Discuss the early biological explanations of female delinquency, including an example. What is your opinion of this view?
What will be an ideal response?
• With the publication in 1895 of The Female Offender, Lombroso extended his work on criminality to females.
• Lombroso maintained that women were lower on the evolutionary scale than men, more childlike and less intelligent.
• Women who committed crimes could be distinguished from "normal" women by physical characteristics: for example, excessive body hair, wrinkles, and an abnormal cranium.
• In appearance, delinquent females appeared closer to men than to other women. The masculinity hypothesis suggested that delinquent girls had excessive male characteristics.
• In 1925, Cyril Burt linked female delinquency to menstruation.
• Healy and Bronner's research suggested that males' physical superiority enhanced their criminality. Their research showed that about 70% of the delinquent girls they studied had abnormal weight and size, a finding that supported the "masculinity hypothesis.".
• Student views will vary.
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The integrative tradition in criminology:
a. has a long history dating back to the 19th century. b. made great use of biological and psychological explanations but neglected sociology. c. has received a great deal of criticism despite appearing to be a logical step in theory development. d. emerged during the 1980s and 1990s, a time when criminological theories were developing very rapidly. e. all of the above.
Scared straight and boot camp are two forms of
a. home confinement b. intensive supervision probation c. pretrial diversion programming d. shock incarceration
Areas with low levels of private, parochial, and public social control are found to be characterized by
A. higher crime rates. B. lower crime rates. C. variable crime rates. D. None of the above.
The appropriate sentence is based on several factors, most notably offense seriousness and the offender's:
a. prior record b. level of education c. age d. race