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Literature Review On Crime

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TITLE: A Literature Review TITLE: A Literature Review Understanding criminality and an individual’s propensity to commit crimes is a complex task, one requiring an examination of the theoretical roots of crime and the criminalized. While crime can be broadly defined as behavioural transgressions with legal implications, criminality is understood as a state of being subject to various psychological, biological, sociological, and environmental influences (Rothe, 2009). The causes and effects of crime, therefore, vary greatly in terms of magnitude and with regard to setting, deed, and circumstance. Furthermore, these actions and reactions occur at the individual and institutional levels, often producing a ripple-effect throughout …show more content…

The intellectual and moral perspective of development is part of cognitive theory which is most related with the idea of studying of crime. The moral development concept was applied by Kohlberg to criminal behavior study. He came up with the argument that all individuals go through six levels of moral development that differ. At the first level, individuals obey the law solely due to fear of punishment. However, at the sixth stage, individuals are obedient to the law from the fact that it is an obligation through assumption and because of their belief in the principles of equity, respect for others, and justice which are universal (Blasi, …show more content…

According to Emile Durkheim individual behaviours are affected by the society norms, values and way of life, he concentrated on external factors as the primary causes of crime as compared to a person’s innate characteristics (Vito, 2006). The theory leaves a lot of questions pending on those children born and brought up in a high profile society, in most cases those brought up in church where all parents are strong members of the church and morals are the order of the day, this prompts psychological theory which explores that the individuals personality, cognition and how mental process impact the individuals propensity to crime. It argues the criminal acts by individuals are attributed learned behaviour, inherent personality traits among others to which tried to explain the origin of crime in the society (Rafter, 2008). There are other individuals who engage in crime due to the hardship in life, some people get to robbery that at times can get too dangerous levels of letting one die in the process of theft, all this aiming at having something to eat, to this extent it can be said that crime is economical attributed. The developmental life-course also tends to argue that criminal characteristic in persons start developing in then

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