Phrenological Theory Of Crime

Crime in America is increasing rapidly and many techniques have been created over the years in order to solve major crimes. Forensics science is one of the many techniques that have been created. Forensics is the use of science and technology to investigate and establish facts in criminal courts of law (free-dictionary, n.d). But there is an upcoming issue which involves the exaggerated details of forensics science. This paper explores the CSI Effect, compares and contrasts criminalistics which involves the nature of the crime and criminology which is the study of the criminal behavior, explores how criminalistics and criminology is fictionally portrayed in the media and how the CSI Effect influences the public

The biological theories are an essential to criminal justice professionals to explain why the genetic characteristics of the human being's body chemicals and evolutionary aggressive criminal conduct have been proposed as explanations for crime; however, to distinguish criminals from non-criminals without adding the value judgment. (Bohm & Vogel, 2011) “Biological theories can be understood as a broad, science-based, anthropological approach to understanding criminality” (Swan, 2017, para. 4). It is important to understand the body type based on the functions of the brain. Therefore, there are several different methodologies to describe the physical differences between criminals and non-criminals such as physiognomy, phrenology, criminal anthropology, the study of the body types, heredity, and scientific technologies that examine the brain function and structure to give the criminal justice profession another look into an individual before a biased take.

Each of these theories had led to many new theories used today, such as the Rational Choice theory, Biosocial and Psychological Theory, Critical Theory, Cultural Deviance Theory, Life Course Theory, and many more. The one thing in common with every theory is that they all explain at least one behavioral factor that leads to crime. Today, all these theories, and more, are researched and taken into account when trying to understand why a criminal does what they do.

In the past, theories of the biological aspects of criminal behavior were marked by a general lack of knowledge regarding the human brain and by serious methodological shortcomings (see, e.g., Glueck and Glueck, 1956; Goddard, 1921; Hooten, 1939; Jacobs et al., 1965; Lombroso, 1918; Sheldon, 1949). Indeed, "biological criminology" was eventually discredited because its findings were largely unscientific, simplistic, and unicausal. Biological fac­tors were globally rejected due to the inability of theorists to posit a rational explanation for the development of criminal behavior.

A criminal is the exact opposite of a police officer. They often do not have jobs and those that do are normally using their job to commit their crimes! They

Criminals are born not made. The basic definition of the word criminal is someone who commits offending behavior within society (Harrower, 2001). The crime may range from petty theft to murder.

The positivism in the criminology is a combination of logic and scientism which are related to epistemological phenomenon linked with the scientific progress. The causes of the crime in the positivist criminology can be related to biological, psychological and social reasons as proposed by the Lombroso, Feud, and Durkheim. As per biological theory, proposed by the Lombroso as a profound proponent who based his theory of the cause of crime on phrenology, states that the criminal character is defined by the shape of the skull of the individual. Lombroso based the causes of crime on physical features and called them as “born criminals “ or “Atavistic man” (Lombroso C, 2006)

Crime is an unfortunate part of many people’s lives - both for the victim of the crime and also the suspect. There are many theories as to why crimes happen, who commits the crimes, and why crimes happen to certain people. Not all crimes can be solved, or questions answered but these theories give a peek into the thinking or background behind some crimes that are committed.

A theory is described, as an idea or set of ideas generally intended to explain, to prove facts or events. Theory can be an idea that is suggested or presented as possibly true, that is not an ideas that relates to a particular subject (Merriam-Webster, 2015). Theory is an explanation of something. Theories in criminal behavior explains why an individual commits criminal and delinquent acts. This paper will compare and contrast two theories of crime or criminal activities that was discuss in this course.

The UCR utilizes the hierarchy rule that implies that when multiple crimes are linked to one offender within the same reporting year, only the most serious crime is counted. The UCR also uses another category termed clearance rate, this category highlights number of cases solved based on arrests, usually some cases where there are suspects but cannot be cleared for one reason or another when suspect flees the country, commits suicide, dies, or is convicted in another jurisdiction.

Yet another criticism is their belief in deterrence. Research has shown that there is little correlation between punishment and crime, meaning that there is not a significant amount of information showing that deterrence actually works leading it into a controversial issue. People commit crimes for many different reasons that classicalists fail to acknowledge. Classical criminology was the first big step into what makes up the field of criminology today, dominating around the eighteenth century. A change in the way information was assembled with the emergence of the scientific method challenged the classical perspective and introduced the theory of Positivism.

Although they have not made any recent discoveries in terms of genetics, neuroscience, on the other hand, seems to strike up some controversy. A recent study shows that there are specific areas of the brain in which there is less activity in criminals than there is in non-criminals, these areas are associated with fear and arousal (Boyd). So basically the biological theory states that there is a different genetic makeup that makes a criminal, a criminal, it is just yet to be found. The next theory that will be introduced is the sociological

I believe the theory that best explains why crime happens is the psychoanalytic perspective. I believe this is the best theory because it focuses more on the wants and acts of the criminal rather an their personality or lack of control. The psychoanalytic perspective more accurately describes a reason to why people commit crimes. Not all individuals could be identified from a personality trait or low levels of self control. Therefore, the psychoanalytic perspective would give the best explanation to why crime happens.

The first question I want to focus on is “are criminals any different than us?” According to a study done by Sudhinta Sinha, involving 37 male convicted criminals were observed. The crimes committed by the criminals included: murder, rape, theft, kidnapping, and forgery with 37 non-criminal citizens (Sinha, 2010). During the case study, the men were given The 16 Personality Factor Test which has an exceptionally high reliability and validity for data (OpenStax, 2016). At the end of the study, Sinha concluded that the criminal men were indeed different than the general population of citizens. The criminals tended to be more careless, under the average intelligence level, and less emotionally stable compared to non-criminal citizens. Using Sinha’s data from the case study, it is shown that criminals are indeed different from us.

There are many perspectives in which one can analyze and understand why a person decides to commit a crime. Some perspectives are social learning theory, strain theory, classical and rational choice theory, deterrence theory, biological and psychological positivist theories, among others. However, for the purposes of this paper, the biological and psychological theories will be discussed.