Criminal Man, According to the Classification of Cesare LombrosoLombroso, Gina
Science
Criminal Man, According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso
Lombroso, Gina
Criminal anthropology; Criminology
A typical instance is that of a certain Rizz... who was brought to him
by the mother because, while still at the breast, he bit his nurse so
viciously that bottle-feeding had to be substituted. At the age of two
years, careful training and medical treatment notwithstanding, this
child was separated from his brothers, because he stuck pins into their
pillows and played dangerous tricks on them. Two years later, he broke
open his father's cash-box and stole money to buy sweets; at six,
although decidedly intelligent, he was expelled from every private
school in the town, because he instigated the others to mischief or
ill-treated them. At fourteen, he seduced a servant and ran away, and at
twenty he killed his fiancée by throwing her out of a window. Thanks to
the testimony of a great many doctors, Rizz... was declared to be
morally insane, but if the family had been poor instead of well-to-do,
and the mother had neglected to have her child examined in infancy by a
medical man, thus obtaining ample proof of the pathological nature of
his perversity, Rizz... would have been condemned as an ordinary
criminal, because, like all morally insane persons, he was very
intelligent and able to reason clearly, like a normal individual.
Another typical case is that of a child named Rav... (see Fig. 12) a
native of the Romagna, who was brought to my father at the age of eight,
because his parents were convinced that his conduct was due to a morbid
condition. Unlike the above-mentioned case, his evil acts were always
carried out in an underhand way. He showed great spite towards his
brothers and sisters, especially the smaller ones, whom he attempted to
strangle on several occasions, and was expelled from school on account
of the bad influence he exercised over his schoolfellows. He delighted
above everything in robbing his parents, employers, and the neighbours
and in falsely accusing others, and so cleverly did he manage this that
he caused a great deal of mischief before his double-dealing was
discovered. When only eight, on leaving home early every morning to go
to work, he would secretly throw all the milk left at the neighbours'
doors into the dust-bin, then he accused the janitor of stealing it and
got him dismissed. A year later, he nearly succeeded in causing the
arrest of a pawnbroker, whom he accused of having lent him money on a
cloak, it being illegal in Italy to accept anything in pawn from a
minor. The cloak, however, was discovered by his mother hidden in the
cellar. At ten years of age, he alleged that his father had brutally
ill-treated him, and as severe marks and bruises on his body gave colour
to the accusation, the poor man was arrested. The marks, however, were
self-inflicted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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