There was a course we took in criminology either in the University where we were taught about a certain man called Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso proposed the theory of "atavism," suggesting that criminals had some physical features that made them criminals. For instance, he theories that most of them were evolutionary "throwbacks" with physical characteristics reminiscent of earlier human or ape-like ancestors, such as sloping foreheads or large ears. I remember it stirred a debate in class and even outside the classroom. We argued that Lombroso was wrong 😃. Other scientific journals have also described Lombroso as "fantastically wrong".
Because you cannot just look at people and say they are criminals because of their physical features.
Perhaps, that theory might be the reason why law enforcement agencies profiled young people based on their looks and again, in a world where there are many fine boy and fine girl criminals, the generalizations of Lombroso were just off.
Today, a criminal was arrested and if you see the shape of his head ehhh 😃, you will agree that even a flawed theory has some iota of truth.
Credit: Caleb Onyeabor
