ABSTRACT
Introduction There is growing interest in the possible role that genetic predisposition, and other biological factors, might play in criminality. Indeed, a relatively recent review concluded that there was ‘no question that genetic infl uences are important to criminal and other forms of antisocial behaviour’ (Baker et al. , 2010: 34). Many explorations of crime and biology begin by discussing the work of Cesare Lombroso. Growing interest in physiognomy (the study of facial features) and phrenology (the study of the shape of the skull) in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries led to much theorising about the possible relationship between particular physical features and the likelihood of engaging in crime. Lombroso was one of the most famous scholars working within this general tradition and, as we suggested in Chapter 6, although most of his work is now largely discredited, his infl uence over the development of criminology is undeniable. Similarly, William Sheldon ’ s theory of somatypes, linking body shape to behaviour, is now largely discredited, though he has also found favour in some quarters, perhaps most famously in James Q. Wilson and Richard Hernnstein ’ s (1985) work, Crime and Human Nature (see Chapter 14). Both Lombroso’s and Sheldon ’ s work was discussed in some detail in the previous chapter and so there is no need to review it again here.
