Measuring the Amygdala; Otherwise Recycling Lombroso Theories One and Half Centuries Later

Sokol Preci Gentian Vyshka

doi:10.4172/2332-0915.1000e120

Abstract

Crime and perpetrators have been under scrutiny from forensic experts and psychiatrists since centuries. This interest is understandable, if we consider the social consequences of a criminal behavior. Cesare Lombroso concluded one and half centuries before that some facial and skull anthropometric parameters might suggest someone?s tendency for criminal behavior. Technological advances but ethical problems as well have caused the fading up of his theories. However, recent neuro-radiological research has found correlates with volumetric values of certain brain region, and the criminal behavior. Two approaches are suggested and discussed in the present paper; the first focusing on the criminal traits of the perpetrator (including anthropometric parameters) and the second, putting under scrutiny the characteristics of the crime, rather than those of the perpetrator itself.

Highlights

Trying to suggest a reason and to find out brain localization responsible for criminal behavior has been an old-dated challenge for the science and human knowledge
Cesare Lombroso, a famous psychiatrist and criminal anthropologist, opened the Pandora’s Box with two atlases of him, published in Paris, 1887 [1,2,3]. He has been widely criticized for weaknesses in the methodology of data collection, much of his theory deepened straight into the psychiatry, sociology and criminology of the first half of twentieth century [4]
A Darwinist in his point of stance, he produced something more that lacked to the initial intuition of Darwinian criminology, and gave a measuring image – artifactual and erroneous – to the potential criminal

Summary

Introduction

Trying to suggest a reason and to find out brain localization responsible for criminal behavior has been an old-dated challenge for the science and human knowledge. Translating the crime into a mere anthropometric parameter, through measuring the perimeter or the circumference of the head, has been the first suggestion. Cesare Lombroso, a famous psychiatrist and criminal anthropologist, opened the Pandora’s Box with two atlases of him, published in Paris, 1887 [1,2,3].

Results

Conclusion