ATAVISTIC

THEORY
John Mark Corpuz

Kim Joshua Herrera

Jesther M.Simon

Niña Angelei Pabua

Jemyla O. Padlan

February 2, 2022
Introduction

Atavism originated form the work of Dr. Cesare Lombroso the father of modern
criminology . It is the grounded on the belief that criminals are identifiable through their
physical anomalies or stigmata. Atavism is a genetic trait that reoccurs after skipping
several generations. If a person has blue eyes like her great grandmother but her
mother, grandmother, and great grandmother have brown eyes, then having blue eyes
is an example of an atavism.

Let us tackle the different type of Criminological Theory. First, let’s know who Cesare
Lombroso is. Cesare Lombroso was an Italian Criminologist and founder of the Italian
School of Positivist Criminology. Cesare Lombroso‘s theory which is the Anthropological
theory essentially stated that criminality was inherited and that someone born criminal
could be identified physically which confirmed that a criminal as savage or atavistic.
Cesare Lombroso called these abnormalities atavistic characteristics. Atavistic comes
from the word “avatus”, which means ancestor in Latin. According to Cesare Lombroso,
the physical abnormalities that offenders have occurred because offenders were the
products of an earlier stage of human evolution, a stage where more primitive humans
and apes existed. Thus, offenders are basically throwbacks to earlier phases of human
history. Connected to the idea of atavistic characteristics is the idea of degeneration.
According to Lombroso, offenders have certain physical and mental characteristics of
primitive humans, and they commit crime because of these biological abnormalities. His
different type of human had a variety of physical characteristics that made him or her
different from “regular” people. A couple of examples of these physical characteristics
were an asymmetric face, a large jaw, excessively long arms, and epilepsy. People who
had these characteristics were atavistic and thus were criminal in nature. Lombroso
even thought that one could recognize different types of offenders, with thieves having
different physical characteristics than violent offenders.
Know the History

Cesare Lombroso called these abnormalities atavistic characteristics. Atavistic comes

from the word “avatus”, which means ancestor in Latin. According to him, the physical
abnormalities that offenders have occurred because offenders were the products of an
earlier stage of human evolution a stage where more primitive humans and apes
existed. Thus, offenders are basically throwbacks to earlier phases of human history.
Connected to the idea of atavistic characteristics is the idea of degeneration. According
to Lombroso, offenders have certain physical and mental characteristics of primitive
humans, and they commit crime because of these biological abnormalities.

Atavistic form is a historical approach used to explain criminal behavior, which is

based on the biological factors. This explanation was proposed by Lombroso in the
1870s and suggests that some people are born with a criminal personality that is a
throwback to a previous more primitive ancestor. This was based on research that
examined the features and measurements of nearly 4,000 criminals, as well as the
skulls of 400 dead criminals. Lombroso found that the criminals examined shared a
number of common physical characteristics e.g. sloping brow, pronounced jaw, high
cheekbones, large ear and concluded that these indicated that such people were more
primitive in an evolutionary sense. He also said that such individuals were not
responsible for their actions, as they could not be blamed for their innate, inherited
physiology.

Assumption of the Theory

In developing his theory, Lombroso observed the physical characteristics of Italian

prisoners and compares them to those of Italian soldiers. He concluded that the
criminals were physically different. The physical characteristics he used to identify
prisoners included an asymmetry of the face or head, large monkey-like ears, large lips,
a twisted nose, excessive cheekbone, long arms and excessive wrinkles on the skin.
Females on the other hand, only needed as few as three of these characteristics to be
born criminals. He claimed the ‘born criminal ‘had a liking for tattoos, cruel and wicked.

Atavistic Form

• Features of the thief:

Expressive face, manual dexterity, small, wandering eyes.

• Features of the murderer:

Cold, glassy stares, bloodshot eyes, and big hawk-like nose.

• Features of sex offenders:

Thick lips and protruding ears.

• Features of women offenders:

Shorter and more wrinkled, darker hair, and smaller skulls than ‘normal’ women.

Lombroso also examined over 4000 offenders (living and dead) to identify physical
markers indicative of the atavistic form.

Examples of things Lombroso measured were the following:

• People’s height and weight

• Span of their arms

• Average height while seated

• Hand size, necks, thighs, legs, and feet

• Eye color

In a study of 383 dead Italian criminals and 3839 living ones he found 40% of them had
atavistic characteristics.

Scope
References:

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gx2YwDo_OBsGg6oYbJUw9LnlxVvmRvZdBHHxCCaUKcc4oJ_PRbz-wA