Exploring the Biological and Psychological Characteristics of Criminals

The hypothesis of atavism, likewise alluded to as sociobiology, was an idea created by the criminologist Cesare Lombroso (1835 - 1909) that offers a natural clarification for criminal aberrance. His hypothesis expresses that criminal aberrance is acquired and this legacy is unmistakable in the state of the human skull. Through organic determinism Lombroso endeavored to demonstrate that physical qualities would be determinants of criminal conduct. His thoughts were a piece of the nineteenth century development known as positivism. Lombroso connected positivism to the field of criminology trying to make a field of concentrate known as criminal human

(M1)-The perception that crime has become one of the most serious problems facing society has led to determined efforts by many researchers to find the causes of criminal behavior. Researchers have focused on biological causes, believing that a biological basis of criminality exists and that an understanding of the biology will be useful in predicting which people are predisposed to become criminals. Judging the case of Jonathan Tregar, we can use the Lombroso theory to determine his case accordingly. This theory assumes that criminal behavior is inborn, associated with physical body features, and that criminals have body features which are different from non-criminals. Among the many

Cesare Lombroso along with other theorist throughout the years have made many arguments referring to physical appearance and criminality. Cesare Lombroso believed there was a relationship between crime and race. Similar to Lombroso, many other theories have come about with the connection of race, ethnicity, and crime. Theorist Robert Merton (1938) believed crime is made by a social structure that holds out the same goals to make it to the top. Individuals in society want to reach the goal but getting to the top is not equally distributed which drives individuals to find a way to reaching the goal, whether it be legal or illegally which results in deviant behavior. Merton predicted that the greatest proportion

88-89). The conclusion that Lombroso came up with was that there is a "born criminal type" (Thompson and Bynum, 2010, P. 89). This concept of physical characteristics was used in other fields, like Anthropology to see if people of a certain race were more primitive then others. It is not all that surprising that it was used to try and establish if criminals could be distinguished in the same manner. The concept of individuals being born as a criminal type is still unclear. Of course this concept has been expanded well beyond just looking at physical traits.

Cesare Lombroso was also Italian but came from a Jewish family and is very different to Beccaria. He trained as a medical doctor and graduated in 1858. He was a leading contributor in the development of a positivist criminology which collected and looked into scientific measurements for the explanation of criminal behaviour and crime (Hayward et al, 2010). Nearly all biological theories stem from Lombroso and his book ‘The Criminal man’ published in 1876, although Lombroso enlarged upon and updated this original publication through five editions

This theory also considers delinquent behavior as predisposed and revolves around the idea that children are born to be criminals (Aguilera, 2012). Some biological theorists have gone so far as to say that criminals have certain facial features such as a flattened nose or excessive teeth, while others have stated that body types make people behave differently. For example, athletic people were perceived to be more likely to commit crimes than a fat or obese person. Of course these were the beginnings of the understanding of biological theories, and we now know that it has to do with genes such as heredity, or some sort of neuro disorder, or even brain abnormalities caused by trauma or improper development. One case that could be attributed to biological causes is that of the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez.

Trait theories posit that crime is caused by certain traits, biological or psychological, among individuals which predispose them to crime. These traits control the individual's coping strategies and ultimately result in criminal behavior. Social philosopher Cesare Lombroso, working in the early 1900's, theorized that there were common physical traits shared by criminals. (Glaser, 205-6). These included distinct characteristics in the jaw line, teeth, and nose as cranium of offenders. As a result, public law enforcement viewed offenders as either incapable of reason or as unable to control their animal impulses. (Glaser, 206).

Cesare Lombroso, an Italian army doctor, is considered by many as the founder of the scientific school of criminology, drew physiological conclusions. Lombroso¡¦s infamous work, L¡¦Uomo Delinquents (1876), first developed the idea of the atavistic criminal. Atavism, a term originally used by Charles Darwin, suggests that in the process of human evolution some individuals can represent a genetic ¡¨throwback¡¨. Utilizing this idea, Lombroso debated that the criminal individual was born so. Physical indication of criminal potential could be identified through specific bodily characteristics, all of which suggested the bearer was a throwback from a more primitive age. These physical characteristics included abnormal teeth, extra nipples, extra or missing toes and fingers, large ears and an overly prominent jawbone. Later research however, found no support for Lombroso¡¦s ideas.

All the biological theories are based on the notion that biological markers foreordain criminal behavior. The core of all these theories is that genetic factors or any abnormalities which are inherited or acquired throughout the life, predispose individuals to the criminal behavior. Lombroso’s theory gave life to probably almost every single biological theory that appeared afterward.

The second criminological theory to be discussed is Biological Positivism (Lombroso, 1876). Biological Positivism (Lombroso, 1876) is a criminology theory developed in the early nineteenth century by an Italian army psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso (1835/1909) (Walsh & Ellis, 2007). It was developed based on a persons’ biological and genetic disposition and stemmed from a scientific approach (Williams, 2012). Lombroso’s popularised Biological Positivism (1876) focused upon the characteristics of the criminal as opposed to crime. Lombroso attempted to establish that criminals exhibited certain traits that resembled to different stages of human evolution (White et al., 2012). Lombroso labelled these traits as anomalies and established such traits

Throughout the history of criminology, each theory dominates and gains support than others though different period of time. This essay will first discuss the argument for biological determinism which mainly focuses on phrenology. The idea of Darwinism also links to Lombroso’s idea that a person’s bad behavior can be predicted and should be eliminated will also be discussed. The second part of the essay will emphasis the classical theory and how in contrasts with the positivism approach centralizing on the two theorist Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria, the farther of classical theory. The latter social strain theory that have a little link to classical theory will also be discussed and why it should

Cesare Lombroso was born in 1835. His view on deviance was that it can be biologically explained. He refers to the criminality part of deviance. He was very well known for his theories and studies about the relation between mental and physical characteristics of people. He became famous because he claimed to have found the reason that people were committing crimes. Lombroso believed that different physical appearances were an indication to if you were a deviant or not. Lombroso called these differences “stigma” and said that they showed if you were a criminal or a non-criminal (Sabbatini 1997:1). Lombroso described stigma as things like large jaws and cheekbones, long arms, abnormally big or small ears, weird looking teeth and a general hairiness of the body (Burfeind and Bartusch 2011:119). His ideas came from a man called Franz Gall who created Phrenology, a study that said you were a criminal if you had a large head. Lombroso’s thesis was that you could tell the difference between a criminal and a non-criminal by his physical appearance, that criminals were a different physical type. He used the term “atavism” to describe these people, and said that they were not fully evolved (Burfeind and Bartusch 2011:119). Nowadays, Lombroso’s theories have been scientifically discredited with good reason. Lombroso’s studies did have a positive

The first theory to be explored is the hereditary theory, which stems from Cesar Lombroso (1876) father of criminology, (Feldman, 1993) whose studies were carried out by morphology. Lombroso tried to show a relationship between criminal behavior and physical characteristics. Lombrosco suggested that an individual was predisposed to becoming a criminal, as a result of internal or innate characteristics, rather than environmental factors.

For the most part, biological theories of crime and deviance have had an unsuccessful and undistinguished career among sociologists. The Italian physician Cesare Lombroso suggested that someone who is born criminal possesses atavism or primitive evolutionary characteristics that produced violent, savage, and apelike tendencies in humans (Goode, p. 27). In addition, biological theories of deviance see crime and deviant behavior as a form of illness due to pathological factors to certain individuals. The biological theory is another example of Charles Whitman actions. Smart, strong, and talented, Charles Whitman seemed like a perfect all-American boy stereotype.

In the textbook we learn of Casare Lombroso, who argued that criminals could be depicted easily by their physical features. Such as: long arms, large jaw, and forehead. In contrast to biological theories, psychological theories play a role too. The idea that moral development, mental disorders, and personality development are all linked up to criminal behaviors. Just as our textbooks, Raine explains that we need to stop viewing crime from the social side but to view it as the biological side.