Biological Approaches - Southeast Missouri State University
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Transcript Biological Approaches - Southeast Missouri State University
Biological Approaches
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Biological Approaches
Morphological
Hereditary/Genetic
Biochemical/neurophysiological
Biosocial
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Morphological--Lombroso
Mophological approaches assume that
criminal behavior is inborn, associated
with physical body features, and that
criminals have body features which are
different from non-criminals
Lombroso (late 1800s)
Criminal behavior is atavistic in origin-reversion to a more primitive type
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Lombroso (continued)
Believed external body features are
associated with abnormalities of the
brain which result in criminal behavior
Genetic accidents resulted in less than
fully evolved humans who had to live
among more modern men. Their
behavior was beyond their control
“Born criminals” vs. “Criminaloids”
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Lombroso (continued)
Lombroso lacked adequate control
groups
atavism does not exist in nature, there
are no such genetic accidents
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Sheldon’s morphological
research
Correlation between physique and
personality
Endomorph
Ectormorph
Mesomorph
Some research finds criminals are more
mesomorphic, slightly shorter and
lighter--why?
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Inheritance/genetic approach
Genes may be an indirect cause of
behavior by influencing structures and
functions that guide behavior
Methods
General pedigree studies (family studies
Twin studies
Cross fostering
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Family studies
Jukes and the Kallikaks
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Twin studies
Identical twins vs. fraternal twins. vs.
siblings vs. unrelated children raised
together
technique used to study intelligence,
criminality, mental illness, alcoholism
condordance rates: rate of agreement
between pairs--if one has a trait does
the other have it?
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Adoption (cross-fostering)
Adopted children have two sets of
parents: biological, who supply the
genes, and adoptive, who supply the
environment
Who determines whether the children
become criminal?
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Mednick’s study
In the table is the percentage of each
group who was arrested
Biological
YES
NO
Adoptive
YES 24%
14%
NO 20%
13%
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Conclusions
In all instances a minority committed
crimes. Other factors play a role.
Biology played a role, in that children
who had parents who committed crimes
were more likely to commit crimes than
children who had not. It appears to
raise the probably, or risk, although in
all likelihood other factors are more
important
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XYY studies
It was hypothesized that an extra “Y”
chromosome would make a male more
aggressive, a “supermale”
Richard Speck
Karyotype studies
2% of prisoners
.1% to .2% in general population
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XYY (continued)
Therefore there are a greater
percentage in prison than in the general
population
Most are not in for violent crimes
Thus, not “super males”
There may be sociological reasons
The XYY defense has been
unsuccessful in court in the U.S.
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Neurochemical-physiological
Hormonal imbalances
Diet (the “twinkie” defense)
Toxic substances such as lead (related
to poverty)
EEG abnormalities more common in
prisoners than in general population
More birth problems, head injuries
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neurophysiological
Antisocial personality
autonomic nervous system
underarousal, less “flight or fight”
reaction
need for stimulation
less reaction to punishment
poor performance in avoidance learning
improved performance with adrenaline
injection
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Biosocial approach
physiological tendencies toward
criminality (such as being impulsive or
aggressive) may be acquired in different
ways
The environment can act to encourage
or discourage criminality through its
interaction with the characteristics of the
individual
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Biosocial
Behavior results from interaction of
physiological and environmental factors
People with certain factors will become
criminals if exposed to certain
environment
People born into criminogenic
environments won’t become criminals if
they lack a physiological predisposition
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Gender and crime
Males are more likely to commit crimes
All three crime measures agree
UCR
violent--M:F 9:1
property M:F 4:1
94% of U.S. prisoners are male
Historical and cross cultural findings
support this
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Gender and crime
Lombroso: masculinity hypothesis
Chivalry: treated more leniently
Males are more likely to be denied bail
and to receive prison sentences rather
than probation
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Current thinking--2 perspectives
Biological and sociocultural
Biological perspective
Males are more aggressive than
females, and aggression and crime are
related
There might be a biological basis for
differences in aggression
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Biological perspective
(continued)
Gender differences in aggressiveness
occur early in life, before sex-role
stereotyping of self
Among other primates, males display
more aggressive behavior
Differences in brain organization
Males tend to be more aggressive,
dominant, visual-spatial
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Biological perspective
Females tend to have better language
skills
Although there are differences, there is
considerable overlap, so some females
would commit crimes
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Sociological perspective (gender)
Women were discouraged from
competition
Taught to be “ladylike”
Supervised more closely
Males and females are treated and
socialized differently
Feminists have speculated that as the
role of women changed, more crime
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Socialization & gender
There has been some rise in female
crime, the reasons are unclear
Female criminals come from the lowest
SES, least likely to benefit from the
changes that have occurred
The rise might be due to the end of the
chivalry hypothesis
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