Biological Theories Of Crime

Question 1

What did Lombroso say about criminals being ‘throwbacks’ ?

Answer 1

He argued that criminals were ‘throwbacks’ in time and their atavistic (primitive features) were biological characteristics from and earlier stage of human development manifesting and a tendency to commit crime

Question 2

What did Lombroso suggest about the stigmata of a criminal, show ?

Answer 2

Lombroso suggested that stigmata of an individual could indicate their biological inferiority

Question 3

What does stigmata mean ?

Answer 3

Physical Characteristics

Question 4

How did Lombroso discover the “distinguishing features of criminality” ?

Answer 4

He compared male Italian prisoners to soldiers in a study where he found a number of ‘physical defects’ he thought to be the distinguishing features of criminality

Question 5

Give three distinguishing features of criminality

Answer 5

A Large Jaw, Hard Shifty Eyes, Fleshy lips, An Insensitivity to Pain, Long Arms

Question 6

Lombroso used autopsies as evidence to his idea that criminals were ‘throwbacks’ to forms of early man. What did he find ?

Answer 6

He found indentations within the back of his subjects skulls, which resembled those of apes (allowing him to conclude that criminals were throwbacks to form of early man)

Question 7

Name a problem with Lombroso’s theory

Answer 7

He had no ethnic or gender diversity, so it is unknown if the results would be different for females or people who were not Italian

Question 8

What did Sheldon argue that criminality was linked to ?

Answer 8

Body types and their partner Personalities

Question 9

How many Somatotypes did Sheldon suggests there were, and what are they ?

Answer 9

Three. Mesomorph, Ectomorph, Endomorph

Question 10

What did Sheldon say a Mesomorph was ?

Answer 10

Muscular and Hard, Aggressive and Adventurous

Question 11

What did Sheldon say an Ectomorph was ?

Answer 11

Thin and Fragile, introverted and restrained

Question 12

What did Sheldon say an Endomorph was ?

Answer 12

Fat and Soft, sociable and Relaxed

Question 13

What did Sheldon find about about Mesomorphs, Ectomorphs and Criminality ?

Answer 13

Sheldon found that Mesomorphs were most likely to be criminal and Ectomorphs to be the least

Question 14

What study did Sheldon use to also find a relationship between Endomorph and Delinquency ?

Answer 14

His study on 400 boys in a residential rehabilitation home for 8 years, where he monitored their growth and made extensive notes on their family background and criminal history

Question 15

The Gluecks extensively studied Shelton’s topology. How did they support his findings ?

Answer 15

They did a study of their own and found that 60% of the delinquent population were Mesomorphs, and 30% were Endomorphs

Question 16

What did Family Studies do ?

Answer 16

Compare the family trees of criminals and non-criminals, trying to find a link between criminality and heredity

Question 17

What is heredity ?

Answer 17

The passing of traits to offspring

Question 18

What can we conclude of there is a pattern between family members and crime ?

Answer 18

There is a strong likelihood that crime is related to the families and heredity

Question 19

Give an example of a family study - Osborne and West

Answer 19

Osborne and West (1982) Criminal Fathers Study - They compare sons of criminals and non-criminals fathers, finding that 13% of sons with non-criminal fathers were criminals, and that 40% of sons with criminal fathers had a conviction

Question 20

What do twin studies look into ?

Answer 20

Twin studies look into the idea that there is an inheritable trait to increase the likelihood of criminal behaviour

Question 21

What is a Monozygotic Twin and what do they share ?

Answer 21

An identical twin. They share 100% of the genes and 100% of the environment

Question 22

What is a dizygotic twin and what do they share ?

Answer 22

A non identical twin. They share 50% of the genes and 100% of the environment

Question 23

What did Christiansen (1977) find in his twin study on 3586 Danish Twins ?

Answer 23

If an identical twin was criminals 52% of the time, their twin was also criminal. He found that this id only true 22% of the cases with non-identical twins

Question 24

What do researchers compare in adoption studies ?

Answer 24

The similarity of behaviour between adoptees and biological offspring

Question 25

What do adoption studies suggest about their parents ?

Answer 25

If a child is more similar to their adoptive parent environment is more important. If a child is more similar to their biological parent, genetics is more important

Question 26

What did Medici et al (1975) find on their study of 14,000 adopted children ?

Answer 26

They found that a high proportion of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with criminal convictions too, suggesting a strong link between criminality and genetics

Question 27

What did Jacobs argue in his XYY study ?

Answer 27

That some males have the disorder thats adds an extra Y chromosome to the normal XY Sex chromosome, causing increased aggression

Question 28

What did Jacobs find in his study of Scottish inmates ?

Answer 28

Jacobs found that the incidence of XYY disorder XYY disorder was 20 times higher than in general Scottish population

Question 29

What did Jacobs believe the XYY chromosome could cause ?

Answer 29

Increased aggression, slower than average learning rate and a strong compulsion to commit crime

Question 30

How did Theilgard (1984) try to critique the XYY study ?

Answer 30

He used 30,000 men born in the 1940s and took blood samples from each, before analysing their chromosomes. He found only 12 to have the XYY disorder, where they were interviewed by a social worker,and given both identity and personality tests

Question 31

What did the results of Theilgard’s critique show ?

Answer 31

The results showed that XYY males had slightly lower levels of intelligence than average and tended to be more aggressive than normal. However, it showed more similarities between XY and XYY males

Question 32

Give a weakness of Theilgards critique

Answer 32

He only used a small sample of XYY Males, Making it hard to generalise his results to the wider population. Or Not all criminals have the XYY genes and not all XYY males are criminals

Question 33

What dis Raine (1977) investigate while using P.E.T Scans ?

Answer 33

That criminality could be related to brain abnormalities

Question 34

How did Raine study the idea that criminality could be related to brain abnormalities ?

Answer 34

He studied 41 violent American offenders and compared them to 41 ‘normal’ Americans

Question 35

What did Raine conclude from his study ?

Answer 35

He concluded that brain structure influences behaviour, following his results showing that the brain of the offenders had less activity in their frontal lobes (responsible for self-control) along with several issues

Question 36

What happened to Phineas Gage ?

Answer 36

He survived an accident where a metal rod impaled his skull in an explosion. This destroyed his frontal lobe and caused personality changes, making him more aggressive and profane