Overview

A new translation of Cesar Lombroso's La Donna Delinquente, with a new scholarly introduction Cesare Lombroso is widely considered the founder of the field of criminology. His theory of the ""born"" criminal dominated discussions of criminology in Europe and the Americas from the 1880s into the early twentieth century. His book, La donna delinquente, originally published in Italian in 1893, was the first and most influential book ever written on women and crime. This comprehensive new translation gives readers a full view of his landmark work. Lombroso's research took him to police stations, prisons, and madhouses where he studied the tattoos, cranial capacities, and sexual behavior of criminals and prostitutes to establish a female criminal type. Criminal Woman, the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman anticipated today's theories of genetic criminal behaviour. Lombroso used Darwinian evolutionary science to argue that criminal women are far more cunning and dangerous than criminal men. Nicole Hahn Rafter and Mary Gibson's introduction, locating his theory in social context, offers a significant new interpretation of Lombroso's place in criminology.

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9780822332077

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Criminal Woman, the Prostitute and the Normal Woman is a major publishing landmark in criminology. Rafter and Gibson have achieved a remarkable feat in translating this pivotal work and presenting it to scholars to study in a well-edited text. It gives new insights into positivism and the history of the subject. It will be required reading for anyone interested in developments in the field. It may even lead to new evaluations of Lombroso's contribution, not least by feminist scholars. Frances Heidensohn, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Cesare Lombroso created the field of criminology, but there has been a lack of available textbooks making his arguments accessible to today's students of history, law, and sociology. This volume fills that void. Offering work previously not translated along with a scholarly introduction and new visual evidence, it reveals Lombroso's argument without distorting the peculiar and genuinely contradictory character of his reasoning. -Peter Becker, European University Institute Criminal Woman, the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman is a major publishing landmark in criminology. Nicole Hahn Rafter and Mary Gibson have achieved a remarkable feat in translating this pivotal work and presenting it for scholars to study in a well-edited text. It gives new insights into positivism and the history of the subject. It will be required reading for anyone interested in developments in the field. It may even lead to new evaluations of Lombroso's contribution, not least by feminist scholars. -Frances Heidensohn, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Author Information

Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909), an internationally famous physician and criminologist, wrote extensively about jurisprudence, psychiatry, human sexuality, and the causes of crime. As a young law student, Guglielmo Ferrero (1871–1942) assisted Lombroso with research.

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