Criminology and Modernization in Romania during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

This article deals with the relation between the birth of criminology in late 19th century Romania and modernization. Scientific modernization also manifested itself through the adoption of laws, theories and methods from Western Europe that inspired various criminological discourses. However, this modernization was incomplete and stereotypes such as the gentleness of the Romanians had pervaded some of the criminological studies. Most Romanian authors interpreted crime as a socially determined phenomenon, rejecting the biological theories of crime. Towards the end of the 19th century, more and more authors tried to apply western criminological theories to phenomena and criminal cases from the Romanian society.

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