Criminals are bone rather than created by our society. Discuss. (20) Flashcards
Introduction
There are many different theory that cause crime and the debate on weather criminals are born or created. The nature vs Nurture argument. Nature being biological, genetics factors and Nurture being sociological factors. In this essay, i will be discussing the biological and sociological theories of crimes before concluding that criminals are in fact created by society rather than born criminals.
Para 1- Strain theory explain
Merton’s Strain theory suggests that crime in a capitalist society is caused when people want to achieve the goal of finianical success, but they lack the means to do this within the law. Some will create new, illegal, methods to achieve this success. They still want to be a success but can’t do it without breaking the law.
Para 1- Strain theory analysis
This is a clear argument that crime is created by the ineqaulity that exists in our society as not everyone can be a success finiacially. However, most people do not tun to crime even though they are unable to gain appropiate wealth and success and instead they simiply conform to the rules of society.
Para 1- Strain theory mini-conclusion
this would suggest that as well as society, there could be something else, perhaps genetics, that makes some people criminals and some not.
Para 2- Becker labelling theory explain
Becker explores the theory in which deviance is simply a social construction, created by people, used to persude the public to fear and criminalise certain groups. Deviance is a consequence of others’ judgements (labels), that modify the individuals sense of self and behaviour. Becker believed once labelled, a self-fulfilling prohecy set in motion, as the labelled person will now act according to their given label.
Para 2- Becker labelling theory example
People who are deem to look criminal or deivant are normalling the powerul anf who are involved in law, e.g the police, courts and prisions. For example, black people are over 9 nine times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched.
Para 2- Becker labelling theory analysis
This gives a clear argument that criminals are created by the judgements of society. As it can cause a chain reaction as the people who have been labelled and stigmatised start surrounding themselves with others who have been labelled similarly, they approve each other’s behaviours. they become outsiders, isolated from society, hostile towards law-abiding citizens, which leads to what Becker says a ‘deviance amplification’.
Para 2- Becker labelling theory analysis +
However, the labelling theory, does not explain why people start crime in the first place, it only explains why people continue to committ crime. It also gives the offender a ‘viticim’ status as they have been labelled and therefore forced by others into crime. Some argue that the labelling theory ignore the actual viticms of crime.
Para 2- Becker labelling theory mini-conclusion
This sugest that criminals continue to do crimnimal activites sue to being labelled and unable to escape that label.
Para 3- Lambroso theory explain
Lambroso argued that criminals have distingushing physical characteristics, this was a result of his belief that criminals have not evolved to the same state as other humans, such as criminals could therefore be spotted from their atavistics and unusual physical features or traits.
Para 3- Lambroso theory example
For example, Lombroso examined over 400 offenders, living and dead. He looked for things like; the span of their arms, the size of their hands or height of body while seated. In the study of 383 dead Italian criminals and 3839 living ones, he found 40% of them had atavistics characteristics.
Para 3- Lambroso theory analysis
This theory has been widely discredited by recent criminologists as it completely ignores social and environements factors. Also his research methods were flawed as he did not look at the general population outside of prisions. If he would of, he would have discovered 1000s of people possess so-called atavistic features and are not criminals.
Para 3- Lambroso theory analysis +
Although, he was the first person to study crime scientifically and give criminology credablity, where before ot was seen as a moral issuse.
Para 3- Lambroso theory mini-conclusion
This suggests that criminals are not criminals because on there look but on acutally how theor brain is developed and how they were brought up.
Para 4- XXY theory explain
XXY syndrome (Jacobs syndrome) is a rare chomsomal disorder that affects males. It is caused by the presence of an extra Y chromosome, (1 in 1000). This leads to extra testerone which is linked to agression and can cause them to be more agressive.
