Exam 3: Biological Positivist Theories

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The Good: These theories led to new practices, including rehabilitation programs, parole, probation, and the recognition of the social lives and experiences of those in conflict with the law. This opened up the criminal justice system to experts such as treatment specialists, probation workers, psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists, criminologists, and others who often sought to help offenders with their problems.
The Bad: Some have argued that this emphasis on institutional control through the application of the scientific method had negative consequences for society. The individualistic form of biological positivism we have been discussing here lends itself well to political manipulation because it can shift the blame from the society and system to the individual. For example, biological positivists characterize criminals as possessing some characteristic that makes them commit crime. This focus on individual characteristics ensures that any environmental issues or social inequalities that help breed crime are ignored: If we hold the individual responsible, we don't have to change society.
The Ugly: Darwin's cousin Francis Galton introduced the term eugenics. This term was based on work he did on inheritance of traits. He only advocated for positive eugenics, or the practice of encouraging fit people to have more children. Negative eugenics was co-opted for political purposes by reformers in the United States, Britain, Canada, and Germany; by the early 20th century, this movement had become very popular. Reformers suggested everything from work colonies to compulsory sterilization for the "unfit." The unfit were defined as whomever society held hostility toward or looked down on: immigrants, minorities, criminals, the mentally ill, and the mentally challenged, to name a few. The Nazi regime escalated eugenics measures and started to execute the unfit, who they described as being "life unworthy of life."