Theory of Criminal Behavior

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1.0 Introduction

Crime depicts any act or omission that is prohibited by the public law. On the same note, behavior is a function which has measurable differences in psychological characteristics among individuals (Brennan-Galvin, 2002). Such characteristics may be influenced by constitutional, personality attributes, and neurophysiologic or genetics factors. Likewise, criminal behavior is the commission of acts which in their situational and social settings are considered crimes due to the fact that they violate existing norms and codes of conduct regardless of whether the perpetrator is arrested, and if tried, convicted or acquitted. The origin of criminal behavior is complex since it involves long term interaction of the psychological and biological characteristics, economic as well as social and cultural environments in which different individuals were born, raised and lived (Cassel & Bernstein, 2007). With this background this paper will objectively discuss the theory of criminal behavior, why it should be studied and the roles the theory plays in the criminal justice system.

2.0 Theory of criminal behavior

Criminal behavior theory is a set of principles and statements which attempt to explain how one or more factors lead to criminal acts. In addition, the theory explains the response to a particular behavior and not the crime committed. Similarly, the phenomenon being studied takes place after a behavior has occurred and must be a reaction to the behavior in question. It therefore includes the basic decision regarding whether to employ punishment as a control or to consider the fact that people are to be blamed for their harmful acts. Any theory must be testable, thus it must be stated in such a way that other people c...

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...er policies and crime programs as well as strengthen the existing ones. Through the understanding of criminal behavior and various patterns of crime, the criminal justice system is better placed when it comes to the prevention of a particular type of crime and easy apprehension of criminals due to the ability to detect their next move.

5.0 Conclusion

Form the research carried out, it is evident that there is no single theory which can adequately provide all the explanations in relation to crime since a crime patterns entail several phenomena. It is important to note that much as criminological theories attempt to explain the causes of criminal behavior, other measures that are not necessarily theoretical, can be employed in order to fight and reduce crime rates. On the same note, further research has to be carried out so that crime rates can be further reduced.

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