Criminal Behavior
Approaches to Understand Criminal Behavior
Psychological Approaches
Sociological Approaches
Biological Approaches
Psychosurgery
Chemical Methods of Control
Imagine yourself having a walk in the premises of your house and a stone come flying through the boundary wall and hits you. As a layman, one might face difficulty in defining this incident. It can be termed as an assault, an act of violence or a criminal offence. This is a layman's term to define this act but in reality it has a way deeper meaning. Before going in the details of criminal behavior, few points must be pondered like why individuals offend, who are the ones who offend and who are the probable victims. Relationship between psychology and the criminal justice system is of great significance in developing an understanding about reasons that could lead to violence which is the consequence of criminal behavior. Many other facts are of importance while investigating the issue like police investigation, incorrect confessions, professional witnesses, jury behavior and treatment of difficult offenders. Considering the above mentioned scenario where a stone hits a person, before labeling it as a crime, examine and investigate the details about the rock flying. This is not the question that how painful injury it caused or was it intentionally aimed at the person.Background scenario is of great significance while determining criminal activities.
Approaches to Understand Criminal Behavior
Three basic approaches have been identified to understand criminal behavior. These include psychological models, sociological models and biological models. It is a difficult task to completely differentiate the three behaviors while understanding criminal behavior because there is a link between all three. They are somehow interlinked and cannot be separated from each other. All three play a significant role in the expression of behavior. There are some basic rules and regulations which are strongly linked with these three behavior models that are related to exact crime control policies.
Psychological Approaches
The psychological models have a wide range and variety. It ranges from ancient Freudian philosophies to latest cognitive and social psychological models. The basic assumptions of this theory are as follows:
Human beings are the basic unit who are analyzed in this theory in order to discover facts about criminal behavior.
Personality traits are fundamental and essential elements that leads to criminal behavior in individuals.
Normalcy is mostly defined by social consensus.
A fundamental principal that forms the bases of this theory is that crimes are the outcomes of strange, dysfunctional, inapt or inappropriate mental developments inside the behavior of the individual
Criminal behavior can be thought of as a meaningful and intentional act of an individual as it may point out many needs of the person committing any act of violence.
Flawed, abnormal or atypical, mental procedures may have a range of reasons like unhealthy diseased minds, inapt learning, unsuitable or miserable life conditions, and role models of the individuals being a negative character and in some situations inner conflicts give rise to criminal behavior.
The last assumption of psychological model clearly explains the fact that a broad range of causeses exist for criminal behavior and that general principles targeted at the individual would be effective for crime control. Another major reason that can be pointed out for this personality disorder that leads to criminal behavior is antisocial personality disorder in the DSM-IV and previously defined as the sociopath or psychopath. This kind of behavior is prominent due to unusual irregular behavior experienced by the offender in his previous life and is linked with self-centeredness, reduced compassion and responsiveness, and increased potential to look at others as a means to fulfill personal desires and to look forward to them as tools for personal ends. Controls for these individuals would be more risky and overall public policies may not be strict enough to control the behavior in this small subset of criminals. According to the above mentioned six points that forms the psychological explanation of criminal behavior, it can be suggested that outdated imprisonment, penalties, and other court agreements are founded on operant learning models of behavior for crime control. It is natural phenomenon that every individual, no matter what profession he is part of, or what are the circumstances of his life, he would intentionally as well as unintentionally wish to maximize the pleasure and comforts of his life and minimize and reduce as the stress, anxiety and
Sociological theories of criminal behavior do not discount individual-level learning but focus more on the surrounding culture and environment. To explain criminal behavior, sociologists usually center on conflict theories, strain theories, labeling theories, and social control theories. Conflict theories have their roots in Marxist philosophy. They reveal how class conflict can create impetus for deviance and also lead to general anomie. Strain theory similarly suggests that criminal behavior can result
" These authors purport that although mood and behaviour may constitute a vital part in disorderly outcomes of drinking scenarios, other social factors can equally contribute influences. These factors, according to these authors, can be categorized by the following factors: the attitude and motivations that young binge drinkers bring to drinking, the social and peer group norms under which they operate, and features relating to the drinking environment. Reasonable Investigations In the journal
On the other hand, his wife said that they dated for about nine months and then were engaged for about a year before they got married. There was some discrepancy in the Personal and Progress notes of Mr. W pertaining to the involvement of Mr. W in women during his time in high school, however, which does not have much role to play in this case. Mr. W claimed
Leaders in society understand the need to resist putting unfair labels on people; this has been a positive trend over the recent past. Feminist Theory: Feminist theories suggest, "…criminal justice decisions reflect male dominance and functioning to support patriarchy"; in short, the system is bias against women (Akers, 1999). This has changed society because women's liberation, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, have made it illegal to discriminate based
Likewise, full-body tattoos are considered deviant behavior and people who are completely tattooed are ostracized from some elements of society, but that behavior has never been considered illegal. In contrast, most people do not consider jaywalking or speeding to be extremely deviant behavior. On the contrary, most people have probably engaged in these criminal behaviors and may even be habitual offenders, but one would be unlikely to label them
05 under Resolving Ethical Issues in corporate situations is apt. One Research Standard in the "Introduction to the Responsible Conduct of Research" The one research standard that stands out as among the most important standards is "accuracy," which, along with "honesty, efficiency and objective" make up the four most fundamental standards from the Office of Research Integrity. In the peer-reviewed journal Criminology, professor John Laub writes that "…facts must come first" when
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now