Biological theories

• What Were Lombroso’s physiological studies?


  • believed people were born criminals
  • Studied facial features of 2000 dead and alive prisoners
  • Findings- criminals had certain features (atavistic features)proposed thief’s had flat noses and sexual glintin eyes
  • possibly implied we should use death penalty to remove these genes from the gene pool
  • chinese university used a criminal facial recognition software and found a great amount of criminals were correctly identified by their face
• What were Sheldon’s physiological studies

  • studied body shape of 200 criminals and non criminals
  • Asked people to rank how close the people were to being a mesomorph- criminals were more commonly ranked as mesomorphs by the people
  • somatotypes- Mesomorphs, endomorphs and ectomorphs
  • Born criminals
• What were the somatotypes (Sheldon)?

  • Endomorphs are round with wide hips and lack muscle or tone. They tend to be relaxed and sociable
  • Mesomorphs are muscular with brad shoulders and a narrow waist. They tend to be assertive and adventurous, but lack sensitivity and inhibition. (most likely to be criminal)
  • Ectomorphs are thin and fragile, with a thin face and a high forehead. They tend t be introverted and retrained. (Least likely to be criminal)
• Strengths of Lombroso’s theory

  • First to take a scientific approach to understanding crime with evidence
  • Examined historical and medieval criminals
  • Created an agreement criminals do not choose their behaviour, so crime prevention was focused on instead of punishment
  • ‘Prisons are crime universities’ as former prisoners usually reoffend
  • Butcher and Taylor found attractiveness has no effect on sentence
• Weaknesses of Lombroso’s theory

  • Goring (1913) found no link between facial features and crime
  • Lombroso didn't have a control group, he might’ve just find characerteristics which are in the general population too
  • Racist to describe criminals as savages
  • DeLisi states Lombroso’s atavistic features are of African decent
  • Not everyone with atavistic features are criminals
• Strengths of Sheldon’s study

  • has support from Putwain and Sammons study (2002) which found a link between physique and criminality
  • Most serious criminals in the study had the most mesomorphic bodies
  • Glueck and Glueck(1956)found 60% mesomorphs in delinquent sample but 31% in non delinquent sample
  • Sheldon had a large sample and a control group
• Weaknesses of Sheldon’s study

  • sheldon doesn’t explain how other bodies can be criminal
  • peoples bodies change
  • doesn’t explain the type of crimes mesomorphs commit
  • convicted offenders with mesomorphs bodies are working class males who msot likely had a manual on, making them muscular
  • Sheldon’s theory causer bias and labelling of mesopmorprhs in court
  • mesomorphs could be dared to do more risky actions due to their looks
• what is Steve jones take oncriminal ality?

  • testosterone makes men male and some men take extra for body building
  • taking extra is dangerous as it can cause severe damage, decreased life expectancy, higher violent death rates, crime, crashes, suppression of immune system
  • men murder 10 times more
  • Detroit has a murder rate of 1000 per mill likely due to drugs, gags and poverty
  • nature nd nurture are both factors of crime, but nurture can be changed
• how to brain abnormalities link to crime?

  • phineas gage got a bar through his prefrontal cortex
  • he survived but was aggressive and irritable to the point he lost his job
  • prefrontal cortex regulates empathy, response flexibility, insight, intuition, fear modulation and personality/ emotion control
  • prefrontal cortex damage can lead to crime as a lack of control over these feelings can result in aggression
• Evidence for brain injuries linking to crime?

  • Raine used radioactive tracers to track brain activity of murderers and gave ppts a 32 minute long task
  • PET scans to monitor criminal brain activity
  • Compared results with control group
  • Found the murders had prefrontal cortex damage
  • Dr James fallon did a similar experiment and found that he himself had the brain structure of a psychopath
• what is an example of brain disease linking to criminality?

  • There was an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica in children in the 1920s aka sleepy sickness
  • It’s an inflammation of the usually brain caused by a virus
  • said to have led to impulsiveness, aggression and abnormal sexual behaviour for those after they had the disease
• Strengths of using brain abnormalities/disease for explaining crimes

  • Brain injury led to change in behaviour (Phineas Gage)
  • Link between abnormal EEG (method of recording electric activity in brain) tradings and impulsive behaviour
  • Brain injury more likely to have happened to prisoners than non prisoners
  • Encephalitis letharhi a led to arson and abnormal/ sexual behaviour
• weaknesses of using brain abnormalities/disease for explaining crimes

  • rare for brain injury to cause crime as previous personality its important
  • psychos can have normal EEG readings and non criminals can have normal ones
  • brain injuries can be an effect of crime such as fighting, rate hurt than a cause
  • Phineas gage was reported to improve personality in his later life (some evidence conflicts)
• what are biochemical explanations of crime?

  • testosterone: ellis and coontz found correlation with testosterone peaks and highest crime levels with age, e.g rape and murder found to happen when testosterone was at its peak in men
  • pre menstrual tension, post natal depression and breastfeeding are used as a defence in crime
  • low sugar levels associated with aggression. loophole lowers blood sugar. Saunders found around 1000 alcohol arrests are linked
  • cocaine linked to aggression, cannabis, heroin mdma lower aggression. low serotonin levels can factor to aggression (Scarborough and Raine 1993)
• What is the idea of genetic theories of crime?

  • physiological theories mean that some characteristics of crime must be inherited
  • people criminal behaviour runs in the family which can also show there may be a genetic link to crime
  • implies certain genes can lead to crime
  • Osborn and west found the sons of criminal fathers were much more likely to get a criminal record then sons of non criminals
• what are the twin studies?

  • monozygotic twins share 100% (same egg split) dna and dizygotic share 50% (different eggs)
  • if one monozygotic twin commits a crime then genetics says the other will too
  • Christiansen‘s study wa on 3586 twins in Denmark. found a 52% concordance rate between monozygotic twins ( if one was convicted there 52% chance the other will be too). 22% in DZ twins
  • Ishikawa and Raine support this study as they found 44% concordance for MZ but 21.6% for DZ
  • concludes crime is partially genetic and nurture plays a role
• what are the adoption studies?

  • adopted children‘s biological parents and adopted parents compared to separate genetic factors behind crime.
  • important to know when the children were adoptepted. Those adopted late could be partially nurtured by bio parents
  • mednick and hutchings compared 14k adopted sons in Denmark and found 20% concordance with biological parents in criminal records, compared with 14.7% in adopted parents. Also found adoptees with criminal records were more likely to have biological parents with a criminal record
  • Suggests there is a genetic factor but also environmental
• what is Jacob’s XYY study

  • men get an extra Y chromosome, making them more manly. (super male chromosome)
  • very tall, well built, low intelligence
  • men with XYY are more violent and aggressive
  • Price and Whatmore found XYY males were immature and unstable, had. a strong tendency to commit random crimes.
  • in prisons, 15/1000 men have XYY. in public this is 1/1000
  • John Wayne Gacy tortured and killed 33 men and he had this
• what are the Strenghts of the genetic theories?

  • comparison of MZ twins is useful and logical experiment for investigating genetics of crime. making the experiment natural
  • studies useful in separating genetics and environmental causes
  • ishikawa and Raine support study
  • Adler (2007) found aggressive and violent behaviour partially caused by genetics
• what are the weaknesses of genetic theories?

  • MZ twins treat more alike than DZ twins, this can impact their behaviour similarities. MZ twins feel closer so they’re more influenced by eachother
  • adopted children put in environments similar to their birth parents (class, ethnicity, locality) which can explain similarity instead of genetics
  • Gottfredons and Hirschi argue genetic evidence behind criminality in the adoption studies is small
  • Jacob’s syndrome is relatively rare do cannot explain crime much