Biological and Positivist Theories

The founding positivist departure from classical theory, which located the causes of crime in the measurable traits of the offender rather than free rational choice, from Cesare Lombroso's Positivist School through the modern gene-environment-interaction research of Biosocial Criminology. Belongs here: any theory that grounds offending in biological, physiological or evolved traits, whether alone or in interaction with environment. Does not belong here: theories that treat offending as a rational response to situational opportunity, grouped under Classical, Rational Choice and Opportunity Theories, or theories that locate the cause in social structure or learning, grouped under Social Structure and Strain Theories or Social Process Theories. Lombroso's own claim that criminals are a distinct biological type identifiable by physical stigmata is a superseded position within criminology, discredited on methodological grounds within decades of its publication. Biosocial Criminology is the field's current mainstream engagement with biology, studying gene-environment interaction rather than reviving strict biological determinism, and this atlas keeps that distinction explicit rather than presenting the two as one continuous position.