Sociobiology and Criminology - The Long Lean Years of the Unthinkable and the Unmentionable (From Taboos in Criminology, P 115-124, 1980, Edward Sagarin, ed. - See NCJ-76968)

• NCJ Number: 76972
• Author(s): C R Jeffery
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This history of sociobiology and reasons for the waning of its influence in criminology are examined.

Abstract

Early criminology was biological in orientation due to the impact of Darwin and Lombroso on the discipline. During the 20th century, however, there was a shift to environmentalism, which essentially holds that environmental influences control behavior through nonphysical means and processes. Accompanying environmentalism was equipotentiality, the assumption that all persons are capable of the same behavior, given the same environment. Dualistic thinking also prevailed, such that the nature of human behavior was confused by perceptions of mutually exclusive dimensions -- mind versus matter, genetics versus environment, innate versus learned, nature versus nurture, etc. In criminology, there was a practical exclusion of genetics and biological research as having any importance for the study of criminal behavior. However, a major revolution occurred in biology after 1954 as a result of research based in the disciplines of biology and chemistry. From biochemistry, biology joined psychology in the form of psychobiology and behavioral genetics. The latest interdisciplinary field to emerge is sociobiology. Most of the work in this area is being conducted by biologists and ethologists. The new biology of recent years has rekindled several major issues, notably, the role of intelligence levels in educational achievement and socioeconomic status and the role of biological and neurological factors in deviant behavior. The neurochemical bases of behavior now form a new foundation for psychiatric treatment. However, in the area of criminology, any approach that views biological factors as influential in deviant and criminal behavior is branded fascistic, violative of human freedom, and generally dangerous. Until the biology of the human animal is viewed as a significant dimension influencing human behavior, criminology will be committing itself to incomplete research and knowledge about human behavior. Eight references are provided.