Biological theories

• What’s an example of two physiological theories (Names of people)?

  Lombarso and sheldon
• Lombraso: what about the prisoners did he study ?

  .physical features
• Lombarso: what distinctive features did criminal have?

  high cheek bones, large arm spans, protruding ears
• Lombraso saw criminals as avsastic. What does that mean?

  throwbacks to an earlier primitive state of evolution
• Sheldon: What’s a somatotype?


  Body type
• Sheldon: mesomorphs are more likely to be involved in what?

  .criminal behaviour as they are more attracted to risk taking
• Sheldon: what are the three body types?

  Ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph
• What are examples of genetic theories?

  twin studies, adoption studies and jacobs xxy study
• Twin studies: how many twin pairs did christiansen study?

  3568
• Christiansen: what was the concredence rate between monozygotic twins?

  52%
• christiansen: what was the concordance rate between dizygotic twins?

  22%
• Christiansen: what are monozygotic twins?


  share identical genes
• Christiansen: what did he say about monozygotic twins?


  as they share the same genes if one twin is criminal the other should also be criminal
• What’s jacobs xxy study?

  suggests criminality is due to chromosome abnormalities
• Jacob: what are xyy men sometimes reffered to as?

  super males
• Jacob: what does the extra y chromosome do?

  cause men to be taller and also more agresssive so more likely to be involved in crime
• jacob:how many males suffer from xxy in prisons?

  15 in 1000
• Jacob: how many men suffer from xxy in the general population?

  1 in 1000
• what’s one biochemical explanation for criminality?

  hypoglycameia
• Biochemical: what does hypoglycaemia do?

  low blood sugar can trigger agressive reactions and can be increased by individuals who drink alcohol as it lowers blood sugars more