biological explanations - a historical approach

Question 1

atavistic form - historical approach

Answer 1

• Cesare Lombroso wrote a book in which he suggested that criminals were ‘genetic throwbacks’ - a primitive subspecies who were biologically different from non-criminals
• by today’s standards, this theory of the atavistic form would be best described as speculative and naive

Question 2

atavistic form - a biological approach

Answer 2

• Lombroso saw offenders as lacking evolutionary development, their savage and untamed nature meant that they would find it impossible to adjust to the demands of civilised society, would inevitably turn to crime
• saw offending behaviour as a natural tendency, noted in genes of those who engage in it
• at the time of writing, Lombroso was proposing a new perspective - that offending behaviour was innate, offenders were not to blame for their actions
• in this way, his ideas were revolutionary

Question 3

atavistic form

Answer 3

• Lombroso argued that the offender subtype could be identified as being in possession of particular psychological markers, linked to particular types of offence
• these are biologically determined ‘atavistic’ characteristics, mainly features of face and head, that make offenders physically different from others
• cranial characteristics, including a narrow, sloping brow, strong prominent jaw, high cheekbones and facial asymmetry
• other physical markers such as dark skin, extra toes, nipples or fingers
• suggested that there were other aspects of the born offender such as insensitivity to pain, use of slang, tattoos or unemployment
• offenders were said to be more likely to be left handed / left sided

Question 4

atavistic form - offender types

Answer 4

• Lombroso went on to categorise types of offender in terms of physical and facial characteristics
• murderers were described to have bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears
• sexual deviants had glinting eyes, swollen, fleshy lips and projecting ears
• fraudsters had thin and reedy lips

Question 5

atavistic form - Lombroso’s research

Answer 5

• meticulously examined facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts, both living and dead, concluded that there was an atavistic form
• also concluded that these features were key indicators of criminality
• in total, examined skulls of 383 dead convicts and 3839 living ones
• 40% of criminal acts are committed by people with atavistic characteristics
• trying to be scientific by measuring facial features etc.

Question 6

evaluation strength - Lombroso’s legacy ⭐️

Answer 6

• Lombroso has been hailed as the father of modern criminology, coined this term
• credited as shifting emphasis in crime research away from moralistic discourse (where offenders where judged as being wicked and weak-minded), towards a scientific position (that of evolutionary influences and genetics where individuals are not to blame)
• in trying to describe how particular types of people are more likely to commit certain crimes, Lombroso’s theory heralded the beginning of offender profiling
• Lombroso madę a major contribution to the science of criminology

Question 7

evaluation limitation - contradictory evidence

Answer 7

• evidence contradicts link between atavism and crime
• Charles Goring also set out to establish whether there was anything physically atypical about offenders
• conducted a comparison between 3000 offenders and 3000 non-offenders, concluded that there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics (however did suggests that many offenders have lower-than-average intelligence)
• challenges idea that offenders can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population, unlikely to be a subspecies

Question 8

evaluation limitation - poor control ⭐️

Answer 8

• Lombroso’s methods were poorly controlled
• failed to control important variables
• he did not compare his offender sample with a non-offender control group, this could have controlled for an assortment of confounding variables that might have equally explained higher crime rates in certain groups of people
• research has demonstrated links between crime and social conditions such as poverty and poor educational outcomes, which would explain why offenders were more likely, for example, to be
  unemployed
• Lombroso’s research does not meet modern scientific standards