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Biological theories - Coggle Diagram
Biological theories
Sheldon's theory
Sheldon believed just like Lombroso that you can tell just from a persons physical features what their criminal behaviour was.
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He believed that people could be sorted into 3 different groups which went with 3 different personalities.
Pure somatotypes were very rare, most of the time people would be a blend of them.
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The 3 different groups are: Endomorps, ectomorphs and mesomorphs
Endomorphs
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Described as having:
- soft body
- underdeveloped muscles
- round physique
- difficulty losing weight
Personality traits:
- sociable
- relaxed
- hedonistic
- engaged in the pursuit of pleasure
Ectomorphs
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Described as:
- flat chested
- fragile
- lean
- lightly muscled
- small shouldered
- thin
Personality traits:
- self conscious
- private person
- emotionally restrained
- thoughtful
Mesomorphs
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Describes as:
- hourglass figure (female)
- rectangular shape (male)
- muscular
- excellent posture
- easy muscle gain
- thick skin
Personality traits:
- courageous
- aggressive
- adventurous
- desire to dominate
- indifferent to what people think.
To support his theory, Sheldon assessed the somatotypes of samples of college students and delinquents from their photographs.
Lombroso's theory
Lombroso believed that some people are born with strong, innate predisposition to behave antisocially.
He also believed that criminals weren't fully evolved and are throwbacks to a previous evolutionary state. This is known atavism.
As a result, Lombroso says that you can spot a criminal from their physical features.
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Other characteristics:
- A twisted nose
- Excessive cheekbones
- Excessive long arms
- Excessive wrinkles on the skin
- Large/protruding ears
- Large chin
- Sloping/receding forehead
- strongly developed cheeks
- left handiness
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For you to be called criminals by Lombroso, you would have to be above a certain amount of features.
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Jacobs XYY theory
Jacobs examined 198 scottish prisoners for chromosomal abnormalities, measured by a blood test called karyotyping.
12 members of the group displayed the XYY chromosome
- 3.5% of the prisoners had the extra Y chromosome
- This is less than 1% in the general scottish population
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This is due to the extra Y chromosome causing an extra increase in the levels of testosterone which can lead to higher levels in aggression.
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XYY males are described as:
- taller
- higher level of testosterone
- broader
- more drawn to crime then those who don't have the extra chromosomes
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