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In 1876, Cesare Lombroso published a slim volume about his work in criminal anthropology, which grew through successive editions into the classic multi-volume study L'uomo delinquent (The Criminal Man). He'd made systematic measurements of numerous offenders to develop his notion that criminality was inherited, its propensity apparent in the physical body. Unlike normal people, the "born criminal" was genetically defective. While Lombroso's ideas have long been discredited, he was nevertheless instrumental in shifting the study of criminal behavior into the realm of science. He founded the Italian School of Positivist Criminology, worked on a rudimentary lie detector, and advocated for a cautious approach to the death penalty. Described by his daughter as a "born collector," Lombroso was always studying something, "thus amassing or buying a wealth of curiosities." Not particularly tidy, his work space resembled a junkyard, yet out of this chaos he established one of the earliest professional museums dedicated to crime.
Truth in Observation
Born into a wealthy Jewish family in 1835 in Verona, Italy, Lombroso studied medicine at three prominent universities before he served in the Military Medical Corps. There he took an interest in soldiers' tattoos, believing that their choice of detail reflected their dispositions - more obscenities were evident on those he deemed dishonest. Lombroso realized the tattoos were just the tip of the iceberg, so he watched for other consistent clues of character as he collected skulls, skeletons, brains, and objects associated with lunatics and criminals. As an asylum physician during the 1 870s, he conducted anthropometric measurements, assembled a portfolio of illustrations, and worked out his theory of the criminal type. When he became a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pavia, his publications attracted professionals across Europe who were interested in anthropology. To support and assist him, many sent him crime-related items from their institutions.
According to Lombroso's early ideas, multiple physical abnormalities set criminals apart from ordinary men. He labeled these markers "stigmata," and on his list were bulging or sloping brows, asymmetrical features, abnormal crania, broad noses, dusky skin, eyebrows that met over the nose, large jaws, and abnormally long arms. In other words, criminal deviance could be seen in physiological traits that suggested a throwback to ape-like ancestry. In addition, the born...