining the personality of a criminal who is sacrificially devoted to the utopian ideal. The scientist explained the nature of such behavior by the devaluation of the highest goals of public justice, the corruption of politicians and the crisis of democracy in the Italian parliament.
Another famous work by Cesare Lombroso is “Love among the Crazy.” It reveals the manifestation of this feeling in mentally ill people.
Introduction of control of physiological reactions
Cesare Lombroso, whose books are known all over the world, was one of the first to apply the achievements of physiology in forensic science. In 1880, the scientist began measuring suspects' pulse and blood pressure during interrogation procedures. Thus, he could easily determine whether a potential criminal was lying or not. And the device for measuring blood pressure and pulse was called...
Plethysmograph
In 1895, Lombroso Cesare published the results obtained after using laboratory instruments during interrogation. In one of these studies, the professor used a “plethysmograph”. The experiment went like this: a murder suspect was asked to make a series of mathematical calculations in his head. At the same time, the device connected to it recorded the pulse. Then the potential criminal was shown several photographs of wounded children (among them was a photograph of a murdered girl). In the first case, his pulse jumped, and in the second it was close to normal. From this, Cesare concluded that the suspect was innocent. And the results of the investigation confirmed that he was right. This was probably the first case of using a lie detector recorded in the literature, which led to And he said that monitoring a person’s physiological reactions can not only reveal the information he is hiding, but also establish innocence.
The scientist died in Turin in 1909.
Lombroso in Russia
The professor's criminological ideas were widely known in our country. They are represented by a number of lifetime and posthumous publications by Cesare Lombroso: “Female Criminal and Prostitute”, “Anti-Semitism”, “Anarchists”, etc. In 1897, the scientist came to a congress of Russian doctors, who gave the Italian an enthusiastic welcome. In his memoirs, Cesare reflected that period of his biography. He condemned the Russian social system for police brutality (“suppression of character, conscience, thoughts of the individual”) and authoritarianism.
Lombrosianism
This term was widespread in the Soviet period and denoted the anthropological direction of the school of criminal law. Cesare's doctrine of the born criminal was especially criticized. Soviet lawyers believed that such an approach was contradictory and also had a reactionary and anti-people orientation, since it condemned the revolutionary actions of the exploited people. Such a biased, ideological approach rejected many of the professor’s merits in studying the root causes of protest and extremist types of social struggle.
Conclusion
Despite the fallacy and fair criticism of some of his own postulates, Cesare is one of the most outstanding scientists of the nineteenth century. He was a pioneer in introducing objective methods into legal science. And his works gave a significant impetus to the development of legal psychology and criminology.