Biological and Psychological

Theories
Reported By:
Anipan, Jofel G.
Librero, John E.
 Charles Darwin
• In his work, On the Origin of Species, he argued that
God had not created all the species of animals and
that people had evolved from lower forms of life over
millions of years.
• Then, in Descent of Man, Darwin suggested that God
had not made people in his own image and that there
were few differences between people and criminals
(Regoli & Hewitt, 1991).
 1. Scientific Study of Crime
• Scientific study of crime (Positive School of
Criminology) believed that crime was caused by
factors that are in place before the crime occurs.
• It is also presumed that the behavior was determined
by something and it was their job to discover what it
was. Free will had nothing to do with what people
did.
 2. Biological Theories
• These theories locate the causes of crime inside the
person. One early explanation examined the role of
physical appearance.
 2.1. Physical Appearance and Crime

A. Criminal Anthropometry
• Cesare Lombroso – He was the first to connect crime
to human evolution.
• According to Cesare Lombroso, criminals were atavistic or
throwbacks to an earlier, more primitive stage of human
development. They closely resembled their apelike ancestors
in traits, abilities, and dispositions. Because criminals were
not highly evolved, they possessed stigmata or distinctive
physical features such as asymmetrical face, an enormous
jaw, large or protruding ears, and receding chin.
• Charles Goring contradicted Lombroso’s findings who
physically measured 3000 English convicts and found no
evidence of a physical type criminal.
B. Physiognomy
- It was founded by J. Baptiste Della Porte.
• The physiognomist Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801)
was one of the first to suggest a link between facial
figures and crime.
• Victor Hugo referred to his work in Les Misérables,
about what he would have said about Thénardier’s
face.
• Jacob Fries (1773-1843) a philosopher, also suggested
a link between crime and physical appearance when
he published a criminal anthropology handbook in
1820.
C. Phrenology
• It comes from the Greek word: “mind”; and logos,
“knowledge”) and this theory claims to be able to
determine character, personality traits and
criminality on the basis of the shape of the head
(i.e., by reading “bumps” and “fissures”).
In 1810, Franz Joseph Gall developed his work on
craniology; in which he alleged that crime was one of
the behaviors organically controlled by a specific area
of the brain.
• In 1843, François Magendie referred to phrenology as
“a pseudo-science of the present day” (Wolfgang,
1961).
2.2. Body Type and Crime
• In 1949, William Sheldon suggested that there was a
relationship between body build and temperament
which was known as Somatotype Theory. He believed
that the human body are consisted of three
components.
• Somatotypes refer to body types such as thin
(ectomorph), overweight (endomorph), or muscular
(mesomorph).
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