The Cause Of Crime: Why Do People Commit Crimes?

1016 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Cause and solution of crime

The question is why do people commit crimes? What is the true story behind the suspect’s eyes? What makes them tick? Is it an act out just to be recognized, money problems, anger problems, or a form of a physiological issue; possibly just a plain and simple accident? People have searched and questioned this for a long time. Criminologists’ study what causes crime and how it might be prevented (Cause of Crime). The main question is why do people have psychological thrillers that make one another commit crimes?
Crime started rising around 1924-1938 (A Centennial History). Back when one used tommy guns and gangs arose with bosses like “Scarface” and “Bugs,” it was the time of the American Gangster (A Centennial History). They created a violent
He grew up like a normal child but once he hit ten years of age, he began getting an interest in deceased animals. As he got older, the interest in dead animals took him deeper and darker into the curiosity of killing living people; which he got a taste of for the first time at the age of eight-teen after picking up a hitchhiker. Not only did Dahmer murder random victims but also had sexual relations with them and keeping a “part” of the victim as a “trophy”. The reason behind Dahmer’s actions was to have “youthful sexual partners” but yet was not considered insane, only morally wrong. Dahmer craved attention and got his attention which resulted in the death of himself in prison after having severe head
There are multiple theories and what psychologist can go off of based on what the criminal tells them. Every person is unique and how people perceive certain things or justify their actions varies. This being true, you cannot speak for an entire crowd of individuals, or in this case, criminals. Psychologists’ studies can help us determine certain factors that may influence the actions of criminals. People who murder could have had an abnormal relationship with an individual; an abusive, neglectful, or entirely absent parent figure. They could also murder because they thrive on the power they feel when inflicting that on others. Robbers could steal because they genuinely need the money, want materialistic things, or just like being able to get what they want easily. Regardless of these factors, we can conclude that there is a certain emptiness that people feel within their lives that they desperately need to fill; they have a dangerous craving that they need to

Show More
Related

  • Comparison Of Jeffrey Dahmer Vs Grendel

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dahmer, for example, essentially wanted others to be submissive to him; this served a basis for having his victims rendered unconscious before he did the truly disturbing aspects of his actions. He also craved the everlasting companionship that having corpses around could satisfy well enough because he also did not want them to leave, either. Suppressing his true feelings also played a major role in the attacks. He refused to share anything, so dark fantasies grew heavier in his mind and eventually led to 17 deaths. Finally, death fascinated him, as well as control, from a young age, which led to him killing and dissolving animals in acid. Simply put, Jeffrey Dahmer had predominantly selfish, compulsion-driven reasons for doing his crimes. In contrast, Grendel was only acrid that he did not have the comitatus that the Danes had. He also hated the songs about God that the people in Herot sang due to God exiling him. While Dahmer obsessed over the concept of death itself, Grendel was more obsessed with the act of killing, even getting giddy over seeing the sleeping warriors in the mead hall. As can be seen, Grendel and Dahmer had wildly different motives for committing their

    Read More

  • Jeffrey Dahmer Case

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dahmer’s social awkwardness extended past his withdraw from social groups and blank expressions. Instead of normal activities for kids his age like playing outside and making friends. Dahmer would routinely ride around on his bicycle searching for road kill, reportedly stripping the skin and keeping the bones, he also dissected many of the carcasses. At one point he had taken the head from a dog and placed it on a stake. Dahmer attended Revere High school, and was seen as an outcast among the schools social order. Although an average student with decent grades and a spot on the schools newspaper he still had trouble with making friends and eventually started drinking heavily, by the time he graduated Jeffrey was a full blown alcoholic. He co...

    Read More

  • Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer

    2515 Words  | 6 Pages

    Lionel and Joyce Dahmer gave birth to their first born, Jeffrey Dahmer, on May 21, 1960 in Milwaukee. Despite Joyce experiencing a difficult pregnancy, Dahmer was a healthy child who was wanted and adored by both his parents. However, his mother did start to become distant to him as she refused to breast feed him and started demonstrating unstable behavior along with substance abuse. Meanwhile, his father was pursuing his doctoral for chemistry in Iowa which limited the time Lionel had with his family. At age five, Dahmer’s little brother was born and that was when the feeling of neglect set in him. For the first time, the little attention provided from his parents had to be shared with his brother David. Dahmer began displaying extreme shyness but also severe tantrums. During the ages of six and seven, Dahmer “was regarded by other children as odd and bizarre (Martens, 2005).” Even though he did not show any interest in developing genuine social relations, Dahmer did demonstrate a fascination with bug and animal dissections. When Dahmer was six he had “undergone hernia surgery, when he woke up from the anesthesia he was worried someone could have cut his genitals, the pain lasted for one week and after a long recovery period his parents remember he turned to be very loner (Giannetakis, n.d.).” It is believed that at age eight Dahmer had been sexually abused by a boy in his neighborhood (Hickey, 2013). If this event did occur, it could explain why he developed destructive sexual fantasies at the young age of twelve. Despite him being aloof, it has been reported that he would seek attention by faking epileptic seizures at school and local shops. By his adolescent years, he developed compulsive masturbation which would eventually lead to legal trouble (Silva, 2002). At the age of fourteen, Dahmer turned to alcohol abuse in order to overcome his feeling of despair and compulsive thoughts of sexual violent acts.

    Read More

  • Theories Of Criminal Behavior

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Jeffrey Dahmer

    1690 Words  | 4 Pages

    Data has been collecting reporting that “31% of people who had both a substance abuse disorder and a psychiatric disorder (a "dual diagnosis") committed at least one act of violence in a year, compared with 18% of people with a psychiatric disorder alone. This confirmed other research that substance abuse is a key contributor to violent behavior” (Harvard Health Publishing). This can be applied to Dahmer’s case. It is said that after getting hernia surgery when he was four, Dahmer was never the same. He went from a regular playful child to a distant anxious one. When becoming an adolescent, one will develop an interest in concepts and hobbies. For Dahmer it animal carcasses. He would find roadkill, “dissect and dismember them. He explained that he wanted to know how each animal "fitted together"(Cahill). This could come off as creepy and off-putting, but he was not hurting anyone. It is believed that his parents’ constant fighting and moving was the catalyst in making his obsession with carcasses into a dangerous one. “Children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit crimes than those from stable families” (Bloxham). His drive to kill could quite possibly be linked to the fact that he simply linked to his familial issues. These problems in the family are definitely linked to his drinking problems as well. Dahmer’s

    Read More

  • Jeffrey Dahmer's Use Of Control Theory

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dahmer was a pretty normal, but very lonely kid. His loneliness followed him throughout the course of his life. Never having an intimate friendship or relationship, along with being consumed with confusion over his own sexuality eventually led him to become the household name he is today. From 1978 to 1991, Dahmer murdered 17 boys and men. Not only is he considered a murderer, but he committed (on several occasions) rape and dismemberment. After his later murders, he was found guilty of necrophilia, cannibalism, and permanent preservation of body parts. He is arguably the most well known, gruesome, and intriguing criminal in American history.

    Read More

  • Jeffrey Dahmer's Three Criminological Theories

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    This paper explores three criminological theories as to why Jeffrey Dahmer committed his crimes. Although these approaches vary in terms of defining the cause of crime, one thing is certain, there is no single cause of crime; the crime is rooted in a diversity of causes and takes a variety of forms depending on the situation in which the crimes occur. However, the published articles vary in their definitions and uses of Criminological Theory. Rawlins (2005) suggest that the criminal phenomenon is too complex to be explained by a single theory. Other theories suggest differently and; therefore, have varying explanations. This paper examines the Psychological, Biochemical, and Social Process theories to slightly explain Jeffrey Dahmer’s actions.

    Read More

  • The Different Types Of Serial Killers By Richard Ramirez

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people have a lot of trouble trying to understand exactly why serial killers do what they do, but in the killers minds they have certain motives that make sense to them. Holmes and DeBurger were two men who characterized serial murderers based on their motives. They “explain that the reward for killing is generally psychological even though some killers may benefit materially from their crimes” (Hickey, 2002). The first type of serial killers they described were the visionary type. These killers would be motivated by the commands,voices, or visions of some type of good or evil force. These killers usually suffer from some type of psychosis. The second type is the mission-oriented type who think it is their mission to rid the society of certain groups of people. The third type is the hedonistic type. These are the killers that get some type of thrill from killing their victims. The last type that Holmes and DeBurger categorized is the power/control-oriented type. These killers don’t get pleasure sexually, but rather get pleasure over simply having control and power over the helpless victim. The FBI has also tried to categorize killers by using profiling into “organized” and “disorganized” killers. The organized killers are often highly intelligent, charismatic, lives with a partner, and has controlled emotions during the crime. Unlike the organized killers, disorganized killers are very often below-average intelligence, live alone, high school dropouts, and have high anxiety during crimes. Although there is many different ways to categorize serial killers, they have been categorized both in a psychological perspective and also profiled by the

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative Essay: Why People Commit Crimes

    468 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Why Do Serial Killers Kill?

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many serial killer cases that have attracted the attention of not only the media but of mental health experts as well. Many experts from a variety of different fields have come together to answer one question: Why did they do it? It is believed that most, if not all, serial killers have a mental illness, motives, and/or trauma during their lives that made them start killing. Serial killers are not only the effect of nurture but also nature. The environment of their country, the United States is our focus, can cause the number of serial killers to increase especially if the country itself is unstable.

    Read More

  • Antisocial Personality Theory vs. Social Structure Theory

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...theories as to why people do what they do, especially committing crimes. The two popular ones are antisocial personality theory and social structure theory. Out of these two the one that makes most sense is antisocial personality theory. The majority of these people are diagnosed as a psychopath and they have brain amoralities which is causing them to commit crimes. This is a serious issue and most people will not admit that they have a mental disorder or a problem. There will be many theories, researches and arguments as to why people commit crime; criminology is a never ending studying on people and their actions.

    Read More

  • The Development of a Criminal Mind

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Criminology: The Evolution of Crime

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    Criminology has evolved over history into becoming a discipline all its own, along the way it grew and developed from a multiple sources of disciplines to become an integration of various theories. Reasons that seek to explain crime and deviant behaviors has mirrored the time in which research was being conducted and as time continues to change it is to be expected more theories will arise to incorporate past theories to become ever more inclusive. It is important to understand this development from the formulation of theories, the evolution of, the determining factors in testing, particular process such as social learning that are upheld as strong empirically sound theories in order for scholars to continue to advance further studies. But it is unlikely crime will ever be solved completely, for in some instances it is a necessary evil, yet it can be hoped that with the knowledge obtained thus far and that to be discovered crime and deviance might be reduced, prevented and controlled in the future to come.

    Read More

  • Why People Commit Crime Essay

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout history a lot of expects have tried to understand why some people feel the need to commit crimes, even though there have been harsh laws inforced for thouse who commit crimes. These people have come up with theories as to why people commit crimes. in order to understand these theories we have to understand what a crime is and also understand the definition of theories.

    Read More

  • Are Criminals Born or Made?

    2147 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are various theories within the biological explanation as to why individuals commit criminal behaviour, these include: genetic theory, hereditary theory, psychosis and brain injury theory. In the next few paragraphs examples of each will be shown.

    Read More

More about The Cause Of Crime: Why Do People Commit Crimes?

Open Document