Defining an anthropology for criminals at the turn of the century Chile (XIX-XX centuries)

Abstract

This study seeks to analyze the role of the anthropological depiction of crime in Chile for the construction of a new image of the urban criminal. Accordingly, it is argued that notions of Bertillon and Lombroso would have given ―scientific‖ support to prejudices that stigmatized specific population groups in the popular sectors of the cities. Also, in a chronological period from the end of the 19th century until the middle of the next century, we can see how the main ideas of this new criminological approaches would have helped to justify the criteria and measures taken by the authorities to define a social defense policy based on the characterization of a ―common enemy‖. This was now identifiable from a photographic record that depicted his unhealthy inner nature, as well as certain physical features that revealed his biological predisposition to evil.