Two views on criminal behavior.

Abstract

The emergence of Vienna as a leading center of medical criminalistics has increased research on the physiological differences between criminals and normal people. In the second half of the nineteenth century, criminologists sought to explain human immorality and criminal behavior. In this regard, the work of Moriz Benedikt was of particular significance. This paper argues that the gruesome cases of serial killers who targeted maidservants were instrumental in the rise of forensic medicine and criminalistics in Vienna.