Essay Juvenile Delinquency

First, psychological theory suggests that a person’s environment and past can influence their ability and desire to commit crime while biological theory suggest a person’s DNA makeup could influence their ability to commit crime. “Biological theories within the field of criminology attempt to explain behaviors contrary to societal expectations through examination of

The biological theories are essential to the criminal justice profession so that they won't assume that a person's genetic characteristics cause a person to commit a crime. However, there are born criminals and “these types of criminals are the most dangerous, and can be identified through his or her stigmata or identifying characteristics” (Akers, Sellers, See, & Kieser, 2013, p. 10). Biological theories are the bases for severe criminal behavior mostly found among people who are born with an innate impulse to commit a

Biological criminology began many years ago along with the scientist Cesare Lombroso. He believed that criminals are born, not made. A “born criminal”, is a “defective individual”, whom has natural or instinctive tendencies towards low types of social life. (Biosocial and Psychological Theories, Feb. 11, 2014) Biological criminology believes criminals are genetically determined but face major shortcomings for being “simplistic, untestable, illogical, and often ideological” (Biosocial and Psychological Theories, Feb. 11, 2014). By the 1950’s, biological theories had almost been wiped out because of the lack of support. Today we see some form of biological criminology intertwined with sociological theory. We see the interaction of biological and environmental variables playing a role in a person’s behavior. The original nature argument of biological criminology was rewritten as not nature versus nurture, but as “nature via nurture”. (Biosocial and Psychological Theories, Feb. 11, 2014)

The Nature and Nurture debate, one of the oldest debates in the history of psychology, questions whether or not criminal behaviour is a result of the nature of a person, meaning something that lies in their genes causing a person to act in a certain way, or nurture, the environment, therefore criminal behaviour as a result of a person’s life experiences (Sincero, 2012). This essay shall look in depth and answer to how the four areas of criminal behaviour, which are biological, sociological, psychological and environmental, as part of the nature and nurture debate, can explain criminality and deviance. This will be done by discussing a number of theories and experiments that have come to the surface over time. Researching the nature and nurture debate, it is shown that the debate continues to interest people today, mainly because of what is thought will be the outcome of these findings, which is preventing people turning to criminal behaviour by understanding people’s genetics, how they were born and avoid situations that lie in the environment to stop them interacting with criminal activities.

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

Evolutionary psychology is important to the study of crime because it provides an understanding to human behavior, including criminal behavior and responses to criminal behavior. Evolutionary psychology also provides criminologist with the tools to examine domains that have been unknown or to discover features in the causal chain that otherwise might be missed by existing criminology theories. According to evolutionary psychology, all human behavior, criminal or otherwise is a creation of psychological mechanisms combined with environmental contribution that activates them or prevents their activation. All human behavior, at some essential level of description, requires psychological mechanisms and environmental input into those mechanisms for their activation. Without the presence of psychological, no behavior could be produced. Criminal

Introduction: Recidivism or, habitual relapses into crime, has time and time again proven to be an issue among delinquents, which thereby increases the overall juvenile prison population. This issue has become more prevalent than what we realize. Unless a unit for measuring a juvenile’s risk of recidivism is enacted and used to determine a system to promote effective prevention, than the juvenile prison population will continue to increase. Our court system should not only focus on punishing the said juvenile but also enforce a program or policy that will allow for prevention of recidivism. So the question remains, how can recidivism in the juvenile prison population be prevented so that it is no longer the central cause for increased

No one can be certain whether nature or nurture is the cause for criminal behavior. However, research has stated that it is more often an interaction between genes and the environment that predicts criminal behavior (Jones, 2005). Through a biological perspective, it is determined that criminal behavior is due to genetics and/or neurological conducts. It concludes that criminals are born due to their criminal traits being passed down through genetic or chromosomal mutation. Another explanation of criminal behavior within the biological perspective are the neurochemicals within our brains and body. There many regulated chemicals in the brain that determines thought process, perception and action. Like the arguments for genetic and chromosomal mutation, any abnormal anomalies or chemical imbalance can heavily impact behavior (Schram, 2018). This goes for any damages to some parts of the brain that controls emotions, reason and logic. Problems with the biological perspective are the following: 1. It provide little explanations for a small of minority of offenders with specific conditions (Levitt, 2013). 2. Disregard the effect of environmental influences and life experiences that also impact behavior. 3. Since criminality is based on biology, it is unchangeable, therefore, no one is to be blamed for their actions. Lastly, 4. Famous studies on biological factors of criminality (ex: the twin, family and adoption studies) maintained an intertwined relationship with social

The biological theory explains criminal behavior as a result of any illnesses, heredity, trauma or improper development. It proposes several ways for crime control: psychosurgery and chemical methods (Helfgott, 2008). The biological methods of crime control are too expensive and because of that are not widely used.

The behavior of a criminal individual is a major center point for psychologists. Many experts have researched and debated the outcome of criminal behavior. Is it genetic makeup that makes an individual a criminal or is it their upbringing and background that influences their behavior? Studies and laboratory experiments have been used to try to determine the conclusion of an individual’s deviant behavior. The debate of this topic has resulted in concepts that both DNA and the conditions of an individual’s environment do play an important factor in the misconduct of an individual. There are also criminology theories such as classical theory, positivist theory, and deterrence of theory that help support the study of criminal behavior. These theories

Many psychologists have done many hours of research on criminal behaviour, of hoping to discover an explanation about why a person commits a crime. The debate as been on whether criminals are born this way (nature) or is it blamed on (nurture) the way a person is brought up. To say that criminals are biologically different to non- criminals would be an insubstantial way to process the situation, since genes mostly

All the biological theories are based on the notion that biological markers foreordain criminal behavior. The core of all these theories is that genetic factors or any abnormalities which are inherited or acquired throughout the life, predispose individuals to the criminal behavior. Lombroso’s theory gave life to probably almost every single biological theory that appeared afterward.

The three founding fathers of Biological theories are Cesare Lombroso, Raffaele Garofalo and Charles Goring which studied geneticists to explaining criminals. Therefore genes of children that display aggression or violent traits can be tendency of their parents’ genes. “Criminologist once again began to consider the possibility that there are indeed traits that predispose a person to criminality and that these traits may be passed from parent to child through the genes” (Adler, Muller & Laufer, 1991). This brings in play our genetics in which chromosomes we received from parents could produce higher probability of criminal offspring. Also studies have been conducted on adopted children to find genetic predisposition to criminality.

Many vulnerable individuals perform or act according to the dominant norms of the society, however, biological positivism specifies unlawful acts to be the cause of inherited characteristics. The biological positivist theory of criminology consists of different concepts, mainly focusing on whether genetic factors are influences to criminals and anti-social behaviour. The first concept, ‘biochemical abnormality’, designates abnormalities inside the organs and the

As stated by Bartol and Bartol “Juvenile delinquency is an imprecise, nebulous, social, clinical, and legal label for a wide variety of law- and norm-violating behavior” (2011, Pg 139). The juvenile delinquency term has come to imply disgrace in today's correctional institution. Our government is up hold to procedures and expected to come with a solution to solving the delinquent problem. An underage offender can be labeled a delinquent for breaking any number of laws, ranging from robbery to running away from home, and especially being involved in school violence. The following situations faced by correction officials when dealing with juvenile delinquents will be examined. Three main areas (child development, punishments, and deterrence