On the origins of anthropological criminology. Discussion on monomania (moral insanity)

Abstract

This article presents a brief excurse into the history of the conception of one of the leading movements of criminological science – anthropological criminology. Analytical review of the opinion of leading psychiatrists and forensic pathologists of the early XIX century is given regarding the facts of commission of motiveless violent crimes by individuals without evident mental disorder, which were increasingly recorded by law enforcement of that time. This phenomenon was sequentially named “delirium-free mania”, “monomania”, “moral insanity”, and other terms. The methodology is based on the retrospective analysis of the discourse field formed in the early XIX century around the phenomenon of “monomania” (moral insanity) in Russian and foreign literature on law and forensic psychiatry. The materials presented in this article allow reallocating emphases in the scientific discourse on the origins of criminal anthropology branch within criminology. The main conclusion of the conducted research consists in the fact that beginning of the study of monomania (moral insanity) should be viewed as the starting point in formation of anthropological criminology – one of the two leading branches of criminological science (alongside sociology of crime). This conclusion is made on the basis of analysis of the rarest foreign and Russian literature, most of which has not been republished for approximately 200 years.