Lesson 3 - Atavistic Form

Question 1

Who supported the Historical Approach to Offending?

Answer 1

Cesare Lombroso (1876)

Question 2

What does the Historical Approach and Lombroso suggest about offending?

Answer 2

In his book, ‘L’Huomo Delinquente’, Lombroso suggested that criminals were a genetic throwback, a primitive sub-species who were biologically different from non-criminals.

Question 3

Does Lombroso’s views support nature or nurture and why?

Answer 3

Lombroso’s views support the nature side of the nature/nurture debate because he saw criminal behaviour as natural tendency, rooted in the genealogy of those who engage in it. Lombroso considered offenders as lacking evolutionary development where their savage and untamed nature prevented them from adjusting to the demands of a civilised society, causing them to inevitably turn to crime.

Question 4

What does the term atavistic mean?

Answer 4

A reversion to something ancestral

Question 5

How did Lombroso think criminals could be identified?

Answer 5

Lombroso thought offenders could be identified through a set of distinct physiological characteristics, which linked to specific types of crime. These were biologically determined atavistic characteristics, mainly of the head and face, which indicate how criminals are physically different to non-criminals.

Question 6

What is the atavistic form in terms of cranial characteristics? (4)

Answer 6

Narrow, sloping brow
Strong prominent jaw
High cheekbones
Facial asymmetry

Question 7

What was the atavistic form like for murderers? (3)

Answer 7

Bloodshot eyes
Curly hair
Long ears

Question 8

What was the atavistic form like for sexual deviants? (3)

Answer 8

Glinting eyes
Swollen/fleshy lips
Projecting ears

Question 9

What was the atavistic form like for fraudsters?

Answer 9

Thin and ‘reedy’ lips

Question 10

What are more general characteristics a part of the atavistic form? (2)

Answer 10

Dark skin

Extra toes nipples and fingers

Question 11

What were non-physiological characteristics of the atavistic form (4)

Answer 11

Unemployment
Tattoos
Criminal slang
Insensitivity to pain

Question 12

Describe Lombroso’s experiment?

Answer 12

Lombroso examined the facial and cranial features of 3839 living and 383 dead Italian convicts and proposed that the atavistic form was associated with physical anomalies, a key indicator of criminality. He concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by the criminal subculture.

Question 13

What is an advantage of the Atavistic Form?

Answer 13

+ The Atavistic form played an important role in shifting away from theories based on wickedness, demonic possession and feeble mindedness to explain offending. The Atavistic Form was the forerunner in shifting the focus onto more biological explanations such as genetics and evolution.

Question 14

What are 4 weaknesses of the Atavistic Form?

Answer 14

• Several critics have exposed the blatant racist undertones in Lombroso’s work where many features he described as atavistic were most likely to be found in those of an African descent (dark skin and curly hair). He made out these people to be savage, criminal, uncivilised and supported the eugenic philosophy (you should not reproduce with people who have undesirable traits).
• Goring (1913) set out to investigate whether there were any mental or physical abnormalities in the criminal class. After conducting a comparison of 3000 criminals against 3000 non-criminals, he concluded that there was no evidence that offenders had distinct physiological or cranial characteristics which make Lombroso’s work invalid and untrue. However, he did suggest that criminals were likely to have below average intelligence.
• Lombroso did not compare criminals to a non-criminal control group. Therefore, the differences he reported may have disappeared when comparing them.
• Atavistic characteristics do not necessarily cause a criminal’s behaviour. Poverty and poor diet can influence facial and cranial characteristics and also cause someone to take part in criminal behaviour.