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Criminology

CHAPTER

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

THIRD EDITION

Early Biological Perspectives on Criminal Behavior—It’s What We Are

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Chapter Objectives

• Describe the differences between historical biological and contemporary biosocial theories of crime.

• Outline the basic principles of biological theories of crime.

• Describe early biological explanations of criminality.

continued on next slide

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Chapter Objectives

• Explain how sociobiology views crime, and demonstrate the importance of altruism, territoriality, and tribalism from that perspective.

• Identify some criticisms of early biological theories of criminal behavior.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Learning Objective 3.1

Describe the differences between historical biological and

contemporary biosocial theories of crime.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Historical and Contemporary Biosocial Theories

• Historical Biosocial Theories

 Relatively simplistic in approach to explaining human behavior and crime.

• Contemporary Biosocial Theories

 Hold that genes and related biological features are more likely to be facilitators rather than determinants of behavior.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Learning Objective 3.2

Outline the basic principles of biological theories of crime.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Basic Principles of Biological Theories

• Biological theories focus on the brain as the center of the personality and the major determinant in controlling human behavior.

• Unlike classical and neoclassical traditions, which consider free will and external forces as the cause of behavior, biological theories look to internal sources.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Basic Principles of Biological Theories

• Early biological theorists focused primarily on physical features and heredity as the source of criminal behavior.

• Contemporary biological theorists have taken a more in-depth look at human biology.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Learning Objective 3.3

Describe early biological explanations of criminality.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Positivism

 A scientific approach to the study of crime and its causation.

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Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Positivism is built on two principles:

 The acceptance of social determinism, or the belief that human behavior is determined not by the exercise of free choice but by causative factors beyond the control of the individual.

 The application of scientific techniques to the study of crime and criminology.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857)

 A System of Positive Polity (1851)

• Proposed the use of the scientific method in the study of society

 Believed social phenomena could be observed, explained, and measured in objective and qualitative terms

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828)

 Phrenology

• The study of the shape of the head to determine anatomical correlates of human behavior

• Also called craniology

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Four Themes of Phrenology

 The brain is the organ of the mind.

 Particular aspects of personality are associated with specific locations in the brain.

 Portions of the brain that are well developed cause personality characteristics associated with them to be more prominent.

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Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Four Themes of Phrenology

 The shape of a person’s skull corresponds to the shape of the underlying brain, and is therefore indicative of the personality.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776–1853)

 Brought phrenology to the United States

 Phrenology gained prestige in the United States and was used to classify and evaluate newly admitted prisoners.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Caesare Lombroso (1836-1909)

 Coined the term atavism:

• Suggest criminality was the result of primitive urges that survived the evolutionary process.

 Lombroso has been called the “father of modern criminology”.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Criminal anthropology

 The scientific study of the relationships between human physical characteristics and criminality

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Lombroso’s term, atavism, implies criminals are born that way.

• Criminaloids

 A term used to describe occasional criminals who were pulled into criminality by environmental influences

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Charles Buckman Goring (1870-1919)

 Conducted a well-controlled statistical study of Lombroso’s thesis of atavism

 The whole fabric of Lombrosian doctrine is fundamentally unsound.

 The English Convict: A Statistical Study (1913)

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Constitutional Theories

 Explain criminality by reference to offenders’ body types, genetics, or external observable physical characteristics.

• Ernst Kretschmer proposed a relationship between body build and personality type.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• William Sheldon utilized measurement techniques to connect body types to personality.

• Sheldon concluded there are four basic body types associated with different personalities.

 Mesomorphs were the most likely to be criminal.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

FIGURE 3-3 Sheldon’s Body Types.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Early Biological Explanations

• Genetics and Crime

 Argument that the criminal nature tends to be inherited

• The Juke Family

• The Kallikak Family

 The eugenics movement led to development of Eugenic Criminology.

• Buck v. Bell (1927)

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Modern Biological Explanations

• The first well-known study of the modern era to focus on genetic difference was by Patricia A. Jacobs in 1965 with Scottish prisoners.

• Findings of unusual chromosones

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Modern Biological Explanations

• XXY Supermale

 Klinefelter’s syndrome

• Have male genitalia, but are frequently sterile and have evidence of breast enlargement

• Identified as potentially violent

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Modern Biological Explanations

Dizygotic Twins Monozygotic Twinsvs.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Modern Biological Explanations

• Studies of twins have demonstrated the role of heredity in determining behavior.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Learning Objective 3.4

Explain how sociobiology views crime, and demonstrate the importance of

altruism, territoriality, and tribalism from that perspective.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Sociobiology

• Konrad Lorenz

 Published On Aggression (1966)

 Much human conduct is fundamentally rooted in instinctive behavioral responses characteristic of biological organisms everywhere.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Sociobiology

• Sociobiology

 Term coined by Edward O. Wilson in book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis

 Systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Sociobiology

• Altruism

 Selfless, helping behavior

 The primary determinant of behavior, including human behavior according to Wilson, was the need to ensure the survival and continuity of genetic material from one generation to the next.

• Altruism played a role in survival.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Sociobiology

• Territoriality

 Wilson’s explanation for many of the conflicts between and among species, especially human beings.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Sociobiology

• Tribalism

 The attitudes and behavior that result from strong feelings of identification with one’s own social group.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Learning Objective 3.5

Identify some criticisms of early biological theories of criminal behavior.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Criticisms of Early Biological Theories

• Central concern with all early biological theories of criminal behavior is the fact they seemed to regulate the role of free will in human behavior to a kind of philosophical dustbin.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Criticisms of Early Biological Theories

• Concern from aligning the concept of crime with biological variables because crime itself is a social construction with varying meaning from place to place.

• Seems unlikely any biological feature, or combination thereof, could explain the wide variety of criminal offending.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Criticisms of Early Biological Theories

• More sensible approach might be to work to identify biological influences on characteristics most criminals share.

 Separation with similar characteristics from law violators and law enforcers may be nature of social environment exposed to when growing up.

 May be impossible to identify any features shared solely by criminals.

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Chapter Summary

• Early proponents of biological theories argued that at least some human behavior is the result of biological propensities inherited from more primitive developmental stages in the evolutionary process.

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Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Chapter Summary

• Contemporary biosocial theories suggest human behavior is the result of complex interactions between biology and features of the physical and social environments.

continued on next slide

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Chapter Summary

• Biological theories advance the principle that the basic determinants of human behavior are constitutionally or physiologically based and largely inherited.

• Early biological explanations of criminality built upon positivism.

continued on next slide

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Chapter Summary

• Sociobiology is a theoretical perspective that applies evolutionary theory to social behavior, and most social behaviors are shaped by natural selection.

continued on next slide

Criminology, 3e Frank Schmalleger

Chapter Summary

• Some criminologists fear acceptance of biological theories of crime causation might spark another eugenics movement where people are judged more on biology than behavior.