Forensic psychiatry and the birth of the criminal insane asylum in modern Italy

The closing of forensic psychiatric hospitals in Italy: Determinants, current status and future perspectives. A scoping review

“…Morel observed that exposure to stimulants and pollutants in the first generation would cause epilepsy and hysteria in the second generation and mental illness in the third. Positivist theorists further argued that criminal behaviour also was caused by the genetic make-up of the individual, rather than mediated by free will (Gibson, 2014). Positivists found themselves in open disagreement with the enlightenment theories of classical social philosophy inspired by the writings of Cesare Beccaria, who emphasised the rein of free will on human behaviour (Beccaria, 2003;Gibson, 2014).…”

“…Positivism was also highly influenced by the studies of physiognomy (the assessment of a person based on outer appearance) (Lavater, 1775) and phrenology (the assessment of a person based on measuring the skull) (Gall, 1798), which contended that inclination to criminal behaviour could be systematically determined by measuring the biologically innate traits of the person (Gibson, 2014). It followed that offenders could be easily identified from law-abiding citizens through these physical assessments (Gibson, 2014).…”

“…Positivistic tenets found fertile ground among numerous psychiatrists of late th century Italy, who gathered around the figure of physicist Cesare Lombroso, widely acknowledged as the father of anthropological criminology, the science of crime based on the study of humans (Gibson, 2014). Given his prestige and power in the medical and political world of early-days unified Italy, Lombroso's theories exerted great influence on the long-term discourse around forensic psychiatric care, which to some extent is still noticeable today (Babini, 2014).…”

“…In 1889, the Parliament passed the first Italian penal code, named after the then Minister of Justice, Giuseppe Zanardelli. At this time, Italian forensic psychiatry was split in two separate schools, the justice system, relating to Beccaria's classic stance of social philosophies, and the medical world, influenced by Lombroso's anthropological criminology (Gibson, 2014).…”

“…Given the power of jurists in policy development, the Zanardelli code mostly abode by the principles of the classical school (Gibson, 2014).…”