'Every society has produced ceramics, but that doesn't mean we have a gene that produces ceramics' Kohn.A. (1988) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe same could also be said of crime; Were we born criminals? or is it something we learn? The effect that biology has on crime has been debated over the decades in ongoing debates about nature and nurture. I based this essay primarily on Cesare Lombroso, who was the first to introduce the theory that biology can influence our behaviors. First, I investigated how he became known as “The Father of Criminology” and how, thanks to his legacy, progress can still be seen today. Due to the long history, large amount of evidence collected, and various theories throughout history, I have chosen to focus only on Lombroso to narrow my scope of research. There are arguments that date back to 1870 when Cesare Lombroso, an Italian medical examiner and prison doctor conceived his theory of the "Criminal Man". First published in 1876 and having five revised editions during its lifetime. Lombroso became interested in the field of criminals and the determination of their personalities and behavioral patterns. In essence, Lombroso combined his ideas with Darwin's theory of evolution to indicate that criminals were more primitive and therefore not fully responsible for their criminal actions. For this reason he is often considered the "father of criminology" and the founder of criminal anthropology. This biological determinism conflicts with the theory of the classical school of criminology which believes that every human being has rational freedom of choice and action. Lombroso's fundamental beliefs were that some people were born to be criminals and that there were certain characteristics that would determine this individual to be a criminal. These characteristics have been identified by the size of the nose, wrinkles, sloping forehead, and large earlobes, to name just a few. These attributes were called atavisms. Lombroso believed that evolution from an earlier stage of man gave criminals these physical traits. He introduced the idea that criminality was not a matter of sin or free will, but could instead be a medical problem that needed to be examined by experts in that field. He did not believe in free will and was much more interested in factors external to a person's free will, which influence behavior. He studied the corpses of people who had committed crimes and conducted experiments among individuals in prisons to see any correlations. In his later years, he finally thought that social and environmental factors might be contributing to crime. Lombroso on occasion considered other factors that might be linked to criminal behavior, influences such as poverty, climate, educational opportunities, alcohol and gangs. He was also among the first to study female criminality, hypothesizing that women were more likely to be criminals by passion. Although today we consider Lombroso a controversial historical figure and his discoveries somewhat barbaric, he amassed a huge following in his time. Today we can still find roots in his work, there is the idea that there may be physical characteristics that can contribute to criminal behavior. These are still studied and remain active in criminology today. The hypothesis that genes and brain structure are linked to criminal behavior has seen growing interest in recent decades. Today neurocriminology makes use of some theoriesby Lombroso to explore the causes of criminal behavior, examining whether brain lesions or abnormalities can lead to crime or whether violence is caused by a disorder. Recent studies have found that there may be a genetic origin for violent crime and that personality traits, including criminality, can be inferred from facial features. His ideas obviously attracted much criticism during and after his life. Many believe that he did not conduct his findings correctly or critically, as he did not use control groups, although he was able to find physical tendencies in his large group of offenders, he did not compare them to a group of "normal" controls ". The control groups that Lombroso used for the checks were mainly soldiers and prisoners, even if these were insufficient, given that among the soldiers there were criminals, but among the prisoners there were also unjustly convicted people. Charles Goring disputed this and undertook his own experiments showing that criminals show no significant differences in physical characteristics compared to non-criminals. Although scholars are reluctant to associate criminal behavior with any specific gene, due to the emergence of eugenics and "bad gene breeding," researchers continue to study the inheritance of behavioral traits. Some of the most promising work concern the study of twins and adoptees. How biological siblings behave when raised in different families, and the same with a child adopted from a different family, the results were designed to find out whether they behaved differently than their ancestors. biological. "By studying twins, you can learn a lot about what makes us unique, what makes us different, and especially the roles of nature versus nature that you couldn't get any other way." in theoretical understanding of human behavior, our technology has improved substantially allowing us to investigate further, allowing us to measure human characteristics. Previous attempts focused mainly on observable characteristics, now we can investigate the actual composition of a body. The study of biological theories has led to further progress in studying how sociological and environmental events also correspond to our behaviors towards crime. The ultimate goal would be to reach a point where we will be able to determine that criminal acts have biological roots. Being able to predict behavior would therefore help us better control it. Biological influences on criminality have also begun to make their way into court proceedings, with evidence of a person's biology often used as a mitigating factor, although it is still a new practice and the theory involved is yet to be fully understood. ConclusionAlthough past atrocities are based on bad science and inhumane ethics, it is worth noting that Lombroso has had a huge impact on modern criminological and biological theory of crime. Criminology, like all sciences, is continually researched and studied to find the most up-to-date and true hypotheses. Criminology become science was Cesare Lombroso's definitive contribution to the field of criminology. There is an entire museum dedicated to Lombroso and his work in Italy. There is no gene as we know that can predict a person's behavior. «If there is a link between genetics and criminal behavior it is perhaps because some aspects of personality have a genetic component. What is inherited, therefore, is not the tendency to commit criminal acts as such, but rather a predisposition to develop some.