sheldon

Question 1

Strength: Putwain & Sammons

Answer 1

A number of other studies have confirmed that there is a small association between bodily build and criminality (Putwain & Sammons, 2002)

Question 2

strength: sample

Answer 2

Sheldon used a good-sized sample (200) and he used a control condition of non-offenders (students) to compare his results to.

Question 3

strength: Glueck & Glueck

Answer 3

Glueck & Glueck (1956) found that in a sample of
delinquents, 60% were mesomorphs, while non-delinquents, only 31% were mesomorphs.

Question 4

strength: most serious delinquents

Answer 4

The most serious delinquents in Sheldon’s sample were the ones with the most extremely mesomorphic body shapes.

Question 5

weakness: explainations

Answer 5

Sheldon did not explain how ectomorphs and endomorphs could also be criminal.

Question 6

weakness: somatotypes change

Answer 6

Does not take into account that someone’s ‘somatotype’ is not fixed. People’s bodies change throughout their lives.

Question 7

weakness: Glueck and Glueck

Answer 7

Glueck & Glueck found that criminality was best explained through a combination of biological, psychological, and environmental factors.

Question 8

weakness: cause and effect

Answer 8

Criminals may develop a mesomorphic build as a result of needing to physically tough to succeed. If so, criminality causes somatotypes, rather than somatotypes causing criminality.