ABSTRACT
In Italy the studies of sociology and criminology have always been closely linked. Cesare Beccaria published his book Dei Delitti that dealt with problems of crime and punishment, and made Beccaria one of the world pioneers of penal reform. The social Darwinist influence in Italy was unmistakable, and it could be very clearly seen in Italian works on penology and anthropology. Cesare Lombroso became world-famous on account of his theory of the 'hereditary criminal', that could be clearly recognized by various 'atavistic' physical characteristics, such as beetling eyebrows and so on. Thus according to Lombroso a criminal is to some extent a hangover from men pre-history, and is partly a moronic type. The so-called 'positivist' school of criminology crystallized around Lombroso, and one of the chief names in it was that of Scipio Sighele, whose book La folla delinquente gave rise to that trend in social psychology which regarded the behaviour of crowds as a syndrome of mental disease.
