The Theory Of Criminal Behavior

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

No, I don’t believe that all delinquents are psychologically abnormal. Many theories relate to delinquent acts such as Choice Theory and Trait Theory. The trait theory suggest that delinquent acts come from personal problems and conditions. Choice theory believes that juvenile offenders are rational decision makers. The decision to violate the law comes after weighing of the benefits and cost of criminal behavior. These two theories suggest that a person reacts to environmental and social circumstances in a unique fashion. For example, a youth that lives in a poor neighborhood would sell illegal drugs to make money. Another might do great in school to get away from their environment.

The first theoretical perspectives on crime to be recognized originated around 1764 according to Siegel (2010), with the classical perspective. Founded by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, the perspective holds that society can deter crime when the consequences of crime are absolute, harsh, and quickly administered. They felt that people choose to commit crime after they considered the positive and negative aspects of the crime, and found that the positives outweigh the consequences. Modern classical theory is called choice theory. This perspective was the major influence on our penal system for the next two hundred years, until late into the 19th century, giving way to positivism and the scientific method of studying human behavior and society. It is from this positivism noted by August Comte, considered the founder of sociology, it is in this last stage that our current classifications of theoretical perspectives on crime have emerged. These theories, grouped into four categories, which are; sociological theories, biological theories, psychological theories, and social-psychological theories, represent different causes of crime. (Siegel, 2010)The first theoretical perspectives on crime to be recognized originated around 1764 according to Siegel (2010), with the classical perspective. Founded by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, the perspective holds that society can deter crime when the consequences of crime are absolute, harsh, and quickly administered. They felt that

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.

As society progresses, many aspects of life change and develop for both the better as well as the worse, this especially includes the aspect of criminology. Through the discovery of the victim, the shift in focus from offender since 1985, have been factors that have influenced the understanding of what causes crime. This can be demonstrated through texts composed from Carrabine, Karmen, Muncie, and Walklate. Furthermore, connections can be demonstrated through the assumptions, theories, and policy implications present through these texts.

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 are many different aspects of criminal justice policy. One in particular is the different theories of crime and how they affect the criminal justice system. The Classical School of criminology is a theory about evolving from a capital punishment type of view to more humane ways of punishing people. Positivist criminology is maintaining the control of human behavior and criminal behavior. They did this through three different categories of Biological studies, which are five methodologies of crime that were mainly focused on biological theories, Psychological theories, which contains four separate theories, and the Sociological theories, which also includes four different methods of explaining why crime exists. The last theory is

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.

In this essay, two theories specifically focusing on sexual offending against children are compared and critical evaluated. Finkelhor’s (1984) Precondition model integrates four underlying factors that might explain the occurrence of child sexual abuse and categorizes them into four preconditions: motivation to offend, overcoming internal inhibitors, overcoming external inhibitors and overcoming child’s resistance that occur in a temporal sequence where each is necessary for the other to develop. The Precondition model provides a framework for assessment of child molesters but is criticized for a lack of aetiological explanations and for paying to little attention to cognitive factors. Ward’s (2003) Pathways model suggest that clinical

Humans are complicated creatures. I proclaim that we are innately curious about everything. What, why, how, when are questions that constantly circulate in our minds. These questions then encourage us, naturally, to search for the answers. This is true in the area of crime and criminal behavior as well. Criminological theory attempts to describe why and how crime transpires by studying the countless social factors that influence someone to commit crimes. These theories are then supposed to explain both the understandings and roots of crime. Abstract outlooks offer an image of what something is and the best way of addressing that particular subject. In this section of the course we have explored different author’s sociological perspectives in the realm of theory. Each aim to explain why people engage in crime, but I will focus my attention on anomie/strain theories. First, I will provide a short summary of Merton’s anomie theory, Messner and Rosenfeld’s institutional-anomie theory and Agnew’s general strain theory. Next, I will take some time to highlight the strength or usefulness of the theories, with some critique, but mostly focusing on the positive value. Lastly, I will use the biological example of William Freeman and explain how the strain theory is directly relational.

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

It explains how an offender will commit a crime for his or her own benefit or personal gain. The individual knows the act is criminal but the reward outweighs the consequence. Another theory is Sociological Positivism, this theory studies the relationships between public influences and crime. This theory is fueled by a study of social structures within an offender’s environment. Biological Positivism is another theory developed by Cesare Lombroso in the late 1800s and studies the change and physical differences between criminals and non-criminals, saying that some people are born as criminals. One more theory is the Psychological Positivism which introduces that the cause of crimes is rooted in the offender’s mental health stability or in personality disorders. For example, schizophrenia, bi-polar disease, psychopathic personality, and depression to name a few. This theory the individual who may or may not know what reality is. The offender may have a chemical imbalance that does not allow them to know right from wrong and the cause of the crime may be from inside and unavoidable versus a controlled decision.

Every theory of crime has at least 2-3 meta-theoretical levels above it. The fundamental issues are usually addressed at the approach level, and are often called the assumptions, or starting points, of a theory, although the term "assumptions" more strictly refers to the background or domain boundaries one can draw generalizations about. Above the approach level is the Perspective level, the largest unit of agreement within a scientific community, and in fact, the names for the scientific disciplines. Perspectives are sometimes called paradigms or viewpoints, although some people use the term paradigm to refer to untestable ideologies such as: (1) rational choice; (2) pathogenesis; (3) labeling;

But I was wrong and quite premature in blaming the reality, I fail to notice the macro (social) aspects of people’s doing. Only it seems to me different when I come to study this paper of criminology. My perception of the criminal offense is therefore totally transforming; I now think that offense is a collective construction and serve only in a given context and time but might not be applied to another setting. I, therefore, believe that offense is not born with or constrained by our biological being but instead by our social being.

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)