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Robert P. Hanssen Case

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The Criminal Justice system has placed an emphasis on three factors that may influence their legal decisions. This includes, biological and social factors related to the offenders historical background and the context where the crime took place. More importantly, legal decisions are primarily based on the facts of the crime itself. However, issues of legal responsibility in cases involving chromosomal deficiencies and gene abnormalities have sparked the biological debate once again in courtrooms. Conditions such as psychopathy and pedophilia are commonly associated with biological factors and put into question the individual’s culpability of such crime. Through the case study of Robert P. Hanssen, we can highlight that psychopathy is still …show more content…

Hanssen. Hanssen was an FBI agent who is convicted with 15 counts of espionage. In turn he is sentenced to life and remains in a Supermax federal prison for selling secrets to Russia and the former Soviet Union for 22 years. Starting at an early age, Hanssen was regarded as a loner with a patterned history of abuse by his father. Not only did his father physically abuse hum but also there were many cases where he was emotionally abused. Although he barely interacted with his classmates at school, he had made one best friend who later died when Hanssen was in sixth grade. Despite his anti-social behavior, Hanssen was also considered a risk taker, as he was impulsive and unpredictable (Sanford & Arrigo, 2007). Unlike the stereotypical deviant, Hanssen was a higher than average student and attended college and university. Many of Hanssen’s actions were based on father whether it was to please him by achieving high grades in school or to outrank him in law enforcement. On the personal level, Hanssen was married and had children however he was unfaithful and deceitful towards his wife on many occasions. He worked for the Police department but he believed that his ambitions extended beyond the department, so he applied for the FBI. In order to appease his need to be recognized and praised, he turned to the former Soviet Union and Russia by selling FBI intelligence of confidential procedures and classified

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