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BIOLOGICAL THEORIES - Coggle Diagram
BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
KEY TERMS
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ECTOMORPHIC - thin and fragile; introverted, restrained
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XXY THEORY
- this theory of criminality suggests that some crime may be attributable to a chromosomal
- XX = women, XY = men
- Y chromosome makes a person male
- XXY men sometimes called "supermales", are considered more aggressive than normal XY men
Jacob (1965): investigated this theory, she is a geaeticist
- study claims that there are 15 sufferers of the XXY syndrome in every 1000 prisoners, but only 1 in every 1000 of the general population
- e.g. serial killer John Wayne Gacy - said to have XXY syndrome; sexually assaulted/tortured/murdered at least 33 men in the USA
TWIN STUDIES
- this study supports the idea that a heritable trait may increase the risk of criminal behaviour
- monozygotic (MZ) means that one egg splits - identical twins; identical twins share 100% of DNA
- dizygotic (DZ) means two separate eggs - share 50% of DNA; when twins share a characteristic - concordant rate
- studies have proven that identical twins (MZ) have more concordance that non-identical twins (DZ)
- CHRISTIANSEN (1977) 3586 twins from Danish Islands - found that 35% (MZ) and only 13% (DZ) males and 21 (MZ) and 8% (DZ) for female twins
GENETIC THEORIES
ā as an explanation for criminal behaviour emerged with modern criminology in the 1700s
ā in recent times, there has been an increase in research including genetics of:
- BEHAVIOUR including anti-social behaviour
- ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR - rowdy, noisy behaviour including shouting and yelling close to peoples homes etc
- biological theories focus on the idea that physical characteristics make some people more likely to commit crime than others; such as criminal tendencies can be genetic and therefore inherited
- it could be said that the person is born with criminal tendencies