3.2 Evaluating Flashcards
Strengths of Sheldon’s somatotype
Glueck and Glueck replicated the findings- 60% of offenders were mesomorphs
The most serious delinquents in Sheldon’s sample were the ones with the most extremely mesomorphic body shapes
Weaknesses of Sheldon’s somatotypes
Ignores environmental factors
Criminality may cause somatotype, rather than somatotype causing
criminality
Social class may be the true cause of offending and mesomorphy
Strengths of Jacobs XYY theory
Whatmore and Price found links between property crime and the syndrome.
15/1000 men in prison were sufferers as opposed to 1/1000 in the general population.
Weaknesses of XYY theory
Even if violent offenders have the syndrome, it doesn’t mean it is the cause of it.
XYY males often have low intelligence, so are more like to get caught.
Strengths of Freud psychoanalysis
Outlines the importance of early socialisation and family life in criminality
Had some influence on policies for dealing with crime and deviance.
Weaknesses of Freud’s psychoanalysis
How would we know about the existence of the unconscious mind if it is unconscious.
Unscientific and subjective. Rely on just accepting psychanalyst’s claims
Strengths of social learning theory
Takes into account that we are social beings rather than only learning from our own experiences
Bobo doll experiment backs it up
Weaknesses of social learning theory
Lacks ecological validity- lab study
Ignores freedom of choice
Strengths of strain theory
Shows that normal and deviant behaviour can both derive from societies goals
Explains why some people are arrested more than others
Weaknesses of Merton’s strain theory
Ignores crime of the upper class
Ignores group deviance of delinquent subcultures.
Strengths of labelling theory
Explains how police apply labels based on their typification-skews stats
Uses the deviance amplification spiral
Weaknesses of labelling theory
It ignores the actual victims, portraying the offenders as victims labelling.
Fails to explain why people commit crimes before labelling
