AC 2.1 (describe biological theories of criminality)

Question 1

Characteristics that make some people more likely to commit crimes than others.

Answer 1

Genetics, nature vs nurture, physiology.

Question 2

Lombroso date and key assumptions.

Answer 2

1876.
‘father of modern criminology, looked at facial features of different criminals, argued a criminal is a separate species (primitive humans), physical shape of head and face determined the ‘born criminal’, criminality was heritable.

Question 3

Atavistic Form Theory.

Answer 3

Criminals have ‘atavistic’ (primitive) features.

Question 4

Examples of ‘atavistic’ features.

Answer 4

Low sloping forehead, large jaws or forward projection of jaw, receding chins, twisted nose, long arms relative to lower limbs, excessive cheekbones, large chin and lips, large monkey like ears, excessive wrinkles.

Question 5

Lombroso’s Study.

Answer 5

Examined facial and cranial features of 383 dead criminals and 3839 living ones.
Concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics.
Collected skulls from cemeteries.
Created wax works of different criminals who committed different crimes.
Looked at tattoos different criminals had.
Also looked at insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang and unemployment.
Theory had racial undertones.
Published in book ‘The Criminal Man’ in 2006.

Question 6

Characteristics of a murderer according to Lombroso’s Study.

Answer 6

Bloodshot eyes and curly hair.

Question 7

Characteristics of a sex offender according to Lombroso’s Study.

Answer 7

Thick lips and protruding ears.

Question 8

Recent study relating to Lombroso’s Study.

Answer 8

Recent study in China showed that facial features have some relation to determining whether someone is a criminal or not.
1856 Chinese men (1/2 were criminals) put into an artificial intelligence programme.
It wrongly flagged innocent men 6% of the time, but correctly identified criminals 83% of the time.

Question 9

Sheldon’s theory of somatypes and the original study.

Answer 9

1949. Idea that criminal behaviour is linked to physical form. Looked at photographs of 4000 men. 3 fundamental body types, endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph.

Question 10

Endomorphic.

Answer 10

Fat and soft, sociable and relaxed.

Question 11

Ectomorphic.

Answer 11

Thin and fragile, introverted and restrained.

Question 12

Mesomorphic.

Answer 12

Muscular and hard, aggressive and adventurous.

Question 13

William Sheldon’s correlation study.

Answer 13

Found mesomorphic were more likely to be criminals and ectomorphic were least likely.

Question 14

William Sheldon’s 2 sample studies.

Answer 14

1. Sample of men in rehabilitation centre, significant proportion were mesomorphs.
2. Sample of photographs of college students and delinquents, Rate on a scale of 1 (low) to 7 (high) for their resemblance to mesomorphy, delinquents had a higher average mesomorphy rating (4.6) than college students (3.8).

Question 15

What book was Sheldon’s findings published in.

Answer 15

Atlas of Men - 1954.

Question 16

Brain abnormality.

Answer 16

Damage to the pre-frontal cortex of the brain may cause individuals to have an altered brain pattern.

Question 17

Behaviours of someone with a damaged pre-frontal cortex.

Answer 17

More immature, increased loss of self control, inability to modify behaviour.

Question 18

Raine et al (date).

Answer 18

1994. Used PET scans to study the living brains of impulsive killers.

Question 19

Phineas Gage (date).

Answer 19

1848. Metal rod went through his brain and skull, his behaviour changed as a result - he became more aggressive. This was due to a damaged pre-frontal cortex.

Question 20

Modern studies for brain abnormality.

Answer 20

McIsaac et al (2016) - people who suffered serious head injuries were twice as likely to end up in prison.
Female prisoners were even more likely to have survives traumatic brain injuries - 2.76 times more likely to end up in prison.

Question 21

Neurochemical branches.

Answer 21

Diet and steroids.

Question 22

Neurochemical - diet.

Answer 22

Diet can change brain chemistry.
Lower levels of serotonin leads to higher aggression.
Dark chocolate, cheese and nuts can boost levels of serotonin.

Question 23

Scerbo and Raine (date)

Answer 23

1993. (Neurochemical - diet). Conducted meta-analysis on 29 studies into anti social adults and children, finding low levels of serotonin in all of them.

Question 24

Neurochemical - steroids.

Answer 24

People who take large amounts of steroids can become violent, steroids increase muscle growth and levels of testosterone.

Question 25

Horace Williams.

Answer 25

(Neurochemical - steroids). Beat a man to death after taking 2000 times the recommended dosage of steroids.

Question 26

Genetic Theories.

Answer 26

Emerged in 1700s.
Increase in research today into the the genetics of behaviour (including antisocial behaviour).

Question 27

XYY Theory.

Answer 27

Extra Y chromosome.
People with XYY are describes as ‘super males’.
More aggressive.

Question 28

Potential XYY features.

Answer 28

Extremely tall stature, severe acne, severe metal illness, anti-social behaviour.

Question 29

Richard Speck.

Answer 29

XYY gene.
6’1’’, acne scars, anti social.
murdered 8 nurses.

Question 30

Jacobs et al (date) opinion on XYY.

Answer 30

1965. Said XYY males were more aggressive than XY males.

Question 31

XYY killers.

Answer 31

John Wayne Gacy.
Richard Speck.
Arthur Shawcross.

Question 32

Twin types involved in twin studies.

Answer 32

Monozygotic (MZ), share 100% of their DNA.
Dizygotic (DZ), share 50% of their DNA.

Question 33

Concordance rate.

Answer 33

When both twins share a characteristic.

Question 34

What do twin studies help to assess.

Answer 34

Nature vs nurture.

Question 35

Johannes Lange.

Answer 35

1931.
Studied 30 pairs of twins.
Found MZ twins showed a much higher degree of concordance than DZ for criminal behaviour.

Question 36

Johannes Lange findings.

Answer 36

10/13 sets of MZ twins had both served time in prison.
2/17 sets of DZ twins had both served time in prison.

Question 37

Christiansen.

Answer 37

1977.
Studied 3586 twin pairs.

Question 38

Christiansen findings.

Answer 38

Concordance rates of 35% for MZ and 13% for DZ in male twins.
Concordance rates of 21% for MZ and 8% for DZ in female twins.

Question 39

Adoption studies.

Answer 39

Comparison of criminals with their biological parents and their adoptive parents.
If a child is more similar to their biological parents then this explains criminality on a nature basis.
If a child is more similar to their adoptive parents the this explains criminality on a nurture basis.

Question 40

Hutchings and Mednick.

Answer 40

1975.
Studied 14000 adopted children.

Question 41

Hutchings and Mednick findings.

Answer 41

A high number of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents who also had criminal convictions.
This shows links between genetics and aggression.

Question 42

What was the book Lombroso’s findings were published in?

Answer 42

The Criminal Man 2006

Question 43

Who was the first XYY male?

Answer 43

Avery Sandberg (1961)

Question 44

2 studies into XYY males.

Answer 44

315 men tested for chromosome abnormalities- 9 had different features.
Study shows 1/1000 men in US have XYY -88% undiagnosed

Question 45

Prison study for XYY.

Answer 45

Suggest XYY is over represented in the prison population - 15/1000 in prisons, 1/1000 in the general population.