Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Crime and socioeconomics
Society causes crimes
Social and economic reasons why people commit crimes
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Crime and socioeconomics
Throughout history a lot of expects have tried to understand why some people feel the need to commit crimes, even though there have been harsh laws inforced for thouse who commit crimes. These people have come up with theories as to why people commit crimes. in order to understand these theories we have to understand what a crime is and also understand the definition of theories.
Crime is a human conduct that violates the laws of a state or the ferdral government. There are different ways people view criminal behavours either thourgh the view of the social problem prespective which blames the society and the social responsibility which blames the person who commited the crime. Through thses two prespective we get the idea of therories. A thoerey
…show more content…
According to criminology today by schmalleger “genral starin theory is a prespective that sugest that law-breaking behavior is a copping mechanisim that enables those who engage in it to deal with the socioemotional problems generated by negative socialrelations” ( ) according to agnew people only commit crimes as a way to cop with the problems that the economy has emotionaly instalied in them. This is saing tha agnews theory agrees with the belivers of the social problems presprsctive which is the believe that crime is a manifestation of underlying social probems such as porverty. These idea of social problems prespectuve also goes withagnews expliantion of strains wihich are more likely to cause crimes accoding to agnew strains like child abuse, neglect, homelessness, and gender or reacial, and eithnic discrimination: also criminial resoureces and skills being available and low levels of conventional social support ( ). Agnew belives that in order for one to commit a crime something has to aid them as in one isn’t born with the will or desire to commit a crime but rather is something that goes on in the persons life that aids them to commit the crime. For example a child who gorws up in an abusive home might grow up to be an abuser becase that all h eknow that’s what he grew up
There are many views on crime and deviance and many theories to why they occur.
Crime is some action/omission that causes harm in a situation that the person/group responsible ‘ought’ to be held accountable and punished irrespective of what the law book of state say.
The social world has provided us with multiple perspectives when it comes to various topics. A theory is a system of ideas intended to explain something based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained. All three views of crime were created by theorists as an attempt to explain the causes of human behaviors. Each theory offers a variety of explanations for the multiple perspectives the world has.
...ifferent crime patterns and thought processes of criminals. The reasons can only come from these theories and will help the justice systems become more prepared to react towards different crimes. However, with adding some enhancements, projects and experiments these two theories have the potential to change the criminology realm forever.
The media is a dominating aspect of American culture. The way the media depicts crime and criminal behavior has an effect on the way society views crime and criminals. Television series such as CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds and countless others, have become very popular in our society today showing that our culture has an immense interest in crime. It is clear that there is a fascination with criminals and why they do the things they do. To analyze the way crime dramas represent crime and criminal behavior, I completed a content analysis of one episode of Criminal Minds. The episode I chose was season one; episode eight, which first aired in 2005, titled ‘Natural Born Killer’.
Crime exists everywhere. It is exists in our country, in the big cities, the small towns, schools, and even in homes. Crime is defined as “any action that is a violation of law”. These violations may be pending, but in order to at least lower the crime rate, an understanding of why the crimes are committed must first be sought. There are many theories that are able to explain crimes, but three very important ones are rational choice theory, social disorganization theory and strain theory.
In order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the criminal behavior theories, the word theory needs to be defined. “A theory is an explanation. It tells why or how things are related to each other. A theory of crime explains why or how a certain thing or certain things are related to criminal behavior.” (Bohn and Vogel)
If we studied through the history of criminal theory, spiritual and natural theories are taken as major theories of causation of crime. During medieval period, spiritual explanations were taken as punishment given by god for doing wrong things and any natural disasters like flood, fires, etc were evaluated as curse of high power. In modern period, the basic theories of causation of crime are classical theory, biological theory, psychological theory, cultural theory and conflict theory. The classical theory explains that free will acts as center of crime giving example of free will of children that may commit crime which cannot be paid once it committed. In the 19th century, the biological theory got public attention when Cesare Lombrose suggested that criminals cannot be identified by examining their body structures, number of toes, etc giving the research data that determined that ordinary people are mostly involved in crime than militants. Now, this theory is followed by Modern biological theory which signifies that chemical imbalance in brain results violence activities. It supports remarkable example of violence occurred due to lower portion of serotonin chemical and abuse of drugs alcohol (Fishbein 1990). Fishbein(2000) mentioned the relation of the damage of frontal lobe of brain and antisocial behavior. Similarly, psychological theory explains that mental illness of person convicts crime and is supported by Freud’s concept of id, ego and superego. Freud mentioned that any emotional trauma in children of 5 yrs age or above may result long –lasting negative influence. Likewise, the most common but important theory is sociological theory that deals with the conviction of crime ...
...ulture and beliefs. Another reason one might commit a crime, is when people fail to achieve society’s expectations through legal means such as hard work and delayed gratification, they may attempt to achieve success through crime. People also develop motivation and the skills to commit crime through the people they associate with. Some criminals commit crimes because of the controls that society places on a person through institutions such as schools, workplaces, churches, and families. Sometimes there are occasions where a persons actions goes against what society considers normal, and as a result it is instead considered a crime. Also some criminals continue their criminal acts because they have been shunned by their society because once a person is labeled a criminal, society takes away their opportunities, which in most cases leads to more criminal behavior.
...crime according to the classical theory is the harm it impacts on the society. In his theory, Cesare argues that it would be erratic and illogical if the measure of crimes were to be based on the intentions of the individuals who commit them (Beccaria, 1986). These intentions depend on individuals’ state of mind and the actual impression that objects make this vary from one person to according to changes in ideas, circumstances and passions. It is, therefore, important to formulate a particular code for each and laws for different crimes.
The world will always be full of crime, thus it is necessary for scientist to grow along with the gruesome and increasing amount of violations. Due to this it sparked scientist to develop crime theories in which emerged to explain why crime is caused by individuals. Some of the few theories that have advanced over the past century and provided many answers to why crimes are committed are biological theories, psychological theories and learning theories. These theories provide an insight to its first use and change in order to provide answers.
By the end of Dostoyesky’s Crime and Punishment, the reader is no longer under the illusion of the possible existence of “extraordinary” men. For an open-minded reader, and even perhaps the closed-minded ones too, the book is a journey through Raskolnikov’s proposed theory on crime. It is a theory based on the ideas that had “been printed and read a thousand times”(313) by both Hegel and Nietzsche. Hegel, a German philosopher, influenced Dostoyesky with his utilitarian emphasis on the ends rather than the means whereby a superman existed as one that stood above the ordinary man, but worked for the benefit of all mankind. Nietsche’s more selfish philosophy focused on the rights to power which allowed one to act in a Hegelian manner. In committing his crime, Raskolnikov experienced the ultimate punishment as he realized that his existence was not that of the “extraordinary” man presented in his theory. In chapter five of part three in Crime and Punishment, this theory is outlined by its creator, Raskolnikov. Such an innovative theory would clearly have placed him in the “extraordinary” category, but when he fails to meet its standards, by submitting to the common law through his confession, the theory crumbles right before the reader’s eyes.
Sociologists have been examining crime and its causes for over 150 years, and through several researches, various explanations have been used to describe crime and deviance. Crime is a behaviour that goes against all formal written laws of a given society (Haralambos, Smith, O 'Gorman, & Heald, 1996). Laws in different societies differ, so do crimes i.e. what may be considered as a crime in one society may not be in another different society. For instance, while same-sex relationship is accepted in some countries like the United States, United Kingdom etc. it is illegal in countries like Nigeria, and most Arabic countries. Other examples of general crimes are theft/robbery, murder, kidnapping and others. Once a crime is committed, sanctions
Criminals are born not made. The basic definition of the word criminal is someone who commits offending behaviour within society (Harrower, 2001). The crime may range from petty theft to murder. Criminals are born not made is the discussion of this essay, it will explore the theories that attempt to explain criminal behaviour. Psychologists have come up with various theories and reasons as to why individuals commit crimes.
In today’s generation there are many children and teens that commit crimes to satisfy their self being. Every day we see in the news about the reasons why children or teens commit crimes like murder or homicide. Sentencing juveniles to life in prison is not a right response to prevent homicide and serious murder, because their brains are not fully develop and the bad environment they live in. Teenagers or children need to be remain unformed of preventing crimes in today’s society. With this said, juvenile’s mental brains, backgrounds and growth are the reasons why they are not proficient to maintain themselves in a prison cell.