BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF CRIME : GENETIC

Question 1

what are the three genetic biological theories of crime?

Answer 1

Jacob’s XYY
twin studies
adoption studies

Question 2

what is Jacob’s XYY about?

Answer 2

chromosomal abnormality

Question 3

around how many new borns have an extra Y chromosome?

Answer 3

1/1000

Question 4

how many times more likely is someone with XYY likely to be in a prison population?

Answer 4

10x more likely

Question 5

why are men with an XYY chromosome more likely to be found in a prison population?

Answer 5

because the extra Y chromosome makes them more masculine, so they produce more testosterone

Question 6

Jacob et al found what to support his theory?

Answer 6

a link between aggression to violent behaviour

Question 7

what is another strength of Jacob’s XYY study?

Answer 7

we can see they are more represented in the prison population

Question 8

what did Jacob’s XYY study not look at, which is a limitation?

Answer 8

didn’t look at psychological, environmental and social factors

Question 9

who found that XYY men were not linked to aggression?

Answer 9

Thielgaard

Question 10

what did Theilgaard find that is a limitation of Jacob’s XYY study?

Answer 10

that XYY men were not linked to aggression

Question 11

what year did Theilgaard discover there was no link?

Answer 11

1984

Question 12

what are the two types of twins in twin studies?

Answer 12

monozygotic that come from one egg and dizygotic which comes from two eggs

Question 13

what is controlled in twin studies?

Answer 13

the environment as they are equal

Question 14

who tested on 30 same-sex twins?

Answer 14

Lange

Question 15

how many MZ twins were in Lange’s study?

Answer 15

13

Question 16

how many DZ twins were there in Lange’s study?

Answer 16

17

Question 17

how many of the MZ twins were both criminal?

Answer 17

10/13

Question 18

how many out of the DZ twins were both criminal?

Answer 18

2/17

Question 19

what does the statistic of twin studies show?

Answer 19

crime is genetic and it is hereditary

Question 20

what is the chance of one twin taking part in criminal behaviour if they are MZ?

Answer 20

50%

Question 21

what is the chance of one twin taking part in criminal behaviour if they are DZ?

Answer 21

20%

Question 22

why is twin studies being in a controlled environment a strength of the research?

Answer 22

because the researchers didn’t have to manipulate any variables, making it natural reducing investigator/researcher bias

Question 23

what is a limitation of twin studies?

Answer 23

small sample size

Question 24

what does small sample size effect for twin studies?

Answer 24

population validity as it’s finding cannot be generalised to all people

Question 25

what did Lange’s study not look at that is a limitation of it?

Answer 25

didn’t look at social factors such as friendship groups or social media that they could be affected by individually

Question 26

research from adoption studies show…

Answer 26

adoptee w/ crim parent is more likely to commit crime

Question 27

out of all adoptees born from a crim parent, who is most likely to participate?

Answer 27

boys

Question 28

out of all types of crime, what are adoptees born from a crim parent most likely to commit?

Answer 28

property crime such as vandalism or burglary

Question 29

what did the study in Iowa prison show?

Answer 29

higher rate of criminal adoptees to commit crime

Question 30

what research is there to support adoption

studies?

Answer 30

Mednick et al

Hutchings and Mednick

Question 31

what did Mednick et al find to support twin studies?

Answer 31

adopted parents number of convictions didn’t affect the adoptees chance of getting into crime but the biological parent’s number of convictions did

Question 32

what did Hutchings and Medick find?

Answer 32

boys were criminal convictions were aggressive due to genetics