Biological theories of crime
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Discuss the central features of biological theories of crime.
Explain how each feature is similar and different from one another.
Sociobiology
Body Chemistry
Constitutional Theories
Early Positivism
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Solution Summary
The solution provides advise and discussion of the biological theories of crime. each are defined and explained as well as differentiated from each other (see above for the list of theories). References are listed to allow room for further research.
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Dear Student,
Hi and thank you for using Brainmass. Yes, you are right in a way but you see these theories of crime attack the 'source and causes' of crime and criminality in different ways. The way they differ is the way they explain why people turn to crime and what drives criminality in society. It is important to remember that a theory is only true, at least in the social sciences, according to context. So it is not right to say that a theory in criminology or sociology is false because it did not work on a particular social phenomenon. Theories are theories because they have been proven to work time and again. Unlike in the natural sciences where theories are universal (i.e. theory of gravity) in application, the social science theories are relative to context because unlike in the natural sciences, social science studies cannot account for all variables, hence there will always be factors in a phenomenon (i.e. crime) unaccounted for, so, suffice it to say, theories are hit in some cases, miss in others. What we prove true or false in social science are the hypothesis - for example we can have a hypothesis or an idea that goes like this - 'Crime happens because people in this city have no morals.' We then set out to gather data about crime in the city and its relation to morality and then analyse that data to prove and disprove our hypothesis. Now, lets go back to the biological theories of crime. Biological theories of crime are theories that propose that people are just born 'bad', that criminality is innate. The question asked here is this - Are people born ...
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