Lombroso

Question 1

What is Lombroso’s theory?

Answer 1

-Born Criminal Theory
-Describes the idea that criminal behaviour is beyond a persons control. There is a biological factor to criminality. Criminals are a different species and a throwback to earlier stages of development. Criminals were described to have atavistic features.

Question 2

What are atavistic features?

Answer 2

Primitive features found on born criminals.
Examples - low sloping foreheads, large jaws, receding chins, twisted nose, and large chin + lips

Question 3

How did Lombroso create/support his theory?

Answer 3

He conducted post-mortems on the bodies of deceased criminals and found physical differences.

Question 4

Lombrosos strengths

Answer 4

1. Lombroso was the first person to give criminology scientific credibility as he used scientific methods.
2. Lombrosos work went on to be the foundation of criminal profiling. It can be applied to real-life scenarios.
3. Lombroso challenged the idea that criminals choose/ are socialised into criminality. This work has been built upon to explore correlations between biology and crime.

Question 5

Lombrosos weaknesses

Answer 5

1. Modern research found no evidence for his claims.
2. Theory is extremely deterministic. It assumes criminality is akin to eye colour, someone is born criminal and has to be one.
3. Lombroso based his theory on the facial measurements of hundred of criminals and the skulls of deceased criminals. He didn’t compare these to a control group of non-criminals, which means the theory lacks validity.

Question 6

Key words and definition

Answer 6

• Heritable
• Atavistic - primitive features found on born criminals
• Post-mortem - dissections conducted on deceased people.
• Primitive -
• Throwback