Are criminals born or made? 70% of serial killers were subjected to child abuse (HESTIE BARNARD GERBER). Today, crime has become one of the most serious and significant problems in the world. It poses a threat to development and security of country. A lot of people in the world are exposed to various types of crime. Psychologists, criminologists, and scholars put forward various hypotheses and theories why people commit crimes. Some people think that the effects of family on children who become future criminals are greater, but other believes that environment factors also influence kids. In this essay, the author will examine the extent to which nurture influences on future crime. This research will begin by evaluating the family factors it will then proceed to investigate the social, media and genetic factors.
MAIN BODY
CRUELTY IN CHILDHOOD CAN LEAD CHILDREN TO BECOME CRIMINALS
According to strain theory, the main idea about family influence to future crime is child abuse affects to crime. Child abuse causes stress in children. Due to stress in children with behavior problems arise, developmental delays, as well as changes in the brain, which can have an important influence on the development of an aggressive behavior in adolescents, (Janet Currie and Erdal Tekin). In fact National Fire Service were worried when they discovered that the most of those who commit arson in the UK were former victims of child abuse,( Peter Garsden).Thus parent ‘s maltreatment in childhood can be cause in the future crime. Due to cruelty, children are exposed to stress and it leads to incorrect changes in the brain, which increases the possibility of becoming a criminal.
CHILDREN IMITATE THEIR PARENTS
ROGER TODD and LOUISE JURY claims th...
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...sychology of children in the future, because parents play a big role in a child's life and their aftertime and social life depends on them.
Bibliography
"Do your genes make you a criminal? n.d.
Anthony Petrosino, James Derzon, Julia Lavenberg. The role of the family in crime and delinquency: evidence from priorquantative reviews. 2009.
Connor, Steve. "Do you genes make you a crimial". 12 February 2005.
Garsden, Peter. Does Child Abuse cause Crime? 20 November 2007.
GERBER, HESTIE BARNARD. 10 Most Common Traits of Potential Serial Killers. 2 January 2013.
Hosking, George. Media Influence on Young People. 2005.
JURY, ROGER TODD and LOUISE. Children follow convicted parents into crime. 27 February 2006.
Sittiq, Heleen. Divorced parents – criminal children? 9 January 2011.
Tekin, Janet Currie and Erdal. Does Child Abuse Cause Crime? . April 2006.
Within the past decade there has been a wide range of research and evidence available based on both sides of the nature or nurture debate. Along with further research that identifies a number of determinants that have some form of influence towards criminal behavior and activity. This researc...
Hinton, W., Sheperis, C., & Sims, P. (2000). Family based approaches to juvenile delinquency. The Family Journal, 11(2), 167-173.
... relationship does not affect the adolescent’s behavior, but his academic performance. However, it is proven that adolescents from single parent family are more likely to develop deviant behaviors, and one of the main reasons is that the parent is unable to establish a strong bond with the adolescent, as this bond can be used as a shield, deflecting them to be less willing in engaging criminal behaviors. Other factors, such as poor neighborhood conditions, can also result in poorer parenting, which affects the adolescent’s behavior. Also, children who have suffered child abuse are generally filled with more violence, resulting in their aggressive behaviors due to a accumulated anger. Hence, we can conclude that parenting is the main cause for juvenile delinquency as it has the most influence and direct impact for causing an adolescent to develop delinquent behavior.
From a sociological perspective, explanation for criminality is found in two levels which are the subculture and the structural explanations. The sociological explanations emphasize aspects of societal arrangements that are external to the actor and compelling. A sociological explanation is concerned with how the structure of a society, institutional practices or its persisting cultural themes affect the conduct of its members. Individual differences are denied or ignored, and the explanation of the overall collective behavior is sought in the patterning of social arrangements that is considered to be both outside the actor and prior to him (Sampson, 1985).
2006. “Disentangling the Risks: Parent Criminal Justice Involvement and Children’s Exposure to Family Risks.” Criminology and Public Policy 5(4).
I have heard many stories of the cruel and evil crimes that some children have committed. There are a number of causes that can occur during development, that can cause these, kind of criminal behaviors. Antisocial behavior which can be broken down into different types of behavior (1.) the presence of antisocial behavior for instance aggressive and disobedient behavior (2.) the lack of prosocial behavior, prosocial is a behavior that demonstrates cooperative, truthful and caring children. Behaviors such as these can really alter a child’s behavior. Most children show signs of some antisocial behavior during their development, and different children demonstrate different levels of prosocial and antisocial behavior. Some children however, may manifest extreme levels of both antisocial and prosocial behaviors; for example, a very loving but hostile child. Some children can experience low levels of both types of behaviors. Extreme levels of antisocial behavior are considered a mental illness. Young children may show extreme antagonism towards authoritative figures, and be diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder.
Hinton, W., Sheperis, C., & Sims, P. (2000). Family based approaches to juvenile delinquency. The Family Journal, 11(2), 167-173.
Families serve as one of the strongest socializing forces in a person's life. They help teach children to control unacceptable behavior, to delay gratification, and to respect the rights of others. Conversely, families can also teach children aggressive, antisocial, and violent behavior. In adults' lives, family responsibilities may provide an important stabilizing force. Given these possibilities, family life may directly contribute to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Parental conflict and child abuse correlate with delinquency. Though not all children who grow up in conflictive or violent homes become delinquent, however, being exposed to conflict and violence appears to increase the risk of delinquency. At this point, researchers have not pin pointed what factors exactly push some at-risk youth into delinquency. A child with criminal parents faces a greater likelihood of becoming a delinquent than children with law-abiding parents. However, the influence appears not to be directly related to criminality but possibly to poor supervision.
In this article the two authors research the connection between genetic factors and criminal behavior. They look at the causes that make someone act in a criminal way. There are several factors looked at in connection to the cause such as social factors and environmental variables. The social factors being the more examined of the two. They hypothesized that other factors in performance or alone with environmental variables would lead to better understanding of why some people become criminal. The genetic factor of influence due to mental disorders was posed to have a slight role in affecting people to show criminal behavior. Another cause looked at was the combination of genetic and environmental factors, with a possible result of having a higher risk for criminal behavior.
Some persons commit crime despite their life situation; for others, it is the reverse, but multiple factors generate crime. Individuals are less likely to offend repetitively when their early childhood is dominated by consistent and caring parenting and troublesome behavior when found school, is met with solutions. Crime tends to be lower in countries where there are more social benefits and fewer children in relative poverty; Crime tends to be higher because of opportunities such as those created by persons being away from their residences, having desirable objects that others do not
Criminologists and sociologist have long been in debate for century's to explain criminal behaviour. The two main paradigms of thought are between 'nature' and 'nurture'. Nature is in reference to a learnt behaviour where a multitude of characteristics, in society influence whether a person becomes deviant such as poverty, physical abuse or neglect. Nurture defines biological features which could inevitability lead to a individuals deviant or criminal behaviour, because criminality is believed by biological positivist to be inherited from a persons parents. However, I believe that criminal behaviour is a mixture of characteristics that lead to deviant acts such as psychological illness & Environmental factors. Therefore, this essay will aim to analyse both biological positivist and psychological positivist perspectives in hope of showing to what extent they play a role in criminal behaviour. Firstly, the essay will look at Cesare Lombroso's research on physical features and how these ideas have moved on to then develop scientific ideas such as genetics to explain criminal behaviour. Secondly, the essay will focus on external factors which may be able to explain criminal behaviour such as the social influences, life chances and Material deprivation.
Subsequently, since discovering that both biological and sociological aspects both play a part in human behavior, studies began to formulate to see whether nature or nurture held a stronger influence. Two of the main studies done were the family and twin studies. Family studies are defined as “studies that examine the clustering of criminality in a given family” (Schram, P. J., & Tibbetts, S. G.). One of the families that was studied was the Kallikak family by H. H. Goddard. Through this study they found criminality is more common in some
In today’s society, one will find that there are many different factors that go into the development of a criminal mind, and it is impossible to single out one particular cause of criminal behavior. Criminal behavior often stems from both biological and environmental factors. In many cases criminals share similar physical traits which the general population do not usually have. For example criminals have smaller brains than properly adjusted individuals. However biological reasons cannot solely be the cause of criminal behavior. Therefore, one must look to other sources as to how a criminal mind is developed. Social and environmental factors also are at fault for developing a person to the point at which they are lead to committing a criminal act. Often, someone who has committed a violent crime shows evidence of a poorly developed childhood, or the unsuitable current conditions in which the subject lives. In addition if one studies victimology which is the role that the victim plays in the crime, it is apparent that there are many different causes for criminal behavior. Through the examination of biological factors, in addition to the social and environmental factors which make up a criminal mind, one can conclude that a criminal often is born with traits common to those of criminals, it is the environment that exist around them that brings out the criminal within them to commit indecent acts of crime.
Criminals are born not made is the discussion of this essay, it will explore the theories that attempt to explain criminal behaviour. Psychologists have come up with various theories and reasons as to why individuals commit crimes. These theories represent part of the classic psychological debate, nature versus nurture. Are individuals predisposed to becoming a criminal or are they made through their environment.
Different schools of thought propose varying theoretical models of criminality. It is agreeable that criminal behaviour is deep rooted in societies and screams for attention. Biological, Social ecological and psychological model theories are key to helping researchers gain deeper comprehension of criminal behaviour and ways to avert them before they become a menace to society. All these theories put forward a multitude of factors on the outlooks on crime. All these theories have valid relevancy to continuous research on criminal behaviour.