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Cesare Lombroso: In Defense Of Mental Insanity

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Biological positivism is the belief that criminal behavior is not solely influenced by nature versus nurture, but instead influenced by some chemical imbalance within the brain i.e. abnormalities. The imbalance within the individual is what causes the deviation from societal norms. A person’s genetic makeup could be used as a shield to protect the individual from facing the consequences of their actions, giving new meaning to the defense of “mental insanity”. The question society faces is about whether or not criminal behavior is an act of free will or if an individual is simply acting the way they were meant to? If this is the case then society has very limited options for how to deal with criminal behavior.
Cesare Lombroso used this ideology …show more content…

Studying how an individual behaves on the other hand can determine at least the precursors for criminal behavior. Flagler College has a program titled CARE (Campus Assessment, Referral and Evaluation). Its intention is to provide a structured optimistic procedure for addressing student behaviors that may adversely have an effect on the university community, the mission of the tuition, and could contain mental well-being and/or security problems. It evaluates behaviors, habits, and student’s emotional well-being. Behaviors can entail: threat of damage to self or others, self-injurious habits/suicidal ideas or an attempt to commit suicide, displays of aggression towards others i.e. bullying, stalking, and hazing. Habits especially erratic ones include: weapons on campus, inappropriate disruptions to campus life, vulgar media postings that make people uncomfortable, and behaviors where safety is compromised. A student’s well-being is called in to question when the student engages in self-damaging behaviors such as substance abuse, or when the student has been hospitalized.
While the intentions of the program are in the best interest of the student the methodology is still reliant upon the student committing an act before the school will step in. In order to reduce crime on Flagler’s campus a more proactive approach must be implemented. Professors need to be better trained to spot students suffering from behavioral

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