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What are the dangers of explanations of crime and offending based upon the characteristics of the individual. Cesare Lombroso, a criminological positivist, popularised the notion of genetically determined criminal types. He believed that criminology needed to focus on a biological basis of crime. He stated that criminals were specific physical types and were throwbacks to Neanderthal man. He believed that there were four categories of criminals: born criminals, who had physical atavistic characteristics, insane criminals, criminaloids, who were occasional criminals with traits to predispose them to criminality and criminals of passion, who were motivated by anger, love and honour. Lombroso's research was flawed, however it showed both the importance of examining clinical and historical records of criminals and the need for multi-factor explanations of crime, i.e. not only hereditary but social, cultural and economic. Mednick, Gabrelli, Williams and Hutchings (1984) conducted a study in Denmark using 24,000 adopted families who were studied...

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