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Enrico FerriItalian criminologist and political activist
Date of Birth: 25.02.1856
Country:  Italy |
Content:
Biography of Enrico Ferri
Enrico Ferri was an Italian criminologist and political figure.Early Life and Education
Enrico Ferri was born in 1856 in San Benedetto Po, Lombardy. He completed his law degree at the University of Bologna in 1877 and later interned with Cesare Lombroso in Turin.
Academic and Political Career
Ferri went on to teach at various universities in Italy, including Bologna, Siena, Pisa, and Rome. In 1886, he became the head of the department of criminal law at the University of Rome. Alongside his teaching career, Ferri also engaged in scientific research, practiced law, and held political positions.
In 1886, Ferri was elected as a deputy in the Italian Parliament, a position he held until 1921. Initially critical of socialists, Ferri gradually changed his stance and formally joined the Italian Socialist Party in 1893. He became one of the party's leaders and served as the editor of the socialist newspaper "Avanti!".
In 1919, Ferri led a commission that drafted a criminal code, many provisions of which were later incorporated into the fascist Italian penal code of 1930. Throughout his career, Ferri made significant contributions to the development of positivist criminology, following in the footsteps of Cesare Lombroso.
Views and Works
Unlike Lombroso, Ferri emphasized not only anthropological factors in criminality but also social factors. He classified criminals into several categories, including congenital criminals with clear physiological deviations, mentally ill criminals, habitual criminals influenced by social factors, passion-driven criminals, and accidental criminals.
Ferri defended orthodox Marxist positions and considered himself a proponent of philosophical and economic materialism in its most extreme form. He argued that socialism was a logical consequence of Darwinism. Some of his notable works include "Criminal Sociology" (1883), "Socialism and Positivist Science; Darwin, Spencer, Marx" (1894), "The Positivist School of Criminology" (1901), and "Studies on Criminality" (1901).
Enrico Ferri passed away in 1929, leaving behind a significant legacy in the fields of criminology and politics.
