Early Biological Theories
A detailed essay plan (with pictures) for Early Biological (sheldon and lombrosso)
• Nature nurture argument - Early biological theories support the nature side of the nature nurture argument because they assume that offenders have physical abnormalities were more commonly included in criminals
•Lombross presents the first biological theory where he basically states that individuals that indulged in crime were more likely to show physical abnormalities when compared to others than his control group which consisted of non-criminals.
•Social learning theorist bandura that basically argued that criminal behaviour is learned via vicarious reinforcement/ observation of negative role models. His research on children using the bobo doll demonstrated that the children were far more likely to be aggressive if they saw that for the same act an adult was getting rewarded.
•The second early biological theory was proposed by sheldon, he basically studied offenders in a rehabiliation centre and discovered that they were more likely to have a monomorphic body shape and extroverted personality.
•Another evaluation of this study is that these individuals might have been in the rehabilitaion centre just because they have been targeted more by the police and have been treated unfairly in court due to their appearance.
•Freud a psychoanalyst basically stated that failure during socialisation would lead to an underdeveloped superego meaning a lack of guilt for offending behaviour.
•Social learning explanations for crime. Bandora for example, argued that criminal behaviour could be learnt via observation, imitation and reinforcement, for example by watching violent video games. This was supported by the bobo doll study which demonstrated that aggression could be learnt rather than inherited like Sheldon claimed.
•More recent biological theories would state that by looking into the brain to explain criminality and not physical features. In america studies have
• Nature nurture argument - Early biological theories support the nature side of the nature nurture argument because they assume that offenders have physical abnormalities were more commonly included in criminals
•Lombross presents the first biological theory where he basically states that individuals that indulged in crime were more likely to show physical abnormalities when compared to others than his control group which consisted of non-criminals.
•Social learning theorist bandura that basically argued that criminal behaviour is learned via vicarious reinforcement/ observation of negative role models. His research on children using the bobo doll demonstrated that the children were far more likely to be aggressive if they saw that for the same act an adult was getting rewarded.
•The second early biological theory was proposed by sheldon, he basically studied offenders in a rehabiliation centre and discovered that they were more likely to have a monomorphic body shape and extroverted personality.
•Another evaluation of this study is that these individuals might have been in the rehabilitaion centre just because they have been targeted more by the police and have been treated unfairly in court due to their appearance.
•Freud a psychoanalyst basically stated that failure during socialisation would lead to an underdeveloped superego meaning a lack of guilt for offending behaviour.
•Social learning explanations for crime. Bandora for example, argued that criminal behaviour could be learnt via observation, imitation and reinforcement, for example by watching violent video games. This was supported by the bobo doll study which demonstrated that aggression could be learnt rather than inherited like Sheldon claimed.
•More recent biological theories would state that by looking into the brain to explain criminality and not physical features. In america studies have