LOMBROSO, CESARE. – Psychiatrist and anthropologist, born in Verona on 6 November 1835, died in Turin on 9 October 1909. He initially devoted himself particularly to studies of cretinism and pellagra; he later became (1896) professor of psychiatry at the University of Turin and subsequently (1905) full professor of criminal anthropology there. He professed materialism and in his later years became interested in psychic phenomena, turning toward spiritism.
In keeping with the materialist orientation of his thinking, he wished to see in the criminal a particular anthropological type, whose criminal activity was determined by hereditary physical and psychological abnormalities, epilepsy, and mental illnesses. This idea did not arise fully formed in his mind, but developed through long stages and repeated elaborations, from the first edition of his L'uomo delinquente (Milan 1876) to the fifth edition of 1896–97, from which his theories emerged in definitive form, arriving at the concept of crime as an illness and of society’s duty to treat the criminal instead of punishing him, restoring the offender to usefulness as a member of society or, where this was impossible, rendering him harmless by confinement in criminal asylums. From these concepts arose, through the work of E. Ferri and R. Garofalo, the «Positive School of Criminal Law»; together with them, in 1880, L. founded the Archivio di psichiatria e antropologia criminale, in which his theories underwent a continuous process of observation, experimentation, revision, and development. Among his major works should be mentioned: Genio e follia (Milan 1864); L'uomo delinquente (ibid. 1876; 5th ed. Turin 1896–97); L'uomo di genio (6th ed., ibid. 1894); Grafologia (Milan 1895); Genio e degenerazione (Palermo 1898); Ricerche sui fenomeni ipnotici e spiritici (Turin 1909 and a new posthumous ed., ibid. 1914).
For the scientific and moral assessment of his theories, v.: ANTROPOLOGIA CRIMINALE; DELINQUENTE.