Digital Crime Theory And The Psychoanalytic Theory

What is crime? What makes people commit crimes and how can we stop it? These, and many other questions similar to these, are asked by criminologists everyday. Criminology is an ever growing field, mainly because there is more and more research occurring and new theories linking people and crime coming out everyday. Below the main field of criminology there are many subfields that have different theories and philosophies on what they believe link criminal behavior. Two of the main criminology perspectives are Classical Criminology and Positivist Criminology. Although these two are both studied in the criminology field, their views are distinctly contradictory from each other. These two theories and many

This essay will outline how crime theories are able to assist in recognizing the causes of criminal activity, as well as demonstrating two criminological theories to two particular crimes. Overviews of trends, dimensions and victim/offenders characteristics of both crime groups will be specified. The two particular crimes that will be demonstrated throughout this essay are; Violent Crime (focusing on Assault) being linked with social learning theory and White Collar crime (focusing on terrorism) being linked to General Strain theory. In criminology, determining the motive of why people commit crimes is crucial. Over the years, many theories have been developed and they continue to be studied as criminologists pursue the best answers in eventually diminishing certain types of crime including assaults and terrorism, which will be focused on.

The Classical school of criminology can be known as the free will to act at one’s own discretion, where an individual chooses to break the law upon a desirable choice. The Classical emphasizes how the system was organized, punishments for crime, and how authorities should react to crime. On the other hand, positivist school was created to see what influences an individual to break the laws, based on human beings’ behavior. Positivist school is simply trying to analyze who, what, and how crime is initiated. This study will identify the schools’ argument, and if they complement each other, the advantages and disadvantages, and the different approaches or points of view from multiple criminologist regarding the schools and theories.

It is unfortunate that crime exists in our daily lives. There really is no way to stopping crime completely, no matter how many laws or punishment are present, people will continue to keep breaking rules. There are many theories of why that may be the case, for example, Caesar Lombroso and his “atavistic” theory with the Positivist School theory and how people were “born criminals”, or the Rational Choice Theory, devised by Cornish and Clarke, described that people could think rationally and how people will naturally avoid pain and seek pleasure referred to as “hedonism” (Cartwright, 2017, lecture 4). Since it is apparent that crime will continue to exist, it is not only important to understand the study of crime and the feedbacks to it,

Ex: Hacking is a digital crime, whether it be for status quo, pleasure or criminal intent, all aspects of hacking is considered a digital crime. Most hackers, hack for status quo or pleasure, and feel as if they are not committing a crime as no harm is done. While some computer and of digital communication intrusion is caught, there are much that goes un-noticed, and unpunished. Leaving Hackers in the mindset that their criminal acts are acceptable and correct, as their needs are satisfied, and their criminal acts go unpunished.

The positivism in the criminology is a combination of logic and scientism which are related to epistemological phenomenon linked with the scientific progress. The causes of the crime in the positivist criminology can be related to biological, psychological and social reasons as proposed by the Lombroso, Feud, and Durkheim. As per biological theory, proposed by the Lombroso as a profound proponent who based his theory of the cause of crime on phrenology, states that the criminal character is defined by the shape of the skull of the individual. Lombroso based the causes of crime on physical features and called them as “born criminals “ or “Atavistic man” (Lombroso C, 2006)

Classical theory states that crime is committed when there are more benefits to committing the crime than punishments. It also states that crime is a choice and is done with free will (Beccaria, 2013). Positivist’s theory says that biological defects are what lead to crime (Lombroso, 2013). Additionally, that criminal’s had

There is no perfect formula to accurately predict crime or to understand the criminal elements of the human mind, but there have been many theories that have attempted to explain crime for better or for worse. The 5th edition Criminological Theory: Context and Consequences covers the both the most famous and infamous of criminal theories. Although some ideas are convincing at first they tend to fall flat when new evidence surfaces, so when reading, researching, or just watching the news in general it is important to remain vigilant and impartial as everybody else is entitled to their opinions. Unfortunately societies tend to spread false information quickly, but it is not like it is difficult to change someone’s opinions, however the amount of people with the wrong idea grows into quite a substantial number.

There are many perspectives in which one can analyze and understand why a person decides to commit a crime. Some perspectives are social learning theory, strain theory, classical and rational choice theory, deterrence theory, biological and psychological positivist theories, among others. However, for the purposes of this paper, the biological and psychological theories will be discussed.

According to the psychological theory, a person commits a crime for their personal need, but also because of some abnormal process within their personality. The explanation of such a behavior is in the individual and their desires (Helfgott, 2008). Psychological theory proposes several methods how to prevent and control the criminal behavior this theory recognizes punishment and reinforcement, but the punishment needs to be immediate, because another way it would not work

Criminal behavior has been around for centuries, which is why many criminologist study and create theories based on criminal behaviors. They do this as a preventative measure, if you can find a causation of a crime you can stop its occurrences. Criminologist, took these theories and broke them down into three major factors of criminal behavior, psychological, sociological, and biological. Each factor focuses on a key component of criminal behavior, which is explained in theories. However, these theories all have strengths and weaknesses, which is what will be illustrated in this article.

Essi Viding, a professor in the psychology and language sciences department of University College London, who was not involved in

Society consent that social behavior is a direct result of an outside source. With regards to this, there has been raging debates over the years about why individuals commit crimes, how crimes should be handled and deterred. This has led to emergence of a myriad of criminological theories that attempt to give a hunch on the cause of criminality behavior. The ongoing exploration of the possible cause of criminal behavior has been in the quest to seek the best remedies in ultimately reducing types and levels of crime. Criminological theory is the explanation of the relation between the characteristics of individuals and the likelihood that the will engage in criminal behavior (Akers, 2013; Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2014).

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,.

Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. Criminological research areas include the incidence of crime as well as its causes and consequences. They also include social and governmental regulations and reactions to crime. Nation master.com (2013) highlights that “in criminology the positivist school has attempted to find scientific objectivity for the measurement and quantification of criminal behaviour”. The Positivist School of thought presumes that criminal behaviour is caused by various internal and external factors which are outside of the individual 's control. The scientific method was introduced and applied to the study of human behaviour. Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include biological, psychological and social positivism Nation master (2013)