evaluations Flashcards
LOMBROSO’S THEORY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
He was the first person to study crime scientifically, using objective measurements to gather evidence.
His later work took some limited account of social and environmental factors, just not heredity.
WEAKNESSES:
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.
SHELDON THEORY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Other studies have replicated Sheldon’s findings.
The most serious delinquents in the sample were the ones with the most extremely mesomorphic body shapes.
WEAKNESSES:
Criminals may develop a mesomorphic build as a result of needing to be physically tough to succeed.
Social class may be the true cause both of offending and of mesomorphy.
TWIN STUDIES EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Because MZ twins are genetically identical, it is logical to examine whether their offending behaviour is also identical.
Twin studies gives some support to genetic explanations.
WEAKNESSES: If genes were the only cause of criminality, identical twins would show 100% concordance.
Their shared environment might cause similarities in their criminal behaviour, not identical genes.
ADOPTION STUDIES EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Adoption studies overcome the problem faced by twin studies where biological identical twins are brought up in the same household.
The research design is logical, it allows us to see the relative importance of nature.
WEAKNESSES:
Some argue that adoption studies show genes have little effect on criminality.
Many children are not adopted immediately after birth but remain with their biological family for some time.
XYY STUDY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Jacob found an association between XYY syndrome and offenders imprisoned for violent behaviour.
Others found some links between the syndrome and property crime.
WEAKNESSES:
Even if some violent offenders have the syndrome, this doesn’t prove it is the cause of their violence.
The syndrome is very rare (1 in 1000) so it cannot explain much crime.
BIOCHEMICAL EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Sexual hormones, blood sugar levels and substance abuse can affect mood, judgement and aggression.
Biochemical factors are recognised by the courts.
WEAKNESSES:
Biochemical processes may predispose some individuals to offend, but it may require an environmental trigger to cause actual offending.
Infanticide may be due to isolation and the responsibility for caring for a newborn child rather than hormones.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORIES EVAL
STRENGTHS:
The theory points to the importance of early socialisation and family relationships in understanding criminal behaviour.
Psychoanalytic explanations have had some influence on policies for dealing with crime and deviance.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Unlike Skinner, Bandaranaike takes account of the fact that we are social beings. We learn from the experiences of others, not just from our own direct experience.
Bandura shows that children who observed aggressive behaviour being rewarded, imitated that behaviour.
WEAKNESSES:
The theory is based on laboratory studies.
The theory assumes people’s behaviour is completely determined by their learning experiences and ignores their freedom of choice.
CRIMINAL PERSONALITY THEORY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
The idea that criminals’ thinking patterns are different from normal has led to other research.
Successful treatments have been developed based not the idea that criminals’ thought processes can be corrected with treatment.
WEAKNESSES:
They did not use a control group of non-criminals to see if normal people also make the same thinking errors.
Their sample was unrepresentative.
MORAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Some studies show delinquents are more likely to have immature moral development.
Others found the theory to be truer for crimes such as theft.
WEAKNESSES:
Kohlberg focuses on moral thinking rather than moral behaviour.
FUNCTIONALISM: DURKHEIM EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Durkheim was the first to recognise that crime can have positive functions for society.
WEAKNESSES:
Durkheim claims society requires a certain amount of deviance to function
While crime might be functional for some, it is not functional for victims.
STRAIN THEORY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Merton shows how both normal and deviant behaviour arise from the same goals.
He explains the patterns shown in official statistics.
WEAKNESSES:
Merton ignores crimes of the wealthy and over-predicts the amount of working-class crime.
He sees deviance solely as an individual response
LABELLING THEORY EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Labelling theory shows that the law is not a fixed set of rules to be taken for granted.
It shifts the focus onto how the police create crime by applying labels.
WEAKNESSES:
It wrongly implies that once someone is labelled, a deviant career is inevitable.
It fails to explain why people commit primary deviance in the first place.
MARXISM EVAL
STRENGTHS:
It shows how poverty and inequality can cause working-class crime.
It shows how both law-making and law enforcement are biased against the working class.
WEAKNESSES:
It focuses on class and largely ignores the relationship between crime and other inequalities.
It over-predicts the amount of working-class crime: not all poor people turn to crime.
RIGHT REALISM EVAL
STRENGTHS:
Several studies support rational choice theory.
Others found that people made rational decisions: if the rewards were high and risks low, they said the crime was worth committing.
WEAKNESSES:
Others studies were experiments, the results may not apply to real offenders.
Others studied unsuccessful burglars. We don’t know if successful burglars also think in this way.
