The Atavistic Form AO3

Question 1

1st strength:

Answer 1

• Lombardo’s research has changed the face of the study of crime
• shifted the emphasis of crime away from moralistic discourse
• move towards to scientific realm
• tried to describe how particular types of people are likely to commit crimes which brought about the beginning of offender profiling
• this suggests that lombroso made a major contribution to the science of criminology

Question 2

Counterpoint to 1st strength

Answer 2

• some question as to whether lombroso’s legacy is positive
• racist undertones in his work e.g. curly hair, dark skin
• fitted with eugenics movement of the 19th century (not everyone is born equal, some people have more desirable traits like intelligence and people who don’t have these desirable traits shouldn’t be able to reproduce for the good of society
• lombroso saying that offending is an inheritable trait
• suggests that his work might be more subjective and may be heavily influenced by racial prejudice

Question 3

Limitation 1

Answer 3

Goring (1913) set out to establish whether there were any physical or mental abnormalities among offenders.
• Compared 3000 offenders and non-offenders.
• No evidence to support Lombroso’s ideas.
• Although he did suggest a lower level of intelligence.
This challenges the idea that offender can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population and are therefore unlikely to be a sub-species.

Question 4

Limitation 2

Answer 4

Lombroso failed to control important variables within his research.
• No control group of non-offenders
• Knock on effect to less control over confounding variables.
• E.g. there is research showing a link between crime and poverty and poor educational outcomes.
• Such a link would explain for example why offenders were more likely to be unemployed.
This suggests that Lombroso is research does not meet modern scientific standards and therefore his results lack validity.