A school of criminology founded by Cesare Lombroso holding that criminal behavior arises from identifiable factors, in Lombroso's own theory biological and hereditary, rather than from free rational choice, and should be studied by scientific method. Lombroso's specific claim that criminals are biologically identifiable was later challenged by statistical research finding no significant physical differences between criminals and non-criminals.
Facts
Core ClaimSourced to the subject's own accountCriminal behavior has identifiable causes external to free will and can be studied scientifically, in contrast to the classical school emphasis on rational choice. 1 Origin YearSourced to the subject's own account Standing CritiqueSourced to the subject's own accountLombroso's claim that criminality is identifiable through physical traits was seriously challenged by Charles Goring's statistical analysis, which found no significant physical differences between criminals and non-criminals. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
His statistical work with Andre-Michel Guerry helped establish the positivist school of criminology.
Critiqued Here
Critical criminology rejects the positivist school's focus on individual pathology as the cause of crime, arguing crime and its definition are products of structural inequality instead.
Developed By
Informed
Biosocial criminology is a modern revival of the biological strand of positivist criminology Lombroso founded, now paired with social and environmental factors rather than treated alone.
Sources
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Core Claim
British prison medical officer Charles Goring directly challenged the positivist school's founding claim in his 1913 statistical study The English Convict. Comparing over 3,000 English convicts against a control group of Royal Engineers, Goring found the physical and mental constitution of criminal and law-abiding persons of the same age, stature, class and intelligence to be identical, concluding there is no such thing as an anthropological criminal type and undermining Lombroso's biologically-identifiable born-criminal thesis specifically, though not the broader positivist claim that crime has identifiable, scientifically studiable causes.
A dissenting reading, from Charles GoringWikipedia: Charles Buckman Goring
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