The study done by Ernst Kretschmer is closely linked to the study done by William Sheldon. He also studied body types in relation to criminals; he later tried to link criminal behaviour with physical characteristics – correlation between body build and temperament. He applied his theory to a sample of offenders. He divided the physical type into three; these consisted of endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic. Endomorphic individuals are known to be extroverts with a short fat rounded body. Mesomorphic were the ‘normal’ individuals who were well proportioned, muscular and very active, they were known also to be dynamic and the most important aggressive. Ectomorphs are tall and thin individuals who are very fragile they are known to be introverted.
In the above table, this presents the different types of physical characteristics and the degree of strength which Sheldon measured on a seven point scale. Sheldon also founds that these body types are hereditary; he found that the mesomorphs were more likely to be criminals than any other. Mesomorphs pose the greatest threat of becoming delinquents and later criminals.
The hereditary conclusion led scientist to study criminal behaviour within families and seeing if they are passed onto children or if it is learned behaviour. We know that it can not be learned from parents, who would learn there child to commit crimes? This then led people to do some study on twins, and people that have been adopted. Firstly twin studies, many people believed behaviour was genetic if someone was a criminal either there mother or father or even son was also a criminal. This was concluded by R. Dugdade in 1877, he carried on researching on criminal family trees, and this was the background and family trees on an infamous family in New York – ‘The Jukes’. The study of Twins had had criticisms on social factors including there upbringing. Goring eliminated environmental factors when researching hereditary and crime, he did this by studying twins. There are two types of twins Monozygotic and dizygotic, Monozygotic are twins made from a single egg that has been divided, therefore known as completely identical and of the same sex, similar appearance and have the same genetic structure. Whereas the dizygotic twins have simultaneous fertilisation of two eggs and has no closer genetic relationship as any other two siblings. If the monozygotic twin behaves in the same way so does the other? This can be a genetic factor if crime is related to the environment then all sets of twins will have similar level of offending, but it can be their upbringing, family structure, being split up from the twin at high school and therefore having different friends. These are all factors that can be associated with why one twin offends and the other does not. The only study that would be scientifically valid would be if you get the monozygotic twins and bring them up in different environments like different families, but not many are available to study. One in seventy to ninety births are twins, in this amount one in four are monozygotic. In thirteen pairs of male monozygotic, seventy seven percent of them had both twins in prison or committing a crime, and in dizygotic the rate was seventeen percent, this study had a control group which was two hundred and fourteen pairs of brothers this rate was eight percent. This proved to the researcher that criminal behaviour is hereditary. The down side of this study was that there were not enough samples and the splitting the twins into monozygotic and dizygotic was based only on visual impression so the study was not reliable because some monozygotic twins were dizygotic. DNA testing now reduces that risk of false pairing. This study is not scientifically proven to relate hereditary to criminals therefore unable to be used in out society today making it unsafe to use in determining the link.
There have been many twin studies throughout the twentieth century, this included Lange in 1929, he concluded ‘as far as crime is concerned, monozygotic twins on the whole react in a definitely similar manner and dizygotic twins behave quite differently’.
An adoption study is another way of investigating the impact of hereditary on crime. Also trying to determine if there is a link between the adoptee and adoptive parent seeing if they learn there criminal behaviour. If a child is adopted at a young age when born then they will develop more like its parent than their natural mother. If someone was to be removed from a criminal parent at an early age and placed in a non criminal home and then goes on to be of criminal behaviour this evidence can them provide a link between criminal behaviour and genetics. Crowe 1972 provided evidence for adoption studies by studying fifty-two babies born to female offenders and given up for adoption in Iowa in the united states of America, 1925 – 1956, they matched up with a control group of adopted children from parents without any criminal convictions. Eight of the children with criminal mothers were arrested and sent to prison. Two of the control group were arrested but not convicted. Although there is hereditary link provided, it has only been studied on a small sample therefore is not safe for use in society today as our scientific understanding is not entirely proven or known.
Another biological development is the use of chromosome study in which subjects are examined by their chromosome content. Chromosomes are found in the nucleus of most cells and contain all hereditary material. Males possess XY where as women have XX. This is what determines us from being male and female; some studies have shown that some aggressive males possess XYY, an extra Y chromosome which can be evaluated to be more ‘manly’. Some women that have this extra Y have more manly features such as a moustache, hoarse voice, and larger build. Jacob conducted a study in a jail in Carstairs and other Scottish prisons and it was found out that the majority of inmates have XYY and can be labelled as aggressive as they have already committed a crime. There are also other effects that are known with having this XYY, in newborn babies they are believed to be a bit taller than in height and weight is the same as any normal newborn. In childhood intelligence is normal but usually more often below average. In physical sexual developments they are completely normal to any other individual. Those expressing that extra chromosome seem to get more frustrated and express more freely, this is because they find it hard to keep up with class mates as they are able to do things easier. Some parents report that there XYY child is a victim of bullying – often due to academic difficulties. In behavioural terms the individuals have been reported to lack communications and slow at developing speech. There are also reports of them throwing ‘silly’ tantrums that are immature. In adulthood they often find themselves seven centimetres taller than average and have severe acne. It was concluded that XYY males were more likely to be involved in a crime or end up in institutions or mental hospitals. The most important fact about these XYY males is that there condition means they produce more testosterone, which in recent studies have showed that this leads to the man being more aggressive which can lead to being a criminal. This study is very scientific and has a knowledge of understanding, however there have not been many studies conducted so cannot determine truly if one is a criminal or not. It is not safe as it involves in-depth examination which some may find disturbing and distressing.
It used to be said that alcohol can loosen moral restraints and that the individual consuming alcohol lose personal control and are more liable to behave in an anti social way. Therefore researchers started to look at the brains of people and how alcohol changes them. It is also known that alcohol is a major causal for criminality due to these behaving in an anti social way, this can be behaving aggressively. This is shown by a study of offenders and they have admitted having been involved in alcohol in some way during the crime, especially when a crime involves violence. The main argument against the link between alcohol and crime is that everyone is an individual, they are unique and not the same as any other, meaning that everyone can have different effects when consuming or have consumed alcohol. Some may take it socially but others may behave in an aggressive way.
Goldstein (1985) suggested that there is a link between drugs and crime or criminal behaviour. He believed that individuals can be put into three categories of drug taking which included the psychopharmacological, economic compulsive and the systematic. The psychopharmacological is if people behave violently following ingesting of substances, a researcher indicates that cannabis, amphetamines or LSD are not related to aggression, but cocaine on the other hand can result in violence for many reasons (Taylor and Hulsizier 1998). They indicated that crime and cocaine were high in New York City, but the ingesting of cocaine was unrelated to crime. This can be because the drug users only commit crime to get more money for drugs. This is what the economic compulsive is, committing crimes in order to obtain the drugs. Lastly the systematic involves a step by step process, they take the drug in groups and since they are in a group this can turn into a gang and gangs are known for violent behaviour and criminal activity. This type of study can not be scientifically proven because as well as alcohol people react differently to drugs than others.
Anti social behaviour is a complex concept; no single or mental disorder is related or associated with this. Neither are childhood experiences or any circumstance socially. Neurotransmitter serotonins are of particular interest for its role in impulsivity and aggressiveness, but are sensitive to changes in the environment. The Serotonin helps to regulate and modulate aggressive behaviour. Low levels of serotonin are regarded as dangerous in both anti social behaviour and depression.
EEG is a way of finding out information on people through their brains, this is done by electrical currents which are measured and analysed, and are able to detect abnormal behaviour in an individual. The EEG studies earlier have found that between twenty five percent and fifty percent of offenders had abnormal brain wave activities shown in the scan. This was even higher in cases of violence. This was compared to the control group who were non criminals they averaged out at only between five percent and twenty percent of those had abnormal brain patterns. This study did not however say whether the criminals had fully developed brains or not, therefore this study is not safe to use as it is unreliable. Since then Mednick et al (1981) wanted to answer this study, they took EEG recordings from Danish boys aged between ten and thirteen. The recordings were then done 6 years later with the boys who had committed a crime compared to those who had not. The findings included that those who had been arrested for crimes showed a large level of slow brain wave activity . Another study that had been done on offenders was on the intelligence level of the offender. Alfred Binet developed a test to school children which was designed to report who needed assistance. The result of the test was known as their ‘mental age’, these tests were given to inmates by Henry H Goddard in 1914. The test appeared to show that the offenders were not intelligent but ‘feeble’ minded. That’s when others assumed that criminal have lower IQ than others. Hendilang in 1977 believed that failure in school can lead to the adoption of criminal behaviour.
Any scientific study of criminal behaviour will uncover the causes of such criminal behaviour such as aggression and the causes that are beyond control. All the studies mentioned are not highly recommended in convicting people to crime. The biological research into criminality can be way to understand crime and why people commit them, but they all are not sufficiently advanced to prove that any factor can be used to commit someone to a crime. None of these studies mentioned can be used in society, they are either too small a sample to go by, or sometimes unrealistic. People are individuals they react differently, even when involved in alcohol or drugs, they are there own person. They are individual; you can not base someone on someone else’s findings.
References
Williams, Katherine S. (2004) Textbook on criminology 5th edition, Oxford University press
Jones, Stephen (2003) Criminology 2nd edition, The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Rowe, David C. (2001) Biology and Crime, Roxbury Publishing Company
[assessed 1/5/05]
[assessed 25/4/05]
[assessed 25/4/05]
[assesses 25/405]
[assessed 21/4/05]
www.alumni.ca/~bernd3a/ resources/XYYAnthonyBerndtVSF.htm [assessed 23/4/05]
The New York Times (8/2/03)
