11 - Positivist Criminology and State Formation in Modern Argentina, 1890-1940

Summary

With Pinero, Ramos Mejia [and] Cabred, Argentina was the first country that understood and applied my father's ideas, and it was for me and for him a great joy to come here in 1906 and see for ourselves all that had been done in this field; but I see that from that year until today, Argentina has continued to lead the nations that understood my father's directives in the fight against crime entirely and organically and applied them in a much better way.

Gina Lombroso, July 29, 1936

The period from 1880 to 1930 was a crucial epoch for the formation of the nation-state in Argentina. Those who have examined this process have alternatively emphasized the fiscal and administrative resources that made possible the existence of a national state, the mechanisms that engendered a system of oligarchic political hegemony, the juridical basis of sovereignty and governance, and the construction of a national project. Few, however, have focused on the cultural and disciplinary aspects of state-making. Until quite recently key areas of state intervention such as health, education, welfare, and penal policy – areas in which state structures, practices, and rhetoric were crucial for the constitution of political and social subjects – have remained marginal to the historian’s research agenda.