Psychology of Crime: Nature Debate - Report Example

Introduction Crime is the violation of laws or rules by an individual that can lead to his or her conviction in a certain legal system. It constitutes offences against the state or public. Agents of the state often compel the population to conform to institutional and legal machinery put in place by the state (Ronald, 1999). Those who do not conform to these institutional or legal systems are said to have committed crime and the state agents may be compelled to punish or try to reform such individuals. Thus, crime comprises deviant behavior, which violates norms that are in existence. It should be noted that commitment of any crime is violation of law but not each law violation is referred to as a crime. A crime is also termed as any offence committed against the state or the public. A tort is a crime that is committed against a private sector causing some public havoc. In an effort to prevent crimes, different policies, as well as practices are put in place. On the hand there is a system called a criminal justice put in place so that the can be justice to whom crimes are committed (Ronald, 1999). Over the past five decades, debate has ensued over whether crime has a genetic predisposition or is just influenced by the environment. Some criminologists argue that crime has genetic predisposition while others reject this view. The root cause of the debate is because many criminals in the world come from very different background. Criminals with respect to nurture and nature theory In every society, there is great evidence of crime commission. According to the human behavior theory, some people are believed to be criminals because of the heredity composition of their DNA while others are believed to have acquired the behaviors because of the environment they have been brought up, which is described in the theory of nurture behavior of the human being. Commission of some crimes usually does not require any training meaning that anyone can commit it (Ronald, 1999). It should be noted that both the environment to which someone has been brought up as well as the genetic heredity of a person greatly contribute to his or her involvement in crimes. There are people who though possess the genes of criminality, they a never exhibit the characteristics of a criminal or get involved in crimes unless they are exposed in the right environment that will accelerate their ability to commit crimes. Criminals and nurture theory of nurture Social has to do with interaction with each other. Man is not an island and so interaction is part of his living. Through relations with other crimes comes up. One of the social sources of crimes is peer pressure. Pressure has to do with the urge to do something simply because the group one socially relates and identifies with is doing the same thing. A good example is if one’s age mates are involved in drug trafficking (Albanese, 2006). The person will be seriously drawn into doing it simply because he cannot afford to be the odd one out. Peer pressure does not necessary come the age mates. It could be from work mates, classmates, church mates, or even friends. Another, social cause of crime is the society rejection. This is whereby a person feels so rejected in the community thereby resulting into doing some crimes (Ronald, 1999). For example could be the Person is part of the society and at some point had committed a crime of which he paid for already. After their release, even when these criminals from may be prison to pay for their crimes, the society at times does not embrace them back leaving them with only one option of gong back to the world of crime. This may lead them into sticking to the crime world since they feel out of place (Albanese, 2006). Another social cause of crimes is the gap between the rich and the poor. Many are the times; our society has drawn a distinction or difference between the poor and the rich in a number of ways. For instance, you may find that there are services provided to suit the rich and then others for the poor. Due to such social differences, some people may turn into crime in an effort to access such services too. The societal patterns and lifestyles is another cause of crime in the society. This entails factors like poverty. Due to poverty, many people are not able to cater for their basic needs hence one may turn into crime to earn and feel up to standard. In addition, factors like the change in lifestyle where people are adopting other cultural ways of living. The issue of substance and drug influence has also raised the occurrence of social crimes. Drugs like cocaine are nowadays readily available in the society and to anyone. The consumers are losing their self-discipline as well as control thereby, committing many crimes. Examples of such crimes include rapes, wife violation, and a lot of other violence going on (Albanese, 2006). There are a number of economic sources of crimes in the society. First and fore most is lack of employment. So many young and old people are unemployed yet they need food, shelter, and clothing. Due to this, they turn to criminal behavior. Another very important economic cause of crimes is the rate of inflation of commodity. In most countries, the rate of inflation of every commodity has drastically risen (Albanese, 2006). As a result, many people cannot afford. Therefore, they turn into dubious ways of acquiring the products. From this analysis it is evident that criminals are more of been nurtured rather than born. Environmental and societal factors contribute towards individuals becoming criminals. Nevertheless and according to Albanese (2006) states that criminals are nurtured indicating the extent in which people base their activities to the society. Psychological/genetic aspects of criminals Studies using twins, both homozygous and heterozygous, indicate that crime has some genetic predisposition. About ten studies have been conducted using twins to determine the influence of genetics on crime. The studies varied widely in terms of country of origin, sex and age composition, sample size, zygosity determination and crime definition (Ronald, 1999). The studies indicate greater concordance rates for criminality among homozygous twins as opposed to heterozygous twins. The studies indicate that concordance for crime among homozygous twin is 51.0% while that for heterozygous is 20.2% a strong indication that crime has a genetic predisposition (Albanese, 2006). As expected, the studies indicate concordance rates are lower among females than males. However, the concordance rates in homozygous female twins are more than three times compared to those among heterozygous female twins. This provides substantial evidence that genetic make up of an individual influence on the development of crime. Some of these studies have however been under great criticism. The first studies carried out in Germany during the Nazi era are criticized for being politically biased. Even though the only sure way of determining zygosity is using DNA fingerprinting, many of these studies have been criticized pertaining how they determined zygosity (Albanese, 2006). Another criticism of these studies is because the sample size used was very small and hence cannot be used to make the conclusion that crime has genetic predisposition. In spite these criticisms, eliminating studies carried out in Germany to remove political biasness, evidence is still strong that genetics play a role in crime development (Ronald, 1999). In addition, the use of blood samples for determining zygosity is still valid since it has small margins of error and is approximately 90-95% accurate. Combining all the studies still indicate that genetics has a role in determining criminal behavior of individuals hence eliminating the sample size as source of criticism. In addition, critics of genetic predisposition of crime have not provided any empirical evidence to support their criticism. Twin studies have been criticized because twins share a more common environment than heterozygous twins. However, there is evidence the relatedness in the genetic make up of the twins is what compels the similar parental treatment. More evidence shows that twins attempt to de-identify or be different from one another. Other studies show that twin pairs develop opposite role relationships (Ronald, 1999). These effects are expected to reduce heritability estimates. Biological differences such as discrepancy in the birth weights of homozygous twins relative to heterozygous twins accentuate phenotypic differences. Such non-genetic differences increase behavioral differences in homozygous twins and hence reduce heritability estimates. Thus, it is suggested that these effects tend to cancel each other out and therefore rubbishing twin studies is not in order. Studies of homozygous twin reared apart on antisocial traits have complemented genetic predisposition of behavior. Adoption study methodology has been used to overcome shortcomings of studies involving homozygous twins since they clearly separate genetic and environmental influences. All studies involving adoption indicate that there is some degree of genetic predisposition to crime. This evidence for genetic predisposition has been discovered by several research groups, which are independent. The heritability for crime has also been documented in different nations exemplified by USA, Denmark, and Sweden. This indicates that the results can be generalized. The studies also had large sample sizes and were able to find that petty property crimes are heritable while violent crimes are not. Thus, adoption studies provide strong support for the role played by genetic make up of an individual in criminal behavior. Conclusion Crime is the violation of laws or rules by an individual that can lead to his or her conviction in a certain legal system. The causes of crime have been an issue of debate for many years. Of these, environmental and genetic make up of an individual have been implicated. Some criminologists dispute the fact that crime has genetic predisposition. However, they do not provide any empirical evidence to support their argument. Studies involving twins and adopted children have strong indication that crime is linked to genetic make up of an individual. Reference  Albanese, S. (2006). Professional ethics in criminal justice, 2nd ed. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon. Becker, G. (2006). Crime and punishment: An economic approach. Oxford: oxford university press. Bryan, G. & Paul, C. (2008). The criminal justice system. London: waterside press. Conklin, J. (2007). Criminology. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon Irvine, W. (2008). Crime. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. Ronald, J. (1999). The criminal justice system: an introduction. Chicago: university of Chicago press. Read More