Cesare Lombroso
| Cesare Lombroso | |
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| Born | Ezechia Marco Lombroso 6 November 1835 Verona, Lombardy–Venetia |
| Died | 19 October 1909 (aged 73) Turin, Kingdom of Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
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| Known for | Italian school of positivist criminology |
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Cesare Lombroso (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃeːzare lomˈbroːzo; -oːso]; born Ezechia Marco Lombroso; 6 November 1835 – 19 October 1909), was an Italian criminologist and physician, founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology, often referred to as the father of criminology. Lombroso rejected the established classical school, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature. Instead, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, degeneration theory, psychiatry and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone "born criminal" could be identified by physical (congenital) defects, which confirmed a criminal as or atavistic. (These theories are not accepted by modern mainstream scientists.)
Lombroso was born in Verona, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, on 6 November 1835 to a wealthy Jewish family. His father was Aronne Lombroso, a tradesman from Verona, and his mother was Zeffora (or Zefira) Levi from Chieri near Turin. Cesare Lombroso descended from a line of rabbis, which led him to study a wide range of topics in university. Despite pursuing these studies in university, Lombroso eventually settled on pursuing a degree in medicine, which he graduated with from the University of Turin. After leaving the military, Lombroso operated and oversaw an insane asylum in Pesaro. Lombroso married a woman named Nina de Benedetti on April 10th, 1870. They had five children together, one of whom--Gina--would go on to edit Lombroso's work after his death. Later in life Lombroso came to be influenced by his son-in-law, Guglielmo Ferrero, who led him to believe that not all criminality comes from one's inborn factors and that social factors also played a significant role in the process of shaping a criminal. He studied literature, linguistics, and archæology at the universities of Padua, Vienna, and Paris, but changed his plans and became an army surgeon in 1859. In 1866 he was appointed visiting lecturer at Pavia, and later took charge of the insane asylum at Pesaro in 1871. He became professor of forensic medicine and hygiene at Turin in 1878. That year he wrote his most important and influential work, L'uomo delinquente, which went through five editions in Italian and was published in various European languages. However, it was not until 1900 that his work was published in English. Lombroso later became professor of psychiatry (1896) and criminal anthropology (1906) at the same university. He died in Turin in 1909.
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