Summary and Review

alleles: different variants of the same gene. For example, the gene for eye colour has alleles for brown, blue, green, grey or violet eyes.

antisocial behaviour: behaviours that hurt or harm or lack concern for other people’s welfare. Usually, it includes behaviour considered to be disruptive or aggressive. However, such a concept is a social construct in that its definition is not an actual fact but relates to human opinion. Something that is antisocial in one context may not be in another. For example, violence is almost universally considered an antisocial behaviour but not in war.

atavisms: reverting back to a more primitive time, and criminologically was used to refer to Cesare Lombroso’s theory that criminals were more primitive than law-abiding citizens and that they exhibited certain marks or stigmata, such as the shape of their forehead, brows, ears and even tattoos, and the ways of writing and speaking.

biological positivism: the belief that all criminal behaviour was due to biology alone. This was a theory of Cesare Lombroso in which he concluded that criminals were born to be criminals, therefore, could never be rehabilitated.

chromosome: a molecule of DNA, made up of genes. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, including two sex chromosomes, XX or XY.

determinism: the theory that everything, including behaviour, is completely under the control of past events so people have no free will or choice in the way they act or behave.

DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid. A single molecule which is comprised of two polynucleotide chains which coil to form the well-known double helix. It carries all an organism’s genetic material and is formed into chromosomes.

epigenome: an array of chemicals and proteins that tells the genome how to function, such as which genes to express or turn on, and which to turn off.

genetic: a result of your genes. Genetics is the study of heredity and genes.

genome: the genetic blueprint for a person, their genetic instructions.

genotype: a person’s genetic background.

hormonal: biological messengers that are secreted into the bloodstream by glands such as ovaries or the pancreas to communicate instructions to parts of the body for example, to release adrenalin.

institutionalisation: the state of being placed or kept in an institution in which life and actions are highly controlled; refers to a person developing deficits in life and social skills due to becoming used to living in an institution.

mens rea: a guilty mind.

negative eugenics: the word eugenics refers to good birth. Eugenics is the practice of selectively encouraging people with ‘desirable traits’ to breed to ‘improve’ the human species. Positive eugenics is the practice of encouraging people that are considered to be ‘superior’ in some manner to have more children. Negative eugenics is the practice of ‘discouraging’ or actively preventing people who are considered ‘less desirable’ from having children, including enforced sterilisation.

neurotransmitter: chemical messengers in the body which act between nerve cells which produce extremely rapid responses and have a major impact on behaviour.

phrenology: one of the early pseudo-sciences, proposed by Franz Gall in the 19th century, that suggested that the bumps and lumps on the very hard skull was influenced by the shape of the very soft underlying brain so that these bumps and shapes indicated the shape of the brain, and that this in turn indicated a person’s personality. There was obviously no scientific basis for this and, even at the time, it was considered a pseudoscience. However, it did have a cult following in Europe and North America for some time.

positive eugenics: the word eugenics refers to good birth. Eugenics is the practice of selectively encouraging people with ‘desirable traits’ to breed to ‘improve’ the human species. Positive eugenics is the practice of encouraging people that are considered to be ‘superior’ in some manner to have more children. Negative eugenics is the practice of ‘discouraging’ or actively preventing people who are considered ‘less desirable’ from having children, including enforced sterilisation.

predisposition: a risk factor. If someone has a predisposition for something, such as diabetes, they are more likely to develop diabetes than someone without the predisposition, but it is important to realise that it is a risk factor and does not mean that the person will get diabetes. The risk factor may be very small, e.g. someone who eats X regularly is 0.1% more likely to develop diabetes than someone who does not.

pseudoscience: findings and claims that are presented as scientific, but are in fact not based on reliable scientific research.

social construct: something that is not an actual fact, but has been defined by humans. Crime is a social construct because something that is considered a crime at some time or place may not be a crime in others. For example, owning small quantities of cannabis in Canada was a crime until very recently and now it is not.

transgenerational: something that carries on over several generations.