UNIT 2 - AC2.1 - BIOLOGICAL THEORIES

Question 1

what did cesare lombroso propose in his theory

Answer 1

that people are ‘born criminal’ and this can be determined by physical features
that criminality is inheritable

Question 2

examples of atavistic features

Answer 2

large jaw
upturned nose
large chin
long arms
fleshy lips
large ears

Question 3

what did lombroso study

Answer 3

facial and cranial features (383 dead criminals and 3839 living ones)
concluded that 40% of criminal acts can be accounted for by atavistic features
murderers - bloodshot eyes and curly hair
sex offenders - thick lips and protruding ears

Question 4

what did william sheldon propose in his theory

Answer 4

he believed there is a correlation between body types and behaviour

Question 5

definition of somatotype

Answer 5

body shape

Question 6

three somototypes

Answer 6

endomorphic - fat and soft, sociable and relaxed
ectomorphic - thin and fragile, introverted and restrained
mesomorphic - muscular and hard, aggressive and adventurous

Question 7

sheldons evidence

Answer 7

sample of 400 male college students
200 delinquents and 200 non- delinquents
200 delinquents further split into delinquents and criminal delinquents
sheldon took photographs of all participants and rated their mesomorph on a scale of 1-7
findings - higher the delinquency, higher the mesomorphy rate

Question 8

what did sheldon find with his correlation study

Answer 8

most convicts were mesomorphic, some endomorphic and little ectomorphic

Question 9

brain abnormality theory

Answer 9

phineas gage
damage to the prefrontal cortex could result in an altered behaviour pattern

Question 10

raine et al (1994)

Answer 10

PET scans used to study impulsive killers and damage was found to the prefrontal cortex

Question 11

McIsaac et al (2016)

Answer 11

those who suffered head injuries are twice as likely to end up in prison

Question 12

neurochemical theory

Answer 12

low levels of serotonin are linked to aggression
(scerbo and raine 1993) meta analysis of 29 studies found low levels of serotonin in anti-social adults and children

Question 13

what does the XYY theory (jacob et al 1965) suggest?

Answer 13

that chromosomal abnormality can be an attributable connection to crime

Question 14

what are the sex chromosomes for a male and a female?

Answer 14

female - XX
male - XY

Question 15

what is a super male?

Answer 15

a male with an extra Y chromosome (XYY)

Question 16

why have supermales been of interest to criminologists

Answer 16

suggested that they are more aggressive and more likely to use violent behaviour than males with one Y chromosome

Question 17

how many supermales are there in the prison population

Answer 17

15/1000 in prisons in comparison to 1/1000 in the general population

Question 18

what are monozygotic twins (MZ)

Answer 18

share 100% of their DNA
indentical twins
from one fertilised egg

Question 19

what are dizygotic twins (DZ)

Answer 19

fraternal twins
share 50% of DNA
from two seperate eggs

Question 20

raines twin study (1993)

Answer 20

conducted a review of all twin studies
all thirteen studies of crime show greater concordance rates for criminality in MZ that DZ twins
conclusion - if one MZ twin is criminal, it is highly likely the other will be too

Question 21

what does concordance rate mean

Answer 21

in agreement / harmony

Question 22

what is the principle of adoption studies

Answer 22

the comparison of criminals with both their biological and adoptive parents (nature/nurture)

Question 23

hutchings and mednick (1975)

Answer 23

studied 14,000 adopted children
found high proportion of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with criminal convictions
link between aggression and genetics

Question 24

mednick et al (1994)

Answer 24

found no relationship between number of criminal convictions of adopted parents + their children but did with biological parents