In search of a "criminal person": Changing scientific views on the role of biological determinants in the etiology of crime

Abstract

Aim to analyze the transformation of criminologists' approach to the biology of a criminal, to highlight the achievements of physiological, genetic, endocrinological, neurobiological, biochemical, ethological research in this area, to study the dynamics of the scientific views on the role of biological factors in the etiology of criminal behavior, to give a dialectic assessment of the development of the described scientific paradigm. Results. The article provides an overview of research in the field of biological criminology. The results of physiological, psychological, genetic, neurobiological, biochemical, endocrinological, ethological studies are described. The role of the positivist school of criminology is evaluated as negative for the harmful consequences of their activities. It is shown that its provisions became the starting point for the development of social Darwinism, eugenics, the ideology of fascism, racial theory, the organization of national, racial and ethnic genocide. Conclusion. The most promising and most effective is a comprehensive, multifactorial approach to the problem of criminal behavior with mathematical modelling and artificial intelligence technologies.