The Italian school of positivist
criminology
Cesare Lombroso
1835-1905
-
Military doctor
- Psychiatrist
(Hospital of
Pavia)
-Professor,
University of
Turin
L’ocuomo delinquente
(criminal man)
Born Criminals
Mesurements, animal-like
physical features
Darwin’s natural science
theory
Punishments
Evolution of thought (later
editions)
Lombroso’s disciples
Enrico Ferri
Raffaele Garofalo
The influence of social science
Franz von Liszt
1851-1919
Professor of criminal law and international law at
the University of Berlin 1898-1917
Before that working at the University of Graz,
Marburg and Halle
Modern school of criminal law
• A social penal reform movement in the
1880’s initiated by Liszt
• In the Marburg program in 1882 Liszt
formulated principles of importance for the
reform of the penal system, and the
general view of the criminal
Principles
• Punishment for individual prevention
• ”Crime is the product of the characteristics of the
offender at the time of the crime, and the
external circumstances surrounding him at that
time”
• Rehabilitation, deterrence and incapacitation
• Social policy measures were more effective than
penal sanctions that only targeted individuals
• Comprehensive penal science
Difference between social and biological
approach to the penal theories
Social theories
Criminal prerequisities
of the offender
• Age
• Sex
• Environment
• Relationships
• Family
• Social classification
Biological theories
Criminal prerequisities
of the offender
•Size and structure of
the brain
•“monomania”
•Moral insanity
Difference between social and biological
approach to the penal theories
Social theories
Punishment
• Seclusion
• Reform
• Rehabilitation
• Correction
Biological theories
Punishment
•Seclusion
•Correction
Methods of exploring the causal link
between the offender and the crime
Social theories
Quantitaive analysis
• Sex
• Age
• Family
• Upbringing
• Education
• Social status
Methods of exploring the causal link
between the offender and the crime
Biological theories
Observation
• Brain – shape and size
• Emotions
• Free will
• Other physiological propensities
Outcomes of the studies
prerequisities
Social theories
• Age
• Sex
• Location
• Work refusal
• Economical situation
• Unrestrained sexual behaviour
Outcomes of the studies
prerequisities
Biological theories
• Size and shape
• single pathological preoccupation
• Affection of emotions and free will
• Distinct physiological features