Alexandre Lacassagne

Alexandre Lacassagne (August 17, 1843 – September 24, 1924) was a French physician and criminologist who was a native of Cahors. He was the founder of the Lacassagne school of criminology, based in Lyon and influential from 1885 to 1914, and the main rival to Lombroso's Italian school.

Lacassagne studied at the military school in Strasbourg, and for a period of time worked at Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris. Later he attained the chair of Médecine Légale de la Faculté de Lyon (Forensic medicine of the Lyon Faculty), and was also founder of the journal Archives de l'Anthropologie Criminelle. Among his assistants was famed forensics scientist Edmund Locard (1877–1966).

Lacassagne was a principal founder in the fields of medical jurisprudence and criminal anthropology. He was a specialist in the field of toxicology, and was a pioneer regarding bloodstain pattern analysis and the research of bullet markings and their relationship to specific weapons.

He had a keen interest in sociology and psychology, and the correlation of these disciplines to criminal and "deviant" behaviour. He considered an individuals' biological predisposition, as well as his social environment to be important factors in criminal behaviour.

Lacassagne became famous with his expertises of various criminal affairs, including the "malle à Gouffé" in 1889, the assassination of President Sadi Carnot, stabbed in 1894 by the Italian anarchist Caserio, or of Joseph Vacher (1869–1898), one of the first known French serial killers.

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