The document discusses the history of theories of delinquency and criminality from the 18th century to the 20th century. Early theories proposed by Gall, Lombroso and others linked observable physical characteristics to criminal behavior and tendencies. Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection influenced later theorists like Spencer and Galton, whose ideas of social Darwinism and eugenics were influential in the American eugenics movement. Eugenics advocated controlling human reproduction to improve the human race and was used to justify things like forced sterilization. The California eugenics movement influenced juvenile justice policies and research. Later theories in the 1940s looked at linking body types to criminal tendencies.

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Theories of Delinquency
Introduction of Science

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Positivism
The application of science to the study of
human behavior

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Early Theories
Criminality and Observable Characteristics

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18th Century Origins of Biological Positivism:
German physician
Franz Joseph Gall in 1796
introduces:
Phrenology
a hypothesis stating that the
personality traits of a person can
be derived from the shape of the
skull.

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Charles Darwin: Origin of the Species (1859)
Theory of Natural selection:
the process by which
certain heritable traits those
that make it more likely for
an organism to survive and
successfully reproduce
become more common in a
population over successive
generations
(1809-1882)

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Cesare Lombroso
Criminal Man published 1876
Lombroso's theory of
anthropological
criminology posited that
criminality was
inherited, and that someone
"born criminal" could be
identified by physical
defects, which confirmed a
criminal as savage, or
atavistic.
(6 November 1835 – 19 October 1909)

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physical atavistic stigmata
• large jaws, forward projection of jaw, low sloping
foreheads
• high cheekbones, flattened or upturned nose
• handle-shaped ears
• large chins, very prominent in appearance
• hawk-like noses or fleshy lips
• hard shifty eyes, scanty beard or baldness
• insensitivity to pain, long arms

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Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism
Justifying class and racial
inequality:
“This survival of the fittest, which I
have here sought to express in
mechanical terms, is that which Mr.
Darwin has called 'natural
selection', or the preservation of
favoured races in the struggle for
life." [1]
Principles of Biology (1864)

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Sir Francis Galton and The Origins of
Eugenics
“the science which
deals with all
influences that
improve the inborn
qualities of a race;
also with those that
develop them to the
utmost advantage”

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Eugenics
A social philosophy which advocates the
improvement of the human condition by
controlling human reproduction. The goal is
to prevent the passing of undesirable traits to
the next generation

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Evolution of American Eugenics Movement
• Richard Dugdale & the Jukes heredity
• Henry Goddard & the Kallikaks
• IQ Tests used to determine those unworthy of
reproducing
• Funded by John D Rockefeller, Henry Ford & Andrew
Carnegie
• Rationalized the accumulation and concentration of
wealth and power
• Seen as a solution to social problems
• Utilized forced sterilization

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Henry Goddard and the genealogy of the
“feebleminded”
Deborah Kallikak Kallikak family tree

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The California Eugenics Movement and Juvenile
Justice
• 1899 first sterilization performed at Indiana reformatory
• 1907 Indiana passes first Eugenics law
• 1909 California Eugenics law passed
• California Bureau of Juvenile Research established at
Whittier State School
• 15% -35% of delinquents believed feebleminded

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Theory of Somatotypes (1940s)
William Herbert Sheldon
1.Endomorph
2.Mesomorph
3. Ectomorphic