Social Minds about Crime - Assignment Example

Criminals with respect to nurture and nature Name Course and Code Institution’s Name Instructor’s Name Date Top of Form Table of Contents Introduction 2 Statement of the problem 3 Objectives 3 Literature review 3 Criminals and nurture theory 4 Psychological/genetic aspects of criminals 6 Research questions 8 Hypothesis 8 Research site 8 Study population 9 Reference 9 Introduction A crime refers to the act committed that is against the laws or rules of a governing authority in an organization. Different societies describe or define crimes differently. It should be noted that commitment of any crime is violation of law but not each and every 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 (Irvine, 2008). Authorities employ varieties of mechanisms so as to prevent or allow some kind of behaviors. This is an effort to ensure the criminals nurtured can be rehabilitated and turned into better people in the society. Statement of the problem Many are the times people in the world wonder if the criminals are born or made. The answer to that lies in the each of the individual evaluating the fact. This is because the greatest criminals in the world come from very different background. It is not a new thing to find a spiritual leader’s daughter or son in the midst of gangsters (Hamilton, 1999). On the other hand, there are families where the entire lineage is made up of great criminals. The two incidents really confuse people such that they do not understand really whether a criminal is born as one or if a criminal is made in the process of growth. Objectives I. To establish the percentage of criminals who are born criminals. This percentage will enable the research to give an evidence based conclusion showing whether most of the criminals are born as criminals due to genetic inheritance. II. To establish the percentage of criminals who are nurtured by the environment and other factors to become criminals. III. To establish the main factors this leads to people becoming criminals who were not born criminals. This percentage will enable the research to give an evidence based conclusion showing whether most of the criminals are influenced by some environmental factors to become criminals. IV. To find out the social demographic attributes of the criminals with respect to both nurture and nature. These factors will help the research to be able to understand some of the factors like the gender roles, religion, age and education influencing a person to commit crimes. Literature review In every society there is great evidence of crime commission. The question many people have is actually debatable as far as whether the aspect of criminal is associated to nurture or its nature. According to the human behavior theory, some people are believed to be criminals as a result of the heredity composition of their DNA while others are believed to have acquired the behaviors as a result of the environment they have been brought up which is described in the theory of nurture behavior of the human being. There has never been a stop to it or even a limit to the much crimes committed. 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 their 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 (Conklin, 2007). Criminals and nurture theory Social has to do with interaction with each other. Man is not an island and so interaction is part and parcel 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 can not afford to be the odd one out. Peer pressure does not necessary come the age mates. It could be from work mates, class mates, 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. 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 some aspects of poverty such that one can not afford to cater for a living especially in modern world where the standards of living have drastically risen up, one may turn into crime so as to earn and feel up to standard. Also factors like the change in lifestyle where people are adopting other cultural ways of living. For example, in a society where ladies have turned to indecent dress code even in the streets there has been a great rise in rape cases. This is because of the provocative way they are dressing. The issue of substance and drug influence has also raised the occurrence of social crimes. A good example is the rate of at which people are murdering others. 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 a lot of 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 in these modern days are without a job yet they need food, shelter and clothing. Due to this, they turn into other means and ways of earning a living which are definitely harmful to the society. On top of that, May job hunters are forces to like bribe someone to give them a job which is also a very serious crime. 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 can not afford. Therefore, they turn into dubious ways of acquiring the products. Psychological/genetic aspects of criminals On the other hand, there are some hereditary characteristic which makes someone to be automatically involved in crimes. There are a number of researches that have confirmed the role of the genetic composition crime commission. This is because according to the law of heredity, animals and people are known to inherit behaviors. This is because it is recorded that 60% of the genes are the ones use to construct the brain meaning that one is likely to think and behave like their parents. Also some aspects of the environment are likely to influence the genetic expression of an offspring like prenatal effects (Ronald, 1999). There has been a record of great numbers of criminal parents bearing criminal children. It has been noted that females are very subject to the social pressure to be able to conform toward the commitment of crimes than men. Also the greater hereditability is in property as compared to the crimes of violence. All in all the c\heredity factors contributing to a criminal must be well supported by the environmental factors for one to commit a crime. There has been so much commitment of the law into the issue of crime eradication and prevention. However, this differs depending on the society involved. Also different governments deal with crimes in different ways. As a matter of fact, so many institutions as well as legal frame work have been put into place to deal with the crime. All these are geared towards compelling the people to conform to the rules and laws (Becker, 2006). There is also an attempt to punish the law breakers more over; there is also an effort by many authorities to put mechanism in place geared towards encouraging and also discouraging some behavior. Some of the social crimes can be controlled by a number of ways. The law has for instance, been set in such a way that everyone is equal before the law. This is whereby; it is committed to make everyone feel equal as far as the right to access different social facilities are concerned (Irvine, 2008). Also the law is created in such a way that the punishment offered to any crime is the same to all criminals as long as they have committed the same crime. Also the government has put in place institutions to deal with the crimes. These institutions are very much committed to offering civic education. This is in an effort to ensure that the society is well informed in as far as crime types and their punishment are concerned. Also there has been a wide range of job creation especially to ensure that the youths are fully kept busy (Bryan &Paul, 2008). Also on the issue of civic education, the society has to be fully informed that for every crime there are people responsible for it. Like when they cover up a criminal it means they have helped in the expansion of crimes (Chemerinsky, 1987). It is true that crimes can never be stopped from ever happening, however, the people of the society can help in reducing them by turning up the criminals to the law enforcers who in turn punishes them by doing that, the rest of the society members intending to commit crimes will fell scared. There is a need to change the mind set of the society so as to prevent or rather reduce crimes. This must start with changing some rules and regulation. The society must for instance learn to forgive the law breakers once they are ready to change their ways (Becker, 2006) Research questions The following are the main questions which the research will be seeking to answer especially with reference to the formulated null hypothesis. I. What is the percentage of criminals who are born criminals II. What is the percentage of criminals who are nurtured by the environment and other factors to become criminals III. What are the main factors which leads to people becoming criminals who were not born criminals IV. What are the social demographic attributes of the criminals with respect to both nurture and nature Hypothesis Most of the criminals are made and not born. This could be due the fact that they are nurtured into criminals by some situations and circumstances. Research site The research will mainly take place in the prisons. It will involve both the main prisons which contain the adults as well as the juvenile prison (Schaffer, 2001). The study is a cross sectional descriptive study. This is because it basically involves a lot of observation and it does not involve any control sample. It will involve a section of the population in the prison since not everyone in the prison institute shall be used as a study sample. It will also measure the current and the past situation. It will enable the study accomplish the specific objectives. The reason as to why prison has been chosen is due to the fact that it is in the prison that all kind of criminals are found meaning that it will be very easy for the researcher to establish whether the criminals are nurtures to being that or are born criminals. Both the female as well as the male prisons shall be used to ensure that the subjects studied are sampled with gender sensitivity. Study population The study population will be prisoners both in the juvenile prisons as well as in the adult prisons. The sample of the research shall be obtained through a random selection. This is whereby, prisoners in different prisons register shall be picked by names in a random manner. However, prisoners shall be picked from all the levels. This means that the research shall involve prisoners irrespective their number of years they have been there as well as their age (Tatara, 1999). This is to avoid biasness through studying prisoners of one type of social demographic attribute. 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. Chemerinsky, E. 1987. Interpreting the constitution. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Conklin, J. 2007. Criminology. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon Hamilton, A. The federalist papers. New York: NYU Press, 1999 Irvine, W. 2008. Crime. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Ronald, J. 1999. The criminal justice system: an introduction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Schaffer, F. 2007. The branches of government. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Tatara, T. 1999. Understanding elder abuse in minority populations. Oxford: Oxford University Press Read More