O cérebro criminógeno na antropologia criminal do século XIX: um estudo sobre a etiologia do crime a partir da medicalização da sociedade

Abstract

The current work aims at performing an analysis of the history of criminological reasoning in order to contribute to an overview that justifies the appearance of certain criminal rules, some of them still ongoing, together with the mapping of the reasons for the building of many juridical and administrative institutions, some of which are still functioning. Traditional analysis of the genesis of Criminology is accustomed to, nevertheless, omitting certain ideas, which ought to be integrated into the current scientific scope. There are several authors who point to the origin of the scientificist trajectory in Europe, at the end of the 19th- century. However, when we go deeper into the identification as to the roots of the positivist references in the implication Medicine-Person-Society of modern times and its influence on the criminological domain, we realize that a timid Criminology was about to be born at the beginning of the 19th -century, following the studies on brain physiology. Amidst the vast political process of the strengthening of the State and the bourgeoisie, a medical-juridical apparatus is originated, through which the attempt of recognition of the medical authority is demonstrated, beyond the legitimate limits of the activity. It is concerned, therefore, in drawing attention to the criminals medicalisation movement by means of a historical reading of the impact of brain scientificism in the criminal sphere. The material developed by Phrenology and, afterwards, by Criminal Anthropology, is a significant sign of such a scientificist trend in the 19th-century, in which brain researchers put forward their vision on the etiology of the crime from its biologic markers. More particularly, there is an emphasis on the reception of the theories of Franz Joseph Gall and Cesare Lombroso about the criminal brain in 19th-century Criminology, through discussion of the notion of free will, the debate on retribution versus treatment, as well as the proposition of preventive measures in cases of tendencies to violence and public policies towards controlling rights in the name of a socalled social defense.