Trait Theories

Lombroso and the Positivist School

Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909) attempted to apply scientific method to the study of crime by physically measuring the traits of the criminal population and comparing them with the physical traits of the non-criminal population and various types of criminals. Because Lombroso was looking for “positive” statistical correlation between crime and physical types, he and his followers became known as the Positivist School.

Lombroso claimed that approximately one-third of all criminals were throwbacks to more primitive humans on the evolutionary scale. This theory was called atavism. Lombroso believed that these throwbacks to ape-like ancestors were born criminals, predestined by their biological inferiority to perform criminal and antisocial acts. However, he recognized that not all criminals fell into this category. Some criminals were insane, feeble-minded, or epileptic (a category associated with crime in Lombroso's day that is no longer believed to have any link to criminality). “Criminaloids” was another classification. Lombroso believed that members of the latter group were predisposed to commit crimes and might easily fall into a life of crime but that they were not biologically compelled to do so.

Among the physical characteristics Lombroso found in criminal types were dark skin pigmentation; very large or very small head size; low, narrow, receding foreheads; facial asymmetry; greater development of the lower jaw; projecting cheekbones; projecting ears; defective teeth; curiously shaped and projecting noses; thin lips; hairiness; wrinkles; virile and ferocious physiognomies; long arms; oddly shaped feet; and tattoos.

Lombroso's studies were flawed. Most of the criminals he examined were Sicilian. However, instead of drawing his control group of law-abiding people from Sicily, Lombroso took his control group of so-called normal people from the Italian population as a whole. Later criminologists attribute the crimes in the population Lombroso studied to sociocultural background rather than anatomy and physiology.

Enrico Ferri (1859–1934) and Raffaele Garofalo (1852–1934) were two of the more famous followers of Lombroso's theories. Although they placed more emphasis on the effect of circumstances and environment on criminal behavior, they still held that genetic inferiority manifested through physical characteristics was an important factor in crime. Ferri proposed a classification of criminals into four categories: born criminals, insane criminals, occasional criminals, and habitual criminals. Although Ferri believed that the majority of offenders were occasional criminals whose criminal activity was determined by family and social circumstances, he also believed that the born criminal was predisposed to serious crime through hereditary traits.

...