Alexandre Lacassagne, French Criminologist

Alexandre Lacassagne (August 17, 1843 - September 24, 1924) was a French physician and criminologist. He was a principal founder in the fields of medical jurisprudence and criminal anthropology. He was a specialist in the field of toxicology, and was a pioneer regarding bloodstain pattern analysis and the research of bullet markings and their relationship to specific weapons. He had an in sociology and psychology, and the correlation of these disciplines to criminal and deviant behavior. He considered an individuals biological predisposition, as well as his social environment to be important factors in criminal behavior. Lacassagne's School was widely influential in France from 1885 to 1914, and the main opponent to Lombroso's Italian School. Lacassagne was originally influenced by Lombroso, who theorized on the born criminal, on a criminal type and to his insistence on heredity. Lacassagne placed the main emphasis on environmental influence, although the environmental determinism did not exclude, from his viewpoint, hereditary matters nor physical anomalies. His overshadowing by the Lombroso School was probably due to his insistence on the value of phrenology, which at that time had become debunked in most scientific circles. He died in 1924 at the age of 81

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Alexandre Anthropologist Anthropology Criminologist Forensics Jurisprudence Toxicologist

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