LOMBROSO, CESARE. - Psychiatrist and anthropologist, b. in Verona on 6 Nov. 1835, d. in Turin on 9 Oct. 1909. He first devoted particular attention to studies on cretinism and pellagra, later becoming (1896) professor of psychiatry at the University of Turin and subsequently (1905) ordinary professor of criminal anthropology there. He professed materialism and in his later years took an interest in medical phenomena, turning toward spiritualism.
In keeping with the materialist outlook of his mentality, he wished to see in the criminal a particular anthropological type whose delinquent behavior was determined by hereditary physical and psychic anomalies, epilepsy, and mental illnesses. This idea did not spring 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 definitively refined. He arrived at the concept of crime as a disease and of society’s duty to cure the delinquent rather than punish him, either restoring the offender to become a useful member of society or, if that proved impossible, rendering him harmless by interning him in criminal asylums. From these concepts there arose, through the work of E. Ferri and R. Garofalo, the “positive school of criminal law”; with these ideas L. in 1880 founded the Archivio di psichiatria e antropologia criminale, which became a continuous unfolding of observations, experiments, updates, and developments of his theories. Among his major works are to be noted: 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 spirituali (Turin 1909 and new posthumous ed., ibid. 1914).
For the scientific and moral judgment of his theories, V. ANTROPOLOGIA CRIMINALE; DELINQUENTE.