INTRODUCTION Many studies have suggested that antisocial behavior, which is behavior that is often characterized by hostility and intentional aggression toward others, is a precursor of criminal behavior. Criminal behavior refers to the commission of an unlawful act. It has always been an interesting aspect of psychology to study due to the ongoing debate between nature and nurture. Is it the genetic makeup of an individual that’s responsible for making them a criminal or is it the environment that determines one’s criminality? Over many years of research, there have been many studies that focused on biological factors, environmental factors or both at the same time. Numerous studies have suggested that both genes and environment are important when it comes to an individual’s criminal behavior. This conclusion comes from various family, twin and adoption studies along with theories derived from experiments. Also, some of the research shows a vast amount of evidence that the two factors interact. If one has a genetic predisposition for …show more content…
One of them states that MZ twins often have a more common environment compared to DZ twins. People in their environment might treat identical twins in a more uniform way than fraternal twins which may cause concordance rates in monozygotic twins become artificially raised (Allen 1976). The research states that as a result of that kind of upbringing, the higher concordance rates in monozygotic twins can be a cause of environmental factors rather than genetic factors. Grove et al. (1990) conducted a study on thirty-two pairs of MZ twins separated shortly after they birth. It was found that there were some significant heritability rates during childhood (41%) as well as adulthood (28%). That evidence shows that the twins’ behavior could not have been caused or affected by being raised in a common environment since all of the twins were reared apart after
Elizabeth Grozs states that “grotesque” disabilities; siamese twins, rubber man, dwarfs, giants, etc, have to live their lives as “freaks.” Which in other terms, to be commercialized for entertainment, thus creating an explanation of the need to understand the human body of what is considered “normal.” Grozs, however, puts out a disclaimer before she explains her argument; the term “freak” is a political label that is targeted specifically towards a group of disabled people. It is a tricky term, it excludes some disabilities as it focuses more on those who are seen as “simultaneously and compulsively fascinating and repulsive, enticing and sickening” (56). Genetics, heredity, embryology, histology, medical, and sometimes conscious effort are all factors of the “freaks.”
There is no tell-tale sign of who becomes a criminal and who doesn 't. Many things factor into the development of a criminal. The debate between nature vs. nurture in this aspect cannot be blamed on a single element, instead both environment and genetics play a role in criminality of an idividual. The population of American jails has a high rate of individuals with mental disorders. Although, not everyone who has a mental disorder ends up in jail the vast majority of Americans who are incarcerated are likely to have inherited a mental disorder at some point in their life. At some point in American history, genes were said to be the sole reason a person became criminal however, this is not the case today.
Criminal behaviour has always been an interest for psychologists, for they could never quite come to a conclusion between nature and nurture. Research concerning this topic has been organized for many years and due to the never ending debate, is still being conducted. I have decided to read and write about this myself, for I was genuinely curious about the matter and wanted to be a part of the research, as I felt responsible to do so. I believe that in order to stop something, it must be discussed and scrutinized. What effects do genes have on criminal behaviour, why do peer pressure and habitat influence a person to commit crimes and are men really more violent than women?
This theory clearly rules out the effect of inherited or innate factors, and the last is the cognitive theory, which is based on how the perception of an individual is manifested into affecting his or her potential and capability to commit a crime. (Psychological theories of crime) Relating these theories to the case under study, it’s clear that the behaviour can be traced most times to faulty relationships in the family during the first years of
In chapter eleven, “Paired and Pared”, of The Sibling Effect, author Jeffrey Kluger informs his audience about twins and only children and how they are different than other broods. Not only are twins and only children, referred to as “singletons,” biologically different, but their emotional, physical, psychological, and social development is as well. By devoting an entire chapter solely to twins and singletons, Kluger is indirectly claiming that these offspring view the world in a special, and sometimes unexplainable, way. Kluger validates this claim by the use of governmental policies, psychological studies, controversial viewpoints, and personal narratives. Kluger opens up the chapter by summarizing the harsh views of psychologists G. Stanley Hall and Abraham Arden Brill.
While a few theories are not as regular, others have developed and are utilized as a part of numerous criminal reviews today. Cutting edge criminologists consolidate the most important aspects of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and biological theories to advance their comprehension of criminal behavior. Rational choice theory, psychological, biological, and strain theory are used to analyze the
There is a new documentary titled “Three Identical Strangers” which tells the story of three identical triplets who were separated at birth and raised by different families. It was shown at the recent Sundance Film Festival. The three, born in 1961, were part of a controversial psychology experiment to answer the nature versus nurture debate on raising children. Robert Shafran, David Kellmann, and Eddy Gallan were monitored for the study by the Manhattan Child Development Center. It is headed by Dr. Peter Neubauer, a psychoanalyst.
Today, there are proven facts that people who have parents that are criminals have a high chance of becoming criminals themselves. Not only can people become criminals because of their family but they can also become criminals because of the environment that they surround themselves in. This is where nature versus nurture comes into play. A person’s nature is their genetic makeup, basically meaning that a person’s nature is the genes they get from their parents. Also, a person’s genotype, one’s genetic makeup based on the sequencing of the nucleotides we term, provides them with physical traits that set the stage for certain behaviors (56).
Dr. Rettew connects to class discussions and readings on shared and unshared environmental influences, evocative gene environment correlation, temperament, and the goodness-of-fit. Twins that with unshared environmental influences, such as different placentas, could adapt different temperaments (Berk, 2009). Also, twins that have been adopted into separate families could have different personality traits because they lived in completely different environments their whole life, even if they shared environmental influences of the same placenta (Berk, 2009). With an evocative gene environment correlation, a child’s genotype could draw in a certain type of environment, such as babies who appear more attractive will receive more attention (Berk, 2009). The type of attention a child gets could affect its temperament.
Their favorite school subject had been math, their least favorite spelling, and both had the ability and interests in mechanical drawing and carpentry. With these interest in mind they both sought out jobs in law-enforcement training. Both brothers smoked and drank and would get headaches at the same time of day. I believe the University of Minnesota’s study disproves Parfit’s theory that we would not be the same person if you were to split our minds into two, because many would consider our sibling to be the closest people in relation to ourselves. Twins are often accused of being considered the same person even though they have their own identities.
The Parent Trap, a classic movie about two twin sisters who meet each other unexpectedly and try to push their divorced parents back into being one family again. While the story makes for an entertaining movie, does this phenomenon happen in real life? This movie and when I first learned about the value monozygotic twins had in the world psychology piqued my interest in this topic. How much can identical twins who have grown up apart from each other tell us about human nature and environmental impact? Beginning with the first pair of twins who started this line of research and going through several case studies, their findings, and also some critiques about the processes will be examined in this paper.
Where external and internal factors play a part and they are fated to be a criminal. The scientific grounds are offenders and people who have not yet offended can be given help, and they can be diagnosed by experts and receive treatment needed to not offend (Cavadino, 2007
Numerous studies have advocated that there are biological bases of criminal and aggressive behaviour, such as high testosterone levels (Olweus, 1987) and a low resting heart rate. These biological bases tend to be inherited and as such they could adequately explain intergenerational transmission. The best method to study genetic versus environmental contributions to behaviour is by using twin or adoption designs ( DiLalla & Gottesman,1991).Even though the current study is not capable of examining genetic influences, it is imperative to note that a number of studies have validated that there is a genetic impact on criminal or antisocial and aggressive behaviour The bulk of research on biological and genetic bases of criminal and violent behaviour is still increasing and recently more attention has fixated on the interaction of someone’s genetic make-up and the environment. A genetic tendency for aggressive behaviour does not automatically mean that someone will actually develop this behaviour it is not a deterministic process.
The Minnesota Twin study is vastly known as one of the most important studies in human behavior in today’s word of phycology. In this study monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins were studied and questioned identically to show to what extent environmental factors differentiated these subjects. The procedure of the study was that each individual twin was separated at birth and sent of to different families. The conclusion ended up with very similar results, where both twins shown the same intelligence results as well as the same characteristics. Although this experiment was controlled, We can still debate that environment factors can change their inherited traits.
They are Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness (Maltby, Day & Macaskill, 2013). In order to highlight genes being prevalent in personality development, twin studies are compared. Monozygotic (MZ) twins are identical twins which share 100% of their genetic makeup while dizygotic