Biological explanations of offending behaviour: A historical approach

Question 1

Define ‘Atavistic form’

Answer 1

Animalistic forms found in criminals due to being born with an innate criminal personality

Question 2

Explain the general approach introduced by the Greeks to criminal personality terms

Answer 2

A general approach to explaining behaviour has been to identify different personality types based on physical characteristics.
The Greeks suggested there were four personality types: sanguine = confident
melancholic = unhappy
chloeric = short tempered/irritable
phlegmatic = calm/unemotional

Question 3

What was Cesare Lombroso’s view on actavistic form?

Answer 3

Offenders possessed similar characteristics to lower primates and this could explain their criminality.
Criminals are essentially throwbacks to an earlier species.

Question 4

Explain the empirical evidence for the atavistic form (Lombroso’s research)

Answer 4

Lombroso based his theory on his won research using post-mortem examinations of criminals and studying the faces of living criminals.
He made precise measurements of skulls and other physiological characteristics - anthropometry.
They examined 50,000 bodies and found that 21% had one actavistic trait and 45% had at least five.

Question 5

Explain the environmental influences of the atavistic form

Answer 5

Inherited atavistic form interacted with a person’s physical and social environment.
This is still a determinist view as it suggests that factors outside a person’s control determine whether they become a criminal.

Question 6

Explain Lombroso’s 3 types of criminals

Answer 6

1. Born criminals - the atavistic (innate) type; identifiable by physical characteristics.
2. Insane criminals - suffering mental illness
3. Criminaloids - general class of offenders whose mental characteristics predisposed them to criminal behaviour under the right circumstances (diathesis stress)

Question 7

Explain somatotypes proposed by Kretschmer

Answer 7

Other criminal types were based on body shapes.
Was based on study of 4,000 criminals + found 4 types:
1. Leptosome: tall and thin = petty thieves
2. Athletic: tall and muscular = crimes of violence
3. Pyknic: short and fat = deception and sometimes violence
4. Dysplastic (mixed): more than one = against morality (prostitution)

Question 8

Outline the evaluation points for the historical approach (biological)

Answer 8

Criticisms of Lombroso’s work
Gender bias
Link between physical characteristics and criminality
(Racial issues)