The rise of biocriminology: Capturing observable bodily economies of ‘criminal man’

Abstract

Revisiting the contributions of numerous foundational biocriminological works, this article uses the concept ‘bodily economies’ to analyze the emergence and solidification of criminological pathologizations of the bios dependent on the capture and analysis of human corporeal matter. The scholars we discuss (Lombroso, Ellis, Goring, Hooton, and the Gluecks) each causally equate some part of the body with inbuilt criminality. Through an exegesis of their work, we illustrate how the boundaries of the social body are constituted in and through corporeal capturings and classifications of ‘criminal man’. Our analysis investigates the biocriminological method of locating sources of criminality inside the body, which still permeates the new ‘science of criminals’ used as a tool to define and protect the social body. We conclude by discussing the renewed biocriminological interest in preventing criminality through forecasting it in various scientific constructs and visualizations of the inner body.