ABSTRACT
In its most pure form a theory of crime based solely upon genetic transmission would hold that crime is a direct product of heredity — a criminal is born not made. While such a view would not be seriously entertained by contemporary theorists, who generally prefer interactionist theories, such thinking played a major part in the theories of Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso, a nineteenth-century Italian physician and ‘criminal anthropologist’, argued that criminals were the product of a genetic constitution unlike that found in the non-criminal population. However, Lombroso also invoked the notion of ‘indirect heredity’, suggesting that criminality could be acquired through contact with other ‘degenerates’ such as insane people or alcoholics. Further, in addition to indirect heredity, Lombroso extended his views still wider with the suggestion that environmental conditions such as poor education could also be numbered among the causes of crime. In his later writings Lombroso concluded that about one-third of offenders were born criminals: the remainder had to be accounted for by some other means of explanation.
