What makes crime a rampant convention of human civilization? According to The International Center for Prison Studies (2013), the United States holds the record for highest incarceration rates in the world at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. At the beginning of 2013, the world population was recorded at 7.1 billion; 10.2 million of that is the world’s currently documented prison population. In the past 15 years since the first edition of ICPS’s World Prison Population List, world prison population has increased 25-30% (ICPS; Walmsley, 2013). Actual crime in the United States is projected to occur every 26 seconds for violent crimes, and every 3.5 seconds for non-violent crimes. With the steady advancements in law enforcement, social …show more content…
Because these perspectives consider many different theories relating to the environmental facets, they will be considered further. It is hypothesized that perceived conditions of resources in the environment and levels of socioeconomic status (SES) are associated with deviant behavior such as theft. Deeper analysis on the relationship between crime and the environment seems to boil down to poverty or environmental scarcity as the instigating factor (Taylor, 2006). Research on the consequences of scarcity for third-world countries by Homer-Dixon (1994) supports this understanding and further asserts that crime and violence are actually by-products of sub-national social and economic crisis resulting ultimately from environmental scarcity. Environmental scarcity can be defined as the lack of any resource deemed necessary to maintaining the status quo or quality of life; such as renewable/non-renewable natural resources or basic needs like food, water, and shelter; it can also be in part, subjective; not limited to physical resources, and ranging from services, preferences and beliefs, to mental …show more content…
For example, scarce resources inflicted by either environmental exploitation, environmental privatization, or natural causes, can impoverish nations dependent on these resources—subjecting them to compensate by taking loans in order to afford the maintenance and importing of resources; in almost all cases, loans come attached with compounded interest, which can easily accumulate faster than the nation’s economic growth (Kennedy, 1995; Maltritz, 2010). The pressure placed on a nation unable to pay back its debts accordingly can result in economic depravation and the disruption of key social institutions, which in turn can elicit “deprivation” conflicts such as corruption, civil strife, and insurgency. For the impoverished nation’s citizens, the repercussions constitute rampant civil crime and violence; such was, and is still, the case for Africa and South America (Homer, 1994; Jackson, 1985). Poor populations suffer the most from scarcity induced crime since they are unable to buffer themselves as well as wealthier populations (Homer-Dixon, 1994); this fundamentally places them at a disadvantage, in which individuals inescapably accrue
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
Describing and Evaluating the Major Theories of Cause of Criminal Behaviour and the Impact of Crime on Victims and Society
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.
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.
Most people get killed over what is known as the “Code of The Street.” In the movie it shows that their code of the street was revenge. They killed Ricky Doughboy and his friends killed them. It also shows that violence and crime happens all over something petty. In one scene in the movie they show Ferris walking into Ricky
Spatial segregation has created low-income communities, which have a weak structural base due to the scarcity of the economic and human capital resources necessary for ascertaining and safeguarding community interests. These vulnerabilities will impact the insertion of these individuals’ status in society (Souza, Xavier, Rican, de Matos, & Barcellos, 2015). Spatial segregation generated poverty, which has impacted the world in many ways. High destitute levels have affected society by creating breeding grounds for ethnic hatred, inter-communal violence, and religious extremism in areas of low education. The lack of economic opportunities in poor regions has resulted in terrorism and revolutions across the globe. Poverty has created areas of poor sanitation due to the using of natural water supplies as latrines and waste dumps, which shrink the drinkable water supply. These communities suffer the harmful toxic effects of burn carbon-intensive fuels for cooking and heating. These communities suffer greatly in maintaining a strong foundation of human capital due to the lack of education and high infant mortality (Polak & Warwick, 2013). This problem, in turn, has resulted in areas contaminated with an increase of people with health issues (mental and physical), increased crime, lack of resources and education.
Biological Theories are vastly growing with fascinating research. The main stump is concretely linking it to criminal behavior, because some theories are more relatable than others. Theories involving temperament and hormones give real life biological explanations, while others like extrovert and introvert behaviors, and neuroticism explain a weaker link to crime. However, all theories are valuable in exploring the root of crime.
There are many perspectives in which one can analyze and understand why a person decides to commit a crime. Some perspectives are social learning theory, strain theory, classical and rational choice theory, deterrence theory, biological and psychological positivist theories, among others. However, for the purposes of this paper, the biological and psychological theories will be discussed.
The psychological theories of criminal behavior focus on the lack of socialization, incomplete cognitive development, and bad childhood experiences. Those who study psychological theories believe that failures in cognitive development can be a major factor in malfunctioning behavior. These criminals have difficulty controlling anger and containing violence, which causes them to lash out. The results of these episodes are murder, rape, robbery, assault, and battery. Many more crimes can come about from such behavior, especially when the criminal falls into a negative cycle. Their behavior spirals out of their control, as they try to solve each of their crimes by committing another, to try and right the situation.
Theories of crime causation get to the fundamental characteristics of human nature. Theories of crime causation can be separated into trait theories and choice theories. Both types of theories make valid points about the causes of crime, yet they are have different implications for preventing the causes of crime. Thesis: Trait theories and choice theories both assume that humans are self-interested, but their conceptions of self-interest limit the applicability of each to certain types of crime. Trait theories appear more suited for explaining the causes of violent crime, whereas choice theories are more appropriate to property crimes or economic crimes.
According to the book (Schmalleger, 2012), the social process theory, or the interactionist theory, is a theory that asserts that criminal behavior is learned in interaction with others and that socialization processes that occur as the result of group membership are the primary route through which learning occurs (Schmalleger, 177). So this theory states that people learn from hanging around or being around other people. The criminal behavior is learned from learning about what the other people do and talk about.
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;
Of the different types of criminal theory, Social Control Theory is the most plausible in explaining the reasons for crime. As Hendrix states in Experience Criminal Justice, Social Control Theory states that people commit crime to gain positive outcomes and to remove negative outcomes (Hendrix, 48). Even though this may appear as a simplistic explanation, it is a consistent and fundamental, human desire. Although morality, ethics, and laws exist, a person’s desires can easily allow ignorance to remove what a person sees as right or wrong. This can be see in a young child refusing to obey their parents so that they can gain their desired object or feeling.
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).
Crime exists everywhere in the world – in rural and urban areas in many countries, in the East and West, and among all types of people. This has led many government officials, especially those in urban areas, to focus largely on the reduction of crime among their respective constituencies and has led others to speculate on the factors that influence the amount of crime and how those factors can be controlled. Crime has been around since man and there is no doubt that it will continue to be around, until there is an existence of a perfect world. But for now, we