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.
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...
- 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 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...
- 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...
- Labelling Theory
- The perspective, associated with Becker and Lemert, that deviance is not a property of the act but a consequence of the social...
- Organised vs Disorganised
- The BSU dichotomy proposed by Ressler and Douglas, classifying offenders by scene presentation. Organised scenes show planning; disorganised scenes show chaos. The...
- Positivist School
- The nineteenth-century tradition, associated with Lombroso, Ferri, and Garofalo, that rejected free will and sought causes of crime in measurable biological, psychological,...
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 ThoughtLombroso's concept that born criminals were evolutionary throwbacks to a more primitive human type, identifiable by physical stigmata. The concept is scientifi...