2.1 Biological Theories

Question 1

What assumptions are there of biological theories?

Answer 1

1) physical characteristics make some people more likely to commit crime than others
2) criminal tendencies can be inherited (genetics)
3) investigation of the persons genetic material, brain or body will reveal criminal tendencies (physiological)

Question 2

What did Cesare Lombroso believe?

Answer 2

That criminals were individuals that failed to evolve at the same pace as the remainder of the human race and that criminals could be identified by there physical characteristics (blemishes- stigmata) which indicated their biological inferiority

Question 3

What did Lombroso base his data on?

Answer 3

Autopsies on convicted criminals

Question 4

What did Lombroso suggest criminals were?

Answer 4

That they were throwbacks and has atavistic features that were from an earlier stage of human development

Question 5

Who did Lombroso compare to find the distinguishing features of criminality?

Answer 5

Italian prisoners

Question 6

What are examples of distinguishing features of criminality?

Answer 6

Some examples are: 
Large Jaw
High cheekbones
Fattened upturned nose 
Handle- shaped ears
Long arms 
Fleshy lips
Shifty eyes 
Scanty beard or baldness

Question 7

What are the distinguishing features of criminality for sex offenders?

Answer 7

Thick lips and protruding ears.

Question 8

What are the distinguishing features of criminality for murderers?

Answer 8

Bloodshot eyes and curly hair.

Question 9

What did Sheldon believe?

Answer 9

That people could be classified into 3 body shapes which correspond to different body types. Therefore he believes there was a correlation between somatotypes and behavioural patterns and temperament

Question 10

What is an endomorph?

Answer 10

They are ‘fat and soft’, sociable and relaxed, they love comfort, food, affection and are even tempered

Question 11

What is an ectomorph?

Answer 11

They are ‘thin and fragile’, introverted, restrained, self-conscious and afraid of people.

Question 12

What is a mesomorph?

Answer 12

They are ‘muscular and hard’, tend to be aggressive, adventurous, seek physical activity, callous and ruthless in relationships.

Question 13

What did Sheldon study? What did he find?

Answer 13

Sheldon studied the relationship with somatotypes and delinquency by comparing 400 boys in a residential rehabilitation home and gathered extensive family backgrounds and monitored their growth over 8 years. He found that mesomorphs were the most likely to become criminal and but there was some relationship with Endomorphy too.

Question 14

What did the Gluecks find when he used Sheldon’s typology?

Answer 14

They found that 60% of the delinquent population to be mesomorphs and 30% to be endomorphs.

Question 15

What did Sheldon find when he used a correlational study?

Answer 15

Many convicts were mesomorphic and they were least likely to be ectomorphic (Sheldon et al 1949)

Question 16

What are the 4 main ways to look for links between crime and family?

Answer 16

1) family studies- patterns in criminality
2) adoption studies- looking at children that share the same parents but have been raised in separate houses
3) twin studies- looking at twins raised together and apart
4) genes- looking at blood samples to detect chromosome abnormalities

Question 17

What did Osborne and West (1982) study?

Answer 17

They compared the sons of criminal and non criminal fathers. They found that 13% of the sons of non-criminal fathers had a criminal conviction whist 40% of those with criminal fathers had a conviction.

Question 18

Who did Christianesen (1977) Study? What did he find?

Answer 18

He studied 3586 danish twins and he found that DZ twins the concordance rate for crime was 13% whereas for MZ it was 35%

Question 19

What did Crowe (1972) study? And what did he find?

Answer 19

He studied adoption studies and found that if an adoptees biological mother had a conviction they had 50% chance of having had a conviction. If the adoptees biological mother did not have a conviction they only had 5% chance of having had a conviction.

Question 20

What’s the female sex chromosome?

Answer 20

XX

Question 21

What’s the male sex chromosome?

Answer 21

XY

Question 22

What is does having an extra Y chromosome result in?

Answer 22

As it is an abnormality in the male chromosome, it is related to increased aggression & slower than average learning.

Question 23

What did Jacobs study and what did he find?

Answer 23

He studied chromosome abnormalities, female XXX and male XYY. He found that the XYY was 20x higher among inmates in a Scottish prison than in the Scottish general population. The extra Y chromosome caused males to be unusually tall, aggressive and violent.

Question 24

What did Raine (1997) investigate?

Answer 24

P.E.T. scans of violent offenders, he used 41 American prisoners and matched them with 41 ‘normal people’. 6 of the prisoners were schizophrenics and 23 suffered head injuries. The 6 schizophrenics were matched with schizophrenic people from the general population.

Question 25

What were the results of Raine’s (1997) study?

Answer 25

Violent offenders had less activity in their frontal and parietal lobes. The frontal lobe is responsible for self control, whilst the parietal lobe is responsible for verbal ability and leaning. Violent offenders has more activity in the occipital lobe, which is responsible for visual info. They also had a less balanced brain compared to the ‘normal’ people, there was more activity on the right side of the amygdala and hippocampus.
HE CONCLUDED THAT BRAIN STRUCTURE INFLUENCES BEHAVIOUR AND THE EXPERIMENT SUPPORTS A NEUROLOGICAL ELEMENT TO CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR