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The abolition of capital punishment: contributions from two nineteenth-century Italian psychiatrists

Mental Health Department, Genoa, Italy, chiclana{at}fastwebnet.it

Tom Dening

Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge

Capital punishment was the source of lively debate in Italy, from unification in 1861 until 1888. The precedent for abolishing the death penalty had been set in Tuscany in 1786. This paper presents the arguments put forward by two eminent psychiatrists who opposed the death penalty, Carlo Livi and Andrea Verga. Livi set out his scientific case for abolition in two addresses given to the Accademia dei Fisiocritici in Siena in 1862. In 1889 Verga wrote a commentary on the Senate sitting and argued in favour of approving the Italian Penal Code. Verga agreed with Livi's arguments and disagreed with the School of Criminal Anthropology, led by Cesare Lombroso and Raffaele Garofalo, who were both in favour of capital punishment.

Key Words: Andrea Verga • Carlo Livi • death penalty • history • Italy • legislation • psychiatry • 19th century

History of Psychiatry, Vol. 20, No. 2, 215-225 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0957154X08094237


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