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The science of the criminal mind
Psychodymic theories criminality
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The science of the criminal mind
Psychodymic theories criminality
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The last chapter starts with the criminal Wes. The beginning of the chapter is a story about how Wes, Tony and other two men committed a crime. Wes’ mother Mary was shocked, when she heard the news about jewelry store robbery by four masked men; at that moment she even did not know how much this news would change her life. One of the robbers shot a veteran of police department, because of this police officers were incredibly interested to catch them. A break in the case came really quickly, because one of the perpetrators, who was Wes’ brother, tried to sell one of the stolen watches to a drug dealer who had an authorized wiretap on his phone.
Nurture. Hickock suffering a physical injury that affected his frontal lobe and skewered his personality and judgement. On the other hand, Smith experienced a traumatic childhood that affected his mental health and with it being detrimental to not only him, but the society as a whole as it gave rise to his criminal behaviours. In Smith’s case it can be argued that his lawlessness is the result of embracing “causes that they could use as vehicles in their search for excitement, power, and conquest.” (Psychology Today.)
While a few theories are not as regular, others have developed and are utilized as a part of numerous criminal reviews today. Cutting edge criminologists consolidate the most important aspects of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and biological theories to advance their comprehension of criminal behavior. Rational choice theory, psychological, biological, and strain theory are used to analyze the
Theories such as, Inherited Criminality, Appearance, and even theories regarding the poor development of key areas of the Central Nervous System (CNS), could all be factors. But what really stands out, is how these biological factors may have interacted within the environment in which these children grew up (Bernard, 2016). Most of the children featured in the documentary were abused, delinquent, and often used drugs and alcohol. Any undetermined biological or physical factor as identified by the biological theories of crime, could very well have played a role when factored into the environmental conditions that the child was growing up
The United States criminal justice system is diminishing millions of lives every day. Ironically, the amount of inequalities that the criminal justice system portrays goes against the term ‘justice’. There is a 33% chance that a black male will end up in jail in his lifetime, while white males have a 6% chance. There are 4,749 black males incarcerated while there are only 703 white males. Prisons receive revenue of 1.65 billion dollars per year which makes them willing to incarcerate anyone that they can (“Enduring Myth of Black Criminality”).
Short Summary: Chapter 2 of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison was about how the way society sees crime can be distorted by the media, the justice system, and the information we are presented with about what crime really is. It points out that medical neglect, known environmental hazards, dangerous workplace conditions, and poverty cause more injuries yearly than murders, assaults, and robberies. Most people see the latter as “crime,” but not the former. Long Summary: Chapter 2 of The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison discusses people’s skewed perspective when it comes to what they think crime really is. The reader is asked to do an exercise regarding their own reason.
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.
The modern society allows and encourage people to own their different thinking and ideas and this tendency makes very diverse environment. However, the same characteristics of the environment are still existing and influence people who live in this place in same way. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Ride and Fall of New York City Crime”, discusses about how Bernie Goetz changed his behavior after being assaulted and affected by the situation he lived in while he was robbed, which mainly reflects how environment and dangerous situation changed human beings’ minds and behaviors. The other author Leslie Bell focus on the the different situations for young women and their different reactions in “Sections from Hard
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
The theory argues that individuals engage in crime following their being identified as criminals such that they behave in a manner to fit the awarded label (Arrigo & Williams, 2006). Manson was such a victim as he was regarded as dangerous in reformatories. He found no other option other than engaging in crime and regarded himself as more than a typical delinquent. Biological and psychological
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.
One of the most debated topics throughout the world is nature versus nurture. When psychologists debate this topic, they are studying what influences a person’s personal development. Some say that a person’s nature influences personal development while others say a person’s nurture influences personal development. A lot of people spend time contemplating which one actually does the influencing but what some do not realize is that, perhaps, both nature and nurture help shape a person’s personal development. One topic that comes up quite often is whether or not a person is born a criminal.
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.
Furthermore, the psychology of criminal behavior, psychology, and criminology all have a primary objective of achieving an understanding of the variation in the criminal behavior of individuals (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Empirically, the study of variation in criminal behavior is done by the studying of covariates (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). The primary covariates that PCC studies are biological, social, and psychological (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Although, criminology tends to assess criminality at an aggregate level, in comparison to the psychology of criminal conduct’s focus on an individual level. Additionally, a psychology of criminal conduct involves applying what is learned by the studying of psychological information and methods to the predicting and influencing the propensity of criminal behavior on an individual
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.