More handpicked essays just for you.
Social structural theories of crime
Sociological perspective of criminal behaviour
Sociological perspective of criminal behaviour
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Routine activity theory provides insights by explaining that a crime requires the presence of a suitable target (Shymko),without such a target, the motivated offender lacks the necessary incentives to commit a crime (Shymko). Motivated offenders consider two primary factors when determining an individual as a suitable target. The first factor is the absence of an effective guardian who can prevent criminal acts. In the absence of one, the likelihood of criminal activity increases significantly (Shymko). Potential offenders are aware that there is no one to hold them accountable or prevent their actions.
Within the past couple of decades, criminologists have developed different criminological theories that apply to the social behaviors and decisions of criminals. One of the earliest theories developed regarding criminality is the rational choice theory, in which describes the rationalization of determining if the rewards from committing the crime outweigh the consequences. In Scarver’s case, his decision to engage in criminal activities outweighed the potential consequences, or the other alternatives if he did not engage in such criminal activities. In addition to the rational choice theory, Scarver’s criminality can be related to the social disorganization theory, which describes the influence of one’s social and physical environment on one’s decision to commit a crime. Lastly, the strain theory can be related to Scarver’s criminality as well, as it is used to describe an individual who lacks the means to obtain such goals, and aspirations, so therefore, he or she engages in criminal activities to acquire the goals.
Between the mid-late 1970s and the early 1980s, Dennis Nilsen began mass murdering young men in Great Britain that had at least 15 men through strangulation (Crime Investigation, 2014). In analyzing his life, many of contributions throughout his life could have influenced his criminal behaviour when committing his crimes. Many theories such as broken home hypothesis and schema therapy theory use psychological explanations that determine how the individual resulted into committing their crimes. With schema therapy theory, not only does it discuss the justification for criminal behaviour, but suggests how to reduce the relapse of criminal acts by identifying the cause or the trigger of the individual’s criminal behaviour (Vos et al., 2016). In Dennis Nilsen’s life, there are several indications such as the abandonment of his family members, the termination of a past relationship, and the reclusiveness from society that could have resulted
Our text (Schmalleger) explains desistance as the cessation of criminal activity or the termination of a period of involvement in offending behavior; desistance is broken down in two (2) types, unaided and aided. Unaided desistance would be the type that occurs without any formal assistance from criminal justice programs or agencies, aided desistance would be the type that occurs with formal assistance from criminal justice programs or agencies (Schmalleger, 2012, p. 197).
The traditional goals of sentencing are retribution, deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation (Stinchcomb, 2011). A more contemporary goal of criminal sanctions is restorative and community justice (Stinchcomb, 2011). Retribution is founded on the principle that offenders should receive their ‘just desserts’. However, the penalty must be proportionate to the offence committed (Welch, 2004, p.83) Deterrence aims to reduce criminal offending.
Developmental theories look at how offenders start and end their criminal behaviors. All developmental theories, including the two focused on in this paper, pull from social, psychological, and biological factors to find answers. Both of these theories follow along a trajectory or pathway for offenders. Sampson and Laub’s age-graded theory has offenders following along two possible trajectories. They can either follow along the high risk trajectory or the low risk trajectory.
ARTICLE FOUR I chose, Settling Sown and Aging Out: Toward an Interactionist Theory of Desistance and the Transition to Adulthood by Massoglia & Uggen (2010), due to the extremely thorough nature of the research that was conducted. The criminal justice system has always been focused on delinquency as well as desistance, and in this study the researchers brought in numerous hypotheses to test, to determine what exactly enables the aging out process. The interesting aspect of this literature, not only that is connects with desistance which we have learned about this semester, it incorporates life course aspects and variables that occur in people’s lives that possibly play a role in desistance.
My paper aims to discuss the three different factors of criminal behaviour, what causes it and why. My essay will examine and focus mainly on the genetic makeup of a person, the environment in which they are raised in and gender differences.
The concept of ‘recidivism’ is central to understanding the criminal justice system. Recidivism occurs when a person commits a crime again despite having been punished before. One of the main goals of the criminal justice system is to reduce recidivism but in fact longer sentences may increase the probability of recidivism (Griffiths & Cunningham, 2000). One reason is that the climate within a prison is not helpful to the inmate in making personal changes that can lead to reduced recidivism. However, psychologists are trying to develop intervention programmes that in fact lead to such personal changes so as to reduce recidivism.
In the developing world, incarceration goes beyond the idea of applying a just punishment upon the offender for committing a criminal action or following a destructive behavior that disturb the public interest and the stability of the community. Incarceration also holds the responsibility to prepare the offender to integrate with the community after he goes out. This rehabilitation should be done on healthy bases that assure the mental health of the offender. With the increased rates of incarceration and long sentence in the US society, rehabilitation program comes as a need more than a right and moral thing to do.
Recidivism refers to the repetition of criminal behavior (James, 2011). According to the United States Bureau of Justice 2010 statistics report, three-quarters of released prisoners are constantly rearrested for new crimes and more than half of these go back to prison in a period of two to three years after their release. Ex- inmates account for an approximated 19 percent of all arrests (Phelps, 2013, p.55). Criminals who return to the community are also most of the times worse off after a period of confinement than when they entered. It is attributable to the fact that these inmates learn antisocial and criminal attitudes from other
The theory views the offender as either a patient or a victim or both. According to this theory a person who has committed an offense is not morally responsible for the offense he or she has committed because the offense might be the product of an illness in which treatment is required; this type of person is regarded as a patient. When the offense is the product of a dysfunctional social environment the person is regarded as the victim. The advantage of this approach is that it focuses on the offenders, instead of punishing the offenders this approach focuses on repairing and treating the dysfunctional areas that the offenders are experiencing by means of behavioral therapy and other therapeutic programmes.
There are countless arguments theorizing the criminal behaviors of offenders. Lifestyle-Exposure Theory, also known as Lifestyle Theory, acknowledges the differences in an individual life on a day-to-day basis. Lifestyles are patterned, regular, recurrent routine activities. Lifestyle can be defined as an activity that a person would engage in on a daily basis, including both obligatory activities, such as work or school, and leisure activities (Lifestyle, 2011). This theory of victimization recognizes that every person takes different paths, has different routines, and life exposures.
State sanctions is important in where incarnation can negatively impact job prospect despite desistance from crime after an incarnation. State sanctions bring in the question of class (Laub and Sampson, 1993/2011, p. 266), as Sampson and Laub (1993/2011) points out, middle-class boys are less likely to be sanctioned while as a delinquent therefore not impacting their future, also in Thornberry (1987/2011, p. 252) mentioning how middle-class boys are much more likely to not be in criminogenic environments. On the contrary, despite the negative effects of early negative sanctions, at age 48, desisters are just as successful in life as the unconvicted, as compared to the data at age 32 where desisters have significantly lower life success (Farrington et al., 2006). It is of no surprise to see that late-onset offenders to be deemed less successful in their lives than desisters, as late-onset offenders start gathering social capital at a later stage after losing their initial social
This essay will discuss crime as both a social problem and a sociological problem. Crime is seen as a typical function of society. Crime doesn’t happen without society. It is created and determined by the surrounding society. According to the CSO, the number of dangerous and negligent acts committed between the years of 2008 and 2012 rose from 238’000 in 2008 to 257’000 in 2012.
