3. Write an essay on the three somatotypes described by W H Sheldon
Answers
Sheldon’s work was controversial and increase public concern upon his gathering of thousands of photographs of naked men. Researchers such as Edwin Sutherland (1951) found Sheldon’s work as invalid due to his analysis utilizing college men and not a random sampling of subjects. Other researchers found categorization and computational errors of Sheldon’s work and allegations of misrepresenting data (Rafter, 2007).
Sheldon’s goal was to provide proof that delinquents carried poorly constructed genetics through analysis of somatotyping. Instead, what he found was a link within genetics not related to somatotypes where biology was the ‘chief determinant of character and behavior’ (Rafter, 2007, p. 814).
The utilization of Sheldon’s theory as a criminal defense in court does not apply. Modern terminology for such defenses is profiling, discrimination, or stereotyping. Utilization of obesity as a defense of discrimination is typically unviable as there is usually an underlying condition of termination or ineligible of a person to perform said employment due to their weight; this is a civil case, not criminal. To this researcher’s knowledge, somatotyping has not been used in defense of a criminal trial.
Answer:
Sheldon's work was controversial and increase public concern upon his gathering of thousands of photographs of naked men. Researchers such as Edwin Sutherland (1951) found Sheldon's work as invalid due to his analysis utilizing college men and not a random sampling of subjects. Other researchers found categorization and computational errors of Sheldon's work and allegations of misrepresenting data (Rafter, 2007).
Sheldon's goal was to provide proof that delinquents carried poorly constructed genetics through analysis of somatotyping. Instead, what he found was a link within genetics not related to somatotypes where biology was the "chief determinant of character and behavior' (Rafter, 2007, p. 814).
The utilization of Sheldon's theory as a criminal defense in court does not apply. Modern terminology for such defenses is profiling, discrimination, or stereotyping. Utilization of obesity as a defense of discrimination is typically unviable as there is usually an underlying condition of termination or ineligible of a person to perform said employment due to their weight; this is a civil case, not criminal. To this researcher's knowledge, somatotyping has not been used in defense of a criminal trial.