Biological Explanations Flashcards
What did Lombroso study?
Facial and cranial pictures of hundreds of Italian convicts, most offenders had atavistic characteristics. For example:
- strong jaw, dark skin, blood shot eyes, curly hair, long ears, span of arms, hawk like nose.
Lombroso statistics of post mortem studies, and living criminals.
Examined over 5000 bodies. 383 criminals in one study. 21% had just 1 atavistic trait, 43% had 5.
KRETSCHMER- criminals fall into 4 somatotypes.
Leptosome- tall and thin petty thieves.
Athletic- tall and muscular
Pyknic- short and fat
Dysplastic or mixed- against morality like prostitution)
Lombroso AO3
- didn’t study women, assume women are less intelligent.
- eugenics and racist viewpoint.
- Usefulness to see interaction of genes
Genetic explanations
TIIHONEN- CDH13 AND MAOA GENE
CDH13- regulates neural pathways and contributes to maintaining excitatory and inhibitory synapses.
MAOA- control dopamine and serotonin in the brain and linked to aggression.
Diathesis stress model
Genes themselves do not cause behaviour but rather predispose someone to do a behaviour depending on their experiences.
Epigenetics
Some genes can switch on and off and are affected by environmental experiences.
Neural explanations
Neurochemical and serotonin, dopamine and impulsiveness.
COUPPIS- increase in dopamine in criminal activity.
Amygdala has increased activity due to survival benefit and aggression.
RAINE ET AL
Charged offenders with murder or manslaughter who pleaded guilty or not by reason of insanity. There was reduced levels of activity in the pre frontal cortex and corpus callusom.
Abnormalities in the amygdala and the hippocampus means individuals can’t react properly in certain situations.
AO3 of genetic and neural
TIIHONEN- Finnish offenders, 5-10% of violent crime is due to abnormalities in MAOA AND CDH13
Pre frontal cortex- RAINE 11% decrease in grey matter, regulated emotional behaviour linked to antisocial behaviour.
