Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee Criminology Theories - Coursework Example

Christopher Boyce & Andrew Daulton Lee criminology theories Humans’ thought process and thereby behaviors would be mainly influenced and triggered by various aspects, which they may see, hear and even feel in their growing up years. As individuals’ grow up, and that could include criminals as well, they would be exposed to various happenings, issues, aspects, etc, etc., which would orient or even modify their thought processes, and would push them to exhibit certain behaviors. Although, there were occasions of criminals committing mistakes in the spur of the moment, without having much of a background, most of the times, the background of criminals could play a major or even a minor role in acting as a ‘catalyst’ for the actual crime or criminal activities. When one closely and critically looks at the life of the criminals, particularly their growing up years, it could provide key perspectives regarding why they could have exhibited those criminal behaviors. When one focuses on certain events in those criminals’ lives, their behaviors or decisions or reactions to those events and the resultant formation of characteristics, could connect directly or indirectly to the criminal actions. These aspects of criminal behavior are being studied from earlier times by experts and thinkers, and that has led to the formulation of various theories. When the behaviors of the criminals are studied in relation to these theories, certain correlations and patterns would emerge, providing key insights into those behaviors. Focusing on the criminals, Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton, and using criminology theories, the discussion will be on the aspects that could have influenced and triggered them to exhibit criminal behaviors of spying, drug pedaling and even bank robbing. Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton are childhood friends, both of whom indulged in spying activities in their 20s, against United States in 1970s, for which they were convicted and sentenced to long terms in prison. Although, both of them were released from the prison recently, their crimes have been the subject of discussion by various experts and even by filmmakers, as they focused on the factors that could have triggered and transformed seemingly normal childhood friends into traitors of United States. When one looks at their childhood in a casual manner, it appeared to be a normal one, with both of them having a usual school life and indulging in typical pastimes. “The boys — born only a year apart, Boyce in 1953 and Lee in 1952 — went to Catholic school together where they bonded as best friends. They were both altar boys at the local church. Boyce took up the hobby of falconry that Lee also practiced with him.” (Adler, 2013, pg.339). However, when one critically as well as theoretically view both their childhoods or growing up years, certain ‘markers’ where there, which could have influenced their criminal behaviors later. One of the childhood personality traits of Boyce was being a daredevilry, who loved adventure and excitement. This want for excitement is line with the Samenow's theory of criminal behavior. According to Stanton Samehow, “From very early, the oxygen of the criminal's life is to seek excitement by doing the forbidden.” (cited in Genre, n. d.). That is, prospective criminals would get easily bored, if they are made to follow the established protocols, which could serve or excite anyone other than himself. In order to avoid such boredom, they would involve themselves in activities, which provide them maximum excitement, even if it is detrimental to themselves as well as others. Thus, in a way, excitement could be the oxygen or fuel “that sustains life for the criminal, and eschewing the rules of work will often provide this fuel.” (cited in Genre, n. d.). Boyce had this exact habit of indulging in risk-taking activities and particularly liked doing things that nobody else could do, mainly for the pleasure of sheer excitement. As his mother Noreen Boyce recalled, “If there was a bird that nobody else had caught, he’d try to catch it, or nobody else had climbed the tree, he’d climb it.” (Noe, n. d). Although, those actions had grave consequences like burning all the flesh of his hands while falling from a tree and even compressing his vertebrae, he continued those risk taking actions for want of excitement. “But these mishaps did not dampen Chris enthusiasm for outdoor pursuits or his willingness to take chances.” (Noe, n. d). This need for excitement and the resultant willingness to take risks could have contributed to Boyce’s behavior of indulging in excitement filled spying activities. Although, spying against one’s own country is an illegal and dangerous criminal activity, it had its share of excitement and that could have driven Boyce to indulge in it. As far as Daulton is concerned, his childhood issue regarding his physical height and his resultant behavior, could have also contributed to his criminal behavior in his adult years. Although, it is not a scientifically and consensually proven theory, the theory of Napoleon Syndrome could provide key viewpoints regarding the relation between Daulton’s short stature and his criminal activities. According to Just and Morris (2003, pg. 509), “asymmetry in payoffs between opponents or a suboptimal strategy resulting from likely losers misperceiving themselves as likely winners have both been proposed as possible explanations for the aggressive behavior of smaller males.” Under this theory, people of small stature are perceived to be aggressive, competitive and even antagonistic, to compensate or overcome their alleged ‘disadvantage’ of being short. On those lines, as Daulton reached a height of ‘just’ five feet two inches, he was aggressive and carried out dubious actions to get the attention. Daulton was very bothered by his short stature and so to make his presence felt, he indulged in the criminal activity of selling drugs quite early in his life, and then spying in his later life. “Lee — who was shorter (about 5 feet, two inches) and less prepossessing had turned to using and selling marijuana and cocaine, in part to gain more popularity with girls and more money.” (Adler, 2013, pg.339). The other key issues, which could have influenced Boyce and Daulton to become sort of rebellious and take an anti-American stance were the political and social happenings of their times including Vietnam War, Watergate Scandal and America’s role in the ‘bloody’ overthrowing of various foreign governments. Among the two, Boyce in particular was highly incensed by the American foreign policies especially in Vietnam as well as other domestic political events, and all of which in a way created an environment of skepticism among the American public in 1960s, and that could have motivated or even provoked him to act as a rebel and indulge in spying activities. “By the late 60s, the Viet Nam war was on the news every night, and in general, the major media networks took a dim view of the federal government’s atrocious mismanagement of that conflict. The great American Optimism of the 40s and 50s had been replaced with cynicism and a healthy mistrust of authority.” (Bayard & Holmes, 2012). This is line with the Merton's Anomic theory of Deviance, which stresses that, individuals will react or respond to the political and social changes that are happening around him/her. Formulated by Robert Merton, Anomic theory of Deviance states that in order to minimize discomfort from political and social factors or as part of his/her response to those factors, individuals will undergo five different modes of adaptation and that includes conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. (Ross, 2012, pg.18). Among these five modes, rebellion is a key and extreme mode, in which individuals provoked by inhumane and unacceptable political activities by their country and its government, would raise against them directly or indirectly. This is what happened in the case of Boyce as well, because like many other fellow Americans, he was against U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War. He was of the opinion that the United States’ government “had waged a hopeless war in a distant land that killed 50,000 young men”, just to prop up a corrupt South Vietnamese government. (Noe, n. d). He was highly critical of the government leaders, who sacrificed young soldiers for their own glory, and all the inhumane happenings in Vietnam brought out the rebel in him, and that got outputted in form of spying activities at TRW, a California based aerospace firm which did military orders. This fact of him being in a rebellious state was validated by Boyce himself in a recent interview. “I was just in a very rebellious state,'' he recalls, reflecting on Vietnam and on CIA abuses that were very much in the news. “I was brought up by an FBI agent, and I was just very much in a state of rebellion.” (cited in Serrano, 2003). That is, he became part of the sections of the American population, who all questioned America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, but unlike others, he had the opportunity to show his rebellious attitude by selling American military secrets to Soviet Russia through his friend Daulton. This rebellious as well as anti-American attitude in him was further fueled by the Watergate Debacle, and the resultant impeachment of then President Richard Nixon. He saw Nixon’s impeachment as a disintegration of ethical and decent political system in United States, and became disillusioned with the American political setup. In a way, “Boyce developed a distaste for American involvement in Vietnam, and his view of the country overall became further jaundiced by the Watergate debacle.” (Adler, 2013, pg.339). Furthermore, Boyce was dismayed by the dubious role played by the U.S. government in association with CIA in the bloody overthrowing of Chile’s democratically elected leader Salvador Allende. On the same lines, he was highly critical of United States and CIA’s alleged anti-government activities in their ally country of Australia. He knew from the intelligence reports that CIA was planning to topple the ruling socialist government led by Gough Whitlam. Boyce was stunned because Australia was a staunch ally, English-speaking representative democracy, and had been through two World Wars. (Noe, n. d). When he further understood that American satellites were used against their friendly countries, he was deeply impacted. “The more Boyce learned about his new job and the more he realized that the satellites he worked with spied not only on our enemies but also on our friends, the more his disenchantment grew.” (Holzer, 2013, pg.4). On the whole, as he knew more about CIA’s activities in various countries, particularly American allies, he started harboring a guilt feeling that he was also part of that unethical exercise, and so the rebel in him strengthened further, wanting to act against the establishment in one way or other. “He was repelled by any thought that he shared in the guilt, and he began to think carefully about how he might strike back.” (Holzer, 2013, pg.4). Thus, the political and the related social issues, which were prevalent in 1960s America, in a way deeply impacted Boyce, and as part of the Anomic theory of Deviance, he selected the adaptation mode of rebellion, thereby carrying out spying activities against United States. As far as Daulton is concerned, he did not have the rebellious streak like Boyce and instead involved himself in the crime of spying for other reasons particularly money. Even during his school years, Daulton was exposed to financial comfort primarily because of his involvement in drugs selling, and when Boyce gave him the opportunity to earn more money by just passing on the documents to the Soviet handlers, he took the opportunity. This act of Daulton is in line with the rational choice theory, under which, “people generally act in their self-interest and make decisions to commit crime after weighing the potential risks (including getting caught and punished) against the rewards.” (Briggs, n. d). That is, as Daulton decided to pass on the documents and other materials fully understanding the risks associated with it, and weighing it inferiorly against the money and other benefits he is going to gain from it, one can state that his criminal behavior falls under rational choice theory. However, when one focuses on Boyce, he is not money minded like Daulton and carried out the criminal behavior of spying mainly with a motivation of taking revenge against a country that had disillusioned him. Crucially, he was not a communist either and so did not have a high opinion of the Soviet system, and so indulged in criminal behaviors mainly as a rebel and also because for the earlier mentioned thrill and excitement in line with the Samenow's theory of criminal behavior. This Samenow's theory of criminal behavior was also visible in Boyce, when he escaped from the prison and carried out a series of excitement filled bank robberies, before being caught again by the authorities. “He delighted in defying the government, daring the FBI and the U.S. Marshal's Service to find the man who topped the nation's Most Wanted Fugitive list.” (Serrano, 2003). From the above analysis of Christopher Boyce and Andrew Daulton’s criminal activities in relation to the criminological theories, it can be said that certain patterns emerged regarding what could have contributed to their behavior. In their growing up years, both of them exhibited certain thought process, responses and activities, which could have oriented their mind and played a key part in the criminal behaviors in their adult lives. In addition, certain political and social aspects of their times further facilitated Boyce and Daulton to become rebellious and money minded respectively, thereby acting as main contributing factors for the criminal behavior of spying against United States. References Adler, J. (2013). Soulmates from the Pages of History: From Mythical to Contemporary, 75 Examples of the Power of Friendship. Algora Publishing. Bayard, P & Holmes, J. (2012, June 12). When Altar Boys Get Bored–The TRW National Security Disaster. Retrieved from: http://piperbayard.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/when-altar-boys-get-bored-the-trw-national-security-disaster/ Briggs, S. (n. d). Important Theories in Criminology: Why People Commit Crime. Retrieved from: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/important-theories-in-criminology-why-people-commi.html Genre, C. T. (n. d). Stanton Samenow: The Criminal Personality. Retrieved from: http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/samenow.htm Holzer, H. M. (2013). Why Not Call It Treason ?: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Today. Xlibris Corporation. Just, W & Morris, M. R. (2003). The Napoleon Complex: Why Smaller Males pick Fights. Evolutionary Ecology, 17 (5-6): 509-522. Noe, D. (n. d). Christopher Boyce & Andrew Daulton Lee. Retrieved from: http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/boyce_lee/1.html Ross, J. I. (2012). An Introduction to Political Crime. Policy Press. Serrano, R. A. (2003, Mar 3). The Falcon and the Fallout. Retrieved from: http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/02/magazine/tm-boyce9/2 Read More