ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the two categories: allergies and diet, alcohol and illegal drugs. It considers sexual hormones, blood sugar levels and adrenaline sensitivity. The foundations of the biological variant of the predestined actor model of crime and criminal behaviour – or biological positivism – can be located primarily in the work of Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Ferri and Raffaele Garofalo. Early biological positivists assumed that offenders differ in some way from non-offenders. An idea arose at the end of the nineteenth century, when evolutionary science was both new and highly popular among the educated classes. That criminality is inherited in the same way as physical characteristics, and evidence to support this supposition was subsequently obtained from three very closely linked sources: criminal family studies, twin studies and adopted children studies. The relationship between adrenaline and aggressive behaviour is a similar area of study to that involving testosterone, with each involving the relationship between a hormonal level and aggressive antisocial behaviour.
