atavistic form

• a historical approach to offending
• lombroso


  criminals are genetic throwbacks (primitive sub species who are biologically different from non criminals) and cannot cope with the demands of civilised society so they commit crime
• lombroso saw offenders as lacking evolutionary development


  their savage and untamed nature meant that they would find it impossible to adjust to the demands of civilised society and saw criminal behaviour as a natural tendency
• atavistic characteristics

  • strong jaws
  • high cheekbones
  • dark skin
  • extra fingers/toes
  • insensitivity to pain
  • low sloping foreheads
• lombroso's research


  examined 383 skulls of dead animals and 3829 heads of living ones and concluded that 40% of crimes were committed by atavistic people
• lombroso's categories of criminals

  murderers - bloodshot eyes, curly hair, long ears

  sexual deviants - glinting eyes, swollen fleshy lips, projecting ears

  fraudsters - thin lips
• X lombroso's research is flawed - lack of a control group for comparisons
• X lombroso's research is flawed - sample included people with mental and physiological disorders so criminality may be confused with psychopathology
• X lombroso's research is flawed - what about people suffering in poverty and with poor nutrition - can affect facial features
• TICK lombroso shifted the emphasis in crime research away from a moralistic discourse (offenders are judged as wicked) and towards a more scientific approach (evolutionary influence)
• X scientific racism - many features lombroso identified as criminalistic (curly hair, dark skin) are most likely to be found amongst african american people

  his description of the atavistic form being a 'uncivilised, primitive and savage' supports many eugenic philosophies
• X charles goring - contradictory evidence


  conducted a comparison between 3000 criminals and 3000 non criminals to establish if there were any physical/mental abnormalities amongst criminal classes

  • concluded that there was no link between criminal behaviour and physical appearance
• X causation - facial differences may be influenced by other factors (poverty, poor health) rather than being an indication of delayed evolutionary development