AC 4.1 Criminological Theories, Policy development - Biological

Question 1

What do biochemical processes aims to do?

Answer 1

They focus on the role of hormones and brain chemistry, and aim to manipulate or change the biochemistry of offenders.

Question 2

Biochemical process

Explain the drug treatment

Answer 2

There are three types of drugs that they use that have different purposes.
Antabuse
- treat alcoholism
- prevents breakdown of alcoholism and leads to individuals becoming ill if they consume alcohol.
- reduces the desire to drink alcohol, and any criminal behaviour related to.

Methadone clinics
- to give methadone in a controlled and safe way to heroin addicts, to reduce their addiction gradually.
- it will also reduce the associated criminal behaviours like theft and violence.

Stilbestrol (female hormone)
- to suppress the effects of testosterone in sex offenders, as it acts as a chemical castration.
- decreases sex urgues
- reduces criminal behaviour associated

Question 3

Explain the diet biochemical process.

Answer 3

• Modifying diet can have positive effects on behaviours - removing artificial colouring from deiets helps to reduce hyperactivity and implusivity criminality that the behaviours lead to.
• Improving diets and vitamin levels helps to reduce antisocial behaviour and crimes
  Gesch et al found that there was 37% reduction in antisocial behaviour when offenders were on a high vitamin and fatty acids diet.

Question 4

Explain the surgery, biochemical process

Answer 4

Surgeries have been used to control behaviours.
- in US and Denmark, surgical castrations were used in cases of sex offenders, preventing them from being able to commit crimes again.
- Lobotomies surgery on offenders to sever some connections in the brain. By lobotomising the brain in the frontal lobe area, it changed theri behaviour radically and they were less likely to reoffend. Less common nowadays.

Question 5

Which policies were influenced by biological theories?

Answer 5

Compulsary sterilisation
- In 1927, America legalised to sterilise anyone who was deemed ‘unifit’ to reproduce and pass on their genes, including criminals, anyone with learning difficulties.
Enforced abortions for people who were deemed ‘degenerate’.

Nazi racial purity policies
- 1933 to 1945 saw the Nazis favouring policies about eugenics that helps them to create a ‘pure’ Aryan criminailty.
- Millions were forced to be sterlised, killed and mass genocides were committed to eradicate genetics that they didn’t want to be in the human population.

In 20th century, eugenecists were concerned that poor people are reproducing more than normal people.