What makes a Criminal ? Flashcards
What did Cesare Lombroso claim about criminals ?
- Claimed criminals could be identified by physical characteristics
- Such as low chin, big forehead, small head
What did William Sheldon believe ?
- Believed that people could be classified into three body shapes, which correspond with three different personality types.
- Endomorph, Mesomorph and Ectomorph
- Sheldon found that many convicts were mesomorphic (muscular and hard)- more aggressive
What are the 3 Modern Physiological explanations for being a criminal ?
- Genetic
- Hormonal
- Low arousal levels
What research shows Genetic evidence for Criminality ?
- Brunner (1993)
- Studied 5 men from the same family, Netherlands
- All committed violent crimes, affected by borderline retardation
- Urine samples were collected over a 24-hour period and blood samples for DNA.
- Had disturbed monoamine metabolism, a deficit of MAOA and a mutation on the X-chromosome related to excess serotonin.
- A genetic mutation results in MAOA deficiency and impaired serotonin metabolism – which is likely to be linked to retardation – could be linked to aggression.
What is the Hormonal explanation for Criminality ?
- Male hormone testosterone links to behaviour such as aggression, dominance and libido.
- Statistically men commit more crime than women
- Most offenders are male.
What research shows Hormonal evidence for Criminality ?
- Dabbs (1987)
- Found that of 11 prison inmates with the highest testosterone levels, 10 had committed violent crimes.
- Of the 11 lowest, nine had committed non-violent crimes.
- High levels of testosterone may be related to committing violent crimes.
What research shows Low arousal levels evidence for Criminality ?
- Raine and Lui (1998)
- Correlational study (101, 15-year-old boys)
- Looked at the relationship between physiological measures (skin conductance, EEG and heart rate) taken at 15 and the number of offences committed by age 24
- Strong correlation between the two measures.
- Criminals had lower heart rate, skin conductance and more slow wave EEG activity than non-criminals
- Need to do more to be on the same level as normal people (crime to be aroused)
What are the cons of Physiological explanations of Criminal Behaviour ?
- Reductionist- ignores social factors
- Deterministic- Suggest people can’t use their free will, not their fault
- Cannot explain all crimes- not a gene for everything
- Nature- removes responsibility from offender- can’t be blamed if they can’t help it
What are the two Social explanations of Criminal Behaviour ?
- Upbringing/ disrupted family
- Learning from others
What research supports the Upbringing explanation for Criminality ?
- Farrington (1996)
- Tested the hypothesis that problem families produce problem children.
- Longitudinal study, a group of males was followed from 8 to 32.
- By age 20, 48% of those with convicted fathers also had a conviction compared to 19% without.
- 54% of those with convicted mothers compared with 23% without.
- Suggests offending is concentrated in families and tends to be transmitted through generations.
What research supports that you learn criminality from others ?
- Sutherland proposed differential association theory
- You learn to be a criminal during social interaction with others.
- You become a criminal when you adopt the norms and values of the group in preference to the norms and values of non-criminal groups.
What are the cons of Social explanations of Criminal Behaviour ?
- Lots of people with these risk factors go on to live normal lives
- Shows there’s other risk factors
- Reductionist
What is the Cognitive Explanation for Criminality ?
- Criminals are at a lower level of moral development
- Pre-Conventional stage
What are the evaluations of Non- Physiological explanations of Criminal Behaviour ?
- Deterministic – suggest people cannot use their free will to decide whether to commit a crime and that if a person is born into certain types of family they will become a criminal.
- Cognitive factors such as morality cannot explain all crimes. Are all crimes immoral?
- Most research is longitudinal – the longer a study continues the less likely it is that the variable of interest caused the criminal behaviour.
- Nurture restores criminal responsibility. Even if parents are criminal you can choose how to behave.
What was the hypothesis to Raine’s Study ?
-That the seriously violent offenders have localised brain damage in the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, the thalamus or the hippocampus.
