Sociological Theories Of Deviance Essay

Socio-biologists explain deviance by looking for answers within the individual and they assume that genetic tendencies lead people to deviances. Among their explanations were these three theories: (1)Intelligence, where low intelligence leads to crime, (2) the "XYY" theory , where an extra Y chromosome in males leads to crime, (3) body type where people with "squarish, muscular" bodies are more likely to commit street crime.

Cesare Lombroso was a criminologist who believed that being a criminal was inherited. From this belief, he developed a theory of deviance in which a person’s physical structure shows whether or not an individual is a "born criminal." Lombroso argued that criminals were throwbacks of a previous and more pre-historic form of man. He claimed that a familiar number of inherited characteristics that were often found in criminals included: large

The psychological explanations focus on the abnormalities within the individual, such as personality disorders. Psychological researcher found that some childhood experiences are likely to be linked to deviance. For example, some children who had bad toilet training experience, emotionally detached fathers and suffocating mothers tend to more likely become embezzlers. Psychological theories of deviance use a deviant’s psychology to explain someone’s want and urges to violate social norms. There are several fundamental assumptions that all psychological theories of deviance have in common. First, an individual is responsible for their criminal or deviant acts and their personality is the major motivational component that drives deviant behavior within individuals. Third, criminals and deviants are seen as suffering from personality deficiencies. So in theory, crimes result from abnormal, dysfunctional, or inacceptable mental processes within the personality of the