Insight Into Criminal Behavior

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Juvenile exposure to criminal behavior increases the chances that those individuals will also engage in criminal behavior. Research gives us insight to prevent or reduce criminality and rehabilitate violators of the law that engage in criminal behavior. What causes people to commit crimes? Interdisciplinary criminology gives us a better understanding from several fields of study of a better understanding of crime. Influential factors that influence criminal behaviors are psychological, sociological, and biological. How do we help rehabilitate criminals? Each approach agrees on a criminal’s devotion to aggressive behavior, but they differ in their conclusions. Psychological involves personality, addressing certain felt needs, and defective mental processes. Sociological deals with cause and control of criminality. The social structures, cultural values, peer groups, and family all make-up this approach. The biological approach deals with a person’s biological make-up such as heredity, neurotransmitter dysfunction, and brain abnormalities as major components in criminal behavior.
Each approach consists of different methods of control, expression of behavior, and influences on criminal behavior. Situational and environmental factors provide setting and opportunity for crime to occur. Cultural forces help us analyze the context for occurring crimes. Phenomenological determines the personal meaning that a crime holds for the offender. Different researchers use different approaches to their theories but each have something to contribute to our understanding of the critical components of development. A contribution to an individual’s development begins in the womb and continues to develop well into adulthood. Many considerations shoul...

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...sness." Pp.424-426 in Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, edited by R.F. Baumeister and K.D. Vohs. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Hoffmann, John P. 2009. "The Status of General Strain Theory." Pp.156-168 in Criminological Theory: Readings and Retrospectives, edited by H. Copes and V. Topalli. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Horne, Christine. 2009. The Rewards of Punishment: A Relational Theory of Norm Enforcement. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Rowe, Richard, Barbara Maughan, and Thalia C. Eley. 2006. "Links between Antisocial Behavior and Depressed Mood: The Role of Life Events and Attributional Style." Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 34:293-302.
Lösel, Friedrich, Thomas Bliesener, and Doris Bender. 2007. "Social Information Processing, Experiences of Aggression in Social Contexts, and Aggressive Behavior in Adolescents." Criminal Justice and Behavior

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