L Uomo Delinquente: Patterns of Criminality and the Architecture of the Cell Olga Touloumi

In 1885, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome hosted text of post-Risorgimento Italy and its identity politics,^

the 3rd International Penitentiary Congress and the 1st the two exhibitions reflected parallel efforts to define and

International Congress on Criminal Anthropology simul- standardize both the space and its occupant via formal

taneously.' At the Penitentiary Congress, prison labor analysis.

products, confinement mechanisms, and life-size models The chronicle of this dialogue between discourses on

of prison cells reflected a fixation with the standardiza- criminality, form, behavior, and architecture, all began

tion of prison architecture and cell typology while, at the with a laboratory discovery of a fossetta, a small mor-

second Congress, the emerging discipline of criminal an- phological deviation of the skull.-' [Fig. I] While director

thropology was exhibiting its research on manifestations of the Pesaro asylum, Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909),

of delinquency and criminal typology with death masks, performed an autopsy on the skull of Italian brigand-

replicas of appendages, and detailed anatomical draw- Giuseppe Villella. During the procedure, he was aston-

ings of prisoners' skulls and bodies. In response to the ished to discover a small dimple on the back of the skull,

Italian Interior Minister's request that the study of peni- with a part of the spinal column below it.

tentiary reform occur within the prison,; both criminal

anthropology and prison architecture attempted to pres- / seemed to see all at once, standing out clearly illumined

ent their respective subject matters as being in pursuit of as in a vast plain under a flaming sky. the problem of the a type, a pattern. nature of the criminal, who reproduces in civilized times

Situated between the panopticon model of the early characteristics, not only of primitive savages, but of still

Enlightenment period and the wing-organized prison lower types as far back as the carnivores.^

of the 20th century, prison architecture of this period

mainly privileged a radial configuration. With the cells The story of Villella's autopsy and Lombroso's discov-

developing linearly along corridors and not circumfer- ery would have remained only another Eureka! anecdote

entially around a tower, life inside the cells ceased to in the history of science had it not coincided with the

be subject to a centralized gaze, or to its absence - to unification of Italy. The Italian state was unifying the

put it in Foucaultian terms. Instead cell typology came to dispersed body of penitentiary institutions into one insti-

the forefront of prison architecture. Set within the con- tution under the auspices of the central authority of the

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00595 by guest on 25 September 2021 state. A basic intention of the state was to codify what the area of the tattoo, the more violent the individual.

constituted an ItaUan- from amongst its diverse regional According to him, the tattoo's "complexity, multiplicity,

and its situation upon the most sensitive portions of the populations- and so it called upon the sciences to par-

body, where even savages avoid placing it, [shows] the ticipate in this attempt to formalize a type- the Italian greatest insensibility on the part of the criminals."' The citizen- through the support of scientific methods that arms, upper body, legs, and head of each soldier were classified race and class. graphically depicted and arrayed on drawing plates pro- The fossetta "discovery" provided the necessary pre- viding a comprehensive survey of the tattooed body as text for the inauguration of the discipline of criminal an- well as of isolated tattoos [Fig. 2]. Later incorporated into thropology and further research on criminal types, with the fifth volume of his treatise on the delinquent man, the support of the Italian penal system. In reality, the the Atlante,' this method of documentation set the initial research had already been launched while Lombroso framework for the connection drawn between behavioral served as physician in the Calabrian military from 1859 to and morphological patterns. 1863." After graduating from the School of Medical Stud- Moving from the military establishments in Calabria ies in the University of Padua, he joined the Risorgimento to the Pesaro Asylum and the University of Turin," Lom- transferred to Calabria, where he docu- forces and was broso isolated formal analysis as a fundamental analytic

mented the tattoos covering soldiers' bodies. Lombroso tool for his research. In addition to studying the delin-

saw characteristics such as color, shape, complexity and quent body, he initiated research comparing the artifacts position of tattoo as indicative of a decipherable formal produced by the prisoners with the morphology of their

lexicon of delinquency. The more elaborate the form, the bodies. His archives now included graffiti, petit sculp-

more dangerous the owner; the more physically sensitive tures, samples of hand-writing and "pictografia," all il- lustrating "the peculiar and atavistic tendency to express

the thoughts ... that preoccupy him [the criminal] with

figures."'" He also compared criminal skull diameter, na-

sal shape, and asymmetries between the left and right

sides of the body, with their relationship to the particu-

lar kind of criminal activity the individual was engaging

in. This data was then organized into extensive catalogs

relating certain morphologies to specific types of delin- quency. Almost any indications of asymmetry, complex-

ity, or morphological irregularity on the criminal's body

or art product became interpreted as indicative of a crim-

inal pattern.

Thieves especially are apt to have submicrocephaly more C C B B frequently than normal beings, but less often than insane, A while swindlers, bandits, and assassins are apt to have a head of exaggerated size, similar to that of the racial type,

but larger. Congenital criminals present frequent cranial VILLELLA and facial asymmetry: this is especially the case with rav- ishers and thieves, and yet less in them than in the insane, A.Fosaa occipitale media although they exhibit more traumatic lesions of the head, 6 .Create che la hmitano and greater obliquity of the eyes . . . There are several dif-

C.Tubercoli ossoi ferential points in the various classes of criminals."

Fig. 1- Plan ol VillelldS skull indicjung the area around Ihe "fosseta" a Medial occipilal fossa

(fosseta). b Cresis limiling it (Ihe fossa), c Tubercle bones Ollolenghi. Salvalore Trattato di poiizta saertlifica Milano: Societa edilrice librana. 1910-1932.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00595 by guest on 25 September 2021 f-'J* K. fl.J tt

1.? -;# -<:\ . te> 5 '['A 'C'" /•'j! I/:

Fig- 2 Sketches of talloos on the 5th volume of "L'Uonio Delinquetite" Lombroso, Cesare L' Vomo Delmqutmte in Rappano all' Anrrcpologia. Ciunspnidenza e alia Discipline Carcerane Tonno Fratelli Bocca, 1878

Driven by the fantasy of the asymmetrical, ornamented, cell capacity at low construction cost; the call for per-

outre body of the criminal, juxtaposed against the ideal fected state control apparatus applied uniformly on the

of the symmetrical, unornamented, Italian body, and the delinquent population; and the profitable operation of

desire to codify the former, the Lombroso team came up the institution through prison labor. Within the general with, not one, but multiple variations on a generic crimi- euphoric atmosphere, the Illustrazione Italiana went

nal type, unintentionally proving the work of criminal so far as to attribute to the cell the characteristics of an

typology to be an almost impossible task. The discourse on prison architecture was also departing from the pursuit of the ideal building type and focusing instead on the unit that contained the crimi-

nal: the cell. At the 3rd International Penitentiary Con-

gress, the interest in cell standardization took the form

of an exhibition organized in three parts: the first show-

ing models of cell types in use at the most outstand-

ing penitentiaries of each participating country [Figs.

3. 4],<^ the second displaying confinement equipment

and construction details of each respective cell type,

and the third exhibiting prison labor products [Fig. 5]."

The tripartite exhibition celebrated cell typology as the

absolute manifestation of utilitarianism, resolving at

once three issues: the need for prisons with a maximum

IIS showing the hall hosting pan of the (oreign patlicipation to the prison labor iil'ilion L'tllustTOZione Itahana Milano: Editore Garijnti, 1885.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00595 by guest on 25 September 2021 ideal housing unit. One anonymous writer exclaimed cell that was soon to contain it.

that "few of us have rooms so elegant in our houses." Published in the proceedings of the congress, the ac-

Each cell was reproduced full-size with the exact companying construction documents outlined architec- construction materials and dimensions, "with real doors, tural guidelines for cell typology built around the desire

real bolts and the whole arrangement of a real peni- for the modularization of the criminal. Each cell was pre-

sented in the proceedings through four plates; a first and

second plate with a detailed plan, two cross sections and

two longitudinal sections, a third plate with construction

details, and a fourth one with a perspectival view of the

cell from outside in. The drawings were detailed to the

point of providing information on what type of labor the

cell was designed to accommodate. With cabinets fully

equipped with eating utensils, sheets of paper on the

desk ready to be used, and bed sheets straightened up,

the cell was structured around a very particular future

user, who, however, was conspicuously absent from ev-

ery single illustration of the cell.

The state's desire for a close collaboration between prison architecture and criminal anthropology, reflected

in the dual exhibitions in Rome, was finally realized with

the transfer, in 1903, of the School of Scientific Police to ^S!*^ inside the Regina Coeh prison." Originally inaugurated

fig. 4. Lxtenor view of rhe main ad hoc conslrucuon oi ihe eel! e.\hibiUDn L'!llus[razione in 1897 by Lombroso's student Salvatore Ottolenghi, Italiana- Milano: Editore Garaanli. 1885, the school was responding to the emerging problem of

tentiary," that even included replicas of the prisoners 'public security." Since adjusting the penal system to the

and guards. '^ findings of criminal anthropology proved to be a slow

This transformation of the cell into a module upon process, and the penal system was failing to limit crimi- which prisons would be designed around required nal activities, Ottolenghi'' proposed educating the police

the parallel standardization of the criminal body. in reading signs of delinquency through Lombrosian for- The response prison architecture was looking for did mal analysis. not come from the Italian school and Lombroso, but Regina Coeli was the main portal to the Italian peni-

from the French school of criminology and, in particu- tentiary system, it hosted defendants before their trials

lar, Alphonse Bertillon. Within the context of the dual and prisoners serving the final part of their sentence congresses on penal reform and criminal anthropol- or awaiting transfer between institutions. As such, the ogy, Bertillon demonstrated his ten-step measurement prison provided the perfect framework for both research

method for the documentation of the dehnquent man. and pedagogy as it provided a "wealth of material which "» The criminal body was measured sitting, standing, with [could] be used for school purposes. Within the frame-

the hands extending, providing the positivist school of work of its new program as a penitentiary, a research criminal anthropology with a standardized measurement center, and a school, the front wing of Regina Coeli method. Even though the system was premised upon was transformed into the main research and education

the belief that the totality of the measurements could facility, and the cells functioned as controlled environ-

only belong to one individual, and hence contradicted ments for studying individual behavioral patterns. Upon Lombroso's hypothesis of the existence of generic crimi- entry, microbiological, psychological, and photographic

nal types, it triggered prison architecture's fascination laboratories, as well as identification and fingerprint ser- with an imagined geometrized subject which shaped the vices were used to study the delinquent and his body."

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00595 by guest on 25 September 2021 Fig 5 Engraving showing ihe interior of ihe mjin corndor L'lllusiraztone llalmna. Milano, Edilore Garzanti, 188S

In order to systematize the varied data, Ottolenghi in- i.'l" troduced the "cartelhno segnaletico," an identification

card with a standardized format, that was filed in the prison's archives.

Returning back to the two exhibitions, and within

the context of a posi-Risorgimento Italy in pursuit of

identity, one could attribute to criminal anthropology

the aspiration to define a generic criminal type, and

to prison architecture the aspiration to reform him.

However, prison architecture, in its attempts to stan-

dardize the cell with specific heights, location of win-

dows, doors and grill types, succeeded in inventing the

Uomo Delinquente which the positivist school failed to

capture among its abundant replicas of ears and noses, death masks, survey drawings, anatomical sketches of

skulls, photographs and statistical tables. Definitively

describing the criminal type proved to be an almost

impossible objective for criminology, yet the only

possible working hypothesis for a standardized and

standardizing architecture.

Notes

' "Corriere di Roma." L' lllusiraztone Itahana, Novembre 17. 1885,

^ Actes du Congres Penitenttatre International de Rome, publies par les soins du

comile executif, vol. 1 (Rome: Impr. des "Mantellate." 1887-88): 52.

^ Referred lo as the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy was the political and

social process to gradually unite the diverse countries of the peninsula into a

single nation. Historians tend to use the term for the period starting with the

Congress of Vienna in 1815 and spanning throughout the 19th century. In my

paper I term the period following the inauguration of the Kingdom of Italy "posi-Risorgimento."

''The term was used by Cesare Lombroso to describe an occipital fossa. See: Lombroso. Cesare. L'uotno delinquente in rapporto aU'antropologia. giurispni-

denza e alle discipline carcerarie (Torino: Fralelli Bocca. 1878 (2nd ed,]), p.

6.

-^Quoted in: Gibson, Mary. "Cesare Lombroso and Italian Criminology: Theory 170-171. and Politics," in Cnminals and Their Scientists, edited by Peter Becker and Mannheim (Montclair. N,J: Patterson Smith, 1972 [2nd ed,)}, pp. Richard Wetzell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2006): 139, "^Lombroso, Cesare. Palimsesti del Carcere: Storie. Messagi. Iscnzioni, Graffiti Carceri alia Fine dell' Ottocento (Firenze: alia Grazie, "' Wolfgang, Marvin, "Cesare Lombroso ". In Pioneers in Criminology, Edited and dei Detenuti delle Ponte mtroduced by Hermann Mannheim (Montclair. N.J: Patterson Smith, 1972 [2nd 1996). p, 81. " Cesare Lombroso, ed.D.p. 170. Lombroso. The Criminal Anthropological Writings of pp.

'' Lombroso. Cesare. The Criminal Anthropological Writings of Cesare Lombroso 119-120. '2 13. Published m the English Language Periodical Literature during the Late 19th Actes du Congres, "11 Congresso Penitenziario Internazionale e la Sua Espo- and Early 20th Centuries. Ed. Horton. David and Katherine Rich (Ontario: Ed- sizione," L' Ulustrazione Itahana. Novembre 17. 1885. 13 13. win Mellen Press. 2004). p. 128. Actes du Congres, 1"* L'lllustrazione Italiana, ^ Atlante is the 5th volume at the second edition of L' Uomo Delinquente. It i-Mbid. consists of plates with drawings surveying the different tattoos, forms of skulls, theories positivist school at the Univer- types of scars, and bodies in general, that Lombroso had carefully collected '^Ottolenghi initially launched the of the throughout his career. See: Lombroso, Cesare. L'uomo delinquente in rapporto sita di Siena, in the department of medical studies, where he was a lecturer. Universitario Ciuriziaria aU'antropologia, giurisprudenza e alle discipline carcerarie Aggiuntaui La teo- '^Ottolenghi. Salvatore. L' Insegnamento della Polizia Scientifica Fratelli Bocca. 3. na della tutela penale. del Prof. aw. F. Poletti. [2. ed,| Torino: Fralelli Bocca. (Torino: 1897). p. '8 1878, Von Borosini. Victor, "The School of Scientific Police in Rome." in Journal of

'^ Crimmolog]'. vol. No. 6 (1913): Lombroso was transferred in 1872 from Calabria to the University of Torino the American Institute of Criminal Law and 3.

and conducted research at the Pesaro Asylum, See: Wolfgang. Marvin. "Cesare 881.

Lombroso." in Pioneers in Cnmtnolog)'. edited and introduced by Hermann '^Von Borosini. 883.

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