Discuss the Work of Cesare Lombrosso

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Discuss the work of Cesare Lombrosso considering the critique of his work Criminological positivism is most famously related with the Italian medical Doctor, Cesare Lombrosso (1835-1909), also known as the father of criminology (Newburn 2007). This essay refers to the research conducted by Lombrosso and the critique it has been subject to over a number of years. Lombrosso’s background and an outline of his original insights and following research into criminality will be discussed, including what he then inspired future Criminologists to go on to explore and find. Lombrosso, born in 1835, was a physician who became a specialist in psychiatry, and also a Professor of legal medicine at the University of Turin. His first criminal insights developed in the 1860’s when he was working as a doctor in the army and the characteristics of the soldiers, however, his name came into Criminological significance with the publication of his first book, ‘The Criminal Man’ (1876). In this book he suggested from his research that criminals were biologically determined, a physical type with specific characteristics that differentiates them from others, and throwbacks to earlier forms of evolutionary life (Newburn 2007). During the period Lombroso wrote this book, Charles Darwin’s (1968) theory of evolution was a very popular concept, and Lombroso was thought to be heavily influenced by this, proposing that criminals were ‘lower down the evolutionary scale than law abiding citizens’ (Cited in Crowther 2007: 278). Before publishing ‘The Criminal Man’, Lombroso famously conducted a study on the physical and mental characteristics of 400 Italian soldiers and 90 ‘lunatics’, examining and comparing them. He concluded there were a selection of specific characteristics setting criminals apart from others and stated that they were a ‘sub-species’. Such characteristics included: deviation in
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