Biological Criminology

1.) The major assumptions of biological crime causation is that the textbook, Essential Criminology states that “the major emphasis of this applied science of criminology is that humans have unique characteristics, or predispositions, that, under certain conditions, lead some to commit criminal acts” (Pg. 73). Another way to understand this is by thinking that there is something within an individual, that under specific conditions it may lead to criminal acts. Another assumption is that criminal behavior cannot assume that humans are essentially all the same.

2.) The historical background of biological theory and its relevance to criminology that it can be traced back to Lombroso, but it also has to deal with the theorists of Ferri, and

Garofalo. The history on this is that early biological criminologists believed that the key to understanding crime was to study the criminal actor, not the criminal act. This lead to the born criminal and which that states that the criminal was essentially born to commit criminal acts. In Lombroso’s book, he described there to be four main classes of criminals. The four main classes are born criminals, criminals by passion, insane criminal, final one is the occasional criminal.
3.) I believe that the positivist method has the most empirical support because it can be studied scientifically using methods derived from the natural sciences. By using scientific methods, it helps support a reasoning’s to the finds that may come from it. According to the Textbook, Essential Criminology it states that by involving the search for cause and the effect relations that can be measured in a way that is similar to how natural scientists observe and analyze relations between objects in the physical world” (Pg. 74).
4.) The policy implications of biological positivism would be that there is environmental manipulations. This to me means that if an individual is in a poor environment, they will be more prone to committing delinquent acts, and make an implication on biological positivism. Nonetheless, biological positivism fits into our current legal system by keeping the people who have committed the crimes locked away so that they cannot reproduce and make more feeblemindedness. Another way it fits into our justice system is by it being a crime control system, where it helps minimize people committing criminal acts.
5.) The benefits and limitations of biological theories include raising ethical dilemmas for its limitations and the benefits would be that we have some sort of reasoning’s that we can look for when someone commits a crime. I think that another benefit of this would be that it would make people more responsible for their actions. For example, with biological positivistic, it’s wanting to study the actor and not the crime.