General Theory Of Crime And Delinquency

Biological Theories have been related to crime for a long time. The Biological Theory talks about how one’s brain has an impact on committing crime or not. Dr. Jim Fallon, a neuroscientist from California talks about the biological influences in a brain. He believes that the combination of three major aspects can determine whether someone is psychopathic or not. Fallon states a combination of genes, damage to the person 's brain and the environment surrounding the individual will have the biggest impact on a person (Fallon, 2009). A real world example of the biological theory in full effect was the crimes of David Berkowitz, aka “Son of Sam. Berkowitz was accused and found guilty of killing over 6 people in New York City. After being convicted and locked up for a few years, studies had shown that Berkowitz had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Berkowitz also claimed that his neighbor’s dog, Sam had told him to do the killings as well (Biography). Comparing the Biological theory to my own life was pretty simple because there is a genetic factor that runs in my dad’s side and that is tempers. Tempers tend to flare fairly easy, and luckily so far there has no issues with the law, however like Fallon had said, with the right combination, anyone is possible to commit a crime at any time. I feel like in a biological theory, this would have a major impact on my life

This can then lead to individuals wanting to seek gratification, through crime (Topak, 2017). In this essay, three theories will be compared and contrasted, which are Robert Merton’s theory of crime, Emile Durkheim’s theory, and the classical criminal theory. These will be compared through the use of the nature and characteristics of criminals, the causes of crimes in each of the theories, and the policy suggestions, which aides to identify the similarities and differences between each theorists’ and their given theories.

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.

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,

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.

Deterrence theory of crime is a method in which punishment is used to dissuade people from committing crimes. There are two types of deterrence: general and specific. General deterrence is punishment to an individual to stop the society as a whole from committing crimes. In other word, it is using the punishment as an example to “scare” society from precipitating in criminal acts. Under general deterrence, publicity is a major part of deterrence. Crime and their punishments being showing in the media or being told person to person can be used to deter crime. Specific deterrence is punishment to the individual to stop that individual from committing other crimes in the future. This type of deterrence is used to teach the individual a

Examine and assess the usefulness of one of the following theories of crime and deviance in terms of explaining crime and the social problems in modern society.

The readings in module five covered different perspectives on why crime does or does not occur. It covers differential association theory, learning theories, and control theories. Many of these theories play off each other when trying to explain why there is criminal behavior.

The use of theory in the field of criminal justice can assist with deterring criminal activity as well as predicting the actions of individuals (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). This is one of the main reason the Federal Bureau of Investigations tracks crimes, moreover, the reason the Department of Justice conducts the victimization survey. The information is used to form theories about criminal activity current plaguing an area. These theories can be utilized to predict future criminal activities allowing law enforcement officers an opportunity to be proactive, moreover, the information could assist society with reforming.

Before we can argue for the use of integrated approach we should understand what it mean, which is “an explanation of crime that attempts to merge the insights from one or more theories into a simple framework” (Lilly, Cullen, & Ball, 2015, p.430). Akers & Seller, (2004); and Barak (1998, p. 193) stated that there are numerous integrated theories in criminology, and from many theories, the integration of ideas from different models is made clear. However in other theories, we might not be able to see the integration because it is more hidden and can only be recognized by those individuals who are well acquainted with criminological type theories, because they will be able to see the variables and the

The social control theories have a different perspective than the previous theories. Travis Hirschi was the influential theorist behind the social control theory. The problems of crime and delinquency are the main two things that are addressed by the social control theory. The information in which the social control theory was based on is data from self-report survey’s and not police or courts records. The main question that we ask is not why the criminals commit the crime and delinquency when dealing with the social control theory; it is why the criminals do not commit crime and delinquency.

Richard Ramirez, a 25 year old unemployed Hispanic male was responsible for at least 16 murders in Los Angeles between 1984 and 1985.his victims were of the ages of six and eight, he used a wide range of weapons like guns, knives, tire irons and even his bare hands. He was always dressed in black an AD hat and avian shoes (Grise, 2010). He attacked people all over Los Angeles and would steal cars to get to his destinations where he pawned off valuables from victims. He continued his spree of murder, sodomy, burglary, sexual assault and attempted murder. He was born in 1960 in El Paso Texas, his father Julian Ramirez was a Mexican immigrant and mother Mercedes Ramirez a Mexican American citizen and they worked for long hours to support their family (Grise, 2010).

juvenile is to commit that crime. Both theories, place the individuals as rational decision makers who debate the risks with the benefits of law breaking.

How can theories help us understand criminal behavior and design strategies intended to control such behavior?

Many theories of crime are macro theories, which are used to explain crime based on a large group of people or society. While macro theories are the predominant type of theory used to explain crime, there are also a variety of “individual”, or micro, factors which are equally important. Two such individual factors s are maternal cigarette smoking (MCS) and cognitive ability, or Intelligence Quotient (IQ).