Based on the various hypothesis, theories, and strategies supplied by the likes of Shaw & McKay (1931), Sampson & Groves (1989), C. Ray Jeffrey (1971), Jane Jacobs(1961), Oscar Newman (1972), Cohen and Felson (1979) , and Paul and Patricia Brantingham (1981), it seems that environmental criminology focuses not only on the criminal event itself, but […]
Crime during the Great Depression was a huge deal. Although crime rates during his time decreased, the types of crimes became more extreme. It expressed itself in stump fishing, theft, and bootlegging. Adults would fish illegally to provide as much food as they could for their children, and children would steal food from their local […]
Our editors will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!
Get startedThere are many key factors that lead to many people in the united states to live in poverty that include lack of resources, not enough education, no jobs, conflict, and non-governmental structure. Poverty is something that makes up most of the population here in the United States but what many people don’t understand is the […]
“The center also attributes this spurt of hate group growth to the rise of Trump and his inflammatory rhetoric during the presidential campaign.” (Ibrahim) The influence of Trump’s presidency increase bigotry throughout the nation which form hate groups toward minority. It is hard to believed that Wisconsin is rate as being the top highest racist […]
In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, secrecy greatly affected Dorian Gray and the weakness his mind had caused a tragic downfall. Dorian Gray was an innocent, beautiful, handsome young man who sold his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influences changed him from an innocents into an evil person who blames others for […]
A hate crime is, normally one including attack, that is propelled by partiality based on religion, sexual orientation, race, or different areas. The reasons for gathering insights, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has characterized a hate crime as a ‘criminal offense against an individual or property inspired in entire or to some extent by a […]
The central idea for Oedipus the King and America’s Obsession with Crime is that everyone has done something wrong and has been guilty of it. In Oedipus the king, somebody was guilty of killing Laius and Jocasta was guilty of lying to Oedipus(her son) so she killed herself. In America’s Obsession with crime, we are […]
The photo I choose is that of a Victoria Islamic Center mosque in Victoria, Texas, taken on January 29, 2017. The mosque was part of a hate crime act committed against the Muslim community who resided in and around the small city of Victoria. The photo shows the aftermath of the fire and investigators inspecting […]
The body of a black transgender woman was burned beyond recognition and was found inside an abandoned car in Florida. Dental records were used to identify the victim. The victim, Bee Love Slater was the 18th transgender person known to have been killed in the United States in the year of 2019, accoring to The […]
What if crime during wartime is viewed the same as a crime in normal times? In Nazi Germany, crime during wartime is seen through a different lens in comparison to crime not during wartime. In The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, Hitler is ruling the Germans with propaganda during World War II, from 1939-1945. During […]
Definition of a child The term child may seemed to suggest a person who is below the age of majority (18 years). The United Nations Convention on the rights of the child refers to a child as a person below the age of 18. But here in Barbados, according to the Juvenile Delinquency Act (1932) […]
Analyzing data is a very important aspect of conducting a research; therefore it requires proper and knowledgeable development of research variables. The research data that is collected needs to be analyzed through analytical and logical thinking of evaluating the data collected. Research variables are termed as “measurable attribute that changes or varies across the experiment […]
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution grants U.S. citizens five main freedoms. Citizens have the right to have freedom of speech, freedom to practice any religion, freedom of the press, freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the freedom to assemble in a peaceful manner. Of these five freedoms, […]
Sociology is a big part of criminology, as we know sociology is the study of social groups, race, class etc, well those same concepts apply to criminology within those who get caught, prosecuted and incarcerated, as well as what happens to them after they serve their sentence in prison. Edwin Sutherland played a huge role […]
By the end of 2017, 106 countries had completely abolished the death penalty. The United States has 30 states who still use the death penalty as punishment. Many argue if Capital Punishment – the death penalty- should still be used in today’s time. Capital Punishment should be abolished in the United States because it violates […]
Classical School The classical school of criminal theory is very different, from its counterpart the school known as the positivist school of criminal theory. Classical school of criminal theory was formed around the earlier 1700’s and there were not any laws to follow what so ever, so whatever crime that were committed they decided your […]
According to a report by the Prison Policy Initiative, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2018, 2.3 million people in the U.S. are in the prison system (Prison Policy Initiative, 2018). The criminal justice system is an expensive, inadequate government program that fails to provide equal justice, especially to the poor and people of color. Equally […]
Gun control is a debate that has been around for centuries. However, due to the numerous gun related mass shootings in America over the past few decades, the debate has gained greater attention for obvious reasons. Proponents supporting gun laws feel that stricter laws for owning a gun should be implemented by the government in […]
Gun control does not limit the amount of violent deaths in the United States. For example, you can go to Chicago, Illinois where they have the strictest gun laws and yet this state has the most gun deaths in the nation. Some people don’t want gun control because gun’s are a means of protection for […]
Gun control are policies meant to control the manufacture, sale, ownership or use of firearms by the civilians. The debate on gun control has been hitting the headlines in our media due to the current rise in crime rates in the United States. Most criminal activities are carried out with the help of firearm for […]
Crime must be punished, but the methods as to how to punish crime can prove to deliver very different results. Randall Collins says in his book the Sociological Insight that the modern punishment of crime characterized by courtrooms has a ritualistic purpose for the non-deviants of a society rather than for the offenders (1992). Collins […]
The relationship between ethnicity, gender difference and crime in the U.K is a subject matter for research, government surveys as well as public concern. Under section 95, of criminal justice Act 1991, the government has collected an annual statistics based on race, gender and crime rate as well.Ethnic difference According to the official statistics there […]
Have you turned on your news channel recently? When you do, what do you see? A cute, sappy story about a family being reunited? Or an update on the arrest of an American man endangering the lives of dozens of non-American people? Whichever your television screen shows you, there’s no way to be able to […]
The system of criminal and social justice has been plagued with several issues that are making it to be ever changing in the society. Among many issue that has been associated with the social justice system, this paper will highlight about the equity and fairness. The government of the US is working to make sure […]
Role of partnership working for the police to address to address community issues in relation to crime and order act (1998) and other developmentsIntroductionPolice work together in addressing and solving issues on crime and violation of law in the community actually referred as community partnership. Community partnership is an important tool in community policing. Community […]
While at the Special Patrolman Academy Training, I was privileged to learn a lot that eventually helped to grow into an entirely responsible professional that I am today. Firstly I was able the police science at the academy which included among others, Constitutional Law, Criminal justice administration, Criminology and Deviance, New York Penal law and […]
On Sunday, Officers learned that a 31-year old man named Antonio had attacked two women and began pursuing him (KPLC Digital Staff, 2017). The police encountered Antonio on Wednesday who led them on a high-speed chase before he lost control of his car and crashed into a residence. Antonio then fled on foot leaving an […]
Our society and the society from The Giver have a mass amount of differences, but they still have a minimal amount of similarities. For example, the societies both have jobs that support the communities/economy, but this does not mean that they are even close to the same. The GIver’s society has their jobs decided for […]
Harriet Tubman was born into American slavery, a world that had been created by social, cultural, legal, and psychological effects for nearly 200 years. The revolutionary war opened new opportunities for African Americans, with growing support by the Quakers and others who were against slavery. Although slavery was becoming extinct in the North, the elite […]
The source that I have chosen for book review is Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton. Harriet Tubman is a name that speaks volumes in anybody’s ears. Her courageous acts will always be remembered and talked about for generations to come. Author of this book, Catherine Clinton was born in Seattle on […]
Human behavior is a complex phenomenon. Between psychology, sociology, and biology, there is still no definitive answer as to why humans behave the way that they do. Taking this one step further, criminal behavior is just as inexplicable. Controversy continues to surround the nature vs. nurture debate that seeks to find whether behaviors are determined by genetics or environmental influences. It is difficult to know with confidence the extent to which they each contribute to human behaviors and it is almost impossible to disregard either biology or sociology when attempting to explain it.
Biosocial criminology argues that biology is influenced by environmental factors. It also argues that it is biological factors that make an individual more or less susceptible to criminal behaviors. When combining biological concepts to sociological theories, it provides a better understanding of how the two interact to produce certain behaviors, and criminal behaviors at that. There is no clear answer as to whether or not crime is biologically determined. However, there are many studies that help to break this down and understand the many moving parts of the phenomenon. While there is no research to support the idea behind a specified crime gene, genetics do interact with the environment to produce certain traits that are strongly correlated with criminal behaviors.
In 1964, Hans Eysenck was one of the first psychologists to explore the idea of nonsocial influences on criminal behaviors. His initial research surrounded neurobiological influences on criminality through the study of twin data. Through his research, Eysenck was able to determine that there are higher incidences of criminal behaviors in identical twins (77%) as opposed to fraternal twins (12%).
This dramatic difference suggests that there is a genetic influence on criminal behaviors – the closer in genetic makeup the siblings were, the more likely they were to both be involved in criminal activity. While it was too early on in science at the time to determine exactly what the measure of genetic influence was, his conclusions exhibited a consistent correlation between criminal behavior and genetics (Fox, 2017). Two years later, in 1966, Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess used the Social Learning Theory (SLT) to create and explain a Theory of Criminal Behavior. The two criminologists identified four SLT concepts to explain how biology must play a role in criminal behaviors.
The first concept noted was differential association, which assumes that associating oneself with criminals makes an individual more susceptible to engaging in criminal behaviors themselves (Fox, 2017). This aspect of the Social Learning Theory is one of the most common and studied concepts in all criminology findings. This is a popular sociological explanation for behaviors since individuals are greatly influenced by their peers. The second concept is definitions, which is how people determine or qualify certain behaviors as right or wrong. Creating standards for behavior allows people to define what behaviors are acceptable, and which behaviors are unacceptable (Fox, 2017).
In this case, if someone is able to justify a criminal act as acceptable, they are more likely to commit the crime. For example, someone might justify karma as an excuse as to why murdering someone might be permissible, while someone else may consider that completely immoral. The third concept is differential reinforcement. This is the idea that the likelihood of an individual’s actions is dependent upon past and potential punishments and rewards (Fox, 2017). If someone has stolen and gotten away with it every single time, they will most likely continue to steal because they have reaped the benefits of whatever they stole without facing consequences. However, if someone attempts to steal something once and gets arrested the first time, they are less likely to attempt to steal again because they were punished for it in the past.
The third and final concept is imitation, which is whether or not an individual will mimic someone else’s behaviors based on their outcomes and consequences. If someone is found to be successful in criminal activity and proceed without consequence, their actions are more likely to be imitated by their counterparts (Fox, 2017). Despite their validity, these concepts cannot be generalized to everyone.
There are individuals who are more likely to fall into peer pressure or imitate criminal behaviors than others, and for this reason it was necessary for Akers and Burgess to account for genetic makeup. It is also important to note that while genetic factors do influence criminal behaviors, they are certainly not the sole determinant. In fact, biology plays a dominant role in determining how an individual will react to their environment as opposed to biology directly controlling or influencing an individual’s behaviors (Fox, 2017). For the past twenty or so years, the General Theory of Crime has become one of the most widely debated and challenged theories in criminology.
This theory was developed by criminologists Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson and can also be referred to as the Self-Control Theory of Crime, which was created in 1990. The General Theory of Crime argues that low self-control and criminal behavior are strongly correlated. According to this theory, an individual’s early life and family environment influence self-control. Hirschi and Gottfredson define self-control as, “the ability to forego immediate or near-term pleasures that have some negative consequences and the ability to act in favor of longer-term interests” (Gottfredson, 2017). While these criminologists believe that self-control is a learned trait, there have been many studies that link this trait to genetics, specifically the MAOA gene.
Neurocriminology is a relatively new study that focuses solely on unraveling the complex relationship between biology and behavior. Instead of applying sociological theories to help understand the relationship, neurocriminology applies techniques and principles from neuroscience to help predict and ultimately prevent crime (Glenn & Raine, 2014). This science was started when brain imaging began to study the brains of violent criminals compared to non-violent people with no criminal history (Raine, 2013).
Adriane Raine is one of the pioneers of neurocriminology as he has continued to dig deeper to find clearer biological connections to criminal behaviors. Raine believes that, “’Just as there’s a biological basis for schizophrenia and anxiety disorders and depression, I’m saying here there’s a biological basis also to recidivistic violent offending’” (2013). Raine believes that these findings would transform preventative strategies as well as rehabilitation.
This is because if society starts to view criminals as helpless victims of predisposed tendencies instead of evil people, they will be more susceptible to treat them instead of solely punish them (Raine, 2013). If research is able to prove that violent, criminal, and anti-social behaviors are truly based on genetics, should we hold the individuals with these genes fully responsible for the way that they behave? Raine often refers to his own early life where he was on a path to becoming a criminal and links those behaviors to his low resting heart rate, brain scans that mimic a serial killers, and lack of nutrition as a child (Raine, 2013). He is intrigued and driven to find out how he was able to turn his situation around and avoid disaster. There are numerous studies that find connections between certain behavioral traits, genetic components, and crime (Glenn & Raine, 2014).
Notable studies when discussing neurocriminology are twin studies. Consistent with Eysenck’s findings, twins who are adopted have similar propensities to crime over their lifetime. Adoption studies are a great resource because they allow researchers to separate genetics from environmental factors in order to prove heritability. More recently, research has been focused on locating a specific gene that makes individuals more at risk to engage in criminal behaviors. It is important to note that the environment plays an influential part in all genetic variations and is the reason why individuals respond differently to situations and stimuli. Research has proven that the environment influences how genes are expressed (Glenn & Raine, 2014).
One of the most common misconceptions when linking biology to criminal behavior is that there exists a ‘crime gene’. When considering biology and crime, many believe that there is a gene that results in criminal behaviors in some of us and not in others. While this idea is not entirely false, it is widely misinterpreted. There is no ‘crime gene’. What there are, however, are certain genes that respond and interact to an individual’s environment, making them more or less likely to portray certain traits. The notion that both biology and environment influence an individual can be referred to as a biosocial perspective, which is broken up into two parts. The first is part is biological influence in which research indicates up to 60% of antisocial and criminal behavior is inheritable.
The second part of this perspective is the social influence that explains up to 50% of variance in criminal behaviors (Fox, 2017). One of the very first risk factors for criminal behavior can be identified during the prenatal and perinatal periods. Health issues in early pregnancy were found to be a determinant of antisocial and aggressive traits, which are linked to criminal behaviors. In Denmark, a study found that birth complications and maternal rejection in a child’s first year have been linked to violent criminal offending in adulthood (Glenn & Raine, 2014). The same findings have been consistent in the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland. Other studies have shown links between early health complications and aggression, delinquency and low self-control (Glenn & Raine, 2014). While genes do not cause behaviors, they do interact with the environment to produce certain traits and tendencies.
People with low self-control lack diligence, can be impulsive, thrill-seekers who are usually self-centered. Low self-control is known to be a result of ineffective rearing by a child’s parents. While self-control is a large determinant of criminal behavior, several studies have utilized a gene named the MAOA gene to successfully prove its connection to behavior (Gonzalez-Tapia & Obsuth, 2015). This gene has been referred to by many as the “warrior gene” as a result of its links to aggression and violent behaviors.
The MAOA gene is an enzyme that is located on the X chromosome and is directly related to dopaminergic and serotonergic systems, which regulate serotonin and dopamine (Gonzalez-Tapia & Obsuth, 2015). These chemical messengers control reward and punishment sensitivities as well as thresholds for pleasure and displeasure (Gonzalez-Tapia & Obsuth, 2015). But what is the connection between the MAOA gene, these systems, and criminal behavior?
The tie to biology and criminal behavior is that these systems vary within individuals. This variation leads to some people to be less sensitive to punishments and displeasure and subsequently making them more prone to engage in criminal behavior since they are not as affected as others by current and future consequences (Watts & McNulty, 2016). In a recent study, criminal behavior, low self-control and the MAOA gene were measured against one another in order to help explain the relationship between genotype and behavior.
The conclusion of the study was that the MAOA gene and the DAT1 dopamine transporter do, in fact, impact self-control and criminal engagement. The reasoning behind this is that these two biological factors interact with environmental triggers, such as self-control, which is highly correlated with criminal behavior. However, the MAOA gene only explains a small proportion of why antisocial behaviors arise, and the rest can be explained by environmental factors. Therefore, since environmental factors play a role, biology does not necessarily determine crime, instead it influences it.
