lombroso Flashcards
what is lombrosos theory
physiological
biological
what does lombrosos theory state
- criminals are separate species
- born criminal
- can determine a criminal by their head/facial features
- criminals havent fully developed into humans (Charles Darwin (social dawenism))
what does lombrosos compare criminals to
lower primates (monkeys) - atavistic features
what was lombrosos AIM for his study
find physiological features that could distinguish non criminals and non criminals
what was lombrosos PROCEDURE for his study
- examined facial and cranial features
- 383 dead criminals
- 3,839 photos of living to find common features
what where lombrosos FINDINGS for his study
40% criminals had atavistic features
what was lombrosos CONCLUSION for his study
some people are born criminal, can tell this by how they look
how many atavistic features do men and women need to be criminal
MEN: 5+
WOMEN: 3+, they are too ugly and they couldnt find a partner
what features do thiefs have
- expressive face
- manual dexterity
- small wandering eyes
what features do murderers have
- cold glassy stares
- bloodshot eyes
- big hawk like noses
what features do sex offenders have
- thick lips
- protruding ears
what features do women offenders have
- shorter
- more wrinkled
- darker hair
- smaller skulls
what are the three types of criminal that are biologically differnt
- insane criminals
- criminaloids: whose criminality is cause by environmental factors such as opportunity rather than biology
- epileptic criminals
who supports lombrosos theory
uni of china
what is the uni of chinas AIM
to identify a criminals identity through physiological features by using AI
what is the uni of chinas PROCEDURE
- ID photos of 1,856 Chinese men
- half had previous convictions half didn’t
what is the uni of chinas FINDINGS
- correctly identified 83% real criminals
- 6% of innocent men wrongly flagged as criminals
what is the uni of chinas CONCLUSION
majority of the time, criminals can be identified by their facial features
STRENGTH: how is lombroso being the founding father of criminology a strength
because he was the first person to study criminology scientifically and so he paved the way for more up to date and scientific work, this challenged the superstition that all criminals where evil
STRENGTH: how is lombrosos study a strength, two links to GRAVE
it shows the importance of examining clinical and historical records of criminals by examining the skulls of the dead and photos of the living
application: useful to inform future research
reliable: easily repeatable and scientific
STRENGTH: how does the university of chinas work support his theory
he instigated the beginnings of offender profiling, university of correctly identified 83% of real criminals out of a sample size of 928- shows majority of the time, a crimes can be identified by their appearance
WEAKNESS: what is his study lacking
the use of a control group, only looked at one group so not generalisable
WEAKNESS: how is his theory deterministic
assumes we cannot escape destiny, if a person has these features they are automatically a criminal
WEAKNESS: what does DeLisi say about his theory link to GRAVE
by calling criminals primitive savages and focusing on specific groups, he is basically saying non western societies are like primates, form of scientific racism
ethics: unethical, protection of participants/causing upset
