A Study Of Crime Fell Into The Domain Of Metaphysicians, Penologists And Moralists

(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

Biological Positivist School of Criminology Cesare Lombroso who is founder of theory stated that these individuals are born criminals, not made into criminals. Which, states these individuals have a biological imbalance which make them commit criminal acts. According to Donaldson he argues that “ The key of explanation of organizational structure does not lie in the consciousness of the organizational inhabitants”(Hickson7). Meaning that the person committing the crime is not completely aware of what they are doing underlying that there is always a reason for something that has been

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).

A new paradigm, positivism, is present by the criminologists to understand the crime and the behaviour of criminals, in which they are trying to explain biological and psychological effects on crimes. The essential and primary thought behind biological positivist criminology is that criminals are born criminals and not made to be by someone else, due the transfer of genes from parents to the child; individuals turn to become criminals by their nature, not nurture. Cesare Lombroso, an Italian physician and physiatrists concentrated on bodies of executed offenders with an end goal to decide deductively whether lawbreakers were physically any unique in relation to non-hoodlums. In 1876, Lombroso distributed studies and illustrations from his classic study ‘The Criminal Man’ specifying that born criminals may have abnormality in their genes which will make them have related facial features such as large jaws, high cheekbones, large canine teeth and sloping foreheads; his work focused on biological factors of criminals.

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.

The causes of crime seem to be indefinite and ever changing. In the 19th century, slum poverty was blamed; in the 20th century, a childhood without love was blamed (Adams 152). In the era going into the new millennium, most experts and theorists have given up all hope in trying to pinpoint one single aspect that causes crime. Many experts believe some people are natural born criminals who are born with criminal mindsets, and this is unchangeable. However, criminals are not a product of heredity. They are a product of their environment and how they react to it. This may seem like a bogus assumption, but is undoubtedly true.

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.

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.

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

Criminologists and sociologist have long been in debate for century's to explain criminal behaviour. The two main paradigms of thought are between 'nature' and 'nurture'. Nature is in reference to a learnt behaviour where a multitude of characteristics, in society influence whether a person becomes deviant such as poverty, physical abuse or neglect. Nurture defines biological features which could inevitability lead to a individuals deviant or criminal behaviour, because criminality is believed by biological positivist to be inherited from a persons parents. However, I believe that criminal behaviour is a mixture of characteristics that lead to deviant acts such as psychological illness & Environmental factors. Therefore, this essay

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.

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

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.

Biological theories on deviance are the result of looking for answers that are specific to certain individuals, namely, criminals and non-criminals. Theorists in this respect look for pathological factors, idealizing the concept that criminals cannot help but be criminals due to genetic predispositions (Livesey 4). Three major theories have emerged from the biological perspective: Lombroso’s Theory, Sheldon’s Theory of Body Types, and the Y Chromosome Theory. First, Lombroso’s Theory stems from the mid 1800s, a time when individuals traditionally believed, “crime was a characteristic of human nature (Crossman 2014).” This theory, produced by Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, concludes that criminals are physically different from non-criminals. Some examples of these differences are large ears, a twisted nose, long arms, and asymmetry of the face and head. Lombroso also believed that “tattoos were markings of born criminals because the stood as evidence of both immortality and

Lombroso fundamentally stated that criminal behaviour was inherent and that a 'born criminal' could be identified from their physical imperfections, which defined a criminal as atavistic or as an evolutionary throwback.Lombroso's ideas come out at a time when Italy was going through many social and economic problems, poverty and police corruption where among a few them. There were also concerns with recidivism and prison population. What's more, the cost of policing cities and imprisoning criminals was ever growing. Every one of of these issues increased public awareness in crime and criminal behaviour, and as prisons growingly became over populated more importance was placed on predicting and identifying individuals that were liable to commit crime, this raises ethical questions of prejudice and discrimination. Lombroso's general theory suggested that criminals are distinguished from non criminals by multiple physical anomalies. He claimed that criminals represented degeneration to a primitive type of man characterized by physical features similar to that of apes and early man. (Atavistic behaviour - the tendency to revert to ancestral type).Lombroso popularised the notion of the 'born criminal' through biological determinism, claiming that criminal behaviour was not free will but biologically determined (opposes classical school). He claimed that criminals have particularly distinct physical attributes and abnormalities. He drew upon concepts from; Physiognomy which