Biologial explanations - historical approach

• Atavistic form - historical approach

  • 1876 - Lombroso suggested criminals were genetic throwbacks
  • a primitive subspecies who were biologically different from non-criminals
• Atavistic form - biological approach

  • offenders lack evolutionary development - savage and untamed nature cant adjust to the demands of civilised society - turn to crime
  • offending behaviour is a natural tendency rooted in the genes - innate
  • offender not to blame for his actions
• Atavistic form

  • offender subtype is in possession of particular physiological markers that were linked to particular types of offence
  • biologically determined 'atavistic' characteristics
  • cranial characteristics - narrow, sloping brow, a strong prominent jaw, high cheekbones and facial asymmetry
  • dark skin, extra toes, nipples or fingers
  • insensitivity to pain, slang, tattoos and unemployment

  
• atavistic form - offender types

  • murderers - bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears
  • sexual deviants - glinting eyes, swollen fleshy lips, projecting ears
  • fraudsters - lips were thin and reedy
• AO3 - atavistic form - strenght

  P: it has changed the face of the study of crime

  E: been hailed as the father of modern criminology - coined the term 'criminology' and shifted the emphasis in crime research away from a moralistic discourse towards a scientific discussion

  • heralded the beginning of offender profiling

  L: suggests that Lombroso made a major contribution to the science of criminology
• AO3 - atavistic form - Limitation

  P: evidence contradicts the link between atavism and crim inals

  E: Goring - set out to establish whether there was anything physically atypical about offenders

  compared between 3000 offenders and 3000 non-offenders and concluded there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics

  L: challenges the idea that offenders can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population and are therefore unlikely to be a subspecies
• AO3 - atavistic form - limitation

  P: Lombrosos methods of investigation were poorly controlled

  E: failed to control important variables within his research - did not compare his offender sample with a non-offender control group

  E: which could have controlled for an assortment of confounding variables that might have equally explained higher crime rates in certain groups of people

  crime and poor social conditions are linked - explains why offenders were more likely to be unemployed

  L: Lombrosos research does not meet modern scientific standards