“Charlie, there are two kinds of thieves in this world: the ones who steal to enrich their lives and those who steal to define their lives.” (Gray 2003) There are many ways a criminal can enrich or define their lives with crime, and the ways they enrich or define their lives with crime almost always has something to do with their motive. These motives can range from revenge to crime being the only thing they know how to do to greed, and many, many more.
Revenge is an extremely common motive to become a criminal, and The Italian Job and “Girlfriend’s Revenge Case” bring this motive to life. In The Italian Job, Stella (Charlize Theron) says something that clearly displays her motive—revenge—for becoming involved in crime: “’I want to see the look on that man’s [Steve] face when his gold is gone. He took my father from me, I’m taking this.”’ (Gray 2003) She didn’t care about the money, she didn’t care about the consequences; all she cared about was taking vengeance on her father’s killer. In “Girlfriend’s Revenge Case”, Barbara Wu tries to get her boyfriend (Dennis Lin) to kill an ex-...
Robert Merton (1938) argued that members of American society are socialised to want the culturally defined goals such as the ‘American dream’ where success is attributed to material wealth. When they are denied access to the legitimate means, they resort to illegitimate means such as criminality and deviance to attain what they have been taught to want. (Lanier&Henry,1998) It could be argued that America is organised for crime due to its overwhelming significance placed on material success. This may explain why America has the highest rate of imprisonment, in 2000 approximately two million men and women were serving prison sentences. (Fleisher&Decker,2006) Similarly, Toy and Stanko (2008) identify that being part of a society that attributes achievement with material wealth are other factors which may influence becoming gang affiliated. (Harris et al, 2011)
Nature versus nurture has been argued in attempt to understand how criminals behave. The theory of what influences psychopath and serial killers’ violent and destructive pathways has not been agreed on till this day. Criminals such as psychopaths and serial killers have been researched for the past two decades. Scientists have found that genetics is a determining factor of who becomes a serial killer. It is important to understand the determinants involved within a serial killer, because if these social and environmental causes are discovered, they can be altered and controlled to reduce crime (Lykken, 1993). With more studies, we would therefore prevent mass murders and could assist in significant reductions of crime within society.
Why do people commit crime? This is a question many people have asked themselves for the past century. Over the years, many theorists, like Travis Hirschi and Edwin Lemert, have identified possible reasons for why people commit crimes. While each of these theories differ from one another, all point us to an understanding of the paths that bring individuals to commit crime.
The TV show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, often addresses criminal deviance such as rape and murder. In the episode, “Scorched Earth,” an African immigrant maid becomes a rape victim of a rich, Italian prime minister named Distascio (Wolf). This episode highlights how status can affect perception of certain deviant behaviors. Additionally, it addresses contemporary America’s values toward types of deviant acts, and sanctions that go along with them.
...ommit crimes every day just for the sake of committing a crime; in other words, they have periods of no criminal behavior. So, their rational choice is to turn to burglary only when they are desperate for money. In essence, they have chosen burglary as their line of work.
Shootings. Homicides. Bombings. It’s safe to say that crime is very abundant in today’s society, filling our news casts with daily reminders of the negative ora that is associated with criminal behavior. But why do people commit the crimes that they commit? Theologians have been studying crime for years, trying to determine the main reasons as to who commits crime and why. These theologians, such as Edwin Sutherland, Ronald Akers, and Robert Agnew, each take very unique view of criminal behavior, giving society many rationalities for these why people exhibit these behaviors.
The actions of thieves can be related to a slippery slope. They may start out by stealing something small, but nothing is keeping them from stealing something of more worth, so the tendency is to escalate their behaviors.
Trait theory views criminality as a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits. It is based on a mix between biological factors and environmental factors. Certain traits alone cannot determine criminality. We are born with certain traits and these traits along with certain environmental factors can cause criminality (Siegel, 2013). According to (Siegel, 2013), the study of sociobiology sparked interest in biological or genetic makeup as an explanation for crime and delinquency. The thought is that biological or genetic makeup controls human behavior, and if this is true, then it should also be responsible for determining whether a person chooses crime or conventional behavior. This theory is referred to as trait theory (Siegel, 2013). According to Siegel (2013), due to the fact that offenders are different, one cannot pinpoint causality to crime to just a single biological or psychological attribute. Trait theorist looks at personal traits like intelligence, personality, and chemical and genetic makeup; and environmental factors, such as family life, educational attainment, economic factors, and neighborhood conditions (Siegel, 2013). There are the Biosocial Trait theories an...
1. Cesare Lombroso applied the methods of natural science (observation, measurement, experimentation, statistical analysis) to the study of criminal behavior. Lombroso rejected the classical theory of crime, associated with Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, which explained criminal activity as freely chosen behavior based on the rational calculation of benefit and loss, pleasure and pain. Critically analyze both schools of thought and provide an opinion as to what theory you believe is more relevant.
...ulture and beliefs. Another reason one might commit a crime, is when people fail to achieve society’s expectations through legal means such as hard work and delayed gratification, they may attempt to achieve success through crime. People also develop motivation and the skills to commit crime through the people they associate with. Some criminals commit crimes because of the controls that society places on a person through institutions such as schools, workplaces, churches, and families. Sometimes there are occasions where a persons actions goes against what society considers normal, and as a result it is instead considered a crime. Also some criminals continue their criminal acts because they have been shunned by their society because once a person is labeled a criminal, society takes away their opportunities, which in most cases leads to more criminal behavior.
There are numerous ideas in the area of criminology that attempt to interpret the causes behind why people commit crimes. Social process idea is one such idea and affirms that criminal actions are taught by viewing criminalistic actions by others (Schmalleger, 2012). The four kinds of Social method theories are Social learning idea, Social command idea, labeling idea, and dramaturgical viewpoint. Throughout this term paper, we will gaze at two of these theories, Social discovering theory and the Social command theory. This essay will converse about the Social method theory's significance to criminology, as well the history of its development.
Criminology is a very broad and complex speciality, which can be easily involved in various areas, it can simply say that this area of study has been studied for over a thousand years since Plato and Aristotle had demonstrated how to define the standard of crime and punishment (Criminology: Intellectual History, 2017: no page number). Despite their theories had been justified after a few centuries. To say it another way, Newburn noted that criminology is a study of wrongdoing, how are the criminals be trailed or judged and find out who will normally be breaking the law (Newburn, 2017: 6). It is also a branch of sociology. To figure out why people commit crime are the core issue in criminology. Many scholars have developed several theories to explain why people would like to take the risk. And in this essay, it will mainly focus on studies of people to break the law and commit a crime, why people are encouraged to commit a crime, and how should offenders be punished to prevent crime.
When we think of crimes we always wonder why people do them in the first place. Usually when a person commits a crime we automatically assume that he or she is a bad person. But we don 't know the circumstances on how that person end up stealing, killing, raping, and etc in the first place. My perspective is that people commit crimes for many reasons, especially seeing it throughout the neighborhood I grew up in and the school I went to in California. But after taking the Crime in America class, it gave me it a better insight of why people commit crimes through the theories that other people research about, and the video examples we seen in class. One of the theories that seem plausible on why people commit crimes is the life course
Human antisocial behaviour is complex and trying to understand it has always proven to be a daunting intelligent task, especially in modern culturally diverse societies. Crime, broadly defined as behaviour through which individuals obtain resources for others through uncouth means, presents as one of the most refractory internal social dilemmas. Understanding individual criminal acts such a murder, rape or motives behind them is intricate, rather their behavioral definitions and causes offers a more clear platform for argumentative reasoning. Criminal behaviour, regardless of manner, involves use of barbaric methodologies to obtain symbolic or material resources. Criminal behavior results from methodical processes that involve intricate interactions among isolated, societal, and environmental factors in people’s lives.
Theories that are based on biological Factors and criminal behavior have always been slightly ludicrous to me. Biological theories place an excessive emphasis on the idea that individuals are “born badly” with little regard to the many other factors that play a part in this behavior. Criminal behavior may be learned throughout one’s life, but there is not sufficient evidence that proves crime is an inherited trait. In the Born to Be Bad article, Lanier describes the early belief of biological theories as distinctive predispositions that under particular conditions will cause an individual to commit criminal acts. (Lanier, p. 92) Biological criminologists are expected to study the “criminal” rather than the act itself. This goes as far as studying physical features, such as body type, eyes, and the shape or size of one’s head. “Since criminals were less developed, Lombroso felt they could be identified by physical stigmata, or visible physical abnormalities…characteristics as asymmetry of the face; supernumerary nipples, toes, or fingers; enormous jaws; handle-shaped or sensible ears; insensibility to pain; acute sight; and so on.” (Lanier. P. 94). It baffles me that physical features were ever considered a reliable explanation to criminal behavior. To compare one’s features to criminal behavior is not only stereotypical, but also highly unreliable.