Atavistic Form Explanation

• Atavistic form is a biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are a primitive subspecies ill- suited to conforming to the rules of modern society
• Atavistic form was proposed by Cesare Lombroso in 1876 in Italy
• Atavistic form states that individuals are distinguishable by facial & cranial characteristics e.g. sloping brow, prominent jaw, high cheekbones, dark skin, curly hair, large ears
• Murderers may have bloodshot eyes
• Sexual deviants may have swollen fleshy lips
• Fraudsters may have thin reedy lips
• Typical aspects of an offender include use of slang, insensitivity to pain, tattoos, unemployment
• Lombroso examined the skulls of 383 dead and 3839 living Italian convicts and found that 40% had atavistic characteristics
• Lombroso left a legacy as the 'founding father of criminology' as he shifted crime research away from moralistic & religious discourse towards a more scientific approach
• The Atavistic form has racist & eugenic implications as it focuses on North African features
• Charles Goring found research against the atavistic form
• Charles Goring studied 3000 offenders vs control of non-offenders and concluded no distinct characteristics
• Lombroso did not use a control group so his results may have been influenced by many confounding variables
• Lombroso concluded the types of criminals are: Born criminals, Insane criminals, Crimaloids
• Born criminals have atavistic traits
• Insane criminals are influenced by menta illness
• Crimaloids are predisposed to crime under the right environmental conditions