lombroso - biological theories

Question 1

lombrosos atavism theory

Answer 1

-men and women born criminals, said you could tell by certain facial feautures
-argued criminals were physically different

Question 2

lombrosos study

Answer 2

measured/examined 4000 criminals face proportions and height in an italian prison and examined 300 skulls of dead offenders. he then made the atavistic theory
atavistic means not evolved or primitive

Question 3

lombrosos assumptions

Answer 3

• criminals were a throwback to earlier primitive stage of evolution and were pre-social, unable to control impulses and reduced sensitivity to pain
  -said people were born criminals and you could scientifically identify them via physical characteristics

Question 4

strengths of lombroso

Answer 4

-he was the first person to study crime scientifically using objective measures to gather evidence
-butcher and taylor (2007) suggested that less attractive people are more likely to be criminals
-his research showed importance of examining clinical and historical records of criminals and influences study of criminal typifications
-his later work took some limited account of social and environmental factors

Question 5

lombrosos weaknesses

Answer 5

-he failed to compare his findings to a control group
-not everyone with atavistic features is a criminal and not all criminals have them
-scientific racism- DeLiss (2012) indicated that many of the atavistic features defined are specific to people of african descent
-research since failed to show a link