The geographical locale that I am familiar with is West Tennessee. This geographical locale is made up of both, urban and rural areas. Therefore, the criminal activities that transpire in this geographical space vary. However, it is my opinion that the causation is linked to biological behavioral patterns. With that being said, the human behavior theory that I have selected as my point of focus, is that of biological behavioral patterns and its association with the social disorganization theory. “Biological criminology has four major causal groups which are biochemical, neurological, genetic and biosocial, all of which are considered factors beyond our control” (Schmalleger, 2012). In my geographical area of West Tennessee what we see most is crimes that stem from genetics or biosocial attributes with the latter being the majority. …show more content…
The normal family in this area relies on a two-income based household which often leaves children unattended for long periods of time, which in turn, contributes to a higher level of dysfunctional family lifestyles and increases the social disorganization levels. Our elementary and high-school aged students have no structured discipline and no social skills. Those that are not already into crimes and drugs have no deterrence assistance or prevention that would keep them from following that path as young adults.
One weakness that would find my understanding lacking would be supported by the “Classical School of Criminology where it is believed that crime is a product of rational thought. Under the classical view, people are not inherently evil they just practice poor decision-making skills and have weak morals” (Paynich & Hill,
People that have gone to a good school and have a family with positive influences are less likely to engage in deviant behavior. External structures like schools, churches, clubs, police departments, keep individuals from deviating, these institutions push individuals into conforming to the norms of society. Travis Hirschi introduced four elements of social bonds: “attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief” (Vierra 2014). Reckless believed that these four components could prevent crime and deviant behaviors because they give the individual a purpose and sense of responsibility. If individuals in many of these lower income neighborhoods do not have a job and no source of steady income, then they are ever more likely to resort to deviant behaviors in order to attain the means of survival.
Family members and peers play a significant role in future criminal behavior of a child. A child in an impoverished household is at greater risk in engaging in criminality than their counterparts. Furthermore, families with a weak structure have shown a correlation of higher risk of a child becoming criminal. This goes to show that if a child is brought up in a positive and financially stable environment the risk of a childs involvement in criminal behavior is lessened. Incidentally, children who have a difficult time socializing or become aggressive with other children in early school years are more likely to become criminal in the future.
Adrian Raine, criminologist and author of "The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime," has said before, is a very important factor in criminal behaviour that affects about 75% of a person’s criminal activity. In his book, Raine explores the many evidences that lead up to biological and genetic influences on crime
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
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
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).
“The theory of social disorganization states a person’s physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the behavioral choices that a person makes. At the core of social disorganization theory, is that location matters when it comes to predicting illegal activity. Shaw and McKay noted that neighborhoods with the highest crime rates have at least three common problems, physical dilapidation, poverty, and a higher level of ethnic and culture mixing. Shaw and McKay claimed that delinquency was not caused at the individual level, but is a normal response by normal individuals to abnormal conditions. Social disorganization theory is widely used as an important predictor of youth violence and crime.”
The instability adversely affects the adolescents as they mature. Teens in divorced families inculcate behavioral problems, which have significant effects on the incidence of crime rates. Children who witness marital discord are more likely to engage in criminal acts. A research has validated associations between exposure to marital discord and parental divorce while growing up and children’s psychological distress in adulthood (Amato & Sobolewski 2001). There are three major classes that determine the relationship between disrupted families and crime; trauma theories, life course theories and selection theories.
“It still is a genetic effect. And it’s still important.” The link between genes and crime is a divisive issue in the criminology discipline, which has primarily focused on environmental and social factors that cause or influence deviant behavior. “Honestly, I hope people when they read this, take issue and start to debate it and raise criticisms because that means people are considering it and people are thinking about it,” Barnes said.
For example, maternal relationships seem to be a crucial role in influencing crime and delinquency. In simple terms, if a mother does not play close attention to his children then a child may turn to crime. Parental interaction has also been a factor in impacting the behavior of a child whether male or female. Parental interaction influences the probability of adult criminal behavior. Petts, (2009) found out that children who are brought up in families where they are closely supervised are unlikely to turn into crime as adults.
When someone discusses the social disorganization theory it is currently focus on the relationship between people crimes social control and deviant’s behaviors caused by the environment for example if u live in an area where most crimes were to happen like domestic abuse drug trafficking or gang violence then the people around or more likely to commit crimes than ones who live in good neighborhoods. Today in our community crime effects schools work even our own homes. According to Na’im H. Madyun the author of Connecting Social Disorganization Theory to African-American Outcomes article stated that “due to high poverty single parent households it is very difficult to create social ties to the community because they believe that society does not want to help the neighborhood who have very high crime rates”(Madyum) What he means by this statement is that when someone in a neighborhood even the school is effected by crime then most kids will end up being a delinquent at an early age for example they’ll start joining gangs by recruiting them through media or on the street and getting involve in crimes while they are in middle school or high school due to parents who go to work to work every day or might be addicted to drugs and abuse their kids in their own houses.
Ben, I agree that there is obvious complexity involved in the motivating factors involved in how crimes are committed. Your supportive information involved in macrosociological and microsociological theories is well presented. I too enjoyed learning about the statistical data, or rather the big picture received from macrosociological theories (Bohm & Vogel, 2011). Then on the other end of the spectrum, microsociological theory focusing on the person-to-person interpretations and what impact they may have on criminal activities also have strong beneficial ideas and data.
To test this theory, the researchers used several different forms of information. They used U.S. census data, UCR summary forms one and three, along with U.S. state and geographical files to develop boundaries between the counties. The results of this study showed that violent crime rate varies by race and socioeconomic statuses. This study also found evidence that racial and socioeconomic clustering occurs, supporting social disorganizations theory that crime clusters in certain areas. The study also found that areas located near areas of higher crime rates were more likely to see an increase in crime rates, and that in areas with higher concentrations of people more crime occurred.
We all know that parents, since the child is born, are always by their child’s side since they share a same home and should be the one to monitor their children while he or she is growing up. David P. Farrington (Farrington, n.d) stated that family factor, poor parental child-rearing methods especially lack of guidance and control from parents, is the most common answer when people are asked about the main cause of crimes. Moreover, according to Lieb Roxanne (1994), family components can predict an early sign of delinquency. Some weak way of predictions are based on the socioeconomic status of the family, and the less affection of the child to parents. However, the lack of guidance and letting the child to feel being unwanted is a strong predictor or root of
Biological theories of crime causation make several assumptions such as the basic human behavior including the idea that to a degree criminal tendencies are genetically based (Schmalleger, 2012). Other assumptions are that differences in gender and race may vary the types of crime and that human behavior, including criminality, may be passed from generation to generation allowing that a desire for crime may be