1. Physiological Theories - Lombroso 'Born Criminals'

• Lombroso examined 3839 skulls of dead Italian convicts and 383 skulls of alive convict.
• Criminals are a separate species between modern man and primitive human, therefore they have atavistic features.
• Atavistic features are characteristics from an earlier stage of human development.
• Atavistic features include; long arms, enormous jaw, large ears, large eye sockets, dark skin, extra toes/ fingers/ nipples, high cheekbones.
• The physical shape of the head and face determined who were the "born criminal".
• The criminals are pre - social and unable to control their impulses, this leads them to commit crimes such as rape.
• They had a reduced sensitivity to pain- many had tattoos.
• NO SUPPORT - Goring [1913] - used a non- criminal control group and found no significant differences in terms of behaviour.
• IGNORES - Too simplistic - fails to recognise other important factors as to why people turn to crimes.
• INFLUENTIAL - Useful sometimes as it was the first theory that used objective measures to study crime as well as it having more of a scientific basis than previous research before it.

  Garland [1994] - Lombroso was responsible for giving criminology a scientific credibility.
• NOT ALL PEOPLE - Fails to explain why many criminals who do not have atavistic features commit crime.
• NOT ALL CRIME - It doesn't explain crimes that involves intelligence and skill since this theory suggests criminals are primitive throwbacks.