Biological Theories And Evaluations Flashcards
What is lombroso’s theory?
He believed people are born criminal and can be identified based on appearance, he saw criminals as suffering from illness that can’t be beaten or cured and assumes criminal behaviour is heritable
What features do murderers, sex offenders ad thieves have?
Murderers: beak noses, curly hair, blood shot eyes
Sex offenders: thick lips, projecting ears
Thieves: flattened noses
What does atavistic mean?
Lombroso believed criminals were atavistic- this meant he thought they were at primitive stage of evolution
Strengths of lombroso’s theory
He examined 383 dead criminals and 3839 living ones which made it scientific
Charles Goring found a low order intelligence in convicts which supported lombrosos theory as it showed genetic basis
Weaknesses of lombroso’s theory
He never made comparisons to non criminals so not reliable- no control group
Not all criminals have these features so not reliable and oversimplified
He didn’t study criminals who weren’t caught he only studied prisoners
What is Sheldon’s theory?
Sheldon’s theory is based on body types; ectomorphic,endomorphic,mesomorphic and balanced. These are called somotypes. Sheldon believed mesomorphs are most associated it’s crime.
Strengths of Sheldon’s theory
He had a comparison group (college students) making it reliable
He used a big sample- 400 men
The most serious delinquents were the ones with mesomorphic body shapes
Weaknesses of Sheldon’s theory
Somatotype isn’t fixed, changes over time- age, diet, working out
People with mesomorphic body type may be labelled lead into self fulfilling prophecy
How did Sheldon come up with his theory?
He took a sample of males and identified a significant proportion as mesomorphs. He used photos of college students and rated them Ona scale as their resemblance to mesomorph, the results showed the delinquents had higher average mesomorph rating than college students
What do twin studies focus on?
Twin studies focus on the genetic traits and behaviour. There are 2 types of twins:
Monozygotic- identical, share 100% of DNA
Dizygotic- non identical, share 50% of DNA
Strengths of twin studies
Natural experiment
Christiansen supports the view that criminality has a genetic component
Weaknesses of twin studies
Small sample sizes, not representative
If criminal behaviour is entirely genetic the concordance rate for monozygotic twins would be 100% showing there’s not a criminal gene
Early twin studies lacked validity so inaccurate
What do adoption studies focus on?
Environmental factors vs genetic factors- nature vs nurture
Strengths of adoption studies
Large sample size
Adopted children exposed to different environments making it easier to identify biological vs environmental factors
Weaknesses of adoption studies
Information about the biological family is not always available
Adoptive process is not always random, often children are placed with a family that resembles their biological family
