(2026 Exams) Biological Explanations 1

Q: Linking Physical Characteristics and Crime

__Cesare Lombroso__ believed that certain physical characteristics were more common in criminals than in non-criminals; a type of positivist criminology.

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Linking Physical Characteristics and Crime

Cesare Lombroso believed that certain physical characteristics were more common in criminals than in non-criminals; a type of positivist criminology.

Positivist criminology

Positivist criminology states that there is no free will involved in the committing of a crime.
- I.e. criminal behaviours are a result of certain predetermined physical or psychological features.
Cesare Lombroso, who lived from 1835-1909, was a positivist criminologist.
He focused on physical features and compared criminals to non-criminals.

Atavistic features

Lombroso discovered that criminals were more likely to have the following physical characteristics:
- Strong jaw, heavy brow, sloping shoulders, large/lobeless ears, high defined cheekbones, long arms relative to the body, flat nose, and drooping eyelids.
Essentially, he characterised criminal physical features as being more atavistic (aka primitive).

Genetic throwbacks

He linked the idea that primitive/atavistic physical features were likely to result in primitive/atavistic instincts.
From these primitive instincts, criminal behaviours could develop.
These primitive instincts survived evolutionary natural selection, therefore, the criminals were ‘genetic throwbacks’ to an earlier time.

Strengths

It was the first time biology was emphasised in the explanation of criminal behaviour.
Lombroso also tried to explain criminal behaviour from a multitude of factors and their interactions.
He included psychological, biological and social factors.
The concept of interaction between factors to explain criminal behaviour was influential in later theories of criminology.

Limitations

Firstly, there was no control group.
- Lombroso did not compare the atavistic features of the criminal group to a non-criminal group, meaning the atavistic features may not be unique only to criminals, but could be found in the whole population, regardless of criminality.

Limitations cont.

Secondly, because of the lack of technology, Lombroso could only focus on the physical features.
- There could have been chromosomal/genetic abnormalities or psychological disorders that could have been factors.

Genetic Explanation of Criminality: Adoption Studies

There are three main pieces of evidence for the genetic explanation of criminality: adoption studies (such as Mednick et al, 1984), genetic influences on aggression and extra Y chromosome studies.

Adoption studies

Adoption studies examine concordance rates of criminal activity.
Concordance means that if one person shows criminal behaviour, what is the likelihood that another person will.
In the case of adoption studies, concordance is measured between the adopted child and:
- 1) adoptive parents
- 2) genetic/biological parents.

Concordance rates

These studies have found that there is a higher concordance rate of criminal activity between the adopted children and their biological parents.
This demonstrates strong evidence of the role of genetics in criminality.
- An example of an adoption study would by Mednick et al. (1984) who studied criminal behaviour in adopted children.

Method:

14 427 Danish adopted children were analysed according to concordance.
The concordance rates of criminality were compared between:
- The adopted children and their adopted parents.
- The adopted children and their biological parents.

Results:

13.5% of adopted children had a criminal conviction with biological or adoptive parents with no criminal convictions.
14.7% of adopted children had a conviction with at least one adoptive parent who had a criminal conviction.
20% of adopted children had a conviction with at least one biological parent who had a criminal conviction.
24.5% of adopted children had a conviction rate with at least one biological parent and one adoptive parent with a criminal conviction.

Conclusion:

There is a genetic link of criminality.
However, overall, the concordance rates are low, therefore, there is likely to be other factors that lead to criminality.

Evaluation: Strengths

Adoption studies are important in the nature vs. nurture debate as they can separate out the genetic and environmental influences. Therefore, this is a powerful study.
The sample size was very large, increasing the validity of the results.

Evaluation: Weaknesses

However the study only looked at criminal convictions, not at crimes committed. This is a limitation of the study.
In other words, people could have committed crimes and not been convicted. This could cause different results.