Biological Theories Of Crime: Classical Approach

Since long , researchers have been trying to understand criminals as to what instigates them in doing crime. Is it always the circumstances? Why does the same circumstance instigate one person in doing a crime while it is not having the same or similar violent effect on other persons and so on!

The first person to research about this aspect of criminology was criminologist Cesare Lombroso who is also known as the father of criminology. Lombroso mainly concentrated his research on the facial features of the criminals. According to Lombroso, criminals have an evolutionary throwback which causes them to be more impulsive and makes them less able to control their emotions. He differed criminals and non-criminals on the basis of facial features. For example, he said that the nose of murderers is aquiline like a beak of a bird while the lips of rapists are thick and fleshy.

Lombroso’s research initiated the quest for determining the biological aspects of criminals but his theories were inaccurate according to modern research.

Goring, in the year of 1913 , researched on the principles and traits followed by Lombroso. He used a higher sample size. His findings were not at all similar to what Lombroso had suggested but he found out that there is one common thing among most of the criminals which is ‘low intelligence’.

William Herbert Sheldon gave the theory of somatotypes. He classified human beings into three classifications: Ectomorphs, Endomorphs and Mesomorphs.

Ectoderm- These are people with thin body and are very fragile. They lack muscularity, have thin faces and high forehead and are usually very reserved.

Endomorphs- These are people who are fat. These people have wide hips and have fat all over their body. These people are mostly sociable and are usually relaxed. They also lack muscularity.

Mesomorphs- These are people who have high muscularity and have to go to the gym and exercise regularly. They have broad shoulders and are adventurous and they love thrill.

According to W.H. Sheldon, out of the three somatotypes, the mesomorphs have the highest tendency to become criminals. Sheldon argued that the thrill loving and adventurous nature of the mesomorphs is what makes them so prone to criminality.

These are the most remarkable classical theories about criminality and criminal behaviour. Later, there were more modern researches about genes and other non-biological theories of crime giving much more convincing results about the emerging theories of crime!