Hereditary Factors Theory

a bourgeois theory in criminology that considers inherited traits, including anatomical features, chromosome structure, and inherited characteristics of the nervous system, to be the cause of criminality. The theory arose in the 18th and 19th centuries as a reaction against the clearly untenable idealist explanation of crime as the result of the “evil intent” of the criminal. In explaining crime from the standpoint of the natural and biological sciences (anatomy, physiology, anthropology, and genetics), such advocates of the “hereditary factors” theory as C. Lombroso, Di Tullio, E. Kretschmer, and F. A. Lange ignored the social causes of crime.