At the beginning was the evil: biological determinism and destiny in lombrosian criminology

Abstract

In recent years the development of the neurosciences has stimulated a renewed attention for the bio-genetic roots of human behavior. In particular, some neuroscientists – the so-called determinist hard or radical – argue that the idea of freedom of will is only a biologically induced illusion. According to this approach the brain structures determine mechanistically every human action, including crime. This Neo-Darwinist view for certain aspects recovers the bio determinism materialist of the first Lombrosian criminology and its consequent denial of moral responsibility. In a biographical approach, the Author investigates the itinerary and the stimuli that induced young Lombroso to mature a criminological theory based on biological determinism and on the concept of atavism: the resurfacing of fierce primordial lines in individuals with particular psychophysical characters.

In general, several paleoanthropologists and socio biologists have originally shared the idea of a violent and cruel human nature, inspiring to a model of organic evolution dominated by the merciless struggle for life and feeding the myth of the “killer monkey.” The Author underlines the affinities among the Lombrosian radical anthropological pessimism and some conceptions of Jewish-Christian tradition and hypothesizes the subterranean influence of religious elements in the work of Cesare Lombroso,especially due to his cultural and family background, and pronounced personal sensibility.