Cesare Lombroso

Cesare Lombroso
Born	Ezechia Marco Lombroso (1835-11-06)6 November 1835 Verona, Lombardy–Venetia
Died	19 October 1909(1909-10-19) (aged 73) Turin, Kingdom of Italy
Nationality	Italian
Known for	Italian school of positivist criminology
Children	Gina Lombroso
Scientific career
Fields	Medicine Criminology
Signature

Cesare Lombroso (/lɒmˈbroʊsoʊ/ lom-BROH-soh,^[1][2] US also /lɔːmˈ-/ lawm-,^[3] Italian: [ˈtʃeːzare lomˈbroːzo, ˈtʃɛː-, -oːso]; born Ezechia Marco Lombroso; 6 November 1835 – 19 October 1909) was an Italian eugenicist, criminologist, phrenologist, physician, and founder of the Italian school of criminology. He is considered the founder of modern criminal anthropology by changing the Western notions of individual responsibility.^[4]

Lombroso rejected the established classical school, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature. Instead, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, degeneration theory, psychiatry, and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone "born criminal" could be identified by physical (congenital) defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage or atavistic.