biological explanations: a historical approach Flashcards
what is atavistic form?
biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are genetic throwbacks or a primitive subspecies ill-suited to conforming to the rules of modern society
biological approach: lombroso’s ideas
- offenders were lacking evoluntionary development
- their savage and untamed nature meant they would find it impossible to adjust to the demands of civilised society so would inevitably turn to crime
- he saw offending behaviour as a natural tendency, rooted in the genes of those who engage in it
how were lombroso’s views a new perspective?
offending behaviour was innate so an offender was not to blame for his actions
biologically determined ‘atavistic’ characteristics
- offender subtype could be identified as having particular physiological markers that were linked to particular types of offence
- mainly features of face and head
- make offenders physically different from the rest of us
atavistic form of cranial characteristics
- narrow, sloping brow
- strong prominent jaw
- high cheekbones
- facial asymmetry
other atavistic physical markers
- dark skin
- extra toes, nipples or fingers
non-physical atavistic characteristics
- insensitvity to pain
- use of slang
- tattoos
- unemplyment
physical and facial characteristics of murderers
- bloodshot eyes
- curly hair
- long ears
physical and facial characteristics of sexual deviants
- glinting eyes
- swollen, fleshy lips
- projecting ears
facial characteristics of fraudsters
thin and reedy lips
lombroso’s research
- examined facial and cranial features of hundred of italian convicts, living and dead
- concluded there was an ‘atavistic form’
- these features were key indicators of criminality
how many skulls did lombroso study and what did he conclude?
- 383 dead convicts
- 3839 living ones
- 40% of criminal acts are comitted by people with atavistic characteristics
evaluation: lombroso’s work changed the face of the study of crime
- coined term ‘criminology’
- shifted emphasis in crime research away from moralistic discourse (offenders judged as wicked and weak-minded) towards a more scientific position (evolutionary influence, genetics not individuals to blame)
- beginning of offender profiling as trying to describe how particular types of people are more likely to commit particular types of crime
evaluation: lombroso’s legacy is not entirely positive (delisi 2012)
- racist undertones
- many features lombroso identified as atavistic (curly hair, dark skin) are more likely to be found among people of african descent
- suggesting that africans were more likely to be offenders, fitting 19th centry eugenic attitudes
- suggests that some aspects of his theory were highly subjective rather than objective, influenced by racial prejudices of the time
evaluation: evidence that contracts link between atavism and crime
- goring (1913), like lombroso, wanted to establish whether offenders had physical atypicalities
- compared 3000 offenders and 3000 non-offenders
- concluded there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group of people with unusual facial and cranial characteristics
- did suggest that many people who commit crime have a lower-than-average intelligence
- challenges the idea that offenders can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population so are unlikely to be a subspecies
evaluation: lombroso’s methods of investigation were poorly controlled
- lombroso didn’t control important variables in his research
- unlike goring, he did not compare his offender sample with a non-offender control group
- this could have controlled for confounding variables that might have explained higher crime rates in certain groups of people
- hay and forrest (2009) demonstrated links between crime and social conditions such as poverty and poor educational outcomes which could explain why offenders were more likely to be unemployed
- therefore, lombroso’s research does not meet modern scientific standards
evaluation: nature vs. nurture
- lombroso’s work raises question of whether criminals are born or made
- atavistic form suggests that crime has a biological cause ie. genetically determined
- however, even if there are criminals who have some atavistic features lombroso sugested, this does not mean this is the cause of their offending
- facial and cranial differences may be influenced by other factors, such as poverty or poor diet, rather than inherited
