THEORIES OF CRIME (WJEC LEVEL 3 CRIMINOLOGY) ACTUAL EXAM

THEORIES OF CRIME (WJEC LEVEL 3 CRIMINOLOGY) ACTUAL EXAM xyy theory (jacobs) - CORRECT ANSWER-- xyy syndrome is where men have an extra y chromosome - xyy men are said to be more aggressive and violent - jacobs argued that this was true as xyy men are overrepresented in prison populations (15 per 1000 in prisons, 1 per 1000 in general population) twin studies (lange & christiansen) - CORRECT ANSWER-- is crime a heritable trait? - testing the concordance rates of criminal activity between mz and dz twins - lange - mz twins had higher concordance rates than dz twins - christiansen - concordance rates were highest in mz male twins and lowest in female dz twins adoption studies (hutchings & mednick) - CORRECT ANSWER-- is crime biological (parents) or nature (adopted parents)? - hutchings and mednick - higher proportions of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with convictions too - mednick - no relationship between criminal activity and adoptive parents and children atavistic features (lombroso) - CORRECT ANSWER-- born criminal - criminals had atavistic features (e.g. high cheekbones and large ears) - found that 40% of criminal acts were accounted for by atavistic characteristics somatotypes (sheldon) - CORRECT ANSWER-- endomorphs - sociable and relaxed (fat and soft) - ectomorphs - introverted and restrained (thin and fragile) - mesomorphs - aggressive and adventurous (muscular and hard) - mesomorphs most likely to commit crime brain abnormality (raine) - CORRECT ANSWER-- damage to the pre-frontal cortex can change an individual's behaviour - raine studied pet scans of impulsive killers - damage to the pre-frontal cortex was found in the criminals neurochemicals (scerbo & raine) - CORRECT ANSWER-- brain's chemistry can be influenced by diet - low levels of serotonin can cause higher aggression - scerbo and raine (found low serotonin levels in anti-social individuals) - steroids make people violent and increase testosterone