“Essential.” — A.T. Vaver, Choice
“Gibson and Rafter have provided everyone . . . with the ideal starting point from which to immerse themselves in Lombroso’s injunction to study the criminal independently of his or her crime, an injunction which, in a culture obsessed with the genetic foundation of behavioural ‘abnormality’, rings with peculiar urgency.” — Daniel M. Vyleta, European History Quarterly
“Gibson and Rafter successfully show the evolution and complexity of Lombroso’s theories, and even the contradictions within them, which are obscured in standard textbook summaries. . . . [T]his volume remains a valuable contribution towards the study of criminology, intellectual European history and social history more generally.” — Chiara Beccalossi, History of the Human Sciences,
“It is hard to imagine a better edition of this book. Gibson and Rafter are among the foremost experts on nineteenth-century criminology, and Lombroso in particular, knowledge that they bring to bear in many ways to illuminate this text. Their introduction alone is an engaging and insightful contextualization of Lombroso's larger project and of Criminal Man specifically. Their translation, editing, and annotation all enrich the reader's understanding of the text, which comes to life in a remarkably accessible fashion.” — Elun Gabriel H-German, H-Net Reviews
“Lombroso’s direct influence may still be clearly discerned not only in the approach of evolutionary psychologists, but within more general expert discourse on ‘risk’ and ‘predisposition’. Reading him continues to provoke concernful thought over our core assumptions in these areas and about exactly who is to be entrusted with decisions around whether or how to intervene.” — Paul Stronge, Sociology
“This important translation will ensure that future critical analysis will be based on the real substance of Lombroso’s work rather than hearsay, poor translation, and crass editing.” — Louise Westwood, Social History of Medicine
“Cesare Lombroso’s Criminal Man has long been a classic of criminology. Mary Gibson and Nicole Hahn Rafter, in offering this finely annotated translation and showing the progression of Lombroso’s thought through five editions of the book, have made a great contribution to a broader understanding of this towering, yet often misrepresented, figure and his classic text. With its lucid introduction by Gibson and Rafter, and many original illustrations, this book will be a precious resource for the history of criminology and for European intellectual and social history more generally.” — David I. Kertzer, author of Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes’ Secret Plot to Capture Rome from the New Italian State