Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880-1945Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of biological research into the causes of crime, but the origins of this kind of research date back to the late nineteenth century. Here, Richard Wetzell presents the first history of German criminology from Imperial Germany through the Weimar Republic to the end of the Third Reich, a period that provided a unique test case for the perils associated with biological explanations of crime. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources from criminological, legal, and psychiatric literature, Wetzell shows that German biomedical research on crime predominated over sociological research and thus contributed to the rise of the eugenics movement and the eventual targeting of criminals for eugenic measures by the Nazi regime. However, he also demonstrates that the development of German criminology was characterized by a constant tension between the criminologists' hereditarian biases and an increasing methodological sophistication that prevented many of them from endorsing the crude genetic determinism and racism that characterized so much of Hitler's regime. As a result, proposals for the sterilization of criminals remained highly controversial during the Nazi years, suggesting that Nazi biological politics left more room for contention than has often been assumed. |
Other editions - View all
Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880-1945 Richard F. Wetzell Limited preview - 2003 |
Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880-1945 Richard F. Wetzell Limited preview - 2000 |
Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880-1945 Richard F. Wetzell No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
abnormal argued Aschaffenburg asocial Bavarian Berlin biological Birnbaum Bleuler born criminal causes of crime Cesare Lombroso corrigibility crime rates criminal behavior criminal biology criminal disposition criminal justice criminal psychology criminal-biological examinations criminal-biological research Criminal-Biological Service criminal's criminogenic criminological research criminology critical defects degeneration Deutsche deutschen Emil Kraepelin environment Ernst Rüdin eugenic Eugenik euthanasia Exner explanations of crime feeblemindedness genetic factors German Gruhle Gütt and Rüdin habitual criminals hereditarian heredity Ibid incorrigible individual Johannes Lange jurists Karl Birnbaum Kraepelin Kranz and Koller Kriminalbiologie Kriminalbiologische Kriminalität Kriminalpolitik Kurt Schneider Lange's legal responsibility Liepmann Liszt Lombroso Luxenburger mental illness Mezger Minderwertige moral insanity Munich Näcke nals Nazi regime notion offenders penal code penal policy penal reform percent prison doctors proposed psychiatrists psychopathic punishment racial recidivists Reich result Schneider scientific sociological statistical sterilization law sterilization of criminals Strafrecht Stumpfl theory tion twin study Unfruchtbarmachung University Press Verbrechen Verbrecher Viernstein Weimar ZStW