SOC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Homicide
Document Summary
Later researchers found merit in sheldon"s findings but argued that he had misunderstood the cause-effect relationship between body type and crime. According to these researchers, mesomorphy itself was not the cause of criminality. Rather, the way mesomorphs tended to be socialized (to be tougher and to have less sensitivity toward others) created a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that encouraged criminality. Another category of nonsociological theories treats deviance as a result of personality factors especially those arising from unsuccessful socialization. Such researchers hypothesize, for example, that people with a strong conscience (or superego, to use freud"s term) tend to be good, whereas people with a weak conscience tend to be bad. Psychological theorists may also posit that some forms of deviance, such as violence, are a manifestation of an aggressive personality, whereas other forms, such as homosexuality, may be seen as an expression of.
