AC 2.1 - Biological Theories

Question 1

What are biological theories of crime?

Answer 1

Theories that explore whether certain physical characteristics or genetic factors of someone make them more prone to crime/criminal behavior.

Question 2

What are the 2 types of biological theories

Answer 2

Genetic

Physiological

Question 3

Who developed the physic logical abnormalities theory

Answer 3

Lombroso

Question 4

Outline Lombroso’s theory

Answer 4

Lombroso argued that people with Atavistic features (eg. large, square head, large criminal, left handed etc.)

He saw criminals as a different type of human beings

Question 5

Who developed the physiological body shape theory

Answer 5

Sheldon

Question 6

Outline Sheldon’s theory

Answer 6

Sheldon argued that there are different body types that

have different characteristics

Question 7

What are the 3 different body types and their characteristics that Sheldon

Answer 7

Endomorphic (heavy, large hips) = funny/relaxed
Ectomorphic (skinny, fragile, tall) = introverted, resistant, artistic
Mesomorphic (athletic/strong/strong arms) = active, outgoing, aggressive

Question 8

What body type did Sheldon argue was most likely to be criminal

Answer 8

Mesomorphic

Question 9

What test was done for Sheldon’s theory

Answer 9

The Gleucks did a study and found that 60% of the delinquent population had mesomorphic body types and 30% endomorphic

Question 10

Who developed the physiological theory on brain abnormalities

Answer 10

Phineas Cage (due to his frontal lobe incident)

Question 11

Outline the brain abnormality theory

Answer 11

Phineas Cage was a railway worker who suffered a brain injury as a spike shot through his head (damaging his frontal lobe)

After this, he behavior was shown to be aggressive, unorganized and untrustworthy - this contrasted from his personality pre his incident

Question 12

What study was done to look at brain abnormality theories

Answer 12

Raine used PET scans in 1994 to study brains of impulsive killers and saw that their pre-frontal cortex was damaged which controls impulsive behavior

Question 13

How are neurochemicals such as alcohol and testosterone make someone more prone to criminality

Answer 13

Testosterone is known to increase aggression and affect subcortical areas in the brain and therefore this increased aggression makes crime more likely

Study was done on 692 men to show that men with higher levels of testosterone where more likely to commit crimes such as SA and violent crimes

Alcohol can inhibit and damage the brains frontal lobe which affects decision making and evaluation therefore this could affect someone moral compass due to poor decision making

Question 14

Outline Chromosome abnormality (CA) theory and what type of theory it is

Answer 14

It is a genetic theory

CA argues that males with an extra Y chromosome (XYY) are more likely to commit crime due to the extra Y chromosome being linked to increased aggression
Men with the extra Y where referred to as ‘Super males’

Question 15

What examples showcase a connection between an extra Y chromosome and criminality

Answer 15

Richard Speck
John Wayne Gacy
Arthur Shawcross

are all serial killers who had an additional Y chromosome

Jacobs found that men with the extra Y chromosome were 20 times more present than other males in Scottish prisons

Question 16

What are the 2 different types of twins

Answer 16

Monozygotic (Identical)

Dizygotic (non identical/fraternal)

Question 17

Outline the 1977 Denmark study on twins and criminality

Answer 17

Christiansen (researcher)
He studied 3586 pairs of twins and found that if one Monozygotic twin was criminal then there was a 52% chance the other one was

Whereas Dizygotic twins only had a 22% link to criminality between them

Question 18

What are adoption study’s

Answer 18

These are study’s done of adopted children to explore whether certain factors (eg criminality) are linked to environment or are hereditary

As the child is in a new family environment that isn’t related genetically therefore making them a controlled test

Question 19

What are example’s of adoptions study research

Answer 19

Crowe (1972) found that if an adoptees biological mother had a conviction they were 50% likely to have a conviction, if their mother didn’t then they only had a 5% chance

Mednick (1984) did a study on 14,427 convicted adopted children, then looking at their biological and adoptive parents

It was found that adopted children with convictions often had a biological father with a conviction
If an neither an adoptive or biological father had a conviction then the adoptee had a 10% chance
If the adopted father had one it rose to 11% for the child
If both fathers did it rose to 36%

Shows genes and environment are both factors