Reference no: EM133722785
Description
Causes of Crime:
Biological Factors
Psychological Factors
Sociological Factors
Victimization Factors
The theater massacre carried out by James Earl Holmes, using a military-style AR-15 assault rifle, shotgun, and Glock handgun. The attack left 12 dead and over 70 injured. At Holmes's trial, defense attorneys argued that his sense of right and wrong was distorted by schizophrenia. However, an important point to be noted is that it is not having any particular mental illness that makes people commit crimes. (To be sure, most mentally ill people are not criminals.) Rather, it is how specific aspects of the brain dysfunction in mentally disordered people affect their responses to their environment that explains their unconventional or even criminal behaviors.
Review
Understanding the roles of biological (including genetic) and environmental factors on brain function and criminal behavior.
Biological factors associated with brain function influence behavior and the thought processes associated with making choices.
Mental disorders
Mental disorders are psychiatric conditions that interfere with a person's ability to function on a day-to-day basis.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) includes mental disorders (psychotic and nonpsychotic), mood disorders and personality disorders.
Cognitive factors of intelligence and moral reasoning as brain functions that influence criminal behavior.
On average, incarcerated offenders tend to score lower than nonoffenders on standardized intelligence tests. Offenders may have lower emotional intelligence, which can influence criminal behavior.
Damage to the prefrontal cortex area of the brain can affect moral reasoning and lower impulse control and lead to criminal behavior. Under 25 year old?
Economic, class, and social inequalities can be linked to the causes of crime.
When people need and want to make money and are not able to, they may experience extraordinary strain and feel pressured to break the law to obtain the things they need and want.
Social and economic differences among the classes adversely affect the lower socioeconomic classes, resulting in crime.
Factors that cause some people to become victims of crime.
Many of the same biological, psychological, and social factors that influence why people commit crimes are related to why people become victims.
A variety of behavioral, physical, social, and attitudinal factors can cause people to become victims of crime.
Traditional approaches to the study of the causes of criminal and victim behavior tended to focus separately on psychological, biological, or sociological theories. Theories represent different ways of organizing information about factors. In reality, a person's behavior is the product of the interactions among many psychological, biological, and sociological factors. Different factors interact with one another in complex ways.
Most crimes are the product of the interactions between victim and offender, and one area of the focus on victims involves understanding how victim behavior interacts with offender behavior to produce a crime. Victimologists are interested in victims' perception of their victimization, their contributions to their own victimization, the extent of their injuries, and their responses to the experience of victimization.