AC2.1 Describe biological theories of criminality

Biological theories of criminality

Pysiological theories
Genetic theories
Brain injuries and disorders
Biochemical explanations

Pysiological theories

Cesare Lombroso: "The Criminal Man" and the 'atavistic form theory'.

Cesare Lombroso, Crime, and Atavism - Criminology WebThis is a brief summary and overview of everything you need to know about Cesare Lombroso, his theory of crime, and atavism.

William Sheldon's theory of somatotypes

Sheldon's Constitutional Theory: SomatotypingA somatotype, also known as a constitutional type, refers to the body build or physique of a person, particularly as it relates to their temperament or behavioral characteristics.

Gentic theories

Twin studies

Identical twins are also known as monozygotic twins. They result from the fertilization of a single egg that splits in two. Identical twins share all of their genes and are always of the same sex.

In contrast, fraternal, or dizygotic, twins result from the fertilization of two separate eggs during the same pregnancy. They share half of their genes, just like any other siblings. Fraternal twins can be of the same or different sexes.

Adoption & Twin Studies AO1 AO2 AO3You won't need ALL the material on this page. You need to know about twin studies and adoption studies in general for the Biological Approach in Unit 1 . They're also useful for discussion the...

Family studies

Sawney Bean and his family of gruesome Scottish cannibalsFORGET Silence of the Lambs or Friday The Thirteenth. If you are born in Scotland you grow up inured to stories of madmen and murderers.

The Gibbons Twins

The Kray twins

In 1974, Karl O. Christiansen evaluated the criminal behavior of 3,586 twin pairs born in Denmark between 1881 and 1910. He found that the chance of one twin engaging in criminal behavior when the other twin was criminal was 50% among the MZ twin pairs but only 20% among the DZ twin pairs. The correlation between the genetic closeness of the biological relationship and crime was especially true for serious violent crime and for more lengthy criminal careers.

These findings were supported by additional work on the self-reported delinquency of twins in the 1980s and 1990s by David C. Rowe and his colleagues. This research found that MZ twins were more likely than DZ twins to both be involved in delinquent activity. Moreover, MZ twins reported more delinquent peers than did DZ twins (Rowe, 1983). The work of Rowe and his colleagues supported a genetic component to delinquency but also provided evidence of a social component.

Although twin studies have provided some support for a genetic component to behavior, it is difficult to separate the influence of genetics from the influence of social factors. There also are theoretical problems with the assumption that twins raised in the same home are subject to the same treatment and the same social environment. Even scholars who study the link between criminal behavior and genetics are cautious with their conclusions, arguing that these types of studies reveal only that the similarities between twins have some impact on behavior. Whether these similarities are genetic, social, or some combination of the two is still open for debate. Studies of adopted individuals constitute one attempt to resolve this issue.

Genetic Explanations of Offending Behaviour | tutor2uWhile Lombroso’s work was influential, it quickly lost popularity. That being said, those who had previously agreed with the concept of atavistic form, later retracted that assertion, but did go on to say that while it may not account for the whole criminal population, it could explain as much as a third of it (Lombroso-Ferrero, 1911). Much later, research into biological explanations of offending behaviour continued, and contemporary methods such as neuroimaging have helped us to develop scientific ways of classifying offending behaviour.

Caleb and Daniel Tate

Twin brothers, 22, 'go on bombing spree in hometown'Daniel and Caleb Tate, 22, of Cochranville Township, were charged with arson by explosion, arson by possession of explosive devices, conspiracy and theft, among other charges.

Ursula & Sabrina Eriksson

The identical twins who caused chaos on a motorway before one went on to killThe Swedish sisters were apparently experiencing a shared psychosis when days of bizarre, dangerous and ultimately deadly behaviour started

The Jim Twins

Adoption studies

In adoption studies, the behavior of adoptees is compared with the outcomes of their adopted and biological parents. The aim is to separate out the impact of the environment from the influence of heredity. This research asks whether a child will exhibit traits of the adopted parents or of the biological parents.

Research indicates that an adoptee with a biological parent who is criminal is more likely to engage in property crime than other adoptees and that this effect is stronger for boys. The findings, from a study of 14,427 Danish children adopted between 1924 and 1947, provide evidence that there may be a genetic factor in the predisposition to antisocial behavior (Mednick, Gabrielli, & Hutchins, 1984). Studies in both Sweden and in the United States confirm these conclusions.

Crowe (1972) compared a group of adopted children whose biological mother had a criminal record, to a control group of adopted children whose biological mother did not have a criminal record. It was found that if a biological mother had a criminal record, 50% of the adopted children also had one by the time they were 18. In the control group, only 5% of the adopted children had a criminal record by the time they were 18. This suggests that regardless of the changed environment, children seemed biologically predisposed to criminality.

Jacob's XYY study

XYY syndrome is a rare chromosomal disorder that affects males. It is caused by the presence of an extra Y chromosome. Males normally have one X and one Y chromosome. However, individuals with this syndrome have one X and two Y chromosomes. Affected individuals are usually very tall.

IN 1965, Jacobs et al. published their preliminary findings of a chromosome survey conducted at a maximum security hospital, The State Hospital, Lanarkshire, Scotland1. The most remarkable finding in the completed survey was the discovery among 315 men of nine patients with an XYY sex chromosome constitution. Their behaviour, together with their pattern of crime, has now been closely studied.

- A genetic theory

- The XYY theory if criminality suggests that crime may be a result of a chromosomal abnormality

- Whilst humans normally have 46 chromosomes in each cell, males with XYY syndrome have an extra 'Y' chromosome

- Jacob et al. (1965) suggested that men with 'XYY syndrome' ('supermales') were more aggressive than normal 'XY' men

- Some studies suggest that 'XYY' men are over-represented in the prison population (there are 15 'XYY' per 1,000 people in prisons whereas only 1 'XYY' per 1,000 people in the general population)

- The serial killer John Wayne Gacy is said to have XYY syndrome

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Follow the Deadly Path of Serial Killer Arthur ShawcrossArthur Shawcross was a brutal serial killer that gained a reputation for trying to shock reporters by adding grotesque details to his horrific crimes.

John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy - Wikipedia

Brain injuries and didsorders

Phineas Gage: Neuroscience's Most Famous PatientAn accident with a tamping iron made Phineas Gage history's most famous brain-injury survivor

Phineus Gage

Personality change following a brian injury

Source: Taken from the Smithsoneon. For further detail please click on their link to the left

In 1848, Gage, 25, was the foreman of a crew cutting a railroad bed in Cavendish, Vermont. On September 13, as he was using a tamping iron to pack explosive powder into a hole, the powder detonated. The tamping iron—43 inches long, 1.25 inches in diameter and weighing 13.25 pounds—shot skyward, penetrated Gage’s left cheek, ripped into his brain and exited through his skull, landing several dozen feet away. Though blinded in his left eye, he might not even have lost consciousness, and he remained savvy enough to tell a doctor that day, “Here is business enough for you.”

Gage’s initial survival would have ensured him a measure of celebrity, but his name was etched into history by observations made by John Martyn Harlow, the doctor who treated him for a few months afterward. Gage’s friends found him“no longer Gage,” Harlow wrote. The balance between his “intellectual faculties and animal propensities” seemed gone. He could not stick to plans, uttered “the grossest profanity” and showed “little deference for his fellows.” The railroad-construction company that employed him, which had thought him a model foreman, refused to take him back. So Gage went to work at a stable in New Hampshire, drove coaches in Chile and eventually joined relatives in San Francisco, where he died in May 1860, at age 36, after a series of seizures.

Diseases

Encephalitis lethargica

Encephalitis lethargica is a neurological syndrome that spread across Europe and then the world beginning in the winter of 1916–17, and continuing into the 1930s. Although the exact number of people afflicted with encephalitis lethargica during the epidemic period is unknown, it is estimated to be more than one million worldwide

Post 1918 Pandemic: Children Develop the Disease of CriminalsFollowing the 1918 pandemic, one viral infection drastically changed the behavior of children to the point of calling it the Disease of Criminals.

Abnormal brainwave activity

Please read the article below from December 1999.

Higher Rates of Violent Criminal Behavior Associated With Brain AbnormalitiesA new study has found a possible link between abnormal electrical activity in the brain and violent behavior -- a topic of interest to both doctors and lawyers alike

Biochemical explanations

This website covers a number of different biochemical explanations

Biological Theories of Crime (Criminology Theories) IResearchNetBiological theories of crime attempt to explain behaviors contrary to societal expectations through examination of individual characteristics. These theories...

Sex Hormones

Another biological explanation for criminal behavior involves the body’s hormones, released by some of the body’s cells or organs to regulate activity in other cells or organs. Androgens are hormones associated with masculine traits, and estrogens are associated with feminine traits. Progesterone is another hormone associated primarily with female reproductive processes, such as pregnancy and menstruation.

Why are men more likely than women to engage in misbehaviour?Understanding male-female differences in behaviour is scientifically difficult and politically fraught, but these differences cannot be ignored

This is a good lecture - but the slides he is talking about are not shown. Worth listening to!

Blood sugar levels

The state of having chronically reduced blood sugar caused by the excessive production of insulin is called hypoglycemia. Individuals who are hypoglycemic experience increased levels of irritability, aggression, and difficulty in controlling their emotional expressions. Hypoglycemia has successfully been used to mitigate criminal behavior. The most infamous example occurred during the late 1970s when Dan White killed San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk after consuming nothing but junk food such as Twinkies and soda for several days. At trial, White’s attorney successfully argued that White suffered from “diminished capacity” due to his hypoglycemia. His argument has come to be known as the “Twinkie Defense” (Lilly, Cullen, & Ball, 2007).

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