Chapter 4: Early Biological Perspectives on Criminal Behavior

Phineas Gage: American railroad construction foreman who survived an accident in 1848 where a large iron rod went through his head, destroying the left frontal lobe of his brain

Biological roots of Criminal behavior

Fundamental assumptions of crime causation have been made by biological theorists

1. The brain is an organ and the locus of personality

2. The basic determinants of human behavior

3. Differences in crime rates and genders/race

4. A strong liking crime may be inherited

5. Human conduct is rooted in instinctive behavioral response

6. Biological roots of human behavior has been disguised

7. Evolutionary ladder, some more advanced than others

8. Crime occurs because of heredity, biology and the social environment

Early biological theories (traditional)

(focused many on physical features, body types and heredity)

• Early Positivism: identifying physical abnormalities to distinguish criminals from other people

     - **Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1790s-1880s)**
  
     - **phrenology:** the study of the ***shape of the head*** to determine **anatomical correlates of human behavior**
  

• Criminal Anthropology: scientific study of the relationship between human physical characteristics (especially bodily features) and criminality

        - Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909) - Father of Criminology; criminals stand out due to their ***physical features,*** Enrico Ferri, Raffael Garofalo, Charles Buckman Goring (1870-1919)-conducted study testing Lombroso’s theory and Earnest A. Hooton 
  
        - **Italian School:** developed in the late 1800s, criminals can be identified by **physical features** 
  
        - **Positivist School of criminology:** early criminological perspective that employed *scientific* objectivity, measurement, and observation in the study of crime and its causation
  
        - **Positivism**: application of **scientific techniques** to the study of crime and criminals
  
        - **Criminal anthropology**: relationship between **human physical characteristics** (*anthropometric features or bodily measurements*) and criminality
  
        - Atavism: coined by **Lombroso**; criminals are physiological throwbacks to earlier stages of *human evolution (cold look, eye injected with blood, large hooked nose, long ears, powerful jaws, wide cheekbones, abundant hair, thin lips, well developed teeth)*
  
        - **Born criminal:** an individual who is born with **genetic predilection** *(preference for something)* toward criminality
  
        - **Criminaloid:** coined by **Lombroso**; occasional criminal who is attracted into criminality by *environmental factors*
  
        - **Masculinity hypothesis:** early belief that **criminal women** exhibit *masculine features and mannerisms*
  

• Constitutional Theories : explain criminality by reference to offenders’ body types, inheritance, genetics, or external observable physical characteristics

                - **Ernest Kretschmer, William H. Sheldon**
  
                - Classical constitutional theories, 1930s-1940s; 
  
                 - modern constitutional theories,  1960s to the present
  
                - **Somatotyping:** classification of human beings in types according to body build and other physical characteristics 
  
                - **Mesomorph**: **athletic** and **muscular** body type (O.J. Simpson)
  
                - **Ectomorph: thin, fragile** and **skinny** body type (Bella Hadid)
  
                - **Endomorph: soft, rough** and **overweight** body type (Santa Claus)
  

• Criminal Families: study of criminal families built on developing notions of heredity and genetics

         **- Sir Francis Galton, Richard Louis Dugdale, Arthur H. Estabrook, Henry Herbert Goddard**
  
         - **Heredity:** passing traits from parents to child
  
         - **Behavioral genetics:** study of *genetic* and *environmental* contributions to individual variations in human behavior
  
         - J**uke family (criminal family):** studied by **Richard L. Dugdale** 
  
         - **Kallikak family (criminal family):** studied by **Henry H. Goddard**
  
         - **Genetic determinism:** genes play a major factor in determining human behavior
  
          -  **Eugenics:** genetic control improving heredity (study)
  
          -  **Eugenic criminology:** perspective that claims that **“bad genes”** is the **root cause** of criminality, being passed through generations 
  

• Sociobiology: applies evolutionary theory to social behavior; most social behaviors are shaped by natural selection. (1975 to the present)

              - **Edward O. Wilson**
  
              - **Altruism:** selfless, helping behavior
  
              - **Tribalism:** attitudes and behavior that result from strong feelings of identification with one’s own social group 
  
               - Survival of the **gene pool:** total genetic information of all the individuals in a breeding population 
  

• Twin Studies and Heredity: genetics, heredity, and natural selection (sexual selection) can produce biologically based differences in behavior (1920s to the present)

      - **Karl O. Christiansen, Sarnoff Mednick, and others**
  
      - **twin studies (dizygotic):** a twin developed from a *separate ovum* and who carries the genetic material shared by siblings
  
      -  **twin studies (monozygotic):** one of the two twins who develop from the same egg and who carry almost *identical genetic material* 
  
      - **Genetic determinism:** genes play a major factor in determining human behavior
  

Body types

Kretschmer and Sheldon (1940s) - somatotyping; there is a body type that is associated with criminals (Sheldon)

• endomorph: overweight (Santa Claus)

• mesomorph: athletic and muscular (OJ Simpson)

• ectomorph: fragile, with long, slender, poorly muscled extremities and delicate bones

• Chemical and environmental precursors of crime : industrial pollution

• Hormones and criminality: PMS (Sandy Cratick stabbed a fellow bar mate 3 times in the heart, blaming their actions on Premenstrual Syndrome)

• Supermale (XYY chromosone) - Patrick A. Jacobs

• Weather and crime

The XYY man (the supermale)

Extra Y chromosome = more masculine

No extra Y chromosome = more feminine

• facial acne

• Extremely tall

Biological roots in criminal behavior

• Gender: predominantly male behavior

• Age: as we get older, crime decreases

• Body type: criminals have somewhat of a mesonorphic build (athlete)

• Intelligence: criminals have low intelligence

• Personality: aggressive, impulsive, cruel

• Overall -> there is a link between biological factors and criminality, but it is hard to study and therefore hard to strengthen this theory

The effect of trauma on the brain and how it affects behavior

Biological link to crime?

Charles Whitman

• Was a mass shooter

• his dad taught him how to use guns

• He was in the military, in the marines

• Highly intelligent

• Had a brain tumor

• Stabbed his wife and his

• Killed 17 people at the University of Texas in Austin

Aaron Hernandez

• American professional football player for the New England Patriots

• In 2015 he was Convicted for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd and a double homicide

• He was surviving life

• Later found dead by suicide

• He had stage 3 CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)

• Plagued by a dark past

• He struggled with his sexuality

• He struggled with his “demons”

• Struggled to keep his temper in check (personality)

• Was involved in two violent incidents his freshman year at the University of Florida; a bar fight and a shooting

• Later found dead by suicide

Jovan Belcher

• NFL football player for the Chiefs

• Killed his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins

• Killed himself in front of his coach Gary Gibbs at the Chiefs practice facility

• Found CTE in his brain

🧠 Connection between brain injuries and crime

• 50-80% of incarcerated individuals have a brain injury

• Most of them are sustained in jail or by abuse

• Higher in women in criminal justice system

• More likely to be re arrested

• Feel out of control and frustrated

• Accommodate the inmates

• Vinny was hit by a car at 15 and was in jail far more than he was in school. With their help, he uses the reminder app on his phone to

• Thomas was in a coma for a month. He uses a calendar to keep track of his court dates

• Two categories of inmates: ones we’re afraid of and the ones that are mad

Juvenile lifer: inmates being released because they were incarcerated when they were minors