Have you ever caught yourself making snap judgments about someone's character based on appearance? It's a common human tendency, even though we know it's not a fair or accurate way to assess someone. Interestingly, there was a time when specific criminological theories attempted to link a person's physical attributes to their propensity for criminal behavior. These theories, known as biological criminological theories, gained traction in the mid-20th century. One such theory focused on somatotypes, which are generalized body types. Coined by psychologist William Sheldon in the 1940s, somatotypes aimed to categorize individuals into three main types: ectomorphs, endomorphs, and mesomorphs. Those body types are based on body composition, not sex. Both men and women can have any of these types, with some variations due to hormones. These classifications were part of a broader effort to understand and predict criminal tendencies based on physical build. This idea has since ...
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