Aspects of 'Psychology Crime'

Running Head: PSYCHOLOGY CRIME
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Psychology Crime

PSYCHOLOGY CRIME
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The essay brings about the discussion on the aspects of the topic, ‘Psychology crime’ and the
related aspects from a wider perspective. The study of psychology crime deals with
understanding different aspects such as wills thoughts, intentions, and reactions of the
criminals, which all partake in the case of criminal behaviour. The crime, which has been
selected in the essay to be discussed, is IPV i.e. Intimate partner violence, and the related
concepts. The essay will introduce and describe about the crime in relation to two or more
psychological explanations in this essay, such as biological, social, and individual
perspectives (Kropp, 2018). Two approaches from the above will be discussed in detail and
will be compared with each other, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the
explanations. Biological perspective or approach will enlist genetic, hormonal, or
neurological factors affecting or leading to the crime. On the other hand, social approach will
include the factors such as peer pressure, radicalisation, and the interpersonal relationship of
the individual with others. Thus, the essay will touch on the crime explaining these aspects,
through which readers will gain an understanding about the factors, which triggers or prevent
the criminal behaviour of an individual.
Intimate partner Violence (IPV) refers to the behaviour by an intimidate partner or the ex-
partner which causes physical, sexual or psychological harm to the individual. It may include
physical harm, psychological abuse or the controlling behaviours towards the other partner in
the intimate relationship. To discuss about the prevalence of IPV in the society across
different regions, it has been found every 1 in 4 women and 1in 6 men are found victims of
IPV, based on at least one incident of threat of force. Discussing about the intensity, severity,
or frequency of the crime, women are more likely to be experiencing the situation of violence
from their current or former partner in each stage of their life (Ruiz-Hernández et al., 2015).
There are some factors or aspects which predicts occurrence of IPV to women such as
excessive alcohol consumption, hostility towards dependency, or it may occur due to the
obsession of the wife’s behaviour resulting into violent assaults. In addition, some socio-
economic factors also lead to such behaviour and crimes for an example, when the men fail
under economic stress may take their frustration out on their wives. Thus, the major risk
factors which causes men of physically assaulting or engaging in the violence towards their
partner consists of low income, young age, low academic achievements, social approval, or
the cycle of abuse (O’Doherty, 2014).

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IPV or violence by an intimate partner has been found related to various immediate and long-
term health outcomes on the individual’s health. These consist of the outcomes such as
physical injury, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic pain syndromes, depression, anxiety, and
the suicidal behaviours. Partner violence may also lead to other severe impacts on the
reproductive health of women and can lead to gynaecological disorders in the later years,
premature birth, and the sexual diseases (Turchik, Hebenstreit, and Judson, 2016).
IPV has become a serious public health across different regions affecting the quality of life of
women in the society. Thus, it is essential to take steps or preventive measures to reduce or
combat intimate partner violence and improve the lives of people. The efforts taken for the
victims of IPV include support for the victims, legal reforms and police training, treatment
programmes for perpetrators. The prevention strategies for IPV includes increasing the
availability of services to the victims, and establishing women crisis centres and battered
women’s shelters has been the cornerstones for the programmes. They aim to provide
counselling, job training, and assistance with the legal matters and the referral programmes
for the treatment of alcohol and drugs. Legal reforms, such as police practice can be used to
address partner violence. In addition, there can be some other efforts, which can effectively
address the issue of partner violence such as schools, communities, and healthcare settings.
Healthcare may help and prevent women facing the negative impacts of violence on their
health as the providers there can guide to manage the abuse. From the above discussion it has
been understood that the communities and health institutions have a predominant role in
monitoring and reducing the impact of IPV on women in the community. Now, the following
discussion will describe the crime from two different perspectives or approaches, i.e.
biological and social (Dardis et al., 2015).
Biological factors in violence are significant and complex to understand the scenario of
intimate partner violence. The contribution of the biological perspectives or the factors
leading to intimate partner violence includes the changes or behavioural aspect of genes, or
neurological behaviour. It has been found that genetic variants do not cause or lead to
aggression or IPV, rather certain genetic factors possess the ability to increase the risk of
violence due to their impact on some other factors. Some examples of these factors may
include the impulsivity, and poor emotional regulation of the individual engaged in violence
(Lynch et al., 2017).

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IPV in context to the biological aspect has stated that sex has been a biological characteristic,
however, gender and the role of a given gender is considered a social phenomenon, which are
transmitted to the individuals at the time of birth. Gender-socialization has observed through
a number of mechanisms every day, but people typically understand the ways in which
masculinity. Understanding the aspect of gender socialization stands as the reason, which
predisposes men to intimate partner violence against women (Raghavendra, Duvvury and
Ashe, 2017).
One of the biological risk factor causing IPV has been found as low birth weight, which
refers to an environmentally affected index highlighting prenatal stress Low birth weight has
been assumed to cause damage to an individual’s central nervous system, and acts as a
reasonable cause for the emergence of risks of neurological disorders to an individual. This in
turn leads to losing control on self or resulting into self-regulatory a problem that enhances
the risk of anti-social behaviour. Thus, it describes a relationship between the neurological
disturbances or abnormalities and the antisocial behaviour of the person. It states that LBW
has found to lead to engagement of the person in criminal activities or violence against their
partners at homes. Whereas, the factors of low gestational age has failed to predict the
criminal behaviours or defined less involvement towards IPV by men (Smith et al., 2015).
Genes- To discuss about another biological risk factor causing IPV is genes, as the research
has revealed the fact almost 50% of the variation in population exposed to IPV and other such
crimes described through the genetic factors or genes. Genes being a biological factor
assumed to control production and regulation of the proteins, which functions as
neurotransmitters and enzymes, and hormones, which certainly predicts the risk of antisocial
behaviour. For an instance, Catecholamine is implicated in the regulation of anti-social
behaviour (Fleming et al., 2015).
IPV or violence against women also includes aspects of sex offending, thus hormonal factors
found to be significant in the multifactorial theories of such crime. The relation between the
hormone and aggression in humans is well established and amongst highly aggressive people,
the impact of oxytocin has found significantly. Boost of oxytocin causes people to use
aggression or violence towards their close ones to maintain their relationship during the life-
course (DeWall et al., 2014). Oxytocin provokes the inclination towards IPV, but it is limited
to the individuals high in trait physical aggression. Thus, oxytocin is recognised as the love
hormone which leads to violence towards their romantic partner. Thus, the above description