A historical approach

Lombroso’s discovery

• studied thousands of italian convicts and claimed criminals have shared distinct physical features.

• criminals were born - innate tendency to commit crimes

examples of criminal features

• sexual deviants: big thick lips and glistening eyes

• thieves: flat nose

• strong jaw and beak nose

lombroso research

• 383 dead criminals

• 3839 living criminals

• many criminals showed physical abnormalities

• criminals with these features we're biologically predisposed to crime

• 40% of criminal behaviour could not be explained by atavism alone

strength - historical importance

• developed criminology.

• before lombroso explanations were mainly based on moral ideas/religion one of first psychologists to test biological explanations

• marked a shift from moralistic thinking to a scientific approach

• theory was a crucial step

limitation - scientific racism

• reinforces negative racial stereotypes

• matt delisi pointed out many of “atavistic feature” are common among african people

• lombrosos work implies that some racial groups are more likely to be criminals based purely on appearance

• causes real life social harm/social sensitivity

limitation - poor control in lomobosos research

• didnt use a control group for comparison. Cant see if physical differences were uniue to criminals or to general population

• uncontrolled factors wouldve confounded findings. Many suffered psychological disorders - may have altered their physical features rather than atavistic

• features may have been caused by environment/mental illness