CERIACO, Chedan August 7, 2007BSN III – K1 R.L.E.

Factors Influencing the Commission of Crime*

* Crime, commission of an act or act of omission that violates the law and is punishable by the state. Crimes are considered injurious to society or the community.

Contemporary scholars believe that criminal motivation is the product of one or more of a complex set of factors. These factors are so numerous and so varied that no system of classification can describe the current theories of crime causation with complete accuracy. However, broadly speaking these theories may be considered in one of the following three categories:

(1) Theories attributing criminal behavior to biological or congenital (inherited) defects of the offender, (2) Theories relating crime to psychological factors or mental disorders, and (3) Theories relating crime to environmental or social factors. Many criminologists have suggested theories of multiple causation involving factors from more than one of these categories.

I. Biological Theories of Crime

Two different types of biological or, more accurately, biosocial theories exist. One set of theories emphasizes genetic factors—that is, the traits transmitted from parents to offspring. Other studies emphasize irregularities in neurological development that might undermine certain self-controls that inhibit criminality. These irregularities may occur in the structure of the brain or in the chemical composition of the brain.

A. GENETIC FACTORS

The evidence for an association between genetic makeup and criminality comes from empirical studies of identical twins (who have the same genetic makeup) and adopted children (who are genetically dissimilar from other family members). These studies attempt to show that biological inheritance affects the tendency toward criminality independently of or in conjunction with the social environment.

Studies of the interrelationship between the criminal tendencies of parents and children have found that children whose parents are involved in crime are more likely to engage in criminal behavior than children whose parents were law abiding. This finding is unsurprising due to a number of sociological factors that influence the children. Studies of twins provide somewhat more persuasive evidence.

Researchers have compared identical twins to fraternal twins (who share no more genes than siblings who are not twins). In most studies of twins, the degree of consistency between the criminality of identical twins is approximately twice that of fraternal twins. While this evidence

is more persuasive than family studies, it is still possible that identical twins may be treated more similarly in social environments than fraternal twins. Studies of identical and fraternal twins reared apart would provide more accurate indications of the relative contributions of biology and socialization. However, such situations are very rare and only scattered case studies of this type have been done.

Finally, comparisons have been made between the criminal involvement of parents and their adoptive children and that of the children's biological parents. In most cases criminality of the biological parent is a better predictor of the child's criminal involvement than the criminality of the adoptive parents.

The evidence for a link between genetic makeup and a predisposition to criminality remains inconclusive. New technologies to map DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) may identify specific gene patterns that are associated with predispositions toward criminal behavior.

B. NEUROLOGIC ABNORMALITIES

Abnormalities affecting aggression may occur in the structure of the brain. Researchers have discovered a positive relationship between aggressive behavior—including violent crime—and an impairment of the frontal lobe of the brain’s cerebrum. This means that when researchers look for one factor, either abnormality or aggression, they often find the other factor as well.

Another type of dysfunction that may be related to aggression is chemical imbalances in the brain. Human thoughts, behavior, and emotions depend upon the transmission of electrical impulses within the central nervous system. The gaps between cells in the nervous system are called synapses and the chemicals that enable the flow of electrical impulses across the synapses are called neurotransmitters. Scientists believe that abnormally low levels of neurotransmitters interrupt the flow of electronic impulses, thereby short-circuiting emotions such as sympathy or empathy that can inhibit aggressive behavior. Researchers have found a relationship between levels of specific neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, and certain antisocial behaviors, including violence.

II. Psychological Theories of Crime

Personality theories assume a set of enduring perceptions and predispositions (tendencies) that each individual develops through early socialization. These theorists propose that certain predispositions or personality traits, such as impulsiveness or extroversion, increase the chances of criminal behavior.

A. MORAL DEVELOPMENT FACTOR

According to Jean Piaget, children evolve through four stages of cognitive development. From birth to age two, children experience the world only through their senses and motor abilities and have a very immediate, experience-based knowledge of the world. Between two and seven years of age children learn to think about and understand objects using thoughts that are independent of immediate experience. During this stage children are egocentric—that is, they believe that

others experience the same reality that they do. From age seven to adolescence the child learns to think logically and to organize and classify objects. Beginning in adolescence, the child develops the ability to think logically about the future and to understand theoretical concepts. Theorists relate these stages of cognitive development to stages of moral development. At first, rules are given by powerful others. Later, children perceive that they can invent and modify rules. Finally, humans perceive the ultimate importance of abstract rules.

Influenced by Piaget’s theory that development occurs in stages, in the mid-1960s American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a multistage theory of moral evolution. In the early level of development, children strive to maximize pleasure and avoid punishment. Children at this level consider the needs of others only to the extent that meeting those needs will help the child fulfill his or her own needs. During the next period, which is characterized by conformity to social rules, the child demonstrates respect for and duty to authority. The child also seeks to avoid disapproval from that authority. As the child matures, his or her moral judgment is motivated by respect for legally determined rules and an understanding that these rules exist to benefit all. Eventually, universal principles are internalized. These principles, such as liberty and justice, may even transcend aspects of the existing legal system.

Moral development process may or may not be completed, and people who remain unable to recognize right from wrong will be more likely to engage in inappropriate, deviant, or even criminal behavior.

B. SOCIAL LEARNING FACTOR

Social learning theories propose that people internalize moral codes more through the process of socialization—learning behaviors through interaction with others—rather than through a stage-by-stage development process. Specifically, social learning theorists maintain a young person learns how to behave based on how elders (primarily parent figures) respond to the person’s violations of and compliance with rules. Rewards for acceptable behavior and sanctions (penalties) for transgressions indicate what appropriate behavior is.

Repeated instances of reward and sanction also lead to the internalization of these standards. Over time the transgression becomes associated with the sanction, and it produces anxiety even when no one is present to administer sanctions. Through this process children begin to control themselves in a manner consistent with moral and legal codes.

Social learning theories of criminal motivation and behavior have substantial empirical support. A number of studies indicate that delinquents were treated differently by their parents than youths with no record of delinquency. The socialization of delinquents is marked by lax and erratic discipline or by unduly harsh discipline, such as physical punishment. These studies do not describe in detail what effective socialization should be, but they do suggest that social learning is related to criminal involvement. Such studies also indicate that social learning theory is a promising approach to understanding criminal motivation and behavior.

C. PERSONALITY FACTOR

Personality theories attempt to explain how people acquire predispositions toward certain behavior. These predispositions are sometimes discussed in terms of personality traits, such as impulsiveness and stubbornness, or personality types, such as introvert and extrovert. All other things being equal, people will consistently display behaviors that they are predisposed toward. Accordingly, some social scientists believe that certain predispositions or personality types may be associated with criminal tendencies or activities.

Austrian physician Sigmund Freud described emotional development as the process of achieving a balance between conflicting desires. According to Freud, humans must resolve the tension between their purely self-interested tendencies, which he called the id, and the control of these forces by the combination of conscience and moral attitudes, which Freud called the superego. This process begins in infancy, at which time the id reigns without conflict.

As the child develops, conflicts occur between the id and superego, which are ultimately resolved by the ego—the sense of self. This process results in a person who strikes a balance between individualism and society, between hedonism (pleasure seeking) and repression of his or her desires. According to Freud, when this development process goes wrong any number of personality disorders can result, including a tendency toward criminal behavior.

III. Environmental and Social Theories of Crime

A. SOCIAL CAUSES

One of the first theories describing the influence of social factors on crime came from French sociologist Gabriel Tarde who asserted that the causes of crime are chiefly social.

He believed that persons predisposed to crime are attracted to criminal activity by the example of other criminals. He also felt that the particular crimes committed and the methods of committing those crimes are the products of imitation. The predisposition to crime, while in part reflecting many factors, is explained principally by the offender's social environment, particularly the environment of his younger years. Tarde was also one of the first to study the professional criminal. He noted that certain offenders pursue careers of crime. These career criminals may engage in periods of apprenticeship that are similar to those that characterize training for entry into other professions.

Another French social theorist of major importance to modern criminology was Émile Durkheim, who believed that the causes of crime are present in the very nature of society. According to Durkheim, whose major works were written in the 1890s, crime is related to the loss of social stability. Durkheim used the term anomie to describe the feelings of alienation and confusion associated with the breakdown of social bonds. According to Durkheim, individuals in the modern era tend to feel less connected to a community than did their ancestors, and thus their conduct is less influenced by group norms.

1. SOCIAL – STRUCTURAL FACTOR

The social-structural approach emphasizes the effects of an individual's position in society and the constraints that the person’s status puts on his or her perceptions and behavior. According to this model, all members of society subscribe to the same moral code but some people—because of their position in society—are more able than others to follow that code. Social-structural theorists assert that crime is an adaptation to the limitations that social position places on individual behavior.

Social-structural theorists focus their attention on socioeconomic status or social class and the strain that lower class status brings. According to the structural strain theory developed by American sociologist Robert Merton in the late 1930s, people who aspire to the cultural norm of economic achievement but are denied the education, capital, or other means to realize those ends will experience strain. There are three possible responses to this strain. First, the person may try what Merton calls innovation. Although the individual continues to accept the cultural value of success, he or she will employ illegitimate means, such as theft or robbery, to obtain money because legitimate means to achieve this end are not available. Another possible response is what Merton termed retreatism. The person gives up the pursuit of economic success and engages in self-destructive behavior, such as drug abuse. Finally, Merton identified the response of rebellion, wherein the person abandons the culturally dictated goal of economic achievement and engages in revolutionary activities or in attempts to reform the system.

American sociologists Edwin Sutherland, Richard Cloward, and Lloyd Ohlin have emphasized learning that to become a criminal, a person must not only be inclined toward illegal activity, he or she must also learn how to commit criminal acts. Sutherland’s differential association theory contends that people whose environment provides the opportunity to associate with criminals will learn these skills and will become criminals in response to strain. If the necessary learning structures are absent, they will not.

Another type of structural theory of crime is the ecological theory, which focuses on the criminal’s relationship to the social environment. These theories emphasize migration and urbanization as sources of criminal adaptation and attempt to explain the geographic distribution of crime and criminals. Ecological theories often give special emphasis to urban areas.

In the 1940s, American researchers Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay theorized that as people migrated from rural locations or from other nations into urban centers, their poverty forced them into districts that were on the fringe of industrial zones. These areas of first settlement were characterized by high levels of social disorganization—that is, the residents of these areas rarely interacted or communicated with each other.

Shaw and McKay also found the lack of communication in such areas was in part the result of the diversity of language and culture among immigrant groups, as well as the fact that people moved on after a short time. Thus it was difficult to form enduring relationships and to negotiate an agreed-upon code of behavior. Furthermore, because informal social control was weak and people did not share common norms, crime rates and arrests were high. When people left these areas, their risk of engaging in or being the victim of criminal activity dropped. Others moving into these disorganized areas experienced increased involvement in criminal activity.

2. SUBCULTURAL FACTOR

Subcultural theories assume that certain groups have values quite distinct from those of the rest of society. Moreover, these differences are enduring. Members of these groups will be disproportionately involved in crime because they acquire and follow the values of their group. According to the subcultural model, crime does not occur because people have been imperfectly socialized; it occurs because they have been socialized in a deviant group and acquired its values. Some subcultural theorists maintain there is a so-called lower-class culture that emphasizes toughness, excitement, fate, and autonomy. According to these theorists, attempting to behave in a manner consistent with these values disproportionably involves lower-class people in crime. For example, individuals from a subculture that puts extreme emphasis on toughness and individual respect may respond with violence to an insult that most people would consider trivial.

Social-control theory, developed by American criminologist Travis Hirschi in the late 1960s, assumes that everyone has a predisposition toward criminal behavior. Whether or not a person acts on those predispositions depends on whether he or she has ties to groups that impart values opposing crime, such as the family, school, the community, and volunteer organizations. People with such attachments initially hold certain values because they fear sanction from these groups. Gradually, however, the values are internalized and followed because of a belief that to do otherwise would be morally wrong. People without these attachments are not deterred by threat of group sanction nor do they ultimately internalize legitimate norms, and thus they are more likely to engage in criminal activity.

B. ECONOMIC STATUS

Some experts believe that poverty leads people to commit acts of violence and crime. Anger, desperation, and the need for money for food, shelter, and other necessities may all contribute to criminal behavior among the poor. Other experts caution that the link of cause and effect between poverty and crime is unclear. In some cases, poverty undoubtedly motivates people to commit crimes, although it may not be the only factor involved. Other problems associated with poverty are often linked to crime. For example, to obtain money some poor people commit the crime of selling illegal drugs; others may steal to obtain the money to buy drugs on which they are dependent.

Studies concerning the influence of economic factors on criminal behavior have attempted to link economic deprivation to increased motivation to commit crimes (especially property crimes). Such studies assume that when economic conditions worsen more people experience deprivation and turn to crime to reduce that deprivation. These same theories have been used to explain why people of lower socioeconomic status are disproportionately represented among known criminals.

Other studies attempt to relate the disproportionate involvement of poor people in crime to the distribution of power in society. The assumption in these studies is that criminal law is a tool used by the social group with higher economic status to advance its class interests. Studies of the relationship between unemployment and crime have yielded conflicting results.

Some studies indicate a negative relationship between unemployment and crime—that is, when unemployment decreases, crime increases, or vice versa.

(Reference: "Crime." Microsoft® Student 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA:Microsoft Corporation, 2006.)