2.1 theories on criminality

who is Lombroso?

* Italian doctor
* He argues that they are physically different to other people.
* They are ‘atavistic’- less developed by evolution.
* They are a separate sub-species.
* He studied the faces of dead and alive prisoners

How did Lombroso conduct his research?

* He attempted **scientific research methods** (he was one of the first to do this, beforehand, most explanations were religious or moralistic)
* He systematically measured and recorded facial features and other physical features of convicted criminals.
* He concluded that criminals could be identified by their physical features (psychological)

What physical features did Lombroso Identify?

* Large jaw
* Low sloping foreheads
* Long arms
* Prominent eyebrow arches
* Excellent eyesight
* He also argues they are less in control and less sensitive to pain

What specific features do certain crimminals have?

* **Murders**- beak-like noses and curly hair
* **Sex offenders**- thick lips and protruding ears
* **Thieves**- flattened ears

strengths of lombroso

* one of the first people to take a scientific approach
* showed the importance of examining medical and historicla records of criminals
* that criminals may not be freely choosing to commit crimes as a result helped to prevent crimes instead of just punishing them.
* Research by **Butcher and Taylor 2007** shows that a induviduals actractiveness is likely to affect how they are considered guilty

weaknesses of lombrosso

* **Research by Goring 2013** **has not shown a link between facial features and crime.**
* Failed to compare his research with a control group of non-criminals – meaning he may have found similar characteristics amongst the general population.
* It’s a form of **racism** to say criminals are like ‘**primitive savages**. Also, **DeLisi** **2012** identified that a lot of the features are identified atavistic by Lombroso are specific to people of African descent.
* **Outdated**, it was identified over 100+ years ago.
* Not all people with atavistic features are criminals.
* Did not study criminality in women

What does Actavist mean?

relating to or characterized by **reversion** to something **ancient** or **ancestral**.

What does William Sheldon Beleive?

* He believed that features of our personalities and behaviours were linked to our body types.
* Identified 3 different body types: **endomorphic, mesomorphic, ectomorphic**.

What did William Sheldon identify?

* Mesomorphs are most likely to commit crime.
* Ectomorphs are least likely to commit crime.

How did William Sheldon Conduct his study?

* He asked people to rate photos on a scale of 1-7 on how close somebody is to the mesomorph body-type
* Half of the people in the photos were college students, the other half were juvenile delinquent.
* Half of the delinquents had a higher average of mesomorph than the college students.

Strengths of Sheldon

* Some support from other studies **Putwain and Sammons 2002** they also found a link between physique and criminality.
* **Glueck and Glueck 1956** found that 60% of mesomorphs made up their sample of delinquents. However, they only made up 31% of the sample of non-delinquents.
* Sheldon had a large sample group of 200 people and a control group

Weaknesses of Sheldon

* He cannot explain how **endomorphs and ectomorphs can also be criminals**.
* Peoples **bodies change** overtime. (Body image/culture ect)
* Are mesomorphs labelled/ stereotyped that way and are they encouraged to do more illegal acts because of the way they’re built?
* Is there **bias and labelling** of mesomorphs in **court**s?
* Could it instead be **linked to social class** as the working class are more likely to have a mesomorph body type due to manual labour jobs

Pre-frontal cortex. What is it in control of?

rationality and self-control.

Strengths of brain abnormality

* There are cases where brain injury has lead to massive changes in their personality and behaviour.
* Brain injury is more likely to happen to prisoners than non-prisoners

weaknesses of brain abnormality

* Its rare for brain damage or disease to cause a crime its more linked to the individuals previous personality

Which 2 people researched the pre-frontal cortex?

raine et al

dr james fallon

What did Raine et al 1994 identify with the prefrontal cortex?

They used PET scans and radioactive tracers to create 3d images of the cells. They also looked at the brains of normal people and convicted killers and found the killers had damage to their pre-frontal cortex.

What did Dr James Fallon do?

compared the brains of pscycopathic people to normal people.

What did some studies in disease identify?

That there is a connection between disease and anti social behaviour

1920s epidemic of encephalitis

lethargica (sleepy sickness) in children - what did it do?

creates an inflamtion in the brain via the virus which lead to an increased impulsiveness, agression ,and abnormal sexual behaviour.

What does Nature vs Nurture refer too?

It refers to how someones personality is created/ affected via genetics or their surroundings.

What are the 2 types of twins?

MZ and DZ

What does MZ twins stand for?

Monozygotic (identical)

What does DZ twins stand for?

DIzygotic (fraternal)

What is suggetsed about crime in the twin studies?

if crime is genetic, and one twin is prone to criminality in theory so should the other twin.

WHat did mednick research?

14,000 male son adopted cases in denmark

what is a concordance rate?

The probability of someon

what concordance rate did mednick identify?

20% with biological parents

14\.7% with adoptive parents

What is Jacobs Syndrome?

Where males have an extra Y chromosone (XYY)

What is assosciated with Jacobs Syndrome?

* being very tall
* well built
* low intelligence

WHat is the average of men who have J/S in prison:general population

Prison 15 per 1000

General population 1 per 1000

Strengths of genetic theories:

* Comparing MZ twins because they are genetically identical is useful and logical way of investigating genetics of crime. It’s a ‘natural experiment’


* The studies are useful to separate genetic vs environmental causes of crime. Nature vs nurture.
* Support from Alder (2007) found that aggressive and violent behaviour are somewhat caused by genetics
* Ishikawa and Raine found even higher concordance rate for MZ twins (44%) than DZ twins (21%)

weaknesses of genetic theories:

* Parents often treat MZ twins as more alike than they do DZ twins. Resulting in this, MZ twins may feel closer alike than DZ twins meaning they may be more influenced by each other.


* Adopted children are often placed into similar environment’s to that of their birth parents (class, ethnicity, locality etc)


* Gottfredson and Hirschi argue that the evidence that the  genetic component of criminality from adoption studies is small.
* Jacobs syndrome is rare