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Criminal Man Rediscovered Cesare Lombroso. Criminal Man. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006. xviii + 424 pp. $89.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8223-3711-9. Reviewed by Isobel Williams Published on H-Italy (October, 2007) Although recognized as the creator of the the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman, which he field of criminology, the name Cesare Lombroso wrote with Guglielmo Ferrero and published in usually produces a moue of disapproval amongst 1893 as La donna delinquente, la prostituta e la Italianists, synonymous as it seems to be with out‐ donna normale. Each author has also written oth‐ dated racist and misogynist criminal anthropolog‐ er works, separately and extensively, on both ical theories. But how much truth lies behind that Lombroso and criminal anthropology, and they reaction? Lombroso's reputation has suffered thus bring unique insight to the introduction to both from the tendency of academicians and this translation. criminologists to assume that these elements of L'uomo delinquente (Criminal Man) was pub‐ the Born Criminal (1876) are all that there is to lished in Italian over the space of eleven years, Lombroso, and from the inaccessibility of Lom‐ with the frst edition coming out in 1876, and the broso's original work to the English-speaking aca‐ fifth and fnal edition being published in 1896-97. demic, the former probably being a consequence The bulk of the work was never translated into of the latter. The lack of access has also served to English, although Lombroso's daughter, Gina prevent proper academic investigation of the full Lombroso Ferrero, brought out a volume of inter‐ range of Lombroso's work. While Mary Gibson preted extracts in 1911. The third edition of the and Nicole Hahn Rafter declare that their inten‐ work was partially translated into German and tion is "neither to endorse nor to attack Lom‐ French, and the latter formed the basis of Henry broso's theory" (p. 33), their translation restores Horton's 1910 partial translation, Crime: Its Caus‐ him to his proper place as an influential voice at es and Remedies. It is clear, therefore, that Gibson the time of the making of an united Italy. and Rafter's translation flls a noticeable gap in Lombroso is no stranger to Gibson and Rafter. historical criminal anthropology. The two collaborated on the 2004 translation of Although called editions, each one was actual‐ another of Lombroso's works, Criminal Woman, ly an expansion of the previous work, from which H-Net Reviews nothing was removed, so that the work was con‐ Although the famous tag of "born criminal"--actu‐ stantly enlarged. While the frst edition is a slim ally coined by another respected Italian positivist, volume of fourteen chapters, the ffth edition is a Enrico Ferri--did not emerge until the third edi‐ work of eighty-one chapters, divided into nine tion, Lombroso designated various physical and parts and three volumes. From edition to edition, psychological features as typical of the atavistic Lombroso would insert new ideas and revisit old criminal in the frst edition, and in the second he ones, expanding and revising them, and some‐ added the criminal of passion. In the third edition, times consolidating his opinion with new illustra‐ Lombroso talks about the morally insane, a classi‐ tions or tables of data. The fve editions are com‐ fication we would recognize today as the psy‐ pared in two appendices of Gibson and Rafter's chopath, while in the fourth edition he adds devising, one which indicates quite clearly the epilepsy as another reason for born criminality. content of each edition and its placement in sub‐ In this edition he also subdivides moral insanity sequent editions, and the other performing a simi‐ into the alcoholic criminal, the hysterical criminal lar function for the illustrations. and the mattoid (a term of his own devising used Because of this repetition, Criminal Man takes to describe lower-class visionaries and revolution‐ the form of extensive excerpts, rather than a aries), and introduces a major new category, the straightforward translation of all fve editions. occasional criminal. The ffth edition generally This method makes for a smooth and readable has no major new divisions of criminal, but does translation, without the serial duplication present contain enlarged sections of data and illustra‐ in the original volumes, and with the newly pre‐ tions. sented material obvious to the reader. Sequential A scientist looks for rational explanations of reading thus reveals the development of Lom‐ phenomena, because with understanding of the broso's thoughts and theories over twenty years, mechanics comes the ability to change, improve, the contradictions that arose because of this de‐ or remove. Much influenced by Darwinian theory, velopment, and the attempts by Lombroso to justi‐ Lombroso sought to apply this to crime. Seeking fy his theories in the light of his own later re‐ to determine what made men criminal, he frst search. Particularly valuable is the inclusion of hypothesized that the tendency to commit crime Lombroso's own notations and illustrations, as was mirrored in the physical characteristics, or well as the tables of data which he used to sup‐ physiognomy, of the criminal, including such fac‐ port his theories. These are supplemented, where tors as race and color. This he sought to prove necessary, by the editors' own explanatory notes. with complex tables of measurement, such as the As well as the introduction, the translation, notes dimensions of the skull or, somewhat oddly, the and two appendices previously described, the size of the armpit. Since Lombroso's methods book contains a valuable glossary of Lombroso's were not rigorous by today's standards, they gave terms and concepts, a useful bibliography and a rise to subsequent scientific scorn for his method‐ good index. ology. Gibson and Rafter examine his ideas not However, what makes this book so especially only against the context in which they were writ‐ useful is not just the flling of a conspicuous lacu‐ ten, but also in light of subsequent scientific dis‐ na, but the editors' introduction, which seeks to coveries and development. explain Lombroso's work clearly and unemotion‐ It is true that many of Lombroso's ideas are ally. It takes the reader through the fve editions, no longer credible, but conversely, there are some showing how his ideas developed and highlight‐ that time is catching up with. As gene research ad‐ ing the new theories that emerged in each edition. vances, some behavioral traits that were designat‐ 2 H-Net Reviews ed as learned are being cast into doubt and reclas‐ order. Lombroso was eager to help to reform the sified as innate when taken together with envi‐ treatment of crime and the criminal in the newly ronmental factors. Given that alcoholism is now unified Italy. While Lombroso quotes Beccaria in seen as a disease, and that alcohol is often pin‐ several instances, he differs from him in several pointed as an impetus for crime, perhaps Lom‐ respects, especially when it came to punishment, broso was not so far off the mark in looking for which, broadly speaking, he felt should be tai‐ biological causes for at least some crime. And, lored to ft the criminal rather than the crime. He while society has, we hope, advanced beyond con‐ also believed in suspended sentences and parole, demning a person as a criminal because of jug and championed asylums rather than jails for the ears or a low brow, scientists continue to fnd criminally insane. Beccaria was against the death physical characteristics that mark differing abili‐ sentence (because he thought it too quick and ties or tendencies. thus not as effective a deterrent as a lifetime of In the midst of the notoriety of the concept of hard labor); similarly Lombroso also initially re‐ the born criminal, Lombroso's advanced thinking jected the death penalty. In his ffth edition, how‐ on other aspects of crime has been lost. While he ever, he advocated it for certain classes of crimi‐ was prejudiced by the influences of his time to as‐ nals on the Darwinian basis of removing them sociate criminality, amongst other criteria, with from the gene pool for the common good. different colors and races, he also had some sur‐ This translation is of obvious interest and val‐ prisingly modern ideas and views. Gibson and ue to the criminologist, but it also opens Lom‐ Rafter rightly draw attention to the fact that Lom‐ broso's work to new audiences. Criminal Man broso recognized, early on, the role of social fac‐ gives an insight into a man of fascinating com‐ tors and individual circumstances in the causes of plexity and contradiction. While asserting in his crime. For example, although he describes female work that "women, non-whites, the poor, and chil‐ crime as deriving from inborn female perversity, dren [were] physically, psychologically, and he attributes infanticide to "social condemnation morally inferior to white men" (p. 16), in his per‐ of women who bore illegitimate children" (p. sonal life, the Jewish Lombroso favored such un‐ 398n). More radically for his time, he was not popular views as feminism, race mixing, divorce, anti-abortion. He anticipated the distinction be‐ and land reform, especially in the South. In more tween the lifelong criminal and the juvenile time- recent times he has become the focus of a new limited criminal. According to Rafter, Lombroso body of scholarship, much of it in Italian. also anticipated the more controversial modern Finally, the difficulty of the translation task theory of evolutionary criminology in his theory has to be recognized. Inspection of the original of atavism.[1] editions in the British Library confirms, once Lombroso's work has a tendency to be com‐ again, the absence of the short declarative sen‐ pared and contrasted with that of the other Ce‐ tence from Italian writing.
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