Evaluation

• Strength - Lombroso's legacy - Lombroso changes the face of study of crime, hailed as the father of criminology. He is also credited for shifting emphasis of crime research from moralistic discourse (where offenders seen as weak-minded) to scientific position (considering evolution and genetics). Lombroso's theory also heralded the beginning of offender profiling in trying to describe types of offenders. suggests Lombroso made a major contribution to the study of crime.
• Counterpoint - Many critics, including scientific vasicm. Delisi (2012) have been questioned the positivity of Lombroso's legacy. Attention was drawn to the racist undertones of Lombroso's work. eg. curly hair and dark skin, likely to have been found amongst people of African decent, therefore he was essentially suggesting crimes were more likely to be commited by Africans, a view which fit with the eugenic 19th century attitudes.
• x - contradictory evidence - Evidence present to contradict the link between atavistic and crime. Goring (1913) also aimed to replicate findings of Lombroso. After conducting a comparison between 3000 offenders, and 3000 non-offenders, he concluded that there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics. Though, he did suggest they may have a lower IQ. This challenges the idea of physically distinguishing offenders and are unlikely to be a subspecies. This research also has increased validity because it was conducted with a large sample.
• x - poor control - Methods and variables of Lombroso's investigation were poorly controlled. Unlike Goring, he did not compare his sample to a control group of non-offenders which would of controlled the assortment of confounding variables which may have equally explained higher crime rates in certain people. For example, research has demonstrated for why offenders were more likely to commit crimes or be unemployed. Suggests Lombroso's research does not meet modern scientific standards.