2.1: Biological Theories Of Criminality Flashcards
Define physiological theory
A theory about the body
What did lombroso believe?
That criminals were individuals who had failed to evolve at the same pace as the remainder of the human race and could be identified by their physical characteristics
What approach did lombroso attempt to prove his theory?
A scientific approach - he gathered data from autopsies on convicted criminals
What did lombroso say about criminals’ atavistic features?
Were biological characteristics from an earlier stage of human development that were manifested as a tendency to commit crime
What were lombroso’s theorised features of criminality for each criminal?
Thief: expressive face and manual dexterity
Murderer: cold glassy stare, bloodshot eyes and big hawk like nose
Sex offender: thick lips and protruding ears
Female offender: shorter, more wrinkled, darker hair
What are the strengths to lombroso’s theory?
He was the first person to give criminology a scientific credibility
Butcher and Taylor (2007) suggested that less attractive individuals are more likely to be considered guilty
What are the weaknesses to lombroso’s theory?
Extremely deterministic
Delisi (2012) - said many of the atavistic features are specific to those of African descent = racist
Define somatotypes
Where people are assigned according to the extent to which their body/ physique conforms to a basic type
How does Sheldon agree with lombroso?
He too believe that criminality is linked within a person’s physical form
What did Sheldon believe?
That people could be classified into 3 body shapes which each correspond with 3 different personality types
Give the 3 different body types Sheldon believed linked to different behaviours
Endomorphic
Mesomorphic
Ectomorphic
Describe the endomorphic body type
Bigger people
Considered sociable and relaxed
Likely to commit crimes like theft or fraud
Describe the mesomorphic body types
Healthy build
Considered as aggressive, adventurous, seek physical activity and are ruthless in relationships
Describe the ectomorphic body type
Lean physique
Considered introverted and restrained
Using a correlation study, what did Sheldon discover about many convicts’ body types?
They were mostly mesomorphic and least likely to be ectomorphic
How did Sheldon test to find some relationship between edomorphy and delinquency?
What did he find?
He compared 400 boys in a residential rehabilitation home and gathered extensive family backgrounds and monitored their growth for 8 years
What did Glueck and Glueck find using Sheldon’s theory?
They found 60% of the delinquent population to be mesomorphs and 30% endomorphs
In a control group there were only 13% who were mesomorphs
Who supports Sheldon’s theory?
Corsini: found a link between attractiveness and crime
But they could not detect whether physical unattractiveness played a part in the initial choice to become deviant or whether the juvenile court system singled out unattractive children from others
What did Lewison (1965) do?
Studies have confirmed the link between
What are strengths of Sheldon’s theory?
Studies have confirmed the link between bodily build and criminality
He had supporting evidence from his own study which used a good-sized sample of 200
What are weaknesses of Sheldon’s theory?
Doesn’t really explain all criminal behaviour
Does not consider that people’s somatotypes are not fixed- bodies change constantly
If a mesomorph’s shape is considered criminal, do courts think this too?
Labelling and stereotypical
What do neurophysiological explanations for criminality concern?
The functioning of specific regions of the brain and how they relate to offending
Name a researcher who outlined how brain dysfunction can explain how criminal behaviour?
Raine et al (1997)
