Different sociologists have presented different theories and concepts to explain what drives a person to commit a crime, and research and statistics give us an idea of the type of crimes committed and the places that they’re most likely to occur. However, these statistics can prove to be misleading as not all crime is reported to or recorded by the police. This can be referred to as the ‘hidden figure’, and it differentiates between the official crime rate and the real rate. Despite this, they do prove to be worthwhile in the fact that they display trends and patterns of crime. Sociologists use three different methods to measure crime; each method provides us with particular information and as in all systems of data collecting, there are strengths and weaknesses to the method.
The rationale underlying the use of twins in explaining criminal behaviour is that if 1 MZ twin shows signs of aggressive behaviour, and the other one does too, then it is down to genetic influence. However if they other twin doesn't, then it means the environment must have something to do with it. If Harry did have a twin who also shows aggressive behaviour, which may due to his 'difficult family background', because he would share a 100% concordance with him, this would be why he showed aggressive behaviour and had criminal record. Studies were undergone which both supported and criticised this approach. One of the earliest studies done by Johannes Lange found that MZ twins showed a much higher degree of concordance for criminal behaviour than DZ twins.
Phillip Nelson Mr. McCune Sociology 101 3/13/13 Why Does Criminal Behavior Exist? Most psychology classes always talk about criminal behavior and it has been a debate dating back to one of the founding psychologists, Sigmund Freud. There are many questions about why someone would kill another person in cold-blood or act in unspeakable violence. In the past sociologist say that the environment a person is in can play a huge factor in predicting criminal behavior. Another topic in psychology classes is talking about how psychologist in the early 19th century thought that behavior like this was genetic and could be passed down and inherited through each generation.
The idea that inherited genetic predispositions may underlie the risk for engaging in criminal behavior is not exactly new. Perhaps most convincingly, several adoption studies in the 1970s and 1980s provided powerful evidence that having an incarcerated birth parent raised one’s own risk of earning a criminal conviction as an adult, even if reared by pro-social, law-abiding – but genetically unrelated – foster parents. This remarkable finding was replicated in adoptive cohorts across cultures, including two Scandinavian studies (Cloninger et al., 1982; Mednick et al., 1984) as well as in the United States (Cadoret et al., 1983). Based on these adoption studies, the genetic effect on criminal outcomes appears important for both
Evaluate upbringing as an explanation of criminal behaviour. Upbringing can be defined as the background to an individual’s life where a study by Farrington can explain criminality where he focuses on youth’s backgrounds because we need to look into someone’s past experience whether offender/non-offender which might influence his/hers behaviour later on in life. Theories that use upbringing suggests that what happens during early childhood experiences which can greatly impact on a person’s susceptibility to turn to crime in the future. Farrington had come up with some other predicting factors of crime which include parental divorce and lack of supervision from parents. The study by Farrington et al.
Ever since history and law have been written down, the question of why criminals do what they do has always been difficult to answer. Explanations ranging from physical appearance, genetics and social environment have all tried to help answer the question. Over time, more explanations as to why criminals do what they do have changed and evolved. It doesn’t matter what your opinion as to why criminals do what they do, every circumstance is different. The documentary “High on Crack Street” makes every viewer wonder just what made these somewhat “normal” people turn into what society would see as social deviants.
Criminal Acts and Choice Theories Response Beth D. Komish CJS/200 April 6, 2012 Monty Mathis Criminal Acts and Choice Theories Response Depending on where you grew up and how your parents brought you up, you could start hanging out with the wrong people and they could get you in to a lot of trouble. I believe that crime just does not happen I believe this is in the genes somehow or maybe there is too much violence on television. There are so many different types of crimes, robberies, rape, killing each other and drive-by-shootings and so many to name. The choice theories of crime affect society by, the entertainment industry and the media, the rap singers are singing about different way to rob, kill, sell and do drugs to kids that
This makes me wonder why people taught me this without there being any solid background. I believe that it should be done because they should be able to identify them in future in the case of a similar crime to ease the arrest of the criminal. 6.) The gene that causes Dwarfism can now be identified and parents can decide whether or not they want to have a child if it has this disease. Explain why you think this is a good idea or not.
What has been proven is that personality conditions such as psychopathic and schizophrenia can be inherited. The evidence that researchers have found is that you can predict if you are born into a family of convicted felons that you will most likely follow the same path. However my thought on the Biological theory is this: Yes if you are born into a family of convicted felons that continue to break the law, then perhaps you will follow but not because you inherited this factor from them, but because you were grown up in this environment and raised to think this type of behavior is allowed. Hence,
Why do Adolescents Become Involved in Gangs Kim Nay Psychology 231 December 10 2011 Abstract I will begin this paper with a brief introduction to what is means to be a gang or a gang member. Sadly, with gang membership on the rise across the globe we must gain a better understanding of what causes children to choose this life style. Although, one particular reason cannot be pinpointed as to why children become involved, I