Biological Explanations: Atavistic Form Flashcards
What did Lombroso suggest?
There were ‘genetic throwbacks’ - a primitive sub-species who were biologically different from non-criminals
What is this theory regarded as today and what is Lombroso credited with?
Speculative ad naïve but he is credited with moving criminology into a more scientific field and his ideas may have led to the development of offender profiling
What were offenders viewed as lacking?
Evolutionary development, their savage nature would make it difficult to adjust to normal life and they would inevitably turn to crime therefore Lombroso saw criminal behaviour as a natural tendency rooted in genealogy
What are atavistic characteristics?
Physiological markers that were linked to particular types of crime - these are mainly features of the face and head
What do atavistic features include?
Narrow, sloping brow
Strong, prominent jaw
High cheek bones and facial asymmetry
Dark skin, extra toes, fingers or nipples etc - went on to categorise particular types of criminals
How did he categorise murderers and sexual deviants?
Murderer - bloodshot eyes, curly hair, long ears
Sexual deviant - glinting eyes, swollen/fleshy lips, projecting ears (lips of fraudsters were thin and reedy)
What other features did he believe were common among criminals?
Insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, tattoos and unemployment
What was Lombroso’s research?
Italian convicts were examined - 383 dead and 3839 living. He proposed that the atavistic form was associated with a number of anomalies that were a key indicator of criminality
He found that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics
What is a strength of Lombroso and his explanation?
He is hailed at the father of modern criminology and credited with shifting the emphasis in crime research away from moralistic discourse towards a more scientific and credible realm
Has been suggested that it is an early influence of criminal profiling as crimes were matched to people - made a major contribution
What is a key problem of the theory?
Scientific racism - DeLisi has drawn attention to the racial undertones of the work - many of the features are found among people of African descent (savage, primitive etc supports the theory of eugenics)
Lombroso may not have meant this but it is still controversial
What is the contradictory evidence?
Goring - set out to establish whether there were any physical or mental abnormalities among the criminal classes
Compared 3000 criminals an 3000 non-criminals he concluded that there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual features and cranial characteristics
Did find many had lower intelligence - may support the ‘sub-species’ idea it doesn’t support appearance
What is a further problem with Lombroso’s research?
Poor control - he did not compare his criminal group with a control group - if he had, many of the features may have disappeared - he also did not take into account other variables such as psychological disorders
Why is causation an issue?
Even if criminals do have features it doesn’t mean they are the cause of their offending - Facial differences may be influenced by poor diet, poor health etc rather than delayed evolutionary development
In later work he claimed that criminals are not always born and that the environment plays an important role
What are the issues with his sample?
While relatively large still too small to apply to an entire population
Only male?
Only Italian - ethnocentric
Can’t be applied
What is the eugenics movement?
Francis Galton 1880’s was heavily influenced by his cousin Charles Darwin, whose concept of survival of the fittest became the cornerstone of philosophy
Galton’s argument was that not all people are born equal and desirable human traits are inherited such as intelligence and are found in some social groups more than others (genetically unfit)
Those groups with a genetic advantage should be allowed to breed whilst the others should be eliminated - Lombroso’s research promotes this?
