2.3 Biological Theory

The born-criminal thesis (Lombroso — the positivist school's founder): the atavism — the criminal as the evolutionary throwback (the physical stigmata: the skull's shape, the jaw, the ears — the "criminal man" of 1876); the positivist method (the skulls' measurement, the empirical turn — the science's birth, the theory's error); the followers' refinements: Ferri (the multi-factor theory + the social defence — the dangerousness-and-social-defence penology), Garofalo (the natural crime + the elimination theory — the penology's harsh face). The later biological faces: the body-type theory (Kretschmer, Sheldon — the mesomorph's criminality claim); the twin- and-adoption studies (the heritability's evidence — the genetic contribution's careful claims); the neuroscience's modern turn (the brain injury, the neurotransmitters, the amygdala's faces — the biosocial criminology's modern synthesis: the biology as the risk factor, never the destiny). The honest audit: the biological determinism's history (the eugenics' shadow — the theory's ethical lesson); the modern consensus: the biology-and-environment's interaction (no crime gene).