The Major Theories Of Criminal Behavior And - amazonia.fiocruz.br

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Serial killers attract a lot of attention because of their motives and brutal methods of committing heinous crimes. At the heart of studies of serial killers is the nature versus nurture argument. This argument can be expanded by asking whether serial killers commit crimes because of genetic dispositions or whether a person can be taught to be a serial killer. A lot can be learned from the in depth study and profiling of serial killers. Therefore, you know how and why a particular theory is used in these cases. This will help you predict and possibly prevent future victimization. Victimology is important in the overall investigative process because it not only provides information about the victims their health, personal history, social habits, and personalities but also explains why they became victims. To understand victimology, it is important to understand the method of approach, the method of attack, and the risk assessment by the offender.

The Major Theories Of Criminal Behavior And Video

Theories of Criminal Behaviour The Major Theories Of Criminal Behavior And

When crime is truly the product of rational choice, the offender commits the act for reasons of personal gain or gratification. His or her behavior is under his or Od complete control. How and to what degree, however, might other factors intrude on and compromise his or her ability to exercise free will?

Social Factors

The response to this question has come in the form of innumerable theories, each purporting to explain criminal behavior in terms of specific factors. Broadly speaking, criminal behavior theories involve three categories of factors: psychological, biological, and social. In fact, human behavior is the product of complex interactions among many factors.

Rather than providing a summary of myriad theories, this research paper focuses on the main factors involved in the expression and suppression of criminal behaviors. There is a vast criminological literature that identifies a wide range of environmental factors as causally linked to criminal behavior.

These include developmental, social, and economic factors. For example, poverty is often cited as a socioeconomic condition linked to crime. The stress, strain, and frustration experienced by those lacking the financial resources to meet their needs and fulfill their desires through legitimate means renders them more inclined to commit crime than affluent individuals with ready access to legitimate means.

Maajor Poor nutrition is an especially troubling aspect of poverty. Nutritional deficiencies can result in or exacerbate problems such as learning disabilities and poor impulse control. Such cognitive dysfunctions have been identified as precursors to delinquency and adult criminality. Growing up in a household where parental displays of violence are commonplace can shape the behavior of children so as to make them more likely to respond to their own problems with violent means.

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While aggression and violence are not synonymous, that they are correlated is undeniable. Psychologist Albert Bandura demonstrated the importance of social learning in the development of aggressive behavior. Exposure to a violent role model may operate as a trigger of preexisting psychological and biological factors that predispose that individual to aggressive behavior. Other research has examined the check this out of being bullied during formative years, finding that the victims in turn become victimizers.

In animal experiments, exposure to conditions of inescapable threat has been found to alter specific chemicals in the brain involved in aggression and the inhibition of aggression, with the result that formerly docile animals go on to display inappropriate and excessive aggression, attacking smaller, weaker animals whenever presented with them. Empirical studies on the effects of child maltreatment reveal that in addition to psychological problems actual The Major Theories Of Criminal Behavior And and functional damage to the developing brain may occur. These neurobiological effects may be an adaptive mechanism for living in that dangerous environment. Regardless, they also tend to predispose the individual to a range of psychiatric conditions, aggressive behaviors, and stress-related illnesses.

Resilient children, so called because of their ability to thrive under high-risk conditions, appear to have cognitive capabilities notably higher verbal intelligence that enable them to adapt to their stressful environment. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie resilience may reveal deficits in those who succumb to the harmful effects of their disadvantaged or abusive childhood—often becoming delinquent and criminal as a result.

Of course, the majority of poor people are not criminals, and the majority of those growing up in abusive homes or who are bullied do not go on to become criminals, raising the question: What it is about those who commit crime that distinguishes them The Major Theories Of Criminal Behavior And others go here experience similar circumstances but are law abiding?

Furthermore, why would individuals who do not experience such adversity commit crime? The answer to these questions is that social factors affect different people differently. By and large it is the psychological and biological makeup of an individual that determines how here to what extent external forces affect his behavior.

Psychological and biological factors interact to render an individual more or less vulnerable to adverse social conditions. This should not be taken to diminish the influence of social factors on criminal behavior, for indeed they have a significant role, but rather to highlight the fact that the effect they have depends on the psychological and biological makeup of the individual. Ultimately, it is the individual who acts—criminally or otherwise. By virtue of the requirement of mens rea, criminal courts are concerned with the psychological elements that underlie criminal behavior. Research teaches, however, that the psychology of the offender emanates from a biological substrate. Mind and brain have an indelible connection.

Psychological Factors

While the vast majority of individuals with mental disorder do not commit crimes, it is estimated that rates of serious mental disorder among prison inmates are three to four times greater than they are for members of the general pop-ulation. Although this cannot blindly be taken to mean that the crimes of mentally disordered inmates were due to their psychopathology, or that mental disorder predated their incarceration, their disproportionate numbers relative to the general population article source confer significance to mental disorder as a contributing factor in criminal behavior. The relationship between criminal behavior and mental disorder is complex. Individuals who experience false perceptions i. Recent research has linked schizophrenia, a psychosis, to an increased risk of committing violent crime—usually against significant others in their lives not the randomly encountered strangers portrayed in popular media.]