TY - CHAP
T1 - Biological Criminology
AU - Posick, Chad
AU - McBride, Mackenzie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Avi Brisman, Eamonn Carrabine and Nigel South; individual chapters, the contributors.
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Criminology is interdisciplinary - drawing on insights from diverse fields ranging from economics and sociology to biology and psychology. Some of the first perspectives on why people engage in criminal, or antisocial, behaviour were biological in nature - placing the ‘blame’ on the human mind and body. One of the earliest theories of crime was based on physiognomy, which began with the assumption that physical characteristics - especially facial features - could reveal a person’s temperament. Similar to physiognomy, German physician Franz Joseph Gall believed that physical differences of the skull - bumps, indentations and shape - could be linked to personality traits, characteristics and abilities. In colonial times in America, people attributed antisocial behaviour to demonic possession and sin. Benjamin Rush turned this idea on its head, and investigated crime as a natural phenomenon rather than sin. In 1835, James Cowles Prichard’s A Treatise on Insanity standardized the psychiatric term ‘moral insanity’.
AB - Criminology is interdisciplinary - drawing on insights from diverse fields ranging from economics and sociology to biology and psychology. Some of the first perspectives on why people engage in criminal, or antisocial, behaviour were biological in nature - placing the ‘blame’ on the human mind and body. One of the earliest theories of crime was based on physiognomy, which began with the assumption that physical characteristics - especially facial features - could reveal a person’s temperament. Similar to physiognomy, German physician Franz Joseph Gall believed that physical differences of the skull - bumps, indentations and shape - could be linked to personality traits, characteristics and abilities. In colonial times in America, people attributed antisocial behaviour to demonic possession and sin. Benjamin Rush turned this idea on its head, and investigated crime as a natural phenomenon rather than sin. In 1835, James Cowles Prichard’s A Treatise on Insanity standardized the psychiatric term ‘moral insanity’.
KW - Biological criminology
KW - Concepts
KW - Criminological theory
UR - https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/crimjust-criminology-facpubs/174
UR - https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Criminological-Theory-and-Concepts-1st-Edition/Brisman-Carrabine-South/p/book/9781138819009
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85133246321
BT - The Routledge Companion to Criminological Theory and Concepts
ER -
