Angles on Criminal Psychology – Chapter 2
“Explanations of criminal behaviour.”
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Outline the overall view of Lombroso.
Describe a “homo delinquen’s” physical characteristics.
Describe the personality of a “homo delinquen”.
In what way did Lombroso revise his original theory?
What “positive” features does Lombroso’s later work contain?
Describe Sheldon’s three body types and the characteristics that go with them.
What were the main conclusions from the research of Cortes?
Explain the more “common sense” explanations of the link between mesomorphy and
aggressive behaviour.
9. What determines a person’s personality according to Eysenck? (And hence their
chances of becoming a criminal.)
10. Explain the three “dimensions” of personality identified by Eysenck and explain hoe they
relate to criminal behaviour.
11. What is wrong with Eysenck’s
a) theory
b) research?
12. Explain Freud’s Id, ego and superego.
13. Explain how both a strong superego and a weak superego can cause criminal activity.
14. Provide one argument for the “psychodynamic hypothesis” and one argument against it.
15. Give a brief outline of Bowlby’s research.
16. Explain “Classical” and “Operant” conditioning.
17. Explain the terms, “vicarious reinforcement” and “self reinforcement”.
18. Outline the theory of differential association.
19. Is it necessary for a child to associate directly with serious criminals in order to learn
pro-crime attitudes?
20. What is “White-collar” crime?
Social and familial correlates of crime. (Page 35)
21. Explain why correlations do not necessarily explain causes.
22. Carefully consider the Cambridge Study and its conclusions.
23. What is “structural poverty”?
24. Why is saying that “poverty caused by unemployment is the main cause of crime”, far
too simplistic a view?
25. Do you agree with the argument that it is not poverty itself that causes crime, but
inequality between top and bottom earners. Explain your view.
26. Why is the view that broken homes cause crime too simplistic?
27. Explain how the style of parenting can cause crime.
28. “Criminals are more likely to come from large families.” Do you agree or disagree?
29. Why is it dangerous any one of the “family variables” to be used on its own as a
predictor?
30. In your opinion, does failure at school cause anti-social behaviour or does anti-social
behaviour cause failure at school?
31. Explain how belonging to an “anti-social peer group” could balance feelings of low self
esteem.
32. “Blacks in the UK are much more likely to be criminals than whites.”
Discuss (15)
33. What are the traditional explanations of the lack of female criminality?
34. How did Lombroso (who thought women were a very primitive type of human) explain
the low levels of female criminality?
35. What do you think of Freud’s explanation?
36. Explain two other reasons why women commit less crime than men.
37. Critically assess the conclusion of the author on page 45.