Developmental Theories

There are three main theories of development that I shall discuss in this assignment, 'Cognitive', the main theorist being, 'Piaget', (1896 - 1980), The, 'Psychosocial Theory', 'Erikson', (1902 - 1994), and, The 'Psychosexual', of, 'Freud', (1856 - 1939).

B) our ability to modify our behavior based on the prospect of rewards or punishment.

What different Criminological theories are out there about what causes crime? The three theories that are being discussed in this paper are the biological, sociological and the psychology theories. There are many reasons a person may commit a crime in their life, it could be because that’s what they have been taught and have seen their parents do, it may be because they want to be cool and fit in with their new friends. These theories all have their own beliefs and thoughts as to why.

On the contrary, we have latent trait theories, which were developed in 1990 by David Rowe, Wayne Osgood and W. Alan Nicewander. “Their model assumes that a number of people in the population have a persona attribute or characteristic that controls their inclination or propensity to commit crimes” (Siegel, 306). Like life course theory, the latent trait theory believes that much of criminality is spurred throughout the history of a life. However, one of the contrasting ideas is that criminals have more contributing factors than just sociological factors to contribute to criminality.

Our text (Schmalleger) describes the social development theory as integrated theories of human development that concurrently scrutinize many different items as it may relate to human development (Schmalleger, 2012, p. 194). Some examples of those items of human development list are psychological, biological, familial, interpersonal, cultural, societal, and ecological. Most of the theories of social development understand the major turning point of evolution stage that a person will make during their lifetime is the period from childhood to adulthood. When assessing the social development theory, the life course perspective certainly emphasizes the entire criminal career as it relates the development of the career over or throughout the development of someone’s lifetime. The life course perspective is also called the life course criminology. Within the life course perspective, there are three (3) sets of what is referred to as dynamic concepts that are considered to be very important as it relates to this perspective. 1) activation 2) aggravation 3) desistance. In addition to these concepts Glen H. Elder Jr. recognized five (5) principles that summarize the life course theory, Elder listed those as 1) Principles historical time and place 2)

However, while the overstimulation of the Id and the failure to acquire and develop the the Ego and SuperEgo leads to criminal tendencies, while aggression may be out of adaptive values, and while genetic studies have pointed towards the influence of genes and criminal behaviour, these theories alone are insufficient to account for crime. Evolutionary theory does not explain or predict for the extreme degrees of aggression in individuals nor has the genetic theory proven for 100% heritability; which raises the need for us to examine the Nurture camp of crime theories as well.

Developmental theories focus on the entire life cycle of an individual, rather than one particular time-frame. Interestingly, this developmental process represents the assumption that delinquency has to develop and is not the evolution of an undisclosed condition. Specifically, developmental theories focus on if an individual has committed any delinquency during a certain time frame, the amount of delinquency, and how the delinquency will progress into a delinquent career (Regoli, Hewitt, & DeLisi, 2014). A delinquent career can be described as a pattern of delinquent behavior that an individual portrays within the course of their lifetime (Regoli et al., 2014).

When criminologist where trying to discover the cause for criminal behavior, the trait theory was developed. The trait theory says that certain traits in an individual’s personality can cause that individual to become a criminal. Even if a person acquires these traits that doesn’t mean they are going to be a criminal. In this paper, I will discuss the origins of trait theories, significance of contemporary trait theory, and why people that possess these traits won’t necessarily become criminals.

Sampson & Laub (1993) focus on how delinquency arises in specific life span phases. They examine what they call “the stages of life course.” The examination of an individual’s history and early life gives rise to the reasons behind their engagement in delinquency. Furthermore, the theory explicitly explains why some individuals are more prone to pursue the criminal life than others.

Criminologists and sociologist have long been in debate for century's to explain criminal behaviour. The two main paradigms of thought are between 'nature' and 'nurture'. Nature is in reference to a learnt behaviour where a multitude of characteristics, in society influence whether a person becomes deviant such as poverty, physical abuse or neglect. Nurture defines biological features which could inevitability lead to a individuals deviant or criminal behaviour, because criminality is believed by biological positivist to be inherited from a persons parents. However, I believe that criminal behaviour is a mixture of characteristics that lead to deviant acts such as psychological illness & Environmental factors. Therefore, this essay

Criminals are born not made is the discussion of this essay, it will explore the theories that attempt to explain criminal behavior. Psychologists have come up with various theories and reasons as to why individuals commit crimes. These theories represent part of the classic psychological debate, nature versus nurture. Are individuals predisposed to becoming a criminal or are they made through their environment. There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behavior, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory,.

Thus, the probability of one engaged in crime can be traced to the childhood. The principle of analysis and theory of psychodynamic perspective come into play in analysing the likelihood of one engaging in crime in future.

Why do individuals commit crimes? Society today is very well concerned with this matter. In todays time, there are psychologists, criminologists, biologists, and sociologists searching for an answer. In reality, the answer to this question is very hard to find out. However, for centuries, researchers of all kinds have been persistent in analyzing criminals for an answer. The scholarly attention to crime from various perspectives has allowed for an extensive range of theories which are based on three broad theoretical approaches of explaining criminal behaviour. These theoretical approaches, which focus on the causes of crime and deviance in modern

What makes a criminal a criminal? Can anyone become a criminal? Answering and understanding these questions is the core work of criminologists as most criminologists attempt to make sense of why people do certain things (Garland, Sparks 2000). This essay will consider the notion that any person could become a criminal and in so doing consider the initial question. This essay will outline a range of theories that attempt to describe human behavior in relation to criminal behavior given the complexities of behaviour. Several theories will be considered as no single theory of behavior can account fully for the complexities and range in criminal behaviour. The theories range from social-control, to classical, to biological, to personality

Life course theory merges the concepts of historical inheritance with cultural expectation and personal development, which in turn sociologists study to map the course of human behavior given different social interaction and stimulation (Crossman, 2017). This theory suggests that people begin engaging in criminal activity due to their experiences and life events. In other words, sociological events and a person’s upbringing will determine the outcome of their criminal behavior. For example, if a child is