ABSTRACT
Cesare Lombroso was one of—if not the—first to use a scientific approach for the study of crime. He can be contrasted with the work of the other "father" of criminology, a title sometimes given to Cesare Bonesana di Beccaria, whose On Crimes and Punishments made a splash in Italy and across the world in the mid-18th century. Cesare Beccaria was not a scientist. His work comes closest to resembling that of a philosopher. Beccaria was trained in the law, however, so he did have some insight on behavior and the justice system in particular, but his famous book was situated firmly in humanism and enlightenment ideals. Lombroso ushered in what came to be known as the "positive" school of criminology. The seeds of Lombroso's most well-known theory came from one of the more famous stories in criminology. The debates between classical and positivistic researchers early in the history of criminology defined the trajectory of criminology to come.
