Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lombroso
Lombroso in 1876 argued that the criminal is a separate species, a species that is between modern and primitive humans. He argued that the physical shape of the head and face determined the "born criminal".
Lombroso
1. 2. 3.
William Sheldon believed that people could be classified into three body shapes, which correspond with three different personality types. endomorphic (fat and soft) tend to be sociable and relaxed. ectomorphic (thin and fragile) are introverted and restrained mesomorphic (muscular and hard) tend to be aggressive and adventurous. Sheldon, using a correlational study, found that many convicts were mesomorphic, and they were least likely to be ectomorphic (Sheldon et al 1949).
Sheldon
Genetic - XY
Normal Male
Genetic - XYY
XYY Male
Genetic - XYY
Jacobs et al (1965) suggested that men with the XYY syndrome were more aggressive than normal 'XY' men. XYY men are overrepresented in the prison population. There are 15 sufferers per 1,000 in prisons and 1 per 1000 in the general population.
Neurophysiological
Raine 1994 used PET scans to study the living brains of impulsive killers. Damage was found in the pre-frontal cortex, which controls impulsive behaviour. The task used involved sustained attention. It involved watching a screen for 32 minutes and responding every time a 0 appeared. Impulsive individuals also missed many of the 0s. Oddly enough, pre-frontal under arousal has also been found in politicians!
Neurophysiological
PET Scanner
Neurophysiological
PET Scan
ADHD
ADHD
Another suggestion is that certain individuals, as a result of genetic predisposition or brain damage at birth, suffer from a cluster of symptoms which render them incapable of moral control and because of cortical under arousal, they are constantly seeking stimulation.
Neurochemical
The brains chemistry can be influenced by diet, for example, food additives, pollution or hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar levels associated with forms of diabetes). Dawn Stanton attacked her husband with a knife when hypoglycaemic. But not all diabetics without insulin act criminally.
Neurochemical
Individuals who take large amounts of steroids can become extremely violent (known as "roid rage"). Steroids, usually taken to increase muscle growth, also increase testosterone levels. Horace Williams, a body builder, beat a man to death after taking two thousand times the recommended dosage of steroids.
Family Studies
Twin studies
An 'MZ apart' study is when two monozygotic children have been brought up apart. If both turn out to be criminals then this would be support for the genetic explanation. The degree of similarity between two twins is known as the concordance rate. This rate can then be compared with dizygotic twins who are brought up together ('DZ together'). Looking at a number of studies the average concordance rate is 55% for MZ twins and 17% for DZ twins (Bartol, 1999).
Monozygotic twins
Evaluation
Different studies define criminality in different ways (e.g. traffic violations, military offences, treason during World war 2). Quasi-experimental designs are not so controlled as experimental designs. Age of separation of MZ twins. Misclassification of twins as MZ or DZ.
Evaluation
MZ twins look alike and may therefore generate more similar social responses than DZ twins. This means that in addition to sharing the same genes, they may also share an almost identical social environment. MZ twins often have a very close: relationship and may therefore develop similar interests, which might include criminal behaviour.
Evaluation
Very small sample size in some studies, because of the inherent difficulties in obtaining access to criminal twins. Variable definitions of criminal behaviour.
adoption studies
A retrospective study by Mednick et al (1987) looked at court convictions in a small European country and found 14,000 adoptees amongst them. The criminal records of their biological and adoptive parents were then investigated. Many of the adoptees had criminal biological parents (particularly strong relationship for sons and fathers). There was no relationship in the types of crime committed. Where there was an improvement in social conditions there was a reduction in crime (going against the genetic explanation).
adoption studies
Biological parents have criminal record Adoptive parents have criminal record % of sons with criminal record (Mednick 1987) % of sons with criminal record (Bohman, 1995)
No
No
13.5
Yes
No
20.0
12
No
Yes
14.7
Yes
Yes
24.5
40
Evaluation
1 2 Age of adoption Amount of contact with biological parents (contamination effect) 3 Adoptive family selected to be similar to biological family. 4 Small sample sizes.
FREUDIAN APPROACH
Traumatic Experiences
Traumatic experiences in early childhood leave their mark on the individual despite the fact that the individual was not aware of these experiences.
http://www.uwm.edu/Course/820-101
Alexander and Healy (1935) suggested that children need to progress from the pleasure principal (being id dominated and therefore needing instant gratification) to the reality principle (where the ego is dominant). Criminals are those children who do not make this transition. According to Freud the child needs a stable home environment in order to successfully make this transition. Research has supported the fact that most criminals come from unstable homes.
FREUDIAN APPROACH
John Bowlby (1946) (see Hodges and Tizard) studied 44 juvenile delinquents and compared them with non-criminal disturbed juveniles. 39% of the delinquents had experienced complete separation from their mothers for six-months or more during the first five years of their lives compared with 5% of the control group.
unrepresentative samples poor matching for control group low reliability in the interviews with participants
(Feldmann 1977).
Koluchova (1976) studied a pair of Czech twins and reported that although they were severely neglected for the first 7 years of their lives they were deemed normal by the time they were 14 after being cared for. Clarke and Clarke (1976) studied children from deprived backgrounds using a longitudinal study and found there were many factors that contributed to the child becoming a criminal, not just whether or not they were maternally deprived.
However, the effects of emotional or sexual abuse can well be believed when we find that 'serial killers' such as Frederick and Rosemary West suffered terribly as children (Wansell 1996).
Child abuse
Out of 36 sex murderers interviewed in the USA 42% were found to have been sexually abused as youngsters (Ressler et al 1988). Dietz and Warren (1995) found that 76% of the 41 serial rapists that they interviewed were abused when young. But only about 10% of abused children go on to commit crimes.
Bandura (1977) suggests that there are three aspects to motivation: 1. External reinforcement (as in operant theory) 2. Vicarious reinforcement the observation of other people being rewarded or punished for their behaviour 3. Self-reinforcement gaining internal satisfaction from an activity, which therefore motivates the individual to behave in a similar way in the future.
Bandura 1976
Observational learning is thought to take place primarily in three contexts: 1. In the family 2. in the prevalent sub culture 3. Through cultural symbols such as television and books.
criminal behaviour is learned; the learning is through association with other people; the main part of the learning takes place within close personal groups; the learning includes techniques to carry out certain crimes and also specific attitudes and motives conducive towards committing crime;
the learning experiences differential associations will vary in frequency and importance for each individual; the process of learning criminal behaviour is no different from the learning of any other behaviour.