Biological theories

• What social policy did eugenicists favour? - biological 


  Compulsory sterilisation of criminals as they believed criminality to be hereditary

  • mental illnesses
  • learning difficulties
  • in 1927 US Supreme Court ruled that it was legal
  • who also enforced abortions and restrictions on rights to marry
• How can you treat heroin addiction?


  Methadone is used to treat addicts as a long term alternative to heroin

  • prevents withdrawal symptoms
  • provides a legally medicated control substitute
  • helps to reduce crime as addiction causes people to commit crime in order to pay for drug
• How can you treat alcohol abuse?

  Antabuse is used in aversion therapy

  • prevents body from breaking down alcohol
  • causes unpleasant hangover symptoms when consumed even a little
• How can you help “treat” sex offenders?


  Stilbesterol is a form of chemical castration used in prison to treat male sex offenders

  • its a femal hormone that suppresses testosterone reducing men’s sex drive
  • serious side effects: breast development, psychiatric disorders
• How can you manage prisoners?


  sedatives and tranquilisers

  • used to keep troublesome + violent prisoners calm
• What was an extreme case of the eugenics policy?


  Nazi’s racial purity - wanted the Aryan as a master race so eliminated everyone who didn’t fit.

  • initially targeted physically and mentally disabled people
  • 400,000 steralised against there will
  • 70,000 killed
• How does police use chemicals to control crows and public offences?


  Tear gas - causes uncomfortable or distressing sensations

  • committing, breathing difficulties and disorientation
  • cause lung damage or even death
• What are 2 types of surgeries that have been used to alter an offenders brain and body with the aim of them preventing offending?


  Surgical castraction - denmark and usa

  lobotomy - cutting connections between frontal lobes Of the brain and the thalamus

  • used to treat paranoid schizophrenia
  • sexually motivated + spontaneous criminals
• How can diet be modified to change anti-social behaviour?

  Vitamins, minerals, fatty acids have caused a remarkable reduction in anti-social behaviour

  vitamin B3 used to treat some forms of schizophrenia

  used to control hyperactivity leading to offending

  • remove artificial colouring
  • tartrazine from children’s diets
• What were eugenicist scared of?


  Human race was in danger of degeneration as lower class were breeding at a faster rate then higher class

  • passing on inferior genes for low intelligence, poverty, criminality more quickly then the higher class passing on superior genes
  • lowering average intelligence + moral quality