AO3 Lombroso Explanation

• +Changed criminology. Lombroso shifted the emphasis in crime research away from moralistic towards scientific. In describing how particular types of people are likely to commit particular crime, the theory heralded offender profiling. This suggests that Lombroso made a major contribution to the science of criminology.
• -Racist. Many of the features that Lombroso identified as atavistic (curly hair, dark skin) are most likely to be found among people of African descent, a view that fitted 19th-century eugenic attitudes (to prevent some groups from breeding). This suggests that his theory might be more subjective than objective, influenced by racist prejudices.
• -Evidence contradicts the link between atavism and crime. Goring compared 3000 offenders and 3000 non-offenders and found no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics. He did suggest that many people who committed crime had a lower than average IQ (offering limited support for atavistic theory). This challenges the idea that offenders can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population, therefore they are unlikely to be a sub-species.
• -Poorly controlled. Lombroso didn’t compare his offender sample to a control group and so failed to control confounding variables. Modern research shows that social conditions - poverty - are associated with offending behaviour which would explain some of Lombroso’s links (Hay and Forrest). As a result, his research doesn’t meet modern scientific requirements.
• Nature or Nurture

  The atavistic form suggests that crime has a biological cause , it’s genetically determined. However facial and cranial differences may be influenced by other factors - poverty or poor diet - rather than inherited. This suggests that the idea of an innate atavistic form as a predisposing factor for criminality is meaningless.