Biological Explanation: A Historical Approach

Question 1

What year did Lombroso write ‘The Criminal Man’?

Answer 1

1876

Question 2

How did Lombroso describe criminals?

Answer 2

Genetic throwbacks, primitive subspecies, biologically different from everyone else

Question 3

What is the modern view of Lombroso’s biological approach?

Answer 3

Speculative and naive

Question 4

What did Lombroso believe about offenders’ evolution?

Answer 4

Offenders are evolutionarily under developed, savage, and untamed

Impossible to adjust to society’s demands and inevitably turn to crime

Question 5

According to Lombroso, why do offenders inevitably turn to crime?

Answer 5

Offending was a natural behavior, it’s in the genes, it’s innate

Offender is not to blame

Question 6

What is the atavistic form?

Answer 6

Offender had certain physiological markers linked to particular crimes

Mainly features of the face and head, different to everyone else

Question 7

List some cranial characteristics of the atavistic form.

Answer 7

• Narrow, sloping brow
• Strong, prominent jaw bone
• High cheekbones
• Facial symmetry

Question 8

What are some other physical characteristics associated with the atavistic form?

Answer 8

• Dark skin
• Curly hair
• Extra toes/fingers/nipples

Question 9

What are some behavioral characteristics of offenders according to Lombroso?

Answer 9

• Insensitivity to pain
• Use of slang
• Tattoos
• Unemployment

Question 10

What were some strengths of the atavistic form theory?

Answer 10

Changed the way we studied crime
* Invented the term ‘criminology’
* Shifted narrative from criminals as evil to an evolutionary and biological view
* Began criminal profiling
* Major contribution to criminology

Question 11

What were some limitations of the atavistic form theory?

Answer 11

According to DeLisi, Racist undertones in Lombroso’s work
* Characteristics mostly found in those of African descent
* Suggested Africans were more likely to be criminals
* Influenced by 19th century eugenic attitudes
* Some aspects were subjective and prejudice

Question 12

Who aimed to find out if offenders had physical atypicalities?

Answer 12

Goring

Question 13

What was the sample size Goring used in his study?

Answer 13

3000 offenders compared to 3000 non-offenders

Question 14

What did Goring conclude about offenders?

Limitation to Lombrosos theory

Answer 14

No evidence that offenders are a distinct group, cannot be a subspecies

Question 15

What were some criticisms of Lombroso’s investigations?

Answer 15

• Poorly controlled
• Didn’t control for variables
• Didn’t compare offenders to a control group
• Didn’t meet modern scientific standards