Historical explanations of crime

Question 1

Outline Lombrosos’s 1876 study

Answer 1

His aim was to identify distinguishing physical features among criminals
he examined features of nearly 4000 criminals and 400 dead criminals skills
Common characteristics he found included a pronounced jaw, large ears and extra fingers or toes
He concluded that they indicated that these people were primitive so they cannot be blamed for their actions due to their innate physiology

Question 2

What is a disadvantage of Lombroso’s study?

Answer 2

No control group - the physical trends he found among his group of offenders cannot be appointed to crime as there is no control group to compare these features to. It’s likely that these physical features are coincidental among the group he studied and can be found in any large sample size