Theories of Offending
The Deterministic Perspective
Criminal behaviour
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Genetic make-up
Lombroso (1879)
Criminals by physical
characteristics
(Atavism)
Sheldon (1942)
Body shape
Lombroso 1876
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He argued criminals were born rather than
made.
He identified various criminal types, based
on physical characteristics, after studying
the prison populations.
These physical anomalies included the size
or shape of the ears, the length of the
nose and arms, symmetry of the face and
the amount of facial hair.
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In his original theory, possessing 5 or
more of these characteristics led to a
criminal type.
Criminals could be identified through
certain features.
Murderers could be distinguished by their
thin lips while robbers had beak like
noses.
Support for Lombroso
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Goring (1913) made a study of the
physical features of thousands of English
prisoners.
He didn’t find any distinctive peculiarities
put fwd by Lombroso.
He did find that all convicts had the same
low order intelligence, as this is genetic,
there must be a genetic base to criminality
Evaluative Comment
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-Lombroso’s work had a poor sampling
procedure, no control group and were
often based on the mentally disturbed.
+ Garland (1994) argued that Lombroso
was responsible for giving criminology a
scientific credibility, in which the objective
measurement and categorisation of the
criminal classes could be conducted.
Sheldon (1942) (Somatotype)
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He argued that an individual’s body shape
was correlated with their personality. From
a study of 300 male body types he
characterised three main body types:
The Ectomorph
The Endomorph
The Mesomorph
The Ectomorph
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Thin
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Wirey Frame
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Weedy
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Tall
The Endomorph
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Heavy
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Rounded
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Fat
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Non-sporty
The Mesomorph
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Solid
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Well Built
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Muscular Frame
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Sporty
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Sheldon stated the Endomorphs tended to
have a relaxed, loving nature and enjoy
the company of other people.
Ectomorphs are more solitary, introverted
and self conscious individuals.
Mesomorphs are characterised as
criminals, being aggressive, callous and
mindless of other people’s feelings.
Sheldon stated that it was rare for people
to be pure somatotypes; instead, each
individual would display a combination of
each of the three personality traits
according to their own somatotype.
Study
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In a study of 200
college students and
200 male delinquents,
Sheldon rated a fulllength picture of
participants according
to each of the three
body types. The pics
were given scores out
of 7.
Build
Students
Delinq
End
3.2
3.4
Ect
3.4
1.8
Mes
3.8
5.4
Conclusions
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Sheldon found that male criminal
delinquents had a mesomorphic body
type. The results showed that students,
on average, had the same body type
whereas the criminal delinquent group
were significantly more mesomorphic thus
supporting Sheldon’s theory that those
with a muscular and hard physique were
more prone to criminality.
Evaluation
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Despite this finding, Sheldon’s study has been
much criticised. Cortes and Gatti (1972) argued
that Sheldon’s classification of the somatotype
was unreliable. Sutherland (1951) criticised the
way that Sheldon selected his sample of
delinquents (he didn’t use legal criteria). When
the data was re-analysed using legal criteria to
define deliquency, the association between
criminal behaviour and the mesomorphic body
type was not found.
Other explanations
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People with a muscular build have learned
from an early age that the only way to get
what they want is to behave in an
aggressive manner.
Muscular builds are recruited by gangs
because of their perceived uses in criminal
activity.
Criticised by the British Crime Survey
which found that smaller body types
usually carried out delinquent acts.