The Minovici Brothers and Criminology. Detecting the Criminal Body
The Minovici Brothers and Criminology. Detecting the Criminal Body

Summary/Abstract: This paper discusses the work of Mina and Nicolae Minovici in the field of criminal anthropology, a sub-specialty of forensic medicine. In the 19th-century European territory, especially in Western countries, numerous theories and practices were launched regarding the detection of criminals and recidivists, starting with phrenology and the Lombrosian theory of the “born criminal” based particularly on the interpretation of bio-physical data, ending with the application of Bertillon’s anthropometric method. The following century inaugurated dactyloscopy, a revolutionary scientific discovery that shifted the attention of law enforcement officers to fingerprints, thus abandoning the old interest in the whole body. These discoveries were also questioned and capitalized within Romanian justice as the nation was undergoing a modernizing process aiming at affirming its place on the European map. The “Mina Minovici” Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bucharest was one of the laboratories for crime research, along with the Anthropometric Service led both by Mina and Nicolae Minovici. The European models were thus also applied in our country through the careful investigation of the delinquent and criminal body through photographs, body measurements and fingerprints. In conclusion, the scientists contributed to laying the foundations for the modern system of justice, criminology and modern police by employing procedures which are used to these days such as the criminal record and dactyloscopy.

• Details
• Contents