ABSTRACT
We saw in Chapter 5 that proponents of the biological variant of the predestined actor model sought explanations of crime and criminal behaviour in the measurable physiological part of individuals, their bodies and brains. It was acknowledged that some of the studies reviewed in that chapter really do point to biological explanations of criminality but only in a tiny minority of offenders, for a closer investigation of individual cases suggests that social and environmental background is at least equally as important. Consequently, in recent years there has been a concerted attempt to rehabilitate biological explanations by incorporating social and environmental factors into a ‘multifactor’ approach to explaining crime and criminal behaviour (Vold, Bernard and Snipes, 1998; Walsh and Ellis, 2006). Thus, from this contemporary perspective, it is argued that the presence of certain biological factors may increase the likelihood, but not determine absolutely, that an individual will engage in criminal behaviour. These factors generate criminal behaviours when they interact with psychological or social factors.
