Biological theories - physiological

Question 1

Who are the 2 main physiological theorists?

Answer 1

Lombroso and Sheldon

Question 2

What was lombroso interested in?

Answer 2

physical differences between criminals and non criminals

Question 3

What signs of criminaity did Lombroso study?

Answer 3

• facial features
• body type
• tattooing

Question 4

What did lombroso claim?

Answer 4

people were born criminal

Question 5

What were the key features Lombroso identified?

Answer 5

• big jaws
• high cheek bones
• large eyes
• ear shape
• long arms
• acute eye site

Question 6

What is Atavism?

Answer 6

idea criminals are throwbacks to earlier primitive stages of evolution. ‘savages’

Question 7

How many criminals did Lombroso study?

Answer 7

383 dead and 3839 living

Question 8

What statistic did Lombroso conclude?

Answer 8

40% of acts could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics
- murderers - blood shot eyes and beak noses
- sex offenderd - thick lips and protruding ears
- theives - flat noses

Question 9

What are the strengths of Lombrosos study?

Answer 9

• led to further developments in explaining criminality
• responsible for new theories which have more sound scientific evidence

Question 10

What are the Limitations of Lombrosos study?

Answer 10

• lacks scientific evidence for support
• no definite causaul link between features and crime

Question 11

What did Sheldon study?

Answer 11

Somatotypes

Question 12

How did Sheldon develop his theory?

Answer 12

examined 4000 photos of men from back, side and front with little clothign and put forward 3 body types

Question 13

What were sheldons 3 body types?

Answer 13

• Mesomorphs
• Ectomorphs
• Endomorphs

Question 14

What is an ectomorph?

Answer 14

thin and fine boned, tendency to be cerebrotonic (introverts)

Question 15

What is an endomorph?

Answer 15

rounded and soft, tendency to be vicerotonic (extroverted and relaxed)

Question 16

What is a mesomorph?

Answer 16

square and muscular, tendency to be somotonic (sggressive and assertive)

Question 17

Which type did Sheldon say was most likely to be criminal and why?

Answer 17

Mesomorph due to physique and assertiveness

Question 18

What was Sheldons scale of mesomorphy?

Answer 18

• correlation study - photographs of college
  students and delinquents to create a scale to rate criminal and delinquent bahaviour
• 1 - 7 in relation to mesomorphy 1 low and 7 high
• results delinquents higher avg mesomorphy than college students 4.6 - 3.8

Question 19

What are the strengths of Sheldons theory?

Answer 19

• large sample size so comparisons justified
• addition of temperament provided further justification

Question 20

What is a limitation of Sheldons theory?

Answer 20

• relies soley of biology which is not scientifically proven
• reliability questioned as it relies on his judgement alone
• researcher bias and imposition