Atavistic form - historical explanation

• What did Lombrosso say ?

  Certain individuals are born with a criminal personality and this innate personality is a throwback to earlier primate forms

  • criminals have biological features
  • researched 50k bodies + found 21% had 1 feature and 43% had at least 5
• What were the features lombrossi outlines ?

  • high cheekbones
  • pronounved jawline
  • large ears
• What else did lonbrosso believe ?

  different crimes had different features :

  • criminals - strong jaw, extra toes, nipples, fingers
  • murderes - blood shot eyes, curly hair, long ears
  • sexual deviants- glinting eyes, fleshy lips
  • fraudsters- thin + red lips
  • non physical - unemployed, tattoos
• What did kretschmer suggest ?

  Somatotypes - 4000 criminals

  • fall into 4 categories
  • leptosome-tall + thin ( petty thieves)
  • athletic- tall and muscular (crimes of violence)
  • pyknic- short + fat (deception + violence)
  • dysplastic (more than one crime)
• Supporting evidence for somatotypes ?

  1. sheldon created his own set of somatotypes ecto,endo,meso and studies 200 young adults- found delinquents were mesomorphs
  2. gluek + gluek- found 60% were mesomorphs
• evaluation of lombrosso ?

  1. Gender bias - only men
  2. deterministic - promotes damaging stereotypes
  3. practical application - led to crimonology + eyesenck.- benefit society