CRIM 300W Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Anabolic Steroid, Amygdala, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
19 Nov 2016
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Crim300 chapter 3: biosocial theories of crime. Studies criminal behaviour that focuses on both environmental and biological factors. Focus on identifying and understanding unique qualities of the individual. Focus on presence/absence of a chemical/hormone/physical structure in the body. 4 factors play a role in shaping behaviour: biological factors, genetic factors, brain, environment. Seeks to identify causes of behaviour using scientific method. Early positivist thinkers relied on observation and simple comparisons. Based on 3 assumptions: individuals are biologically unique and different from all other people, these differences are believed to account for differences in our behaviour, criminal behaviour is the result of differences in physical constructions/characteristics. Identifies distinct facial features of people who committed crime. Focused on identifying distinct characteristics of criminals" . Focus on locating features found among criminals but not among noncriminals: physiognomy, phrenology, atavism. Criminals are less evolved forms of humankind. Throwbacks to a lower form of humans. Focused on shape and contours of head.
