People are strange creatures, we are born with our own free will; however, it is not something that we realize we have until we are a little older. Once children get to the age where they begin to discover their own free will, that is when they start to make choices on how to act, granted the adults or authority figures in their lives influence the choices that they make but they are not completely responsible for the choices made by children. Adults on the other hand are responsible for the choices that they make. As an adult I feel that just because of the experiences that we endure in our lives they are not totally responsible for the choices we make for the future. Criminals become criminals because of choices they choose to make; although, choices are a major part of why people become criminals there are also other contributing factors for example what they were taught or the environment that they grew up in both in home and out of home environments, and the psychological affects that has on them.
Some criminals commit crimes strictly by choice or what is known as the choice theory. There is a man by the name of Cesare Beccaria who lived from (1738-1794) he was a part of the reform of criminal justice he believed that people want to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. His thoughts were basically that crimes must provide some pleasure to the criminal and in order to avoid crime pain or punishment must be administered in an appropriate amount to counter balance the pleasure obtained from crime. Cesare Beccaria’s views are know as the classical theory of crime or also known today as the choice theory. Crime is viewed as a reasonable choice because all people have their own free will and can choose between right and wrong or wheth...
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...bstandard housing and schools. People can also commit crimes because of stain or stress in their lives, which could be the conflict between the goals people have and the means in which they use to obtain these goals legally.
There are so many different reasons why people choose to become criminals. They have a choice to become a criminal there are also psychological and social reasons that contribute to their choice to become criminals. The biggest reason we have criminals in this world is because they made the distinct choice to become a criminal. When people make choices there is a lot that goes into making a choice or decision like the way the were raised the conditions in which we lived growing up; however, becoming a criminal is still a logical choice that is made. Becoming a criminal may not be a wise choice but it is still a choice none the less.
Finding strong evidence surrounding this topic could be significant to reducing crime rates and addressing the public health issue. What I have learn from research-based evidence and analyzing social and cultural theories, is that criminal behavior is multifaceted and is influenced by a range of determinants in which surrounds the nature versus nurture debate. I believe that nature and nurture both play significant roles to the making of a criminal.
What makes one person more likely to commit crime than another? Many people have worked throughout the years to try and answer this question in an attempt to really get to the root cause of crime so that things can be done to better prevent it. One major school of thought centering around this question is based on trait theory. This theory focuses on the hypothesis that some people have certain personality traits or genetic predispositions that make them more likely to commit crime than someone without these factors. Other things that may come into play regarding trait theory and predisposition to crime are the individual's parents and the environment they were raised in.
to their future criminal behavior, they commit the crime because they have been associated by
Nature and nurture are no longer a debate; we see the two working together in concert to produce a genuine expression of the individual. The personalities and habits humans acquire in their lives is as much a biological evolution as it is a social or cultural acclimatization. While some people still have the argument that it is nature or it is nurture many people have come to the realization that is has to be both. Both nature and nurture developed who we are and what we become. So the question would remain which one influences us more on if we become a criminal. In that it is meant people that live outside the acceptable social norms of that society that may involve punishment or rehabilitation. The impression that people become criminals due to their inheritable factor has not been a popular idea amongst criminologist and has incited anger amongst a lot of them. There have been amazing findings in the fields of genetics that have encouraged a biological evaluation in other social sciences. This has also steered to the appearance of a criminology sub-field called Biocriminology.
There are numerous theories as to why a crime is committed. Rational choice theory, which is a subset of classical theory, says that before people commit a crime they think about what they are going to do. They weigh the pros and cons before committing the criminal act. The rational choice theory is well suited for the causation of burglary. The support for this theory is that burglars do not commit crime for the fun of it or just because they want to. It is usually because they need money to keep their heads above water. In their situation, they do not see any other way than to steal to make a living. The opposition for rational choice theory is that criminals do not think before they act as they may be incapable of thinking rationally in the first place.
This paper looks at the different theories of criminal behavior that explain why people commit crimes. It goes deeper to analyze the specific theories in a bid to determine why a person may commit a certain crime and another person under the same circumstances may not. The paper focuses on key factors that motivate unruly behavior among people and why such factors are present in some people and not in others. In doing so, the paper leans more on children in order to determine how delinquency behavior is progressively imparted on them as they undergo developmental trajectory.
Examining why people commit crimes can be quite difficult because there can be a million reasons as to why a individual would want to commit an illegal act. Some people are forced to commit a crime with justified reasons, some people commit petty crime as a way of survival and some people commit crime for self-assurance purposes.
There are many different crimes that people commit and many reasons for why those people commit those said crimes. Criminology is the study of crime and people that do that for a living are called criminologist. A long time ago, some criminologist came up with some theories on the reasons why and how people commit crimes. There are a group of theories under the social learning theories; one of these theories is the differential association theory. This theory states that people learn to be criminals and the criminal behavior associated with crime.
While this may help adults desist from crime, it may not be as effective in helping juveniles. Most delinquency occurs during young adulthood and then the individual ages out of crime. When looking at juvenile desistance other explanations exist as to why some juveniles continue a life of crime and others desist. One idea places responsibility on the ability to make conscious decisions. A study, by Haigh, of desistance among juveniles and their transitional period to a law abiding life suggest that most juvenile offenders simply make the decision to stop committing crime. Haigh conducted the study using one on one interviews in order to capture the former offender’s interpretation as to why they stopped committing crime. Through the interviews she found that most juveniles held this preconceived idea that they had to commit crime based on where they lived. Crime was a part of a regular daily routine for many. Participants state things such as, “you have to do crime, if you don’t you get stomped on” or “we didn’t think it as dangerous, we got off on the buzz of doing it” (Haigh, 2009). Some did not have reasons as to why they made the decision to stop committing crime. Others stated that they wanted to stop committing crime because of new found relationships, making their parents happy, or from fear of being sent to jail. For this set of juveniles in the study it can be said that as they
...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.
Crime is a highly complex and important problem that changes across cultures and across time. This briefing provides a summary of some of the key explanations that try to explain the causes of crime. It is by no means a thorough list. Each of the explanations covered has its own strengths and weaknesses, has gaps and may only be related to certain types of crime, and not others. There is no “right” or “wrong” explanation to justify it.
I would like to look first at “The Choice Theory”. The first explanations of wrongdoing and delinquency held that the child him/her self’s behavior was a matter of choice. The classical view tells us that the decision to violate the law comes from the youth carefully weighting out the benefits and cost of the criminal behavior. According to the classical vie, youths who decide to become a drug dealer weigh ad compare the possible benefits, such as cash to buy cars, clothes, and other luxury items; knowing that the potential penalties are being arrested and possibly staying in a juvenile facility. Therefore if the youth thinks they are less likely to get caught or they see that the punishment for getting caught is minimal they are more likely to go forth and break the law. Thus being said, CHOICE is huge for there is always an option and you can dictate your path.
Criminals come from all walks of life. Some are wealthy business owners while others are poverty-stricken and homeless. Some are 60 years old while others are 16. What makes people decide to become a criminal? Why does one person who gets arrested and faces punishment learn from the mistake and does nothing illegal again while others become prison regulars? Criminological theory seeks to answer these questions in an effort to mold societal influence and implement programs to deter people from committing crimes. One such theory is the classical theory. Even though some believe that crime is based mainly on social influencers like in the differential association theory, the classical theory is more accurate because it suggests that each person makes the choice to commit a crime based on risk versus reward and because most intentional criminal acts pay some sort of benefit, rarely are they seen as not profitable.
Crime is an in inevitable occurrence in today 's culture. Despite the best efforts of our country 's criminal justice system, crime continues to be on the rise. In an effort to reverse this rising tide, efforts are being made to understand the underlying cause of crime and factors that can lead an individual into the life of crime. From the sociological perspective, there are three theories that are used to explain the cause of crime. They are the social structure theory, the bad neighborhood theory, and the social process theory.
It According to their theory, the criminal act and the criminal offender are separate concepts. The criminal act is perceived as opportunity; illegal activities that people engage in when they perceive them to be advantageous. Crimes are committed when they promise rewards with minimum threat of pain or punishment. Crimes that provide easy, short-term gratification are often committed. The number of offenders may remain the same, while crime rates fluctuate due to the amount of opportunity (Siegel 1998). Criminal offenders are people that are predisposed to committing crimes. This does not mean that they have no choice in the matter, it only means that their self-control level is lower than average. When a person has limited self-control, they tend to be more impulsive and shortsighted. This ties back in with crimes that are committed that provide easy, short-term gratification. These people do not necessarily have a tendency to commit crimes, they just do not look at long-term consequences and they tend to be reckless and self-centered (Longshore 1998, pp.