Criminology: Positivism & Early Biological Theories

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, historical figures, and terms in early biological criminology, positivism, and eugenics.

Classical School

A philosophical school of criminology focused on free will, rational choice, and deterring crime through the fear of punishment.

Positivism

The second school of criminology that uses a scientific approach to understand crime and behavior, emphasizing factors that influence or determine behavior.

Determinism

The concept that behavior is determined or influenced by factors outside an individual's free choice, rather than being completely freely chosen.

Natural Selection

Charles Darwin's theory explaining evolutionary change, which influenced early biological explanations of crime and demonstrated the scientific method could be applied to studying human beings.

Cesare Lombroso

An Italian physician often called the "father of criminology" who developed the first major biological criminological theory associated with positivism.

Born Criminal

Lombroso's idea that some people are biologically predisposed to crime from birth and that their criminal behavior is predetermined.

Atavism

Lombroso's concept that criminals were evolutionary "throwbacks" to an earlier, biologically less-developed stage of human evolution.

Stigmata

Physical characteristics, such as extra fingers or specific shapes of the ears and nose, that Lombroso associated with criminality and believed could identify born criminals.

Passionate Criminal

A category of criminal defined by Lombroso whose crime is driven by intense emotional states or passion.

Insane Criminal

A category of criminal defined by Lombroso whose crime is connected to mental illness or insanity.

Occasional Criminal / Criminaloid

Lombroso's classification for individuals who may have some characteristics associated with criminality but are pushed toward crime by environmental circumstances.

Henry Goddard

An early biological criminologist who studied intelligence, viewed IQ as static, and argued that "feeble-mindedness" was a cause of crime.

Feeble-mindedness

A historical term for supposed significantly low intellectual ability, which early researchers like Goddard linked directly to criminal behavior.

William Sheldon

A researcher who developed body typing theory in the 1940s, proposing that body types were associated with specific personalities and criminal behaviors.

Ectomorph

One of Sheldon's three basic body types, characterized by a tall and thin physical structure.

Endomorph

One of Sheldon's three basic body types, characterized by a shorter, rounder, or stockier physical structure.

Mesomorph

Sheldon's muscular and athletic body type, which he hypothesized was most likely to engage in criminal behavior.

Deterministic Theory

A theory claiming that a specific factor directly determines behavior.

Risk Factor

A characteristic associated with an increased likelihood of an outcome, rather than an absolute guarantee.

Eugenics

A movement based on the idea that society could improve the human population by controlling who reproduces.

Negative Eugenics

A branch of eugenics focused on preventing people considered "undesirable" from reproducing through practices such as forced sterilization and institutionalization.

Social Sanitation

The idea of removing people considered undesirable from society through methods like imprisonment, institutionalization, or restricting reproduction.

Buck v. Bell

A major Supreme Court case that upheld Virginia's compulsory sterilization law, establishing legal support for forced sterilization in the United States.