Nature VS Nurture – Are Criminals Born or Made? Essay

Bradley R. E. Wright, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie E. Moffitt and Ray Paternoster Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 2004 41: 180 DOI: 10.1177/0022427803260263 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jrc.sagepub.com/content/41/2/180

It has been suggested that genes inherited play a very important role in persons involved in criminal activity, and that genes effect the thought process which determines if a individual chooses to become active in criminal activities.

Criminal Justice Theorists attempted to find out a plausible scientific explanation to crime and criminal behavior of individuals. At the same time, criminology emerged under the impact of other sciences, such as psychology or sociology, for example. As a result, often criminology theories are often intertwined with psychological or sociological concepts and theories as well as concepts and theories from other sciences. The study of key works of criminology theorists can help to understand better criminology, crime, criminal behavior and causes of crime. In this regard, it is possible the distinct and persisting debate concerning causes of crimes and explanation of criminal behavior, which is based on nature-nurture debate, where internal factors, especially heredity, confront environmental, external factors, such as social environment, economic position or social class of individuals, which are viewed as determinant factors of criminal activities, but the development of polices related to such issues as the police violence proves a significant, if not to

There are different perspectives on explanations of criminal behavior such as Biological and Psychological explaining crime. The two perspectives have been considered exterior in criminology since majority perspective come from sociology. Sociology focuses on how law-abiding citizens become criminals and conventional lack of opportunity. Therefore the two perspectives had to take a back seat in history because they were seen as naive and not take serious. “Sociological theories cannot explain how one person can be born in a slum, be exposed to family discord and abuse, never attend school, have friends who are delinquents and yet resist opportunities for crime, while another person can grow up in an affluent suburban neighborhood in a two-parent home, attend the finest schools, have every financial need met, and end up firing a gun at a president” ” (Adler, Muller & Laufer, 1991).

Biological Explanations of Crime – Strengths and weakness Biological explanations of crime suggests that crime is due to the nature of an individual, this is highly controversial as it suggests crime is innate and not a cause of the environment. These theories suggest that criminals are born with criminal tendencies. This essay will discuss various biological explanations of crime and point out some strengths and weaknesses. Cesare Lombroso, whom established criminology as a science, founded this theory. He gathered facts in an empirical study and found physiological characteristics to identify ‘The Criminal Man’, these characteristics were; “head-size (circumference/diameter), non-symmetric facial features, sloping forehead, protruding jaw,

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 and psychological perspectives seek to explain the underlying cause of criminal behavior through the means of individual genetic and mental ailments. However, these views are different from sociological aspects in that sociological theories focus on environmental factors found among groups and do not account for genetic and personality traits of those who have come from both good and bad situations. Therefore, psychologist and biologist try to account for influences of a genetic and mental nature in connection with the one’s social environment.

There are also many perspectives related to these theories including the biological and physiological perspective of explaining crime. The biological perspective tend to suggest that mankind commits crime because of several factors, which include; brain damage, head trauma, blood abnormalities, genetic predispositions, hormonal imbalance, brain abnormalities, hypoglycemia, lack of neurotransmitters in the brain and fetal alcohol syndrome (Canter, 2014). Theories of deviant behavior emanating from biological explanations are not widely accepted more so in the field of criminology, since criminologists center academically on social sciences. This is more so because the society of today perceives biological explanations as if they tend to suggest “hopelessness” (Sutherland et al, 1992). This is an assumption that is totally misguided bearing in mind that the brain is the center of personalities as well as

The origin of crime has been a question that has been studied for years. The debate has always been between whether nature or nurture influences criminal behaviour. There has been a considerably large amount of studies on this troubling question. Research from twin, adoption, and family studies are used to investigate the existing genetic and environmental influences on criminal behaviour.It should be taken into consideration that there are some mental and physical disorders that can also influence such behaviour. Research has shown that genetic and environmental factors go hand in hand in the influence on criminal behaviour.

Many studies have found that criminal behavior often runs in families. Osborne and West (1982) performed a study in which they compared sons of criminal fathers and sons of fathers who have not been involved with crime. Their findings indicated that 40% of the sons of criminal fathers had criminal convictions while only 13% of the sons of non/criminal fathers were involved in a crime. Although they are reliable, the findings of this study cannot be completely attributed to genetic influence. This is due to the effect of environmental factors, specifically the upbringing of the children by their criminal fathers which is very likely to have affected their criminal activities and thus, the findings of this study. In order to further investigate the idea of heritability of crime, environmental factors such as

I believe that some traits are heritable but a criminal behavior is not inherited. For instance, an old cliche’ state that an apple does not fall far from the tree. For that reason, an individual can have the same characteristics of the caregiver, in which he or she can obtain some of their behaviors.These characteristics are linked to antisocial behavior, in which will increase the chances of impulsive and sensation-seeking criminal behavior (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). In addition, it is a personal choice in how an individual determines his or her behavior. In such matter, a person can become limited in believing that criminal behavior is acceptable, because of their upbringing as a child. In other words, if a child caregiver is a gang affiliated

One researcher studied a theory relating to sociopaths and their antisocial behavior. This specific study proposed a theory that a primary sociopath is lacking in moral development and does not feel socially responsible for their actions. This type of sociopath is a product of the individual's personality, physiotype, and genotype, which supports the theory that a person’s genotype is the significant factor in the development of criminality. There is a secondary sociopath that develops in response to his or her environment because of how and where they were raised. Living in an urban residence, having a low socioeconomic status, or poor social skills can lead an individual to being unsuccessful in reaching their needs in a socially desirable way, which can turn into antisocial or criminal behavior. This supports the theory that the environment is the significant factor in the development of criminality. With these studies, it shows that both the genetic make-up of an individual as well as the environment play an important role with what kind of person they are going to be as an adult.

Many biological theories of crime have been developed to explain the analysis of crime and criminality. Scientific studies of research have formed theories as to what makes a criminal a criminal and what social factors can contribute to criminality. As a result, criminology scientists Cesare Lombroso, William Sheldon, and Sandberg believe that the presence of certain physical traits made it more likely that an individual would become a criminal. The three scientist each share significant theories of criminal characteristics, criminal personality and criminal behavioral tendencies. Criminologist Cesare Lombroso studied scientifically the “born criminal” Atavism theory, which he believed modern criminals share physical characteristics with primitive humans, Sheldon studied the somatotype theory, the three body types relating to an individual personality and Franz Gall discovered and studied the phrenology theory, “bumps on the head” could indicate certain criminal tendencies. Each theorist philosophy of criminality conveys a scientific hypothesis as to what biosocial elements of crime establishes an individual as a criminal.

Biological theories of crime claims that criminal behavior is a result of biological abnormalities. As stated in the lecture, these theories are good at explaining individual differences ,contrasted to the classical school of criminology, free will and deterrence is of little value to the biological perspective. However, though the biological theories are good at explaining individual differences , it has difficulty explaining why one city has more crime than another.

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,.