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Essay on Psychology of Crime

   

Added on  2020-06-03

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Psychology of Crime

Psychology of CrimePsychology is considered to be science of behaviour a mind. It has an inclusion of consciousand sub conscious phenomena which helps in understanding the behavioural and mentalcharacteristics of an individual (Rotter, 2017). The essay deals in understanding the psychologyof Mary who have committed a crime. In order to understand each aspect of the case, sociallearning theory will be applied to analyse her behavioural characteristics. It will help in assessingthat a direct influence of surroundings of an individual can be perceived on actions of a child. People tend to learn through observation. Perceiving the attitude, behaviour and outcomes ofthose behaviour stimulate them to perform a particular task in the similar manner. An individualform an idea of how the new behaviour has actually been performed and the perceivedobservation serves as a future guide for them which is used at the time of action. According toJennings and Henderson (2014), Social learning theory is a subpart of various psychologicaltheories which states that learning comes directly through observing social behaviour which canfurther be acquired by imitating others. Furthermore, the theory states that learning is a cognitiveprocess that can purely initiate direct instruction of performing a task even if directreinforcement to the particular act is not present. However, in contrast to this, as per the views ofTaylor (2017), social learning theory gives the individual an opportunity to learn through the realhappenings of the world. It is not only related to observing the situation but the consequencesthat resulted to something fruitful for the individual. The learners in this case is not a passiverecipient but have a mutual role of cognition, environment and behaviour. A strong application of social learning theory has been noticed criminology where emergingand maintaining deviant behaviour and aggression in a criminal. The probability of gettinginvolved in the criminalistics activity is higher if the social construction has been set in thatmanner. The consequences of the situation can be achieved through social and non-socialsituation that are being faced by an individual (Cochran and et.al., 2017). There are basicallyfour main stages of application of social learning theory. The first stage is, attention whereindividual’s attention towards a particular situation ascertain its acceptance. A high dependencecan be found on various factors such as, prevalence, functional value, complexity, affectivevalence and distinctiveness. Other characteristics of the individual affecting attention includes,past reinforcement, arousal level, perceptual set and sensory capacities. The second stage ofsocial learning is retention which includes how much the situation have been remembered by the1

individual to which he / she paid attention (Social Learning theory, 2017). Commoncharacteristics of addressing retention includes, organization of cognitive behaviour, motorrehearsal, symbolic rehearsal, mental images, symbolic coding, etc. The third stage isreproduction where ability of reproducing images is assessed which includes, physicalcapabilities and self-observation of reproduction. The last stage of social learning is motivationwhere the reason of imitating the behaviour is analysed. There can be certain motives of thecriminal in the form of past, promised and vicarious activities (Siemens, 2014). The case suggests that Mary is a 16-year-old girl who have been arrested on the charge ofmurder of an international male tourist during attempt of robbery. Cops have found that she hasbeen involved in intake of paraphernalia and injected traces of tell-tale. The history of the girlsuggests that she ran away from her home. Her biological father abandoned her family who wasviolent, involved in intake of heavy alcohol and drugs and used to beat his family members. Hewas also prisoned for various property and violence offences. Mary’s step father was physicallyabusive towards her. She was also physically abused by her father from the age of 14 years. Analysing the behaviour of Mary, she herself was a rebellious and cranky child withdeteriorating behaviour over the number of years. She was not good in studies and used to skipher school regularly. Her group of friends were also involved in delinquent behaviour. Othercharacteristics of Mary includes, drinking regularly, shoplifting, experimenting with illegaldrugs, involving in petty theft, engaging in casual sex, etc. These were some of the methods sheused to escape from reality. Addressing her behaviour, it can be analysed that she has gonethrough troublesome childhood memories which has encouraged her to get involved in theseactivities with criminal nature. Further, researcher have stated that a child observing violent behaviour tend to behaveviolently towards other individuals as well. Children tend to have the tendency to observe peopleresiding in their surroundings. These individuals are called as models (Cheung, Liu, and Lee,2015). Common influential models of children include, parents within the family, friends, peergroup, teachers in the schools etc. they try to observe their behaviour and imitate in the samemanner. Encoding their behaviour can assess that whether it is appropriate or not. Further, it alsoascertains that reproducing the same behaviour can be appropriate to the society or not.Addressing the case of Mary where have been surrounded with people who are involved incriminal activities. Her father was sexually abusive towards her which led her towards having a2

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