Over The Years, Criminologist Have Taken The Task To Help

Developmental theories are propositions that view crimes, holding the perception that as people undergo life transitions, their experiences influence their behavioral characteristics and patterns. These inevitable behavioral characteristics do change at different points of life. They are also used to seek out the identification, description and comprehension of the factors explaining the inception and continuation of criminal professions. The theories also seem to find the assertion behind the why people engage in criminal and the reason behind their ability in altering the trajectory of their progress in criminal involvement. These theories are distinctively categorized in two broad categories that are contextualized in this paper, the latent trait and life course theories.

This paper summarizes four theories of criminology. Rational choice theory states that criminals act based on a thought process that weighs the pros and cons of criminality. Criminologists who believe in this theory feel that most criminals are people capable of having rational thoughts before committing a crime. Trait theory is the view of criminology that suggests criminality is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits. Criminologists who believe in this theory feel that criminals choose to commit crime because of a brain anomaly or chemical imbalance. Social structure theory is “a view that disadvantaged economic class position is a primary cause of crime” (Seigel 139). Those who follow this theory often believe social forces can have a great effect on whether or not a person commits a crime. An example would be those who are poor are more being more prone to commit crime. Social process theory is a view that criminality depends on how a person interacts with different organizations and institutions and processes in society. For example, a family would be considered

Sampson and John H. Laub suggest the a person can outgrow their deviant or criminal behavior. Where as theorist Robert Agnew proposes the general strain theory, can determine delinquent or non-delinquent behavior. According to Sampson and Laub, age graded theory exists due to weak social bonds, insufficient parenting, and acquaintance with delinquent peers influence deviant or criminal behavior. Age-Graded Theory came about during a longitudinal study that followed 500 white delinquent male subjects paired with 500 white non-delinquent male subjects, all residing in Boston. Sampson and Laub applied the Glueck data to create their Age-Graded Theory. The study concluded in 1965, when the male subject’s average age was 32. According to the study, Sampson and Laub explained that individuals have the potential for change or continuance in the life of crime of the course of life. However, over the course of life, major events can happen that can alter one’s path. Sampson and Laub recognized three significant events that can alter the path of delinquency through life. Examples are, employment, marriage, and military enlistment.

Life-Course Persistent offenders are anti-social at an early age and continue to be antisocial through adulthood. The continuation of antisocial behavior will indicate who will be a life-course persistent offender. This theory explains why individuals continue to offend based on biological differences they have during adolescence as well as why these individuals commit most of the offenses in adulthood. Life-Course Persistent theory takes into account different traits, environment, and developmental processes. There is an ongoing relationship between personal trains and environments contexts (Moffitt 1993).

The life course criminology, suggests that human development simultaneously takes place on numerous levels such as, psychological, biological, cultural, societal, familiar, interpersonal and ecological (Schmalleger, 2012). Criminal behavior "tends to follow a distinct pattern across the life cycle; also life course criminology" (Schmalleger, 2012 P. 192). It is believed that criminality is uncommon during childhood, but tends to manifest itself in the form of delinquency around adolescence and early adulthood. However, that it will diminish once a individual is around 30 or 40 years old. In other words a individual develops criminal behavior, by the causes of obstacles that were associated with the transition from childhood to adulthood. When

Rob Sampson and John Laub developed their age-graded, life-course theory of crime using some data studied by criminologists. In the 1940s, Sheldon and Eleanor Gluck conducted a longitudinal study of troubled boys in Boston and studied them through adolescence. Sampson and Laub found their data in the basement of the Harvard Library, reanalyzed it and identified turning points in a delinquent career. Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory holds that the social sources of behavior change over the life course.They looked at the individual's childhood and their life into adulthood found out that some of the troubled boys stayed in trouble for the rest of their lives, while others had no legal problems.

Explain the essential points of life course theories of criminality: In the criminological field, life course theory is used as a pillar and a starting point for a variety of other theories that are less extensive and more detailed. The history of the theory arises from the 1920’s theorist, Karl Mannheim whose work established the results of exactly how human capabilities, precisely endured in childhood that would outline their ultimate outcome (Piquero, 2015). He later explains the results that will be passed down from generation to generation determining past generations form further generations. Although Mannheim’s research helped expand the life-course technique in the social sciences field the sociological approach to learning the

This is one of the more obvious factors in criminal behavior. For example, a child growing up surrounded by a family with a criminal past is more likely to fall into the same tendencies than a child growing up around a family with no criminal past. The final factor of the sociological theory is peers. Peers can fall under the same category as family in a way that who an individual is exposed to in the developmental stages of childhood directly reflects on how an individual will be. Furthermore, children are extremely vulnerable to influences at young ages and when surrounded by peers with criminal backgrounds they are susceptible to fall into the same patterns.

Trait theories posit that crime is caused by certain traits, biological or psychological, among individuals which predispose them to crime. These traits control the individual's coping strategies and ultimately result in criminal behavior. Social philosopher Cesare Lombroso, working in the early 1900's, theorized that there were common physical traits shared by criminals. (Glaser, 205-6). These included distinct characteristics in the jaw line, teeth, and nose as cranium of offenders. As a result, public law enforcement viewed offenders as either incapable of reason or as unable to control their animal impulses. (Glaser, 206).

Combining age-graded theory and anomie theory would help explain criminality by using more variables that have been proven reliable. Merton 's theory created in the 1930s is ‘incomplete’ (Messner, & Rosenfeld, 2006) and life-course may help complete this theory. Anomie factors affect a person in adolescents differently than a person in adulthood, this is why adapting life course with anomie can be helpful. Merton states his view of biological variables, “It provides no basis for determining the non-biological conditions which induce deviations from predicted pattern of conduct.” (Merton, 1938, p.672). Individual variables like biological factors are important, but they are aspects of criminality.

Throughout the years, the association between a criminal offense and a criminal have become more relevant. Although there are many theories that try to illustrate the concept of why crimes happen, no theory has a profound influence of understanding an individual’s nature, relationship, development, and a society itself (Coleman & Ganong, 2014). To further explain, “theories of crime are defined in relation to modernity, spanning their development from the enlightenment to the present, with the advent of postmodernism” (Miller, 2012, p. 1798). In other words, theories of crime are an approach to understanding an individuals behaviour and actions in their environment, society, and themselves that may lead to crime. Nevertheless, within this paper, it will be comparing the case of

The life-course approach is a broad theory that has been adapted by many other fields of the social sciences and behavioural sciences such as social history, developmental psychology, and gerontology (Elder, 1994). Life-course criminology focuses on three main issues: how offending and antisocial behaviour develops, the risk factors at various ages, and how life events shape development (Farrington, 2003). One of the greatest attributes of life-course theory is in its duality. It can be applied on a macro-level scale to provide insight into specific groups of

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,.

Figuring out why people commit crimes is one of the central concerns of criminology. Do most criminals act rationally after weighing the costs of crime? Is society ever to blame for an individual to commit a crime? Do mental diseases or even genetics factor into whether a person will live a life of crime. Over the years, many people have developed theories to try to answer these questions. In fact, the number of theories of why people commit crimes sometimes seems to equal the number of criminologists. I explore these questions and much more in the paper that follow.

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