Atavism
Definition
Lombroso's concept that born criminals were evolutionary throwbacks to a more primitive human type, identifiable by physical stigmata. The concept is scientifically discredited but was highly influential in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Originator
- Cesare Lombroso, late 19th century
- Claim
- Born criminals as evolutionary throwbacks with physical stigmata
- Status
- Scientifically discredited
- Historical influence
- Shaped early criminal anthropology and profiling history
Common questions
Why is atavism considered scientifically discredited today?+
The theory relied on unrepresentative prison samples, subjective measurement of physical features, and no control comparison with the non-criminal population, flaws later criminology and genetics research exposed as producing spurious correlations rather than causal evidence.
Did atavism have any lasting influence on modern forensic practice?+
Its direct claims were abandoned, but Lombroso's push to study offenders systematically and quantitatively influenced the later development of criminal anthropometry and, indirectly, the record-keeping habits that fed into early identification systems.
How did atavism theory affect criminal justice policy in its time?+
It supported harsher, more deterministic treatment of people classified as 'born criminals,' including arguments for indefinite detention or even eugenic measures, reasoning that was used to justify policies now widely rejected as unjust.
Related terms
- Biosocial Criminology
- An approach that treats biological and social factors as mutually constitutive rather than alternative explanations for crime. It holds that genetic or...
- Born Criminal
- Lombroso's term (reo nato) for an offender whose criminality is innate and identifiable through physical stigmata rather than produced by choice or...
- BSU (Behavioural Science Unit)
- The FBI unit founded at Quantico in 1972 that systematised profiling. Renamed and restructured several times; the operational successor is the Behavioural...
- Classical School
- The eighteenth-century intellectual tradition in criminology, associated with Beccaria and Bentham, that treats offenders as rational actors and argues for proportionate, certain,...
- Concordance Rate
- In twin studies, the proportion of twin pairs in which both twins share a given trait or behaviour. Higher concordance in monozygotic...
- Criminal Anthropology
- The 19th century study of offenders through physical measurement, comparing skull shape, facial features, and body form across criminal and non-criminal populations.
- Criminal Investigative Analysis (CIA)
- The FBI BSU's formal method for profiling unknown offenders from crime-scene evidence, involving a structured analytical process that produces an offender description...
- Criminal Profiling
- The inference of an unknown offender's likely characteristics from crime scene behaviour, victimology, and case details. Also called offender profiling, criminal investigative...
- Criminal Sociology
- Ferri's term for a criminology that weighs physical, anthropological, and social factors together, giving social conditions equal standing with biology.
- Gene-Environment Interaction (GxE)
- The phenomenon where a genetic predisposition is expressed differently depending on environmental context. A classic example is the MAOA-low variant, which correlates...
- Heritability
- The proportion of variation in a trait within a population that is attributable to genetic differences between individuals. A heritability estimate applies...
- Indian Profiling Practice
- Ad-hoc consults from CFSL Delhi behavioural cells, clinical psychologists at NIMHANS, and forensic psychology faculty at NFSU. There's no statutory BAU equivalent...
Explained in these topics
- Biological and Biosocial Theories of CrimeLombroso's concept that some individuals are evolutionary throwbacks to a more primitive human type, identifiable by physical stigmata, and biologically predis...
- History of Criminal Profiling: Dr Bond to BSU to Indian PracticeCesare Lombroso's 19th-century theory that criminals were evolutionary throwbacks identifiable by physical features. Historically important, scientifically dis...
- History of Criminological Thought
- The Positivist School of Criminology: Lombroso, Ferri, and GarofaloLombroso's claim that some offenders are evolutionary throwbacks, biologically closer to an earlier, more primitive human type than to their law-abiding contem...