biological explanations of offending Flashcards
Atavistic form
what type of approach is this?
a historical or ancient one
who created this approach and when
Lombroso- 1876
what is the basis of this approach
criminals are identified by certain features, if you had certain ‘criminal’ features you were a natural born criminal
name some of the atatvistic features of a criminal
- narrow sloping brow
- prominant jaw
- high cheekbones
- unsymmetrical face
- twisted nose
- dark skin
- wrinkles
- tatoos
- unemployed
- left handed
how many features do men need to be classified as a criminal?
men need 5 features
hw many features do women need to be classed as a criminal?
Women only need 3 features to be a criminal making the approach gender bias
what were the three types of categorised criminals?
- murderers
- sexual deviants
- fraudsters
what are traits of a murderer
- bloodhsot eyes
- curly hair
- long ears
whart are traits of a sexual deviant
- glinting eyes
- swollen lips
- projecting ears
what are traits of a fraudster
- thin lips
what research did lombroso do?
- he studied the facial and cranial features of the living and dead
- he identified features of criminality within them
how many bodies did he examine?
4000 living bodies
400 dead ones
what did lombroso conduct after his research?
that 40% of criminal acts could be explained by atavistic characteristics
whats a strength of lombrosos work?
that he is a major contribution to criminology
how is lombroso a major contribution to criminology
he shifted emphasis of criminology from a morlistic course to more of a scientific approach
whats a weakness of the approach
racial
it has scientific racism
De Lisi- 2012 said there was a clear implication that certain racial groups are more likely to be criminals than others
whats another weakness of the approach
iq
- Goring compred 3000 non criminals with 3000 criminals and concluded that there was no evidence that atavistic features influenced criminal behaviour
what did Goring believed influenced criminal behaviour instead of atavis
IQ, those with lower iq were more liklely to be criminals
whats another weakness within lombrosos research
control grp
- when conducting research, lombroso didn’t inlcude a control group
- this means he couldnt control confounding varibles that would explain higher crime activity
- he also failed to account external factors that could influence criminal behaviour
why is causation a weakness when coming to the approach
lombroso stated that having the atavistic featues caused the criminal behaviour when there is no evidence to prove this
