SOC 2760 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Essent, Tums, Arson

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2760
• Professor: Stephanie Howells

Document Summary

Physical deficiencies: cesare lombroso is credited as the founding father of the distinct discipline of criminology. Was on of the first people to claim a relationship between physical appearance and criminal tendencies: darwinian theory of evolution: criminals represented a form of degeneracy manifest in physical characteristics. Long lower jaws, big ears, thin lips, curly black hair, aquiline noses. People continued to make connections with physique and criminality. Hooton (1939): murderers were older, heavier, larger in the chest, broader in the jaw with heavy shoulders. This is comparing them to other criminals. Developmental factors: broken and abusive families and schooling. Wider social context: economic conditions, communities and labour markets: herrnstein and murray: claimed iq is mainly determined by inherited genes, and that people with low iq are more likely to commit crimes. They lack foresight and are unable to distinguish right from wrong: these two are both similar because they argue that people differ in their underlying criminal propensities hey.