What Causes Criminal Behavior

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Criminologists studied criminal behavior for many years. In fact, criminologists have come up with many different answers and theories as to why individual actually commits crimes. Even though there are many differences each answer and theory helps assists the legal system with deterring such criminal activity. One of the most costly forms of crime; white collar, shows many distinct characteristics that can be placed in a criminal profile. Upon the use of theories and profiles; determination can be made as to why individual commits white collar crimes.
Individual Engagement in Criminal Activity
Crime occurs, but the puzzling question is why people engage in criminal behavior. An individual does not just decide to get out of bed one day and decide that they are going to commit a crime. Most crimes take lots of planning while others only happens with no thought process at all. Criminal behavior has been studied for many years and have determined that there are very many different answers that are deemed the correct response. Some may think that poverty is the main root of criminal behavior. However, there are also many wealthy individuals involved in criminal activity. This holds true in many white collar crimes. Some many still believe that poverty plays a role since there are many individuals looking for a better life and try to take the easy way out. Poverty does seem to have some role in the process since the wealthy want to stay wealthy and those that are poor want to be rich. Individuals also commit crimes for other reasons too. These can range from social, cultural, and economic reasons. Socially, individuals commit crimes due to influences from peers while cultural reasons include hatred towards another gro...

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...the entire research shows that the ACFE’s profile description of a white collar criminal not only describes the white collar criminal, but also law abiding citizens. The ACFE describes their idea of a white collar criminal as someone who is “young, well-educated, aggressive go-getters who get tripped up along the way” (Pavlo, 2010, p. 1). Also, the ACFE explains that there are also red flags that can be noticeable. In fact, 43% of the cases involving white collar criminals showed that they were living way beyond their means (Pavlo, 2010, p. 1). In a 2008 article, white collar criminals are described as typically being men averaging between forty-one years to fifty years old and working in a company’s accounting department (). As discussed; profiles can be established, however, there are some discrepancies as to a perfect profile describing a white collar criminal.

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