evaluation of lombroso's theory
- Created by: tia-marie1
- Created on: 07-02-23 11:31
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- Evaluation of Lombroso's theory
- positives
- first person to provide criminology with scientific credibility
- Charles Goring(1913) found a low-order intelligence in convicts, suggesting some genetic base to criminology
- Several pieces of research suggest that less attractive individuals are more likely to be considered guilty
- Lombroso challenged the idea that criminals are evil or that they choose to be criminal
- Lombroso labelled prisons 'criminal universities' and suggested prisoners came out much worse than when they went in.
- His work heralded the beginnings of offender profiling
- negatives
- lack of control group- so no comparisons can be made to the appearance of the wider society
- Lack of accuracy due to possible disfigurement
- Not everybody with atavistic features is a criminal, and not all criminals have them
- Charles Goring(1913) used a non-criminal control group and found no significant differneces in terms of behaviour.
- Scientific racism-DeLisi(2012) indicated that many of the atavistic features defined are specific to people of African descent
- extremely deterministic and assumes that we cannot escape destiny.
- positives
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