Revision 1

Question 1

Biological Theories

Answer 1

Physiological

• lombroso atavism
• brain structure and injury

Question 2

Biological

Answer 2

Genetic

• twin and adoption studies
• XYY make genetic abnormalities

Question 3

Individualistic

Answer 3

• bowlbys maternal deprivation
• eysencks personality
• banduras social learning

Question 4

Sociological

Answer 4

• mertains strain theory
• labelling theory
• marxist theory of crime and law
• right and left realism

Question 5

Strengths of Lombroso 1876

Answer 5

• a Chinese uni study showed that artificial intelligence can identify criminals using facial recognition software
• identity photos of 1856 people were fed into the programme, half of which were convicted
• 83% of the real criminals were identified, 6% wrongly identified

Question 6

Further strengths of Lombroso

Answer 6

• first to take a scientific, objective approach to understand crime using evidence
• shows the importance of examining medical and historical records of criminals
• argues that criminals may not freely choose their behaviour helped us focus on crime prevention rather than punishment

Question 7

Weaknesses of Lombroso

Answer 7

• subsequent research by Goring 1913 has not shown a link between facial features and crime
• lombroso failed to compare his research on criminals with a control group of non criminals - meaning he may have found characteristics among general population

Question 8

Lombroso 1876

Answer 8

• criminals are physically different to other people
• they are “atavistic” - less developed by evolution
• separate sub species of human
• less in control and sensitive to pain (he argued this is the reason behind criminals having tattoos)
• studied faces of prisoners - living and dead
• he systematically measured and recorded facial and other physical features of convicted criminals
• criminals can be identified by their physical features

Question 9

Physical features of Lombroso’s study

Answer 9

• large jaw
• long arms
• prominent eyebrow arches
• excellent eyesight
• low sloping forehead
• murders = beak looks noses and curly hair
• sex offenders = thick lips, protruding ears
• thieves = flattened noses

Question 10

XYY Theory

Answer 10

• additional replica of chromosome Y that occurs 1 in 1000 births, only affecting males
• price and whitmore found XYY males were generally less mature and more unstable than XY males and had a tendency to commit property crime without a motive
• typically very tall, well built, low intelligence

Question 11

Strength of XYY

Answer 11

• supporting evidence for the link between XYY and crime eg John Wayne Gacy, Jacobs

Question 12

Weaknesses of XYY

Answer 12

• doesn’t have a large sample size, impacts validity negatively
• discriminate against males with this diagnosis, wrongfully accused eg Stefan Kizco

Question 13

Adoption Study

Answer 13

• monozygotic (identical), same fertilised egg, 100% shared genes
• dizygotic (non identical/ fraternal), 2 fertilised eggs, 50% shared genes

Question 14

Strength of Adoption Study

Answer 14

• comparing MZ twins because they are genetically identical is a very useful and logical way of investigating the genetics of crime, forms a ‘natural experiment’
• studies are useful to separate out genetic and environmental causes of crime; nature vs nurture debate
• ishikawa and raine found a higher concordance rate for MZ twins (44%) then DZ twins (21.6%)

Question 15

Weaknesses of Adoption Study

Answer 15

• parents treat MZ twins as more alike than they do DZ twins, MZ twins may feel more closer to eachother than DZ twins so they may be more influenced by eachother
• adopted children are often placed in environments similar to that of their birth parents, so that might explain the similarity rather than genetic factors
• gottfredson and hirschi argue the evidence for a genetic component to criminality from adoption studies is small