Lombroso's atavistic theory

• Strengths of theory

  Lombroso was the first person to give criminality a scientific basis by using objective measures to gather evidence. His work lead to the beginning of offender profiling. His work clearly showed the importance of examining clinical and historical records of criminals. Charles Goring did find a low order intelligence in convicts which suggest some genetic base to criminality. Lombrosos theory left to further development in the explanation of criminality. It is often regarded to be responsible for developing newer theories.
• There was a lack of control group which makes it difficult to make comparisons
• This may lead to a lack of accuracy
• Lombroso's theory lacks scientific evidence for support
• There is no definite causal link between criminality and genetics
• There is the issue of scientific racism
• DeLisi indicated that many of the atavistic features defined are specific to people of African descent
• We must therefore be very careful of making general statements about the causes of criminal behavior
• Lombroso's theory could be considered extremely deterministic and assumes that we cannot escape our destiny
• Lombroso's theory has little emphasis on free will
• Not everyone with atavistic features is a criminal and not all criminals have them
• Therefore there must be some other reason for their criminal activity