Lombrosso

• Cesare Lombroso


  Father of Modern Criminology
• Cesare Lombroso


  • Italian psychiatrist and military doctor
  • Developed the theory about criminals
  • Pioneered the use of scientific methods in criminology
  • Argued the criminal is a separate species between modern and primitive humans
  • Argued a 'born criminal' could be determined by the physical shape of the head and face
  • Claimed criminality was heritable and those who committed crimes had atavistic or primitive features
• Atavistic


  Relating to something ancient or ancestral
• Atavistic features


  • Large or forward projection of the jaw
  • High cheekbones
  • Flattened or upturned nose
  • Low, sloping forehead
  • Long arms relative to lower limbs
  • Large ears
• Lombroso examined the facial and cranial features of 383 dead criminals and 3,839 living ones, and concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics
• According to Lombroso, you can tell what kind of crime someone will commit by the way they look, for example murderers had bloodshot eyes and curly hair, and sex offenders had thick lips and protruding ears
• Besides physical traits, Lombroso suggested there were other aspects of the born criminal including insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, tattoos and unemployment
• Lombroso's theory was published in the book L'uomo Delinquente or Criminal Man (2006)
• A study from a university in China has produced research that suggests facial features really can give a criminal away
• The study found an artificial intelligence programme wrongly flagged innocent men as criminal 6% of the time but correctly identified 83% of the real criminals