Criminology Lecture 13 & 14 Biosocial Theories PDF

16^th^ October 2024 Criminology- Lecture 13 **[Lecture Nine: Biosocial Theories]** *Stuff not covered in class is on the test- Sheldom, Goring* 1. [Key reports of all biological criminology ] - Criminals are by birth... *distinct from non criminals, they have different body types, brain...

16^th^ October 2024 Criminology- Lecture 13 **[Lecture Nine: Biosocial Theories]** *Stuff not covered in class is on the test- Sheldom, Goring* 1. [Key reports of all biological criminology ] - Criminals are by birth... *distinct from non criminals, they have different body types, brain structures, and profiles...something about them is different biologically when they're born.* - These differences predispose.... *these people to commit crime\...predispose means pushes them to; makes them more likely than not compared to someone who has it...[the causes of crime are at the individual level at the pathological human body]* - Criminals can be identified...*by their* *differences; psychological abnormalities* *Genetics is correlated with behavior. It's real but not in the way people think.* **[Early Biological Theories]** 1. [Inspiration: Charles Darwin ] 2. [Cesare Lombroso] *(he based the research on actual criminals- Sociology textbook)* - Atavism- *Took Darwin ideas and came up with a **theory of atavism**. Humans that aren't likely as evolved. Criminals are throwbacks. More on neonatal-like. Monosapian brain? Homosaptian?* - Physical stigmata- *bodies are different.* 3. [Charles Goring ] - Small and feebleminded *2000 English convicts and compared them to English college students to see if he could find the physical stigmata. He determined that Lombroso was dull of shit as he couldn't find any stigmata. Instead, the only thing he found was criminal on average were small in size, both in height and weight, and feebleminded- less intelligent. He argued that it was imhereitable and wasn't an environmental factor.* **[Critiquing Early Biological Theories]** *A lot of them are frauds. E.g. Hans Eysneck- Journals retracts 13 papers by him, flag 61, some 60 years old.* 1. [Not all biological characterise are inherited]*- feeblemindedness and body size could be a result of your nutrition, prenatal environment, etc, it doesn't have to be inheritance.* 2. [Weak operationalization-] *measurement of things like crime, feeblemindedness, etc. E.g. Goring measurement of some soldiers...* 3. [Limited samples ] *Genetically modified foods- prevent starvation by making food grow where it wouldn't have grown otherwise.* **[More Recent Bilogical Research ]** 1. [Twin studies] - Monozygotic twins*- comes from a single egg, i.e. 100% of the same gene so they're 100% identical.* - Dizygotic twins- *comes from 2 eggs so they share only 50% of their genes and the other 50% they share individually. They're fraternal twins.* - Concordance - *Similarrty of behavior. Among MZ there's 60% concordance, and among DZ there's **30%** concordance.* *(Heretibaility Extimates) Estimate that over **50%** people commit crime might be biological- Study by J.C Barnes and Kevin M. Beaver. "Specifically, genetic factors explained between 56 and 70 percent of the variance in being classified as a life-course persistent offender across different coding strategies, 35 percent of the variance in being classified as an adolescence-limited offender, and 56 percent of the variance in being classified as an abstained."* A. ***Burt and Simmons article- Pulling back the curtain on heritability studies: biosocial criminology in the postgeonic era*** B. ***Barnes and Wright- Demonstrating the validity of twin research in criminology*** C. ***Burt and Simons- Heritability studies in the postgenic era: the fatal flaw is conceptual*** D. ***Wright and Barnes- Mathematical proof is not minutiae, and irreducible complexity is not a theory: a final response to Burt and Simons and a call to criminology.*** - EEA- *All boils down to the EEA (Equal Environemt Assumption). Any difference you see you're going to attribute to genetics, you'd have to assume that their environment is similar and do not differ.* *Attained from graph: Less genetics you have, the less concordance. To make that conclusion, you'd have to assume that the environment is no more different than the other. MZ are treated more similar by everybody so their social environment overlaps. DZ have an entirely different social environment. The differences in concordance might also be difference in environment.* *Heritability estimates are probably way over estimated. Over 40% of DZ are opposite gender while the MZ are of the same gender, so they'll obviously have different environments as they're treated differently.* **[Background: Evolution, Genes, and Behavior ]** 1. [Survival machines-] *all organisms- animals, human bodies are **advanced survival machines.** Richard Duckkins, they're helping replicators (DNA-genes) survive.* Protect your reproductive to reproduce. *Gadgets (like brain, feet, etc) that replicators made to help them survive and replicate.* 2. [DNA and Genes-] *DNA is an instruction manual for how to build you. There's a copy of that instruction manual in every cell that you have, and it's stored in the nucleus of that cell. That bookcase- cell- has 46 volumes called chromosomes. Every page in the volume, is a gene that controls the phenotype- outcome in your body. The problem is that many of the pages are polymorphic- vary from person to person that's called an allele.* 3. [Competition and allele rivalry-] *slightly different from a polymorphic gene. Varys a little bit from person to person. On average, when the better allele is on the team, it results in better outcome.* 4. [Genes, alleles, and behavior-] *Comtrols neurotransmitters in your brain. Dopamine goes off, serotonin goes off. Certain alleles make it more or less available. E.g. Bees- can be wiped out by a disease called 'foul brood'. Some bees are resistant to it while it may wipe out others. Hygienic strains are those insensitive to it (kill the babies). Non-hygienic bees tend to get wiped out. Sort of hygienic, partially hygienic- wont do anything until the experimenters rip the top off then they'll kill the infected babies.* Two different genes combined kill their own babies- gene influence behavior. **[An Example of a Modern Biosical Study- Beaver et al. (2010)]***- on the test* 1. [Low-activity MAOA alleles-] *monoamine oxidase A; polymorphic genes- war genes that affects cognition and emotion via the limited system. It affects dopamine and senatomine. Breaks down high and low activity (are thought to be criminogenic- more likely to commit crime).* 2. [Add Health data-] *They did it separately for men and women. They found that having a low activity predicated weapon use and gang membership among men. Gang membership- 94% of low activity MAOA allels were higher among men. Odds of using a weapon was 82% higher among men that had low activity MAOA allele. [Did not find any correlations with female, this was only among men. ]* 3. [Gendered effects-] *Men are more likely to commit crime when exposed to contemporaneous activity- stress* **[An Example of a Modern Biosocial Study- Simmions et al. (2011)]***- **on the test.*** 1. [G\*E-] ***G**enetics times **E**nvironment. Genetics and environment intersect to determine behavior. Genes influence behavior and it is contingent on the enviornment.* 2. [Diathesis-stress perspective-] *There are certain risks (bad) alleles like low activity MAOA because they foster mal-adjustments in bad environments (in the face of adversities). If you have them, you do poorly at combating adversities. It's arguing that the short allele is a risk allele.* *From Caspi et al. (2003)* ***Continued- 21^st^ October 2024- Lecture 14*** *Overtime, bad genes should disappear- it should die out. If it lasts through evolutionary then it cannot be that bad.* 3. [Differential susceptibility perspective]*- if these bad alleles stick around then there has to be some kind of benefits. Same versions of genes that are bad in bad environments, are the same genes that foster success in a good environment. They're not risk allells but they're genes that makes you more sensitive/susceptible to the environment be it good or bad. The idea is that it affects the neurotransmitter (dopamine, etc)- how easily your brain experiences [pleasure] and [punishment.]* *Some people have a propensity to be more sensitive to social environment- both good (rewards) and bad (punishment).* 4. [5-HTT and DRD4-] *5-HTT (Seratonine Transporter (Transmitter) gene) chemical association with **punishment sentivity**. [It's a polymorphic gene- short and long alleles.] Short alleles of 5-HTT have fewer tandem repeats, less seratonine transfer in your brain. Therefore, they're more criminogenic as they are less sensitive to punishment. DRD4- (Dopamine receptor gene)- **pleasure chemical** in your brain. It influences the reception of dopamine in your brain. The long (DRD4 long) ones are associated with crime as they're more sentive to pleasure- getting high. More sensitive to environmental rewards so you're more criminogenic.* ***Test-* Major genes including MAOA and the findings.** 5. [Cumulative susceptibility-] *Having both -- 5-HTT and DRD4- might be what's really criminogenic. The cumulative effect of both might be what influences behavior in certain environments.* 6. [Findings-] *They measured their environments- whether or not they lived in good or bad environments using a really expansive index. They also measured school context, experienced racial discrimination, religious involvement. They then created a scale that range from envionrmental adversities to extremely supportive environments. How these genes predicted violence in good or bad environments? **(The inserted image- bottom line that goes straight up has both genes)** Adoloences that have both are least likely to commit crime in a good environment. Those same people do the worst (commit crimes) in bad environments. That finding supports the Differential susceptibility perspective and contradicts the Diathesis-stress perspective. The findings also support the Cumulative Susceptibility theory.* **[An Example of a Mordern Biosocial Study- Wertz et al. (2018)] *(write pic of board)*** 1. [Polygenic scores]*- count up how much alleles you have- DRD4; 5-HTT; MAOA. They go across your whole chromosome and count. They would've used a supercomputer. Took every gene that ever been found in correlation with educational attainment. The higher your polygenic score, the more genes you have for succeeding in school- and then they predict crime.* 2. [E-Risk and Dunedin Cohorts-] *The E-Risk is England- people born in 1994/5. Dunedin Cohorts- People born in the 1970's in New Zealand. The different samples give more faith in findings as the people are from different time periods. They used it to predict crime and the types of crime. Accounts for: Gentics is **41%**...**40%** childhood envionrment. **19%**- environment after childhood. Polygenic scores for educational success is tied to criminality.* 3. [Life-Course Persistent- ] 4. [Mediators-] *What connects genetics to crime? Mediator- self control (urges), cognitive abilities (intelligence), and academic success (did you make it)* **Critically Assessing Modern Bioscoial Research/Theories** 1. [Unquestionable impact-] *gene strongly impact behavior. This is unquestionable.* 2. [But it is conditional-] *The impact is conditional as it depends on the environment. Height is very heritable like over 90%. It's also extremely influenced by the environment. E.g. if they're malnourished as a child, you'll be short irrespective of genetics.* 3. [And it is contingent on our outcome vairable]*- what you classify as crime determines what genetic correlates predict this. Scans brain. Day to day murder, not political violence which is far more different.* 4. [Cannot explain MOST temporal or spatial variation]- *Genetics don't change but economic conditions change over time. I.e, the mordern biosocial theories are useless in explaining changes in crime overtime- lacks adaptability.* ***Image:** "That is, genes that make people less likely to continue their schooling have increased in frequency in these populations. This genetically induced push against schooling, however, was rolled over by cultural evolution, which was speeding in the opposite direction. Over the entire 20^th^ century, culture has raised Americans' educational attainment by 9 to 11 years, while natural selection has lowered it by less than 8 months."* *On average today, we are biologically more stupid that people 100 years ago. **1.5** months of fewer education that the people in the past. On average, there's an increase in **25.5** months of education. Genetics matter way less in comparison to culture.* 5. [Policy implications?] - "Putting it all together, success and failure in the American economy, and all that goes with it, are increasingly a matter of the genes that people inherit." ["It is time for America once again to try living with inequality, as life is lived\..."] (Hernstein and Murray, 1994) ***Relationship Between IQ and Crime*** *Shakira is a bona fide genius. MENSA International.* 1. [Clear link-] *Lower the IQ the more likely they are to commit crime.* 2. [Hirschi and Hindelang (1977)]*- IQ- Intelligent posion- Middle age and chronological age match then you'd get 100. **Findings**:* - *1. IQ matters as much, if not more, than socioeconomic status and race.* - *2. IQ matters within race and socioeconomic groups to predict offending.* - *3. IQ predicts recidivism- reoffending.* - *4. The average gap (criminals and non-offenders) in IQ scores is about 8 to 9 points.* 3. [More recent studies]*- **Findings**:* - *1. IQ predicted the severity of offending.* - *2. IQ predicted offending overtime.* - *3. The gap in IQ is mainly inverbal- normal scores but a deficit in the verbal parts of the IQ; verbal reasoning.* - *4. Average level of IQ in the area predicts crime rate in the area.* 4. [How is IQ related to crime? *-* ]*IQ predicts offending within race, socioeconomic status and gender.* 5. [Controversy over what IQ scores measures] - Innate ability- *measures your natural innate cognitive ability. Over 50% is due to the gene you get.* - Learned ability- *measures your learned ability- socialized and taught on how to answer these kinds of questions.* - Culture- *measures your culture (way of life)- there are different cultures in society that face different challenges that generates varying skill sets. Maslow argues that your IQ measures your placement in these cultures. Of all the other races with kids (boys) aged 7- 91% of blacks could do it, 67% Hispanics- not one rich white child knew how to tie their shoe. Her argument: Cultures that are impoverished have to prioritize basic day to day tasks while wealthy and advantaged cultures teach their kids to prioritize problem solving and creativity. She argues that IQ measures one's placement in these cultures.*  *From the randomly assigned orphans in foster care- those that were placed in high quality \_ while in the orphanage had an IQ on average 9.5.*