Biological explanations:A historical approach Flashcards
(8 cards)
Historical approach
In 1876, Cesare Lombroso, an Italian physician, wrote a book called LUomo Delinquente (roughly translated as ‘the criminal man’) in which he suggested that criminals were
‘genetic throwbacks’ - a primitive subspecies who were biologically different from non-criminals. By today’s standards, Lombroso’s theory of the atavistic form would be best described as speculative and naïve.
A biological approach
Offenders were seen by Lombroso as lacking evolutionary development, their savage and untamed nature meant that they would find it impossible to adjust to the demands of civilised society and would inevitably turn to crime. As such, Lombroso saw offending behaviour as a natural tendency, rooted in the genes of those who engage in it. At the time he was writing, Lombroso was proposing a new perspective - that offending behaviour was innate and therefore an offender was not to blame for his actions. In this way, his ideas were revolutionary.
The Atavistic Form
What’s more, Lombroso argued, the offender subtype could be identified as being in possession of particular physiological ‘markers’ that were linked to particular types of offence. These are biologically determined ‘atavistic’ characteristics, mainly features of the face and head (though atavism can include other features), that make offenders physically different from the rest of us.
In terms of cranial (skull) characteristics, the atavistic form included a narrow, sloping brow, a strong prominent jaw, high cheekbones and facial asymmetry. Other physical markers included dark skin and the existence of extra toes, nipples or fingers.
Besides physical traits, Lombroso suggested there were other aspects of the born offender including insensitivity to pain, use of slang, tattoos and unemployment.
Offender types
Lombroso went on to categorise particular types of offender in terms of their physical and facial characteristics. Murderers were described as having bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears, whereas sexual deviants had glinting eyes, swollen, fleshy lips and projecting ears, and the lips of fraudsters were thin and ‘reedy.
Lombroso’s research
Lombroso meticulously examined the facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts, both living and dead, and concluded that there was an ‘atavistic form’.
Furthermore he concluded that these features were key indicators of criminality. In all, Lombroso examined the skulls of 383 dead convicts and 3839 living ones, and concluded that 40% of criminal acts are committed by people with atavistic characteristics.
S-Lombrosos legacy
One strength of Lombroso’s work is it changed the face of the study of crime.
Lombroso has been hailed as the father of modern criminology - he himself coined the term ‘criminology’ (Hollin 1989). He is also credited as shifting the emphasis in crime research away from a moralistic discourse (in which offenders were judged as being wicked and weak-minded) towards a more scientific position (that of evolutionary influences and genetics where individuals are not to blame). Also, in trying to describe how particular types of people are likely to commit particular types of crime, Lombroso’s theory in many ways heralded the beginning of offender profiling.
This suggests that Lombroso made a major contribution to the science of criminology.
Counterpoint However, several critics, including Matt DeLisi (2012), have questioned whether Lombroso’s legacy is entirely positive. Attention has been drawn to the racist undertones within Lombroso’s work. Many of the features that Lombroso identified as atavistic (curly hair, dark skin) are most likely to be found among people of African descent. In other words he was basically suggesting that Africans were more likely to be offenders, a view that fitted 19th-century eugenic attitudes.
This suggests that some aspects of his theory were highly subjective rather than objective, influenced by racial prejudices of the time.
L-contradictory evidence
One limitation is evidence contradicts the link between atavism and crime.
Charles Goring (1913), like Lombroso, set out to establish whether there was anything physically atypical about offenders. After conducting a comparison between 3000 offenders and 3000 non-offenders he concluded that there was no evidence that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics (though he did suggest that many people who commit crime have lower-than-average intelligence).
This challenges the idea that offenders can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population and are therefore unlikely to be a subspecies.
L-poor control
Another limitation is that Lombroso’s methods of investigation were poorly controlled.
Lombroso failed to control important variables within his research.
Unlike Goring, he did not compare his offender sample with a non-offender control group. This could have controlled for an assortment of confounding variables that might have equally explained higher crime rates in certain groups of people. For instance, research has demonstrated links between crime and social conditions such as poverty and poor educational outcomes (Hay and Forrest 2009) - links that would explain why offenders were more likely, for example, to be unemployed.
This suggests that Lombroso’s research does not meet modern scientific standards.
