Racialism and Eugenics in Greek Criminology: The Case of Konstantinos Gardikas (1896-1984)

This article highlights the racial and eugenic influences underpinning the establishment of criminology in Greece. It focuses on Konstantinos Gardikas, the founder of Greek criminology and its principal representative from the 1930s to the 1970s. After studying in Switzerland, he founded the main Greek criminological and forensic services, and maintained close relationships with European and international criminological and police bodies. As a university professor his textbooks influenced many generations of jurists. The article discusses his use of racial and eugenic ideas and asks why his writing and teaching reproduced after the war almost unchanged his interwar views on the biological basis of crime, the role of heredity, descent and race, and the “insurance measures” to prevent crime, particularly sterilization and castration. Gardikas saw criminology as subordinate to criminal law and contributed to the predominance of penologists in criminal matters, excluding psychiatrists and medical doctors.