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Cesare Lombroso

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Cesare Lombroso

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Also known as Ezechia Marco Lombroso

Italian psychiatrist, physician, and criminologist (1835-1909)

AI overview

Cesare Lombroso was an Italian doctor and criminologist in the 1800s who became famous for developing theories about criminal behavior based on physical characteristics. His work had enormous influence on criminology and law enforcement, though his ideas are now widely rejected by modern science as pseudoscience.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
48

Top works

  • Criminal Man
  • Criminal Woman, the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman
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  • Crime Its Causes and Remedies
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Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Citizenship
Kingdom of Italy
Place of birth
Verona
Place of death
Turin
Languages spoken
Italian
Religion
atheism
Field of work
psychiatry
Image
Cesare Lombroso. Photogravure. Wellcome V0026740 (cropped).jpg
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Commons category
Cesare Lombroso
date of birth
1835-11-06
date of death
1909-10-19
Commons Creator page
Cesare Lombroso
Commons gallery
Cesare Lombroso
writing language
Italian
name in native language
Cesare Lombroso
birth name
Marco Ezechia Lombroso
contributed to creative work
Popular Science
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

Works in European collections

2 objects attributed to Cesare Lombroso, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~29 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Cesare Lombroso (/lɒmˈbroʊsoʊ/ lom-BROH-soh, US also /lɔːmˈ-/ lawm-; 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 criminology by changing the Western notions of individual responsibility.

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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cesare Lombroso” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)