Cesare LombrosoBorn 6 Nov 1835; died 19 Oct 1909 at age 73.Italian physician, psychiatrist and pioneer criminologist, who employed Darwinian ideas of evolution to account for criminal behaviour. Measuring heads of criminals against skulls of apes and prehistoric humans, he concluded that criminals were in fact hereditary victims of atavism - a reversion to evolutionarily primitive traits including those related to survival. In prehistoric times, a strong desire to kill, for example, would have made them good hunters and desirable mates, but criminals in urban environments. Lombroso believed this theory of atavistic criminality should influence punishment of crime. In many circles, his ideas met with concerted opposition. Later, Lombroso gradually included social factors as significant in disposing people to criminal behaviour. |
