atavistic form EVALUATION Flashcards
1
Q
it had a large contribution to criminology
A
- Lombroso = ‘the father of criminology’
- He was credited as shifting emphasis away from moralistic discourse to scientific discourse (e.g. evolution and genetics)
- Lombroso’s theory was the beginning of criminal profiling as it describes how particular types of people are more likely to commit crimes
2
Q
gender bias
A
- most of the observations were on male criminals
3
Q
lombros had poor control in his research
A
- He did not use a control group i.e. non-criminal population
- less control over confounding variables
- Also, he failed to account for other important variables
- many of the people he studied had a history of psychological disorders which may have acted as confounding variables
4
Q
goring 1913
A
- Goring (1913) compared 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals and concluded there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual characteristics
- But he did suggest many people who commit crimes have a lower-than-average IQ
5
Q
may be racist
A
- Many of the features Lombroso identifies as criminal and atavistic, such as curly hair and dark skin, are most likely to be found among people of African descent
- the eugenic movement of the time (i.e. that certain groups should not be allowed to breed)
- This is problematic - if you establish a criminal has certain genetic features, you could stop them from breeding and over time remove the criminal element from society → this is against human rights
6
Q
the causation problem
A
- Cranial and facial differences may be influenced by other factors such as poverty or poor diet, rather than being an indication of delayed evolutionary development
