Cesare Lombroso سيزار لومبروزو

[أسعد المدرس]

Who is "Cesare Lombroso"
Lombroso, Cesare (1836-1909), Italian criminologist who advanced the theory that crime is the result of a hereditary predisposition in certain individuals. Born in Verona to a Jewish family, Lombroso studied at Turin and Padua (Padova), Italy; Vienna, Austria; and Paris, France. In 1862 he was appointed professor of psychiatry at the University of Pavia in Italy, and in 1871 he became director of the mental institution in Pesaro. In 1876 he accepted the chair of forensic medicine and hygiene at the University of Turin, where he later became professor of criminal anthropology.

Lombroso believed that mental characteristics are invariably determined by physiological causes, and he postulated the existence of a criminal type that was largely the result of hereditary and degenerative factors rather than environmental conditions. At first encountering great opposition throughout Europe, his theories were later instrumental in bringing about reform in the treatment of the criminally insane. However, his central idea was discredited in the early 20th century by Charles Goring, a British criminologist who used comparative studies of prisoners and non-prisoners to show that the so-called criminal type does not exist.

Lombroso was the author of numerous works, including Genio e follia (1864; Genius and Insanity, 1891), L'Uomo di genio (1888; The Man of Genius, 1891), L'Uomo delinquente (1876; The Criminal Man, 1895), L'Uomo bianco e l'uomo di colore (White Man, Colored Man, 1892), L'Antisemitismo e le scienze moderne (Anti-Semitism in the Light of Modern Science, 1894), and Le Crime, causes et remèdes (1899; Crime, Its Causes and Remedies, 1917).



"Lombroso, Cesare." Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2001. [/align]