The Lombroso biologism: a centenary of controversies

Journal title SALUTE E SOCIETÀ
Author/s Francesco Sidoti, Mariateresa Gammone
Publishing Year 2010 Issue 2010/3 Language Italian
Pages 15 P. 123-137 File size 296 KB
DOI 10.3280/SES2010-003008
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

In the centenary of his death, Lombroso spreads yet polemics. A Court stated for the first time the juridical relevance of behavioural genetics. Some say Lombroso criminology prelude, without knowing it, the discovery of genetic factors of development and brain function, and thus of the behaviour. Even if sincere supporter of enlightened institutional interventions, Lombroso was wrong from many points of view and polemics show the greatness of science to discuss, recognize, correct his errors and errors of medicine in the time in which he lived. The blunders of Lombroso teach how much caution is needed to assess the results of research. The significance of the biological factor remains a problem and a challenge. Today many fear that after having avoided the medicalization of crime, we can fall into bio-medicalization of crime. In the next centenary, the Lombroso biologism will be seen in the light of the consequences of our ability in applying contemporary genetics breakthroughs.

Keywords: Science, medicine, biology, behaviour, criminology, Lombroso

Francesco Sidoti, Mariateresa Gammone, Il biologismo di Lombroso: un centenario di controversie in "SALUTE E SOCIETÀ" 3/2010, pp 123-137, DOI: 10.3280/SES2010-003008