During the late 1800s, when the foundation of modern criminology was being built by people such as Cesare Lombroso, biological approaches to criminal behavior were most popular. As observed in chapter 6, purely biological theories have been thoroughly discredited. Another reason that biological theories were pushed aside was because of the drastic measures that were needed to correct perceived biological problems. For instance, imagine that a gene is found that indicates with a high probability that a newborn will grow up to be a psychopath. Some options would be to immediately lock the child away with others who have the same problem (that should sound familiar), kill the child, or drastically alter the biology of the child. Biological causes of crime historically meant drastic measures were needed to prevent crime. The textbook does support this approach as indicated by some of the words in the title of the book "A Sociological Approach." Does biology affect behavior? See if this sounds familiar. "Don't give a child sugar before bedtime because they will be too wired to go to sleep." Although that is a myth, it is a simple indication that we connect biology to behavior.
But the times are changing. The continuing development of brain imaging technology is causing a resurgence of the credibility of the biological determinants of crime. How should criminals be punished if they commit crimes because of natural or biological causes?