Pauline Tarnowsky:  Mother of Criminology - Key Thinkers in Criminology --  Prof K. Jaishankar
Channel: Justice Science TV
Date: 2023-11-13

This video is about Pauline Tarnowsky, who is hailed as the "Mother of Criminology". 

" Dr. Pauline Tarnowsky's life, scholarship, and influenced on the development of criminology during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tarnowsky's subjects were rural peasant women imprisoned for prostitution, thievery, or homicide along with a control group of “normal” Russian peasant women. Her data include 25 physical anatomy measurements, reports about heredity, and self-reports about their crime.

Tarnowsky followed Lombrosian theory during the early part of her career. Then, she added Morel's degenerative theory and Lacassagne's (1896) argument highlighting the importance of social issues.

Tarnowsky's methodology is exquisite and detailed. She was the first woman criminologist and the first to publish about women's crime. She was also one of the first, if not the first, to use control groups. Her scholarship, influence on Lombroso, and ability to walk the line among the theories of born criminals, degenerative influences, and social issues is most impressive."

Source: Lin Huff-Corzine, Kayla Toohy,  The life and scholarship of Pauline Tarnowsky: Criminology's mother,  Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 85,
2023, 101986, ISSN 0047-2352, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101986.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235222001064).