Criminal Man

Abstract

This book provides a companion volume to the previous translation of Cesare Lombroso's (1835–1909) other major work Criminal Woman, the Prostitute and the Normal Woman, which was reviewed in Social History of Medicine in December 2005. Gibson and Rafter state that the purpose of both volumes is to provide ‘an adequate English translation of a classic work and to lay foundations for an emerging new generation of Lombroso scholarship’ (p. 4). Criminal Man was first published in 1876 as one slim volume and went through five editions in Lombroso's lifetime. These five editions reflect the shifting and evolving nature of his theories. Criminal Man has achieved iconic status as the founding text of criminology. However, no complete English translation existed prior to this one. This new translation, which draws on all five editions, will ensure that scholars are able to follow the development of the theories and the complexity of Lombroso's ideas, trace the history of the ‘born criminal’ and study the development of his ideas on the sociological and environmental causes of crime. This timely translation will also assist readers in tracing the origin of criminal anthropology, a discipline which researchers are beginning to locate within the broader context of the production of scientific knowledge in the late nineteenth century. It will also enable the reader to capture the essence of Lombroso's ‘multi-causal theory of crime’ (p. 2) and provide access to his wide-ranging proposals to turn theory into practical policy.