defining the offender

Different meanings and interpretations of “reality” are implied in scientific definitions. Definitions are limiting through their labeling role, especially when the reality in question is not an inanimate object but a deviant individual. They function as useful conventions only if we are conscious of how dangerously static they are. Theoretical systems that scientifically explain forms of criminality are therefore connected with hermeneutic, terminological, and definitional problems. Concepts such as those of the “born criminal” or “atavism,” which were introduced by Cesare Lombroso and his followers and became common in the criminological debates at the end of the nineteenth century, became more popular and seemed to acquire increasing autonomy from the theories that gave rise to them.