biological explanatioms - atavistic form

Question 1

what is atavistic form

Answer 1

early biological explanation proposing criminals to be a sub-species of genetic issues that can’t conform to modern society, distinguished by particular facial/cranial characteristics

Question 2

what was Lombrosso’s theory

Answer 2

Atavism, arguing criminals are born, not made, biologically determined.

Question 3

what was Lombrosso’s research

Answer 3

used post-mortem examinations of criminals and studied faces of living criminals. examined 383 dead skulls and 3839 living ones, concluding that atavism was responsible for 40% of criminal acts

Question 4

what’re Lombrosso’s ‘criminal characteristics’

Answer 4

Narrow sloping brow
Strong prominent jaw
Dark skin
High cheekbones
Facial asymmetry
Extra toes, nipples, fingers

Question 5

what features did murderers have

Answer 5

Bloodshot eyes, curly hair, long ears

Question 6

what features did sexual deviants have

Answer 6

glinting eyes, fleshy lips and projecting ears

Question 7

what features did fraudsters have

Answer 7

thin and reedy

Question 8

what were other criminal aspect’s proposed by Lombrosso

Answer 8

insensitivity to pain
tattoos
unemployment
use of ‘criminal slang’

Question 9

how can lombrosso’s theory be seen to support the eugenics movement

Answer 9

due to discrimination, the eugenics movement/involuntary sterilisation became seen as a method of removing crime - if biological criminals (recognised by atavism) couldn’t reproduce then biological criminals would cease to exist

Question 10

what’s 1 strength of lombrosso’s theory of atavism

Answer 10

changed criminology, ‘Father of modern criminology’, shifting the research from moralistic to scientific, the theory also heralded offender profiling. Major contribution to criminology

Question 11

what’re 4 limitations of atavism

Answer 11

poorly controlled methods
scientific racism
contradictory evidence
nature vs nurture

Question 12

how are Lombrosso’s methods a negative evaluation of atavism

Answer 12

didn’t compare criminal sample with a non-criminal sample control, failing to control confounding variables, missing control over variables, preventing his research from meeting modern scientific standards

Question 13

how does scientific racism negatively impact atavism

Answer 13

many criminal characteristics (curly hair/dark skin) were common among people of African descent, with descriptions of ‘uncivilised, primitive, savage’ supporting contemporary eugenic philosophies. may be ‘scientific justification’ for discrimination and eugenics, eg Shockley’s voluntary sterilisation bonus plan

Question 14

what is a contradiction of atavism and crime

Answer 14

after comparing 3000 criminals to 3000 non criminals, Goring found no evidence of offenders having distinct unusual facial/cranial characteristics (although did have lower average intelligence). Whilst providing some support, this questions key element of criminals being different in appearance

Question 15

how is nature vs nurture a negative evaluation of atavism

Answer 15

atavistic elements aren’t necessarily a cause of offending. facial/cranial differences may be due to other factors eg poverty/diet rather than delayed evolutionary development. Later, Lombrosso acknowledged that criminals could be made as well as born due to environmental factors. The theory is deterministic, implying innate characteristics will lead to crime, ignoring free will and moral/religious values, can’t explain individual differences