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In 1876 Lombroso, an Italian criminologist proposed an atavistic form as an explanation for offending behavior. This explanation was focused on the notion that criminals have physical distinguishing features.

InThe Criminal Man(“L’Uomo delinquente”), first published in 1876, he suggested that there was distinct biological class of people that were prone to criminality.

These people exhibited ‘atavistic’ (i.e. primitive) features. Atavistic derives from the word “avatus”, which means ancestor in Latin.

These atavistic characteristics, he argued, denoted the fact that the offenders were at a more primitive stage of evolution than non-offenders; they were “genetic throwbacks”.

Connected to the idea of atavistic characteristics is the idea of degeneration. According to Lombroso, offenders have certain physical and mental characteristics of primitive humans, and they commit crime because of these biological abnormalities.

Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Six figures illustrating types of criminals Printed text L’Homme Criminel Lombroso, Cesar Published: 1888

Atavistic FormFeatures of the thief: expressive face, manual dexterity, and small, wandering eyes.Features of the murderer: cold, glassy stares, bloodshot eyes, and big hawk-like nose.Features of sex offenders: thick lips and protruding ears.Features of women offenders: shorter and more wrinkled, darker hair and smaller skulls than ‘normal’ women.

Atavistic Form

He also claimed the “born criminal” had a liking for tattoos, cruel and wicked games and their own language through a primeval slang (a throwback to their savage ancestry).

Measuring Crime: The “Born Criminal”

Lombroso examined over 4000 offenders (living and dead) to identify physical markers indicative of the atavistic form.

Examples of things Lombroso measured were people’s height, weight, the span of their arms, the average height of their body while seated, the sizes of their hands, necks, thighs, legs, and feet, their eye color and so on.

In a study of 383 dead Italian criminals and 3839 living ones he found 40% of them had atavistic characteristics.

Over the course of his life, Lombroso and his students studied thousands of people. They studied different types of people, namely offenders, non-offenders, and also mentally ill people. And they not only studied people who were alive, but they also did autopsies on deceased people, for example to study their skulls and their brains.

Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk http://wellcomeimages.org Algometer Printed text Criminal Man Lombroso, Cesare Published: 1911

Critical Evaluation

References

Agnew, R. (1992). Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology, 30(1), 47-88.

Darwin, C. (1859). The origin of species and The descent of man, New York (The Modern Library).

Goring, C. (1913). The English convict: A statistical study. HMS.

Lombroso, C. (1876). L’Uomo delinquente. Milano: Hoepli.

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Saul McLeod, PhD

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Elisabeth BrookesPsychology TeacherBSc (Hons), PsychologyElisabeth Brookes has worked as a psychology teacher at Luton Sixth Form College.

Elisabeth BrookesPsychology TeacherBSc (Hons), Psychology

Elisabeth Brookes

Psychology Teacher

BSc (Hons), Psychology

Elisabeth Brookes has worked as a psychology teacher at Luton Sixth Form College.