Biological theories have no relevancy in explaining crime. How far do Essay

Biological theories have no relevancy in explaining crime. How far do you agree with this statement - Essay Example In order to find a rational explanation of crime, a large number of theories have been propounded. Various factors such as evil spirit, sin, disease, heredity, economic maladjustments etc., have been put forward either singly or together to explain criminality. 2. Free-will theory: Beccaria, the founder of modern criminology denounced the earlier religious fallacies and myths to explain crime. He laid greater emphasis on mental phenomenon of the individual and attributed crime to the free will of the individual. This doctrine implied the notion of causation in terms of the free choice to commit crime by a rational man seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. 4. Ferri believes that crime is the synthetic product of three main factors (i) Physical or geographical (2) Anthropological and (iii) Psychological or social. He emphasized that criminal behavior is an outcome of a variety of factors having their combined effect on the individual. 6. Criminality is XYY Syndrome: Socio-biologists and geneticists studied chromo somatic pattern of criminals and linked it with criminal behavior. X and Y are sex chromosomes persons inherit from their parents. Male infants are typed with XY while female infants with XX pattern. Y chromosome is aggressive and X is passive. However the unusual XYY chromosome pattern leads to aggression and criminality. There is no one royal way to lay out the sociology of crime: some have classified its component theories by their supposed political leanings (liberal, conservative and radical, for instance); some by their attentiveness or inattentiveness to gender; some by their alleged foundational assumptions about the character of the social world (classical, positivist, ‘social constructionist’ and the like); some by their chronology; some by the great men and women who propounded them; and others by schools of thought. Crime, after all, is centrally bound up with the state’s attempts to impose its