The Positive School of Criminology eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 84 pages of information about The Positive School of Criminology.

The Positive School of Criminology eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 84 pages of information about The Positive School of Criminology.

The anthropological factor.  It is precisely here that the genius of Cesare Lombroso established a new science, because in his search after the causes of crime he studied the anthropological condition of the criminal.  This condition concerns not only the organic and anatomical constitution, but also the psychological, it represents the organic and psychological personality of the criminal.  Every one of us inherits at birth, and personifies in life, a certain organic and psychological combination.  This constitutes the individual factor of human activity, which either remains normal through life, or becomes criminal or insane.  The anthropological factor, then, must not be restricted, as some laymen would restrict it, to the study of the form of the skull or the bones of the criminal.  Lombroso had to begin his studies with the anatomical conditions of the criminal, because the skulls may be studied most easily in the museums.  But he continued by also studying the brain and the other physiological conditions of the individual, the state of sensibility, and the circulation of matter.  And this entire series of studies is but a necessary scientific introduction to the study of the psychology of the criminal, which is precisely the one problem that is of direct and immediate importance.  It is this problem which the lawyer and the public prosecutor should solve before discussing the juridical aspect of any crime, for this reveals the causes which induced the criminal to commit a crime.  At present there is no methodical standard for a psychological investigation, although such an investigation was introduced into the scope of classic penal law.  But for this reason the results of the positive school penetrate into the lecture rooms of the universities of jurisprudence, whenever a law is required for the judicial arraignment of the criminal as a living and feeling human being.  And even though the positive school is not mentioned, all profess to be studying the material furnished by it, for instance, its analyses of the sentiments of the criminal, his moral sense, his behavior before, during and after the criminal act, the presence of remorse which people, judging the criminal after their own feelings, always suppose the criminal to feel, while, in fact, it is seldom present.  This is the anthropological factor, which may assume a pathological form, in which case articles 46 and 47 of the penal code remember that there is such a thing as the personality of the criminal.  However, aside from insanity, there are thousands of other organic and psychological conditions of the personality of criminals, which a judge might perhaps lump together under the name of extenuating circumstances, but which science desires to have thoroughly investigated.  This is not done today, and for this reason the idea of extenuating circumstances constitutes a denial of justice.

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The Positive School of Criminology from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.