Phrenology, And Franz Gall's Theory Of Phrenology

Early biological theorists, such as Franz Gall proposed a theory known as phrenology. Developed during the 18th century, phrenology is the study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication to criminality (Schmalleger, 2014). Gall centered his theory on the basis that the brain is the organ of the mind, personality traits are located in specific parts of the brain, and the shape of the skull is indicative of personality. Based on his theory, prominent character traits could be determined by measuring the area of the skull that overlies the corresponding area of the brain (What is Phreneology, n.d.). His theory became widely accepted by many other theorists in his field and replaced the prior notion that personality traits

The main concepts of positivism are that social phenomena are observable, explainable, and measurable in quantifiable terms. Biological theorist, Cesare Lombroso, was at the forefront of the positivist school and is considered by many to be the father of modern criminology based on his scientific studies on postmortem prisoners. Throughout his studies, Lombroso came up with the term atavism based on the biological evolutionary work of Charles Darwin. Atavisms is a term that proposes that criminal behavior is the product of a lack of biological evolution in an individual and as a result are more prone to primitive urges. One of his most noteworthy cases to reinforce his theory was when he examined a criminal, named Vilella. Lombroso, observed that Vilella’s brain had an unusual depression, which closely resembled the brain found in lower apes (Washington and Lee University, n.d.). In total, he conducted studies on twenty-five thousand inmates of prisons all over Europe and used the data to observe their shared characteristics. Then in the 1940’s, two theorists, Emst Kretschmer and William Sheldon developed a theory similar to Lombroso’s, called Constitutional Theories, but focused on the body

46). Depending on the shape and size of a person’s body, the theory will categorize a person’s mental tendencies into one of three categories known as, cycloid, schizoids and displastics. Cycloids are endomorphs, which means a person has a soft, heavyset body frame. Kretschmer noted that cycloids personality traits ranged from normal to abnormal and are only capable of committing nonviolent property types of offenses (Schmalleger, 2014). Conversely, schizoids possess a mesomorphic body type that are athletic and muscular and tend to commit violent crimes and are more prone to be schizophrenic. Lastly, displastics consist of a mixture of body types, but are described to be highly emotional and unable to control themselves. As a result, displastics would most likely commit crimes of passion. Further expanding on Kretschmer’s work, Sheldon believed that the age groups of Kretschmer’s studies were too