Causes Of Crime

There have been many studies done by criminologist for many years just to try to determine or answer the one question that goes through a lot of individuals minds about criminals. That question would be, “Why does a criminal do what they do?” There are many studies and theories on to as why criminals act and continue to act and commit crimes. Fortunately, because this question has become a million-dollar question, a lot of research has gone into these studies and research to help give us a better explanation of the root causes of crime in the “inner-city” low income communities. This paper will identify and explain three theories that help explain the relationship between criminal behavior and the factor of those living in low income areas.

The Sociological theory focus on the levels of cultural conflict, social integration, society inequality and social control breakdown. Because individuals in low income areas rely primarily on their peers and groups that may “run” their part of their area, people start to engage in crime, due to seeing others partake in it. They basically learn to engage in crime, primarily through their association with others. These associates become “Criminal Models” that others will emulate. In these types of communities’ crime becomes an everyday ritual and individuals began to lose sight and actually believe that what they are doing is desirable even justifiable. According to social learning Theory, it is said that juveniles learn to engage in crime like they do with conforming their behavior, through association with others or even exposure to them. With Sociological theory, there are three mechanisms by which individuals learn to engage in crime. These three are Differential reinforcement, Beliefs and Modeling. Differential reinforcement teaches individuals to engage in crime through frequent reinforced crime and with little being punished encourages those to continue to do crime. Other forms of reinforcement are the large rewards that are likely

(Psychological Theories of Crime, 2017) This theory is supported with many explanations, which include intelligence, personality, learning and criminal behavior. (Psychological theories of crime, 2017) Psychological theories of crime is a result of individual’s difference in thinking. Unlike biological root cause psychological roots causes are not passed through genetics. With the psychological it is said that an individual surrounded by violence and aggression or criminals, are more likely to become violent and aggressive themselves. It’s the only behavior they know. And they will try to emulate in order to be accepted, or to feel something. Early research done by Charles Goring (1870-1919) discovered the relationship between crime and flawed intelligence. Similar to Lombroso: Goring also experimented on prisoners. However unlike Lombroso, Goring did not notice physical attributes to be associated with criminal differences, but he did notice that criminals were more likely to be insane, unintelligent and exhibit poor social behavior. Another factor that follows under psychological theory is mental illness in relation to crime. Understand, this is not a fact for all those suffering a mental illness. It’s just that it is a higher percentage of criminals who actually do suffer from an