Biological Theories

Question 1

What does the XYY theory believe

Answer 1

Men can be born with an additional Y chromosome, Jacob Et Al believes that these men (super-males) are more aggressive and violent then ordinary men

Question 2

What was Jacob Et Al’s experiment

Answer 2

Studied men in prison, found that supermales made are overrepresented in prison ,15 in 1000 compared to 1 in 1000 in the general population

Question 3

John Wayne case study

Answer 3

John Wayne might have had XYY, he sexually assaulted, tortured & murdered at least 33 men in the USA

Question 4

XYY Strengths

Answer 4

• Jacob found a link between XYY syndrome and offenders imprisoned for violent behavior
• Price and Whatmore found some links between the syndrome and property crime.

Question 5

XYY Limitations

Answer 5

• Even if some violent offenders have the syndrome, this doesn’t prove it is the cause of their violence.
• The syndrome is very rare (only about 1 in 1,000 men have it), so it cannot explain much crime.

Question 6

What is Twin Studies

Answer 6

Genetic theories state that family members who are blood relatives share the same genes.

Therefore if one member has ‘criminal genes’ it is likely that his or her blood relatives will have them too, and this is why criminals have relatives who are criminals.

Theorists use identical or monozygotic (MZ) twins as they share exactly the same fertilized egg, therefore if one twin is criminal, the other twin ought to be criminal too.

Question 7

Two Types of Twins

Answer 7

Dizygotic Twins = Born at the same time but come from
two separate eggs and share 50% of the DNA.

Monozygotic Twins = Born at the same time but come
from one egg and share 100% of the DNA.

Question 8

What is the Concordance rate

Answer 8

Concordance Rates = The probability (as a percentage)
that if one twin has a characteristic the other twin will
have the characteristic.

Question 9

1929 Case Study twin studies

Answer 9

Investigated 13 MZ twins and 17 DZ twins. Found that 10 of the 13 MZ twins had both served time in prison. Only 2 of 17 DZ twins had both served time in prison.

Question 10

Strengths of Twin Studies

Answer 10

Because MZ twins are genetically identical. It is logical to examine whether their offending behavior is also identical.

Twin studies give some support to genetic explanations. Ishikawa and Raine found a higher concordance rate for identical than for non-identical twins. (The concordance rate measures the probability of both twins being criminals, if one of them is.)

Question 11

Limitations of Twin Studies

Answer 11

If genes were the only cause of criminality, identical twins would show 100% concordance, but studies only show around half or less,

Higher concordance rates between identical twins may be due to sharing the same home, school etc. Their shared environment might cause similarities in their criminal behavior, not identical genes.

Question 12

What is adoption studies

Answer 12

These are studies in which adopted children are compared to their biological and adopted parents to see which has more influence – biology or environment.

Question 13

What did Hutchings and Mednick do in adoption studies

Answer 13

In 1975 they studied 14,000 adopted children and found a high proportion of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with criminal convictions too.

This suggests that there is a strong
link between genetics and criminality. To father support this -

Studied adopted children and found no relationship between the number of criminal convictions adopted parents had and their adopted offspring.

However there was a significant
correlation between the number of
criminal convictions of biological
parents and offspring.

Question 14

Strengths of Adoption studies

Answer 14

Adoption studies overcome the problem faced by twin studies, where biologically identical twins
are brought up in the same household, which makes it impossible to separate out the influence of genes from environment.

Findings of adoption studies give some support to genetic explanations. They show adoptees were more likely to have criminal records if their biological parents had criminal records.

Question 15

Limitations of Adoption Studies

Answer 15

Adopted children are often placed in environments similar to those of their birth family, with families of the same class and ethnicity, in the same locality etc. Similar environments may produce
similar behavior.

Many children are not adopted immediately after birth but remain with their biological family for
some time. This early environment may be the true cause of their criminality.

Question 16

Lombroso’s Physiological Theory

Answer 16

Known as the father of Modern Criminology

In 1876 He argued that the physical
shape of the head and face
determined the “born criminal”.
As he believed there was a separate human species, criminals were individuals that had failed to evolve at the same pace as the remainder of the human race. identified by their physical characteristics (or blemishes referred to as stigmata) which indicated biological inferiority.

He based this on data gathered from autopsies on convicted
criminals.

Lombroso suggested that criminals were ‘throwbacks’; their
‘Atavistic’ (primitive features) were biological characteristics
from an earlier stage of human development that manifested as
a tendency to commit crime

Question 17

according to Lombroso what are typical criminal features

Answer 17

Long arms, large teeth, ears lacking lobes, lots of body hair

you can tell what kind of crime someone will commit by the way they look

Murderers had bloodshot eyes and curly hair

Sex offenders had thick lips and protruding ears …

Question 18

Strengths to Lombroso’s theory

Answer 18

Lombroso was the first person to study crime scientifically, using objective measurements to gather
evidence. Previously, crime was seen as a moral or religious issue.

By arguing that offenders were not freely choosing to commit crime, Lombroso helps us to focus on
how we might prevent further offending rather than simply punishing offenders.

Question 19

Limitations of Lombroso

Answer 19

Research since Lombroso has failed to show a link between facial features and criminality.

Lombroso failed to compare his findings on prisoners with a control group of non-criminals. Had he
done so, he may have found the same characteristics among the general population; in which case,
his explanation would be invalid.

Question 20

What is Sheldon’s Physiological Theory

Answer 20

Used body measurement techniques to connect body
type with personality and outlined three basic body types and associated temperaments and personalities.

Question 21

What are the three body shapes described by Sheldon

Answer 21

Endomorphic (fat and soft) tend to be sociable and
relaxed.

Ectomorphic (thin and fragile) are introverted and
restrained

Mesomorphic (muscular and hard) tend to be aggressive
and adventurous.

Sheldon, using a correlational study, found that many convicts were mesomorphic, and they were least likely to be ectomorphic.

Question 22

Strengths of Sheldon’s theory

Answer 22

Other studies have replicated Sheldon’s findings. Glueck and Glueck found that 60% of the
offenders in their study were mesomorphs.

The most serious delinquents in Sheldon’s sample were the ones with the most extremely mesomorphic body shapes.

Question 23

Limitations of Sheldon’s Theory

Answer 23

Criminals may develop a mesomorphic build as a result of needing to be physically tough to
succeed. If so, criminality causes somatotype, rather than somatotype causing criminality.

Sheldon doesn’t account for those endomorphs and ectomorphs who do commit crimes. Nor does he explain whether mesomorphs commit crimes other than violence.

Question 24

What is the Brain Abnormality Theory

Answer 24

The Brain Abnormality theory believes that damage or changes to the pre-frontal cortex can change a person’s behavior. This area of the brain is associated with ‘self-control’. And there for can lead to criminality

Question 25

What was Raine Et Al’s study in Brain abnormalities

Answer 25

1994 Raine used PET scans (produce 3D scans of the brain) to study the living brains of killers. It was found that criminals were more likely to have damage to the pre-fontal cortex.

Question 26

What happened to Phineas Gage

Answer 26

Railroad Accident – Sept. 1848

Leveling land with Dynamite

3 foot inch thick tamping rod was projected
in to his brain

Entered via cheek, left Eye and into the
frontal lobes

Never showed any impairment of movement or speech
Memory was intact, and was capable of learning new things
However, within months his personality had changed
dramatically
He became extravagant and anti-social, a foul mouth liar
with bad manners, frequently got into fights and assaults.
Could no longer hold a job or plan his future
According to friends “Gage was no longer Gage”, he died 13
years later

Question 27

Strengths of the Brain Abnormality Theory

Answer 27

Prisoners are more likely than non-prisoners to have a brain injury.

In a few extreme cases, brain injury or disease has led to major changes in an individual’s personality and behavior, including criminality.

Question 28

Limitations to the Brain Abnormality

Answer 28

Crimes caused by brain injury or disease are rare. The sufferer’s original personality is more important in whether they engage in crime.

Prisoners’ higher likelihood of brain injury could be a result of their criminality (e.g. getting into fights), rather than a cause of it.

Question 29

What is the Neurochemical Theory of criminality

Answer 29

Neurotransmitters are chemicals found in the brain that help transmit messages between synapses (gaps in neurons).
And that due to a lacking or insufficient amount of a neurochemical can lead to criminality, more specifically serotonin

Question 30

How can you help manage serotonin levels

Answer 30

partially controlled by diet. Eating foods such as dark chocolate, cheese, nuts, salmon, turkey and
chicken, can help raise serotonin levels.

Question 31

What happened with Horace Williams

Answer 31

Horace took Steroids, these are drugs that can increase
muscle growth and increase testosterone levels. People on steroids can become violent (known as ‘roid rage’).

Horace Williams, an American Body
Builder, beat a man to death after taking 2000 times the recommended dosage of steroids.

Question 32

Biochemical Explanations

Answer 32

Sex hormones
- Males
Over production of testosterone linked with crimes like rape and murder. Levels peak between puberty and early 20s, this correlates with male crime rates.
-Females
PMT, Post-natal depression and lactation have all be used
as partial defense for a range of crimes from infanticide to
shop-lifting. Was accepted that hormones involved affected
the defendant’s judgement.

Question 33

BIOCHEMICAL EXPLANATIONS & AGGRESSION

Answer 33

Blood sugar levels.
Low blood sugar (Hypoglycemia) can trigger aggressive reactions.
There is a link between low blood sugar and alcohol abuse. Alcohol
consumption is closely linked to crime of violence.

Substance abuse:
In addition to alcohol, abuse of some other illegal and drugs such as cocaine and crack and steroids correlate with violence

Other substances:
Vitamin B deficiency – erratic and aggressive behavior Tartrazine – hyperactivity

Question 34

Strengths of the Neurochemical Theory

Answer 34

Sexual hormones, blood sugar levels and substance abuse can affect mood, judgment and aggression.

Testosterone levels and male offending both peak around the same age, suggesting hormones affect criminal behavior.

Question 35

Limitations of the Neurochemical Theory

Answer 35

Scarmella and Brown found testosterone levels do not greatly affect aggression levels in most men.

Biochemical processes may predispose some individuals to offend, but it may require an
environmental ‘trigger’ to cause actual offending.

Question 36

What are the 4 general criticisms of biological theories

Answer 36

Environmental factors

Sample bias

Gender bias

Crime is a social construct

Question 37

Explain why Environmental factors are a general criticism

Answer 37

Biological theories ignore environmental factors. A person’s
biology may give them potentially criminal characteristics (e.g. aggressiveness) but they may
need an environmental trigger to engage in a criminal act.

Question 38

Explain why Sample bias is a general criticism

Answer 38

Researchers often use studies of convicted criminals, but these may not be representative of the criminals who got away, so they are not a sound basis for generalizing
about all criminals.

Question 39

Explain why Gender Bias is a general weakness

Answer 39

Most biological research focuses on males, so it doesn’t explain female
criminality.

Question 40

Explain why Crime being a social construct is a general criticism

Answer 40

What counts as crime varies between cultures and over
time, so it makes no sense to look for universal explanations, as biological theories do.