Historical Explanation For Crime Flashcards
Who studied the historical explanations for crime?
Lombroso (1876)
What was Lombroso’s theory?
Criminal physiology was qualitatively different from that of non criminals. Specifically, he believed that criminals represented a form of primitive human - they were some part of biological throwback, unsuited to living in a civilised culture and therefore more likely to commit crime. In addition, because of the biological nature of the criminal behaviour, criminals would have biological markers that identified them as criminals. In other words, they were specific physical features associated with being a criminal.
What was Lonbroso’s study?
Lombroso used his medical training to conduct scientific measurements of skulls of convicts. He took data from criminals in Italian prisons and from the skulls of deceased criminals. In this way, he identified common features across the criminals.
What are, according to Lombroso, physical features of a criminal?
Jaw lines are often strong
Heavy brow often with a sloping forehead and a mono brow
Large ears
finish the evaluation: No control group
Lombroso did not include a control group in his research, so it is difficult to establish that the atavistic features were only to be found amongst criminals. Therefore the characteristics are hard to be generalised to just criminals and thus it is difficult to validate the research
finish the evaluation: research doesn’t support the theory
Goring (1914) applied lombroso’s theory to a population of prisoners in London and also to a control group, and found no link between criminal behaviour and physical appearance.
finish the evaluation: sample is questionable
Lombroso’s sample is questionable as he did not screen out people with learning difficulties, which may lead to being convicted of crime and may also have linked physical characteristics.
finish the evaluation: reductionist
This theory is extremely reductionist, arguing that criminal behaviour results entirely from your biological make up. Thus the theory is flawed as it does not take into account other factors from criminal behaviour such as environmental factors.
finish the evaluation: deterministic
It is also very deterministic as it proposes that, depending upon biological makeup, some people are destined for a life of crime. Thus the research is flawed as it doesn’t consider the process of free will as a person can choose not to commit the crime.
finish the evaluation: outdated
The approach was thought of in 1876, meaning that it is outdated and has been discredited as it had no valid or reliable evidence to support it.
