Francesco Rotondo, La novela lombrosiana in Argentina: criminalizzazione dell’immigrato italiano tra medicina e diritto, in L. Nuzzo (a cura di), Differenza e diritto. Saggi di filosofia, storia e sociologia giuridica, Congedo, Lecce, 2018, pp. 79-106.

Abstract

The paper analyzes the criminalization of Italian immigrants in Argentina between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in particular by exploring the Argentine Lombrosian-inspired literature. Italian criminal anthropology was indeed widespread in Argentina among the legal and medical scientific communities and produced a stigmatization process of Italians as “undesirable guests”. Many Argentine writers portrayed Italian characters as vicious men and underlined their hazardousness through short stories, novels and romans in order to facilitate their expulsion.