Evaluating biological

• Lombroso evaluation (weaknesses)

  • did not compare results to a control group of non criminals. So findings cannot be viewed as support
  • Goring (2013) study of physical features of thousands of English prisoners , found none of the distinctive characteristics noted by Lombroso
  • Extremely deterministic - assumes criminality is akin to ones eye colour; one is born a criminal; and is unable to escape one’s destiny
  • does not take into account economic and social factors
  • modern research has found no evidence
• Sheldon evaluation (weaknesses)

  • only focused on criminals. Just because many criminal are mesomorphs does not mean all mesomorphs are criminals.
  • Does not explain how ectomorphs and endomorphs can also be criminals
  • somatotypes are not fixed. Bodies change throughout life, an individual may be all three types at some point. Sheldon does not detail whether this would lead to changes in personality and criminality
• Sheldon Strengths

  • number of other studies have confirmed that there is a small association between body build and criminality (Putwain and Simmons, 2002)
  • good-sized sample (200), had a control group of non-offenders to which he could compare his results.
• Lombroso strengths

  • first person to study crime scientifically, using objective measurements to gather evidence
  • showed importance of examining clinical and historical records of criminals.
• XYY evaluation (weaknesses)

  • focuses too heavily on genetics and ignores the behaviourist approach.
  • XYY males fit the stereotype of ‘violent offenders’ because they are tall and built and get labelled as such by the courts, so they are more likely to get a prison sentence. As a result, XYY males are over-represented in samples drawn from prisoners and this overstates the importance of the syndrome
  • syndrome is very rare, 1 in a 1000 men have it, so it cannot be used to explain much crime
• XYY strengths

  • Jacob et all found a significant number of men in prison have XYY sex chromosomes instead of XY
  • Alder et al indicated it is possible that aggressive and violent behaviour is at least partly determined by genetic factors
• Twin studies (weaknesses)

  • small sample involved in twin studies may not be representative of the general population
  • if twins are brought up in the same environment, criminality can just as easily be related to nurture as to genetics
  • if genes were the only cause of criminality, MZ twins would show 100% concordance, but studies only show half or less
  • early twin studies (Lange 1929), were inadequately controlled and lacked validity as to whether the twin were DZ or MZ, which was based on appearance not DNA
• twin studies strengths

  • natural experiments, as the biological relationships between the twins is a naturally occurring variable
  • Christiansen supports the view that criminality has a genetic component. MZ twins 35% concordance and DZ twins 13% concordance
• adoption studies (weaknesses)

  • adopted children are often placed in environments similar to those of their birth family, same class, ethnicity, locality, so similar environments may produce similar behaviour
  • many children are not adopted immediately after birth but remain with their biological family for sometime. this early environment may be the true cause of their criminality
• adoption studies strengths

  • as adopted children are exposed to a different environment to their biological family, it is easier to separate genetics from environmental factors
  • Mednick et al found sons were more likely to have a criminal record if a birth parent also had one (20% concordance). by contrast found 14.7% concordance had a criminal record if adoptive parent had one
• General evaluations of bio

  • ignores environmental factors
  • sample bias - often used studies of convicted criminals, may not be representative of criminals who got away so cannot generalise to all criminals
  • gender bias - most research is focused on males, doesn’t explain female criminality