Chapter 8: Medicine and
Crime: The Search for the
Born Criminal and the
Medical Control of
Criminality
CREATED BY: MAKENZIE HARDER, CLINTON PROHASKA, AND JOHN THURSTON
Introduction
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Medical and biological approaches to crime became
important in the middle-to-late 19th century.
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Richard Moran explores the emergence of medical and
“therapeutic” methods used to “treat” and control
criminality.
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Moran also discusses rehabilitative idea in treatment of
criminals and recognizes the potential for its
advancement in the future.
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Cesare di Beccaria explained that one’s choice of
destiny comes from the pursuit of pleasure and
avoidance of pain.
Casper Lavater described the mind and body as
interdependent, the nature of a person’s soul is written
on his face, this was known as physiognomy.
Gall and Spurzheim developed a theory that many
physical characteristics of the brain and skull had a
relation to the mental capacities and temperament.
Cesare Lombroso stated that physical characteristics
could be correlated with inward psychology based of
his observation of tattooed soldiers being more deviant
also known as the search for the born criminal.
 After finding that many prisoners in an Italian prison had
an indention in the back of their heads Lombroso made
the connection that the indention was similar to that of
“lower” animals thus Lombroso deemed criminals as a
sub-species.
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Robert Dugdale and the Jukes – after selecting the “juke” family
from a prison he traced the lineage to find out of 709 fully
traceable family members 180 were paupers and at least 140 were
convicted of crimes. Roberts conclusion was that there was
heredity in deviance behavior but environment still had a role to
play in the development of the behavior.
Charles Goring believed that everyone possessed the mental,
moral, physical traits of a criminal, it was a matter of the quantity of
these traits that dictated a criminal.
Goring compared Soldiers and University students to inmates and
found no real conclusive evidence other than the prisoners had an
“inferior” body type which was small and narrow.
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Johannes Lang concluded that monozygotic twins
seemed to have a definite similarity where dizygotic
twins were usually different from each other.
Furthermore, one monozygotic twin was imprisoned the
odds were that the other was too.
Ernest Hooton criticized Goring’s work, essentially
created a large number (107) of sub races and tied
them to a what the “average” crime was that they
would commit.
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William Sheldon – the three body types
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Endomorph-”relative soft roundness through the body
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Mesomorph-”relative predominance of muscle, bone,
and connective tissue”
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Ectomorph-”predominance of linearity and fragility”
Sheldon conducted a study at a Juvenile Delinquency center and
created a risk assessment tool that would measure the potential for
juveniles to become delinquent. He concluded that their physical traits
were correlated with their potential for delinquency.
 Transition to medicine let the punishment fit the criminal not the crime,
the medical view and research begins here.
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Parens patrae also known as the medical view which
meant the politics of crime labeling were powerless
(sins, crime, immoral.) Instead the political powers had a
parenting role that would rest the care of deviance or
“criminals” into the hands of the medical field to take
care of criminality as Political power took the “parental
role”.
The medical view wasn’t without tyranny just as before
many mistakes would be made and moral grounds
would be pushed greatly.
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Burckhardt performed the first modern brain operation
to change human behavior (labotomy)
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Freeman and Watts introduced psychosurgery in the
U.S. and developed the technique of cutting the frontal
lobes of the brain by inserting an ice pick-like surgical
instrument through the eye socket.
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In the late 1960s psychosurgery became openly
promoted as a technique to quiet political protest and
racial conflict in America.
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Jacobs and her colleagues brought into prominence the theory of
a relationship between the XYY karyotype and crime.
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Y Chromosome was theorized to possess an elevated
aggressiveness potential.
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X Chromosome was considered to contain a high gentleness
component.
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The Extra Y Chromosome presents a double dose of
aggressiveness.
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Research has described such XYY males as being unusually tall,
mentally dull, having facial acne, and relatively high occurrence of
epilepsy, which was believed many researches at the time to be
the source of aggression.
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Ivan Pavlov developed a contemporary theory known
as classical conditioning in which he observed dogs
that would salivate when food was placed in the
mouths.
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The food was referred to as an unconditioned response
of salivation.
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Pavlov then began to use a bell before food was given
to the dogs and then noticed eventually that the sound
created salivation leading to the becoming a
conditioned stimulus which then caused the
Skinner introduced the theory of operant
conditioning. There is a “reinforce” in which a reward
is given to the subject each time he produces a
desired behavior.]
 The reinforcer is made contingent on the correct
response while the response is known as the operant.
 Operant Conditioning is based on the idea that
behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated,
whereas behavior that is not reinforced tends to be
eliminated.
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Behavior Modification is known to have principles that
have been employed in “therapeutic” settings to
modify or alter human behavior.
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Positive Reinforcement is the most commonly used
technique of behavior modification. In addition, to
increase the occurrence of a desired behavior, positive
reinforcements or rewards are given each time the
behavior occurs naturally.
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Negative Reinforcement is used as a form of operant
conditioning to increase the frequency of desired
 Biotechnology
involves the insertion of
electrodes into the brain through a hole
or holes in the skull. The brain is then
electrically simulated until unwanted
behavior occurs. Once the unwanted
behavior is located (fits of rage,
depression, euphoria), that area of the
brain is heavy with electricity.
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Jose M. R. Delgado proposed for an educational
program to introduce respect for physical control of the
mind proves successful, the “afflicted” person may
come to participate voluntarily in a “therapeutic”
program of mind control.
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Delgado believed that citizens could wear transmitters
that would allow law-enforcement to know
immediately when they are attacked and where.
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CIA and Mind Control was a project that involved the
“research and development of chemical, biological,
and radiological materials capable of employment in
undercover operations to control human behavior.”