The belief that there is a criminal gene that may be passed down is a fallacy. Looking at genes specifically in order to classify a criminal and possibly justify that notion is not able to stand. One of the ways this is negated is with adoption. Your genes at this point are only the foundation of what kind of body shape you have, how your early temperaments start, and possibly what kind of life span you will have. The parents you may be adopted into are not your birth parents, and they would be totally different in the biological sense. So, people can still say that a gene will be prevalent through being raised by separate parents. Yet, we do not know how this child came to be adopted by their particular adoptive parents. They could have wandered …show more content…
A person who is morally inclined would be least likely to commit crime. Knowing the consequences of a crime may be a huge deterrence factor of its own, but combined with the understanding and ability to place oneself into another’s shoes also deters a person from crime. With the ability to tell right from wrong, a gene would not be able to change the fact that what is wrong will continue to be wrong no matter what is at stake. At the higher realization or actualization an individual realizes that it is not just themselves in the world, but a small part of society, and if you may wrong against one there is a possibility you are wronging others which could be a enormous deterrence …show more content…
Depending on the background, having a family history in crime may affect an individual. There is no true way to prove that a gene is a cause of criminal activity, but with predisposition to crime, one might fall into it easier. Hormones change a person early on, through puberty, and even later in life. There may be random spikes in hormone levels and these levels may heighten the sense of a need to expel or release tense and high emotions. This could be carried out through criminal activity. Either for a release or for amplifying the feelings one may have, the possibility of crime occurring during these times may be reflective of having a criminal gene, or a predisposition to crime. Knowing or not knowing that one may have a so called criminal gene would not change the fact or urge to go commit crime. With this example it is more than possible for the notion of a criminal
Theories such as, Inherited Criminality, Appearance, and even theories regarding the poor development of key areas of the Central Nervous System (CNS), could all be factors. But what really stands out, is how these biological factors may have interacted within the environment in which these children grew up (Bernard, 2016). Most of the children featured in the documentary were abused, delinquent, and often used drugs and alcohol. Any undetermined biological or physical factor as identified by the biological theories of crime, could very well have played a role when factored into the environmental conditions that the child was growing up
An interesting fact is that after leaving his family, Leo Pittman, Aileen’s father, was later arrested after he sexually abused a teenage girl; he then committed suicide while serving time in prison (A&E Biography). According to data listed in the Hagan (2016) slides, with respect to genetics and crime, “the major premise of the [genetics and crime] theory is that criminal traits and predispositions are inherited” (Hagan. (2016). Introduction to Criminology (9th Edition). [PowerPoint slides].
Introduction Jennifer Ebarhardt who, through her collaboration with different experts in various fields such as law, criminology, novel studies that further law enforcements and judges as well as criminology discover in her studies found out that there is racial bias in today’s policing and sentencing of criminals such that black color is stereotype as group of people who are associated with violence and therefore they mostly received death sentence especially when their victims are whites and therefore they are blacks who are arrested. These behaviors can be best explains using the following theories: General Strain Theory According to this theory, people are involved in crimes because they are not in a position to achieve their goals making them to be frustrated and has the following sources: A person aspiring to become wealth and famous but these aspirations are impossible making them to engage in vandalism or physical attacks which are antisocial forms of behaviors, a person may experience strains due to removal of highly valued stimuli such as migration to new residence will make him/her to get involved in criminal activities in efforts to revenge the loss of highly valued stimuli. Black American youths are unable to meet making them to develop frustration and delinquency.
Criminal behaviour has always been an interest for psychologists, for they could never quite come to a conclusion between nature and nurture. Research concerning this topic has been organized for many years and due to the never ending debate, is still being conducted. I have decided to read and write about this myself, for I was genuinely curious about the matter and wanted to be a part of the research, as I felt responsible to do so. I believe that in order to stop something, it must be discussed and scrutinized. What effects do genes have on criminal behaviour, why do peer pressure and habitat influence a person to commit crimes and are men really more violent than women?
This theory clearly rules out the effect of inherited or innate factors, and the last is the cognitive theory, which is based on how the perception of an individual is manifested into affecting his or her potential and capability to commit a crime. (Psychological theories of crime) Relating these theories to the case under study, it’s clear that the behaviour can be traced most times to faulty relationships in the family during the first years of
Throughout the years of human advancement people have suffered and lives have been stolen in the pursuit of personal gain. Although it does make me question if it is always for someone’s personal gain or if there are other factors that are involved. The human mind and soul has been shown to be inherently evil one generation after another. I n this paper I will discuss why I think people are inherently evil through some genetics, how someone was raised, and the selfish things that people do in hopes of bettering themselves. I will always stand by the idiom “the apple does not fall far from the tree” and explain how we, humans don’t change throughout our offspring, and thus we can be eternally evil.
Most was derived from the assumption that behaviors such as; criminal and otherwise, are inherited. Which means that criminals are biologically different than non-criminals. One of the earliest explanations was known as Phrenology which was in the mid-1700’s to mid-1800’s, which viewed the shape and size of the brain and skull as determinants of criminal tendencies. The next early positivist explanation for deviance was in 1876, Cesare Lombroso’s theory of “Atavism” and “The Born Criminal” This was the 1st Major Application of this new science to the study of criminals and deviance.
Fifth, the specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable. Sixth, a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law. Seventh, Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity. Eighth, the process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning. Lastly, while criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.
Within the past couple of decades, criminologists have developed different criminological theories that apply to the social behaviors and decisions of criminals. One of the earliest theories developed regarding criminality is the rational choice theory, in which describes the rationalization of determining if the rewards from committing the crime outweigh the consequences. In Scarver’s case, his decision to engage in criminal activities outweighed the potential consequences, or the other alternatives if he did not engage in such criminal activities. In addition to the rational choice theory, Scarver’s criminality can be related to the social disorganization theory, which describes the influence of one’s social and physical environment on one’s decision to commit a crime. Lastly, the strain theory can be related to Scarver’s criminality as well, as it is used to describe an individual who lacks the means to obtain such goals, and aspirations, so therefore, he or she engages in criminal activities to acquire the goals.
Today, there are proven facts that people who have parents that are criminals have a high chance of becoming criminals themselves. Not only can people become criminals because of their family but they can also become criminals because of the environment that they surround themselves in. This is where nature versus nurture comes into play. A person’s nature is their genetic makeup, basically meaning that a person’s nature is the genes they get from their parents. Also, a person’s genotype, one’s genetic makeup based on the sequencing of the nucleotides we term, provides them with physical traits that set the stage for certain behaviors (56).
Where external and internal factors play a part and they are fated to be a criminal. The scientific grounds are offenders and people who have not yet offended can be given help, and they can be diagnosed by experts and receive treatment needed to not offend (Cavadino, 2007
Furthermore, the psychology of criminal behavior, psychology, and criminology all have a primary objective of achieving an understanding of the variation in the criminal behavior of individuals (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Empirically, the study of variation in criminal behavior is done by the studying of covariates (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). The primary covariates that PCC studies are biological, social, and psychological (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Although, criminology tends to assess criminality at an aggregate level, in comparison to the psychology of criminal conduct’s focus on an individual level. Additionally, a psychology of criminal conduct involves applying what is learned by the studying of psychological information and methods to the predicting and influencing the propensity of criminal behavior on an individual
According to Siegel (2015), trait theory is the view that criminality is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits which can be subdivided into two major categories: those that stress biological makeup and those that stress psychological functioning (p. 109). Biological trait theories includes four different conditions: biochemical, neurophysiological, genetic, and evolutionary. Biochemical factors will include diet, hypoglycemia, hormonal influences, premenstrual syndrome, lead exposure, and environmental contaminants. Neurophysiological factors will include brain structure, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, brain chemistry, and arousal theory. Genetic causes could stem from parental deviance, adoption studies, and
There are many phenomena that could cause or correlate with crime. In addition to this, there are many characteristics to these phenomena that cause/correlate with criminal behavior. Furthermore, these characteristics can be individual, sociological, or both that could have an effect on criminal behavior. This paper will take the educational avenue on crime.
There are some people out there that believe there is one reason why people commit crime and that is because they are genetically predisposed to it. In my opinion, I could never be able to fathom the thought that there is one specific reason why people commit crime. I also believe crime has a lot to do with how someone is brought up and the environment they are in. It is hard for me to believe that there are people out there that are just born with a predisposition to commit crime. Committing crime to me isn’t necessarily always a bad thing.