The trial of the skull studied by the founder of Criminal Anthropology: The war of the Lombroso Museum

Abstract

More than a century after the death of Cesare Lombroso, who still today is considered the founder of Criminal Anthropology, the debate on the atavisms theory seems far from over. The theories of Lombroso that, in the middle of the nineteenth century, have affected the course of investigations and criminal trials have once again been used to achieve success in the courtroom with the recent decision issued by the Italian Court on 16th May 2017. At the center of the judicial dispute is the legitimacy of detention of the skull of Giuseppe Villella exhibited at the “Cesare Lombroso” Museum of Criminal Anthropology in Turin. The ethical implications already involved in the materialist determinism of the Lombrosian thesis re-emerged today and intertwined with a plurality of historical, ideological, cultural, scientific and social issues that invest the relationship with our own history and with our cultural identity. The authors analyze the main ethical issues on the museum detention and on the treatment of human remains, pointing out the possible ways of reconciliation and mediation of the disputes on this matter.