The Origins of Criminology

Criminology is a unique field of study which purports to bring scientific knowledge to the world of crime and criminals. Tracing the intellectual origins of criminology to physiognomy, phrenology, and evolutionary theories, this book demonstrates criminology's background in new attitudes toward science and the development of scientific methodologies applicable to social and mental phenomena. The book brings together a collection of 19th-century texts from the key originators of the practice of criminology - selected, introduced, and with commentaries by the leading scholar in this area, Nicole Hahn Rafter.