What policy recommendations might an adherent of the biological/biosocial perspective make for controlling or preventing crime, i.e, eugenics, etc.? How do these proposed approaches to crime challenge current crime prevention strategies?

CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORY

Assignment #3

This assignment is worth 50 points toward your final grade.  Your responses must be uploaded to Blackboard by midnight on September 27 by midnight.  No late assignments will be accepted. To receive the full 50 points, your response must be a minimum of three but no more than five pages, stapled, double-spaced, numbered, using a 12 point font, and one-inch margins.  You must cite within the text and include a reference page.  Failure to meet any of these requirements will result in a one-letter grade deduction per infraction.  The total page count does not include your name, the reiterating of the question, nor the reference page.  This paper must follow the APA (American Psychological Associations, sixth or seventh edition) format, and it must not exceed five pages. You must place you name either on a separate title page or on the top left hand corner of the paper.  In addition you must include a reference page and cite (where appropriate) within the text.  In general, the paper is expected to focus on the core issues contained in the readings assigned for this topic.

Questions:

1. How does biology affect criminality (Be sure to include the role of factors such as IQ and conduct disorders in your discussion)? How have biological explanations of crime changed throughout history (begin with Lombroso and move into modern explanations)?

2. How do biosocial theories of crime differ from purely biological explanations (watching Adrian Raine’s documentaries on Biological Theories of Crime may assist you in better understanding these differences)? What role does the environment play in contributing to the potential deficits between the brain function and crime? This may include a brief explanation of the particular area of the brain such as the cerebral cortex divided into the four lobes. To what extent do biological/biosocial theories explain criminal behavior? You must use the empirical literature to support your argument.

3. What policy recommendations might an adherent of the biological/biosocial perspective make for controlling or preventing crime, i.e, eugenics, etc.? How do these proposed approaches to crime challenge current crime prevention strategies?

4. After reading the first four Chapters of Garbarino’s Listening to Killers, how does he argue biosocial factors play a role in violent crime?