Special circumstances may be applied to certain crimes as well as the length of a sentence, for example, if someone has a mental condition and they lost control, it is known as diminished responsibility and may affect the ruling of the Judge
Polygamy is legal in 58 countries like India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka but illegal in most countries like the UK, Turkey, Tunisia and USA as it violates the rights of women
Possession of cannabis for personal use or intent to supply or grow the substance is decriminalised in India in 2018 but illegal in the UK with possession being 5 years in prison and intent to supply being 14 years
All homosexual acts between men were made criminal in 1885 with a max sentence of life imprisonment, but homosexuality was legalised in 1967 and the age of homosexual consent was 16 in 2000
In the 13th century, children were sent to work at an early age and were seen as "mini adults" with no distinction between adult and child sanctions, but laws excluding children from paid work, compulsory schooling, and child protection and welfare legislation were introduced over time
The Wolfenden Report in 1954 led to the legalisation of homosexual acts between 2 men over 21 in 1967 due to an increase in promiscuous behaviour between gay men, with over 1,000 in jail by 1954
The Gun Network Control, set up by lawyers, academics and parents for victims, and the Snow Drop Campaign started by bereaved Dunblane parents and friends with 750,000 signatures, led to the higher gun laws in 1998
The Factory Acts, compulsory schooling in 1880, and the 2004 Children Act which made the child's welfare a fundamental principle, led to the laws excluding children from paid work and ensuring their basic education and protection
Males with XYY are known as 'super males' and tend to be more aggressive and violent, with an explosive temper, hyperactivity, defiance and anti-social behaviour
Jacobs et al (1965) found a significant number of men in prison had XYY, and there was a link between XYY and violent crime as well as with property damage
Biased sample, most research around it was done in prisons and mental health institutes, XYY Syndrome is very rare (1 in 1000), so it is hard to find a link between it and criminality
Christiansen (1977) found a concordance (harmony) rate of 52% for monozygotic (identical) twins and 21% for dizygotic (non-identical) twins both being criminal
Hutchings and Mednick (1975) studied 14,000 adopted children and found a high proportion of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with convictions
First person to study criminal behaviour, challenged the idea that criminals are evil, began the research of genetic and biochemical reasons for criminality
Did not have a control group to compare his findings with, provided no evidence for his idea of atavistic characteristics, claims of physical attributes leading to criminality are generally unsupported
Believed that criminality was linked to physical body types - mesomorphs were aggressive, adventurous and muscular and most likely to commit crime, endomorphs were round, sociable and jolly, ectomorphs were small, introverted and fragile