ABSTRACT
After Cesare Lombroso established the field of criminal anthropology in the 1800s and methodically studied the brains and bodies of criminals, his pioneering approach to the study of criminals established a positivistic criminological science that continues almost two centuries later. Although Lombroso, and other researchers in the biological tradition, along with the emergence of the Chicago School theorists, made their mark on the field, harsh critiques were leveled against criminology in the early 1900s. The most devastating critique of the field of criminology was proffered by Jerome Michael and Mortimer Adler. In 1933, Michael and Adler published a now famous report (often 69referred to as the Michael–Adler Report) where they discussed what they saw as the three major flaws of criminology. These were: (1) criminological research has been futile; (2) the reason for the futility of research in criminology is the incompetence of criminologists in science; and (3) the current methods of criminological research should be abandoned and scientists should be imported into criminology from other fields. 1 Following their report, there was certainly a need for someone to step forward in defense of the blossoming endeavor that was criminology.
