Evaluate the Social and Biological approaches to explaining criminal behaviour. The biological approach is an approach that explains criminal behaviour by biology. This means that we are born to behave in this particular way. This may include factors like the brain structure, brain function, genes and etc of the participant. The social approach is different to the biological approach.
Right realists believe that crime is not a social construction as other theories such as the labelling theory believe they believe it is a real problem. Official statistics show an increase in violence against the person’s offences of 1% and an increase of 25% in sexual offences against girls. Right realists state crime destroys communities as well as threatens work ethic in today society, this view is shared with neo conservatives. As stated in item A James Q Wilson states that crime is a result of biological differences, some people are more biologically predisposition to commit crime. Eysenck’s personality theory states criminal behaviour is a result of genetics and the nervous system.
The lines of evidence relating to the psychology of criminal behaviors research correspond closely to the paternal and family risk factors that a criminal has experienced during their development stages in life from childhood to adulthood. The most supporting evidence of the risk factors could be found in single parent household, parental styles, parental monitoring, and the influence of the siblings. There are many other reasons as to why a person becomes a criminal, however is hard to determine the real reason that sparingly transpire and individual to commit crimes. There are more studies needed to be conducted to determine the mental status of a criminal. Is rationale to assume that parental and family risk factors played a vital part in the life of a criminal, because they are a product of their surroundings.
The results of Lombroso’s studies on criminals and the results of his post mortems led him to believe “that the criminal was, in effect, a human subspecies.” (Hagan. 1987., P.20). In more modern times, however, criminologists no longer believe that the only cause for crime is the abnormality of a persons appearance or growth defect. Modern theorists now believe that it is a combination of personal traits and environmental factors. This theory is known as the “Biosocial Theory”.
Crime experts have been trying for years and years to understand why people commit crime. Or why people end up being victimized. Did they see something as a child that would scar them mentally to the extent of harming others? Were they born with a master trait that influences certain behaviors? Maybe it’s because of others behavior that they learned to act this way?
These theories are best illustrated through the application of notorious criminals and their deviant acts. When studied individually, the obvious “cause” of crime can be significantly different from the reason the offender had in mind when breaking the law, and the theories of crime causation begin to decipher these reasons. Crime causation involves several different factors; the influences on an individual during early childhood: experiences like poor parenting, the attempt (conscious and subconscious) to imitate an individual’s peer, the individual’s immersion in poverty, having poor opportunities, living in a community with high crime, the values and lifestyles of promenade members of the community which is admired by the individual, and lastly, an individual’s genetic and biological influences (Frank Schmalleger, 2009, p. 121). Of all the excessive crimes which occurred in the twentieth century, one of the most memorable crimes in the north eastern region of the United States is the case of Richard Kuklinski, as known as, the “Iceman”. According to Crime USA (2008) “Richard Kuklinski was one of the most self confessed contract killers in American History” (Richard “The Iceman” Kuklinski, para 1).
There are many fields that fit into this, one of these fields being criminal profiling. The Medical Dictionary (2012) states that criminal profiling is “a brief description of the personality of an individual”. Professionals expand on this by saying that it is “the act of developing a psychological profile of an offender based on the state of the crime scene” (What is Criminal Profiling, 2003). There has been many a debate about whether criminal profiling is a reliable and valid tool to use when trying to catch an offender. For something to be valid it has to assess what it is supposed to assess (Psychology for the VCE student, 2005), therefore personality profiling when in correlation with criminal profiling is a valid tool.
Biological Criminal Behavior (Andrea Yates) Learning Team B Biological Criminal Behavior Adolfo In some situations, biology can cause or be the precursor for criminal behavior. Researchers and criminologists have sought to explain criminal behavior and believe that biology can explain criminality in some cases. According to Schmalleger (2012), some biological conditions that cause crime include: abnormalities of the brain, brain damage, head trauma, genetic predispositions, vitamin deficiencies, excess of hormones, hypoglycemia, fetal alcohol syndrome, a lack of neurotransmitters in the brain, and blood abnormalities. Many criminologists are weary or doubtful of biological explanations as they believe biology alone does not cause criminality and instead it is caused by the interplay among heredity, biology, and social environment (Schmalleger, 2012). In the case of Andrea Yates she was charged with the murder of her five children.
One way to try and understand why this whole family is involved in crime, is to apply ideas from learning theories, such as Sutherland’s Differential Association theory, where it is thought that criminal behaviour is learned through social interactions (Lilly, Ball & Cullen, 2015, p .44). Differential Association theory is a social-psychology theory that
Criminals in the world date back as far as the B.C. years. Theories, or studies, have been conducted over 100’s of years to determine why people commit crimes or what makes them commit a crime. Genes prove that biology plays an important role in an individual’s criminal behavior and some believe the criminal gene, or desire, is inherited. Criminal behavior has spurned many debates on nurturing kids vs. the nature of kids but have all concluded in agreeing that genes and environment play an important, and defining role, in the Biological Criminality of a person.