Unit 34 Theories of Crime Task 1 Briefing paper

This briefing paper discusses the different theories of crime and deviant behavior, including biological, sociological, and psychological explanations. It explores the factors that push individuals to commit crimes and critically evaluates these theories. The paper covers topics such as innate crime, genetic crime, strain theory, conflict theory, family and friends, community, education, and more.

Unit 34 Theories of Crime Task 1 Briefing paper

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Biological explanation for crime and deviance:..........................................................................3
Range of biological theories of crime and deviant behaviour:....................................................4
Various sociological explanation for crime and deviance:..........................................................6
Psychological explanation for crime and deviance:....................................................................8
Critically evaluating different theories that illustrated violent crime:.........................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Crime are often been the most heard thing around the world, there are various crimes
which is been committed by a person. There are certain theories of crime which segregate the
reason and purpose why a person committee crime. These theories are been designed to educated
people about the happing of crime in such reasons and situation (White, Haines and Asquith,
2017). Crime is been rapidly increasing in some of the country, government trying to find the
reason to increase in crime, so they look for crime theories which allow them to understand the
behaviour of the criminal. In this paper we will discuss crime theories which include biological
explanations for crime and deviant behaviour and identifying types and ranges of biological
crime. Later in this paper we will discuss sociological explanations for the crime and deviant
behaviour and the factors which cause the sociological crime. Later we will discuss
psychological explanations for crime and deviant behaviour and various types and ranges of
psychological theories of crime.
MAIN BODY
TASK
Biological explanation for crime and deviance:
Biological theories of crime means crime attempted by the person under the biological
circumstances, these biological theories are been connect to the societal expectation of a person
from the society. There are certain types of biological crime such as:
Innate crime: innate crime means creating a differentiation between two individual on the basis
of the gender and birth, these are very serious crime which can lead a person to failure in the
society (Hirschi and Gottfredson, 2017). Many criminal themselves create a sense of
differentiation in mind and this often push them to hate somebody. Innate crime is one of the
most deadly and often been increasing rapidly in the world.
Genetic crime: genetic crime theories says that criminal lost the sense of differentiating the
biological and genetic body of a person. This genetic crime push the criminal to hate the person
according to the genetic difference for example height, weight and colour difference. These
genetic crime are been increasing day by day and promoting fear in the public. Crime deviant

often feel genetic discrimination which push them to commit crime whereas hereditary
differences increase the mental trauma of criminal and often increase the inheritance behaviour
of the criminal. Many researchers believe that hereditary means the mental demon of the person
who push them to commit the crime.
Structural and functional: these biological crime theories address the understand of crime
according to the structure of a person, in this crime criminal often feel differentiation from
another person because of the better functionality and structural appearance (Robert, 2018).
These type of biological crime are been mainly noticed in the young age people who often feel
discomfort able with the same person who is better.
Range of biological theories of crime and deviant behaviour:
Theories of crime:
Strain theory: strain theory highlight that crime often happened because of negative emotion of
an individual, negative emotion may include frustration and anger. It is very clear that human
emotion is real cause of crime which means emotion play vital role causing crime or pushing
person to commit crime. Strain theory study negative reinforcement which cause crime, people
who stay angry commit more crime as compared to people who fall into tough situation.
Conflict theory: Conflict theory highlight materialist inequalities which cause crime which
means when an person feel discriminated then they often commit crime, it is very clear that
societal inequality play vital role causing crime. There are many criminal who committed crime
only because they do not get equal position in society and often face conflict, group of negative
people can push confidence of an individual by position them lower in the society.
Biological theories of crime help researcher to understand the linkage between biological
condition and the tendency which push the person to commit crime. There are range biological
crime theories such as:
Imbalance hormone: according to the crime research and theories, this biological crime often
happened because of the imbalance level of hormone in the human mind. One of the biological
theories state that imbalance hormones are genetic whereas some believe that this often happen
because of the neurotransmitter imbalance of brain cells which push the person to commit crime.
Intoxication: intoxication means high level of consumption of drugs and alcohol which push the
person to perform crime, this is one of the most common biological theories of crime which state

that over consumption of intoxication can lead a person to commit crime when criminal is not in
a active mode.
Defence trait: many researchers believe that most of biological crime happen because of the
defence trait of human brain, this means the person might feel to defend themselves until they
find that they have committed the crime. Some criminals believe that defending themselves not
fall under the crime act which allow them to commit crime in the name of defence. This
biological crime theories is been used by many criminal in the court to justify their statemented
to defence themselves against the law.
Analysis of evidence against the biological theories of crime and deviant behaviour:
The biological theories of crime allow a person to understand why crime is been
committed under various circumstances, the biological evidence are been collected from the
Italian school of criminology which have conducted various research to state and understand the
reason why a person commit crime, there are certain evidence provided by the researchers of
Italian school of criminology such as:
Penology: penology is been stated by the Raffaelo Garofalo, they have introduced penology for
the criminal who tend to commit crime. Penology is a process of giving punishment to the
criminal in committing the crime. Penology is often called as penal science, this is criminology
division that highlight criminal activities, this evidence is brought in light to understand ethical
punishment. Sometimes high rise in crime often push government to develop certain laws on
punishment, penology is simply prison management system that allow authority to manager
crime and their punishment accordingly.
Atavism: atavism is an evidence of biological crime theories which state that some crime
happened because of the genetic problem and issues. Statement by Cesare Lombroso highlight
that criminals have physiological throwback, this means body build of human or mentality of
human play vital role in increased crime. Atavism state that physical characteristic of individual
sometimes push them to commit crime, evidence is being collected from father of modern
criminology; Cesare Lombroso.
Critical evaluation of different theories of crime:
Crime theories are often been classifies into three elements such as biological crime
theories which allow person to commit crime because of the biological defectiveness.

Various sociological explanation for crime and deviance:
Social factors of crime:
Family and friends: family and friends play vital role in manipulating mentality or mental
stability of an individual which means if a person is surrounded by positive people then their
mental stability will be better but if their friends indulge in criminal activities then their mental
stability will be disturbed.
Community: community play vital role in controlling crime, it is very clear that because of
community guideline and teaching of community, mind of person will be effected. Sometimes
poor stability or mentality of group can lead to bigger crime, individual who is being part of
these community group need to stable according to teaching. Every community need to provide
ethical value to their people.
Education: education is very important aspect in controlling crime, it is very clear that main
reason behind crime is lack of proper education and learning. When an person get education on
crime and criminology then they can be aware of crimes and possibility of committing crime,
every education intuition need to provide crime controlling lesson or teaching program to learner
to get better control on crimes.
Sociological theories of crime means crimes which are been committed by the criminal
after getting effected by the social factors, social factors plays a vital role in the behaviour of
person. The mind of the criminal often get impacted due to social discrimination and
differentiations, there are certain sociological factors such as:
Violence: the violence done by the criminal or the harm to the public or an individual, this social
factors push criminal to commit hate crime against each other. Social crimes are in broad term,
there are certain social crime which is extremely inhuman and the punishment to such crimes are
death penalty for example social crime as murder, sexual assault and rape.
Property crime: property crime are often most committed crime, property crime mean crime
which is done to steal intellectual property of a person legally or by harming the person. This
type of social crime include burglary, theft and defacement from the intellectual property.
Property crimes are in broad term which include the crime of theft and robbery of personal
vehicle and property. These type of crime is been committed at the gun point to steal the personal
property.

White collar crime: white collar crime are not easily noticeable by the person but often happen
in the society, the white collar crime means fraud and act of fraud by any trader or businessmen.
These crimes often happened with the people who do not rise voice against such crime. These
criminal acts often called scams, some businessmen scam society by violating the standard
business law.
Organized crime: organized crime means crime which is been complete planned and organize
by the criminal which leave no sign of evidence. These type of social crimes are been done by
professional criminals who have the experiences in commenting such serious crime. These type
of organized crime is been done on the contracts to the mafia who fear no one to kill a person.
Assessment of range of sociological theories of crime and deviant behaviour:
Sociological theories of crime means the theories provided by the researchers of
criminology who study the social behaviour of criminal and understand why they commit social
crimes (Downes, Rock and McLaughlin, 2016). There are certain theories of sociological crime
such as:
Structural functionalism theories: these theories state that there are some advantage of
criminal behaviour such as when the person commit crime in aggression then researcher get that
idea about the capacity of tolerance of the person. When a person understands the behaviour of
the deviant, they understand various social balance and adjustment of the person. When the
deviant commit crime, their limit or the capacity is been pushed. This happens because of the
structural balances in the society for example, discrimination and bias.
Strain theory: strain theory state that person ,ay commit crime because of societal pressure
which means society play vital role in pushing an individual to commit crime, it is very clear that
inequality in society disturb mental stability of person allow them to commit crime. Strain theory
provide clear understanding on negative emotion of person and its impact on committing crime.
Social strain typology: social strain typology means behaviour of the deviant towards the
society, this type of theories reflect the importance of the culture and its impact on the behaviour
of an individual. Social strain typology means person become criminal to gain the valuable of
socially wealthy life. Deviant of these crimes usually break the law and often commit crime
which lead them to wealthy life but this end up in jail or death penalty. These theories highlight
behaviour of the criminal towards the society.

Conflict theory: conflict theories highlight the behaviours of the deviant towards the
materialistic thinking or socio-political groups. This conflict may arise because of various social
discrimination such as gender discrimination, age discrimination and religion believe
discrimination. The interest of two person conflict at one point which sometimes happen because
of political or religious beliefs.
Comparison of sociological theories and deviant:
Sociological theories highlight the comparison of behavioural similarities and difference,
some of the social theories relating to the crime. This comparison is been done on the basis of
biological, sociological and phycological theories. The biological theories highlighted the
biological factors which influence the criminal to commit crime such as genetic and miss balance
of hormone whereas sociological theories highlight the social factors which push the person to
commit the crime such factors are social discrimination and personal bias as compared to
biological theories, the sociological are most crucial for the society.
Psychological explanation for crime and deviance:
Psychological theories of crime means crimes which are been committed on the basis of
psychological behaviour and the factors which push the person to commit the crime, there are
certain factors that impact the behaviour of the criminal such as:
Psychological development failure: there are some of the cases of crime where the criminal fail
to develop a standard of psychological in their mind and their behaviour often turn into violence.
This failure often occur because the person is not fully mentally developed and trying to get
developed.
Aggression and violence: aggression and violence is one of the most powerful factor that push a
person to commit crime (Durrant, 2021). There are certain situations arise in the life of person
which make them to show their aggression and often lead to murder and other serious crimes
which results in jail or death penalty. There are certain ways a person get aggressive but mainly
from the psychological factors. The parental behaviour plays a vital role in these types of crimes
because, if the parent have the behaviour of showing aggression and violating each other in front
of their child, then the child often have the aggressive behaviour.
Inherent personality traits: inherent personality trait means the behaviour of criminal towards
another person and exchanging the criminal thoughts. Sharing of belief and ideas can lead to
great criminal thinking which leads to serious crime. Some of the belief of a person lead them to

commit those crimes which was extremely serious and dangerous such as murder and rape. It can
be noticed that when two criminal minded people share their idea, they often try to develop a big
criminal plan which lead them to serious crime.
Hate and abuse: psychological theory state that person started to hate someone and later commit
a serious crime in regarding that hate, the behaviour of a person plays an vital role in the hate and
abuse psychological theory. Abuse are often been done by a person who is mentally unstable and
lost the sense (Sampson and Wilson, 2020). Hate push person to abuse themselves and others,
there are some common cases in society which tell the abusive cases. In such case women and
child become the target of the criminal, they try to physically harm women and child. There are
several strict punishment against such abuse and hate crimes and psychological crime theories.
Critically evaluating different theories that illustrated violent crime:
Psychological theories means the theories which highlight the psychological factors and
ranges that push the person to have the crime done (Lilly, Cullen and Ball, 2018). This mainly
show the working of the brain function according to the event and the situations. There are
certain range of psychological theories such as:
Conduct disorder: conduct disorder means disorder from childhood for being anti social or a
person who behaviour improperly in the society (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 2017). When the child
did not get the enough importance or value in their childhood and often feel left out effect the
menatality in negative way which lead a person to commit serious crimes. This psychological
disorder is often most dangerous because this push the person to mental create hate for an
individual and later decided to harm, this out to be a serious crime.
Psychological trauma: psychological trauma means this is often the most dangerous trauma for
a person, this theories of psychological allow person to remember events of past which had the
bad impact on the mentality of a person. In this theory, the person remember the bad moments of
past which push them into depression and mental illness, this later result in committing a crime.
This theory state that person get sad while remembering the bad moments.
Post traumatic disorder: the post traumatic disorder means the person get effected by a
accident and remember that horrific moment for the entire life (Agnew, 2020). There are some
cases that belief person often get angry or aggressive if someone try to make them calm about
the past, this called the post traumatic where a person lost the sense and ability to discriminate
between two personality. Some cases of child abuse push the person to commit crime after they

remember moments of past. Analysing the psychological crime theories by evidence and
supports:
Psychological crime theories state that a person commit crime when they are not
psychological present or having the bad mentality (Akers, 2017). there are some evidence of
psychological crime theories such as the evidence of American soldier in Afghanistan who
committed the murder of 16 Afghanis because he was not mentality stable and had the bad
mentality about the situation and the people of that country. This crime was committed when he
was drunk and lost the sense of right and wrong.
CONCLUSION
The report has been concluded about biological explanations for crime that will take
place in this through determining there different types in action and range of frameworks has
been examined in this. It summarizes of sociological elements that interlinked with crime and
range of sociological approach that has been assessed in the report. In this has been determined
their elements and factors that examined in report for describing in effective manner. Also, has
been emphasized core belief of psychological framework and facilitate their various range that
will take place into consideration. So, whole assessment is taken place in relevance to crime that
has been described in report. Further, has been determined risk and secured elements that
discussed in the report for assessing it in desired manner. By highlighting their key elements and
interlinked with issue of young peoples that has been emphasized in report to determining about
key role of their function in crimes.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
White, R., Haines, F. and Asquith, N.L., 2017. Crime & criminology.
Hirschi, T. and Gottfredson, M.R., 2017. The distinction between crime and criminality. In The
Craft of Criminology (pp. 187-202). Routledge.
Robert, A., 2018. Stability and change in crime over the life course: A strain theory explanation.
In Developmental theories of crime and delinquency (pp. 101-132). Routledge.
Durrant, R., 2021. Evolutionary theory and the classification of crime. Aggression and Violent
Behavior, 59, p.101449.
Downes, D., Rock, P.E. and McLaughlin, E., 2016. Understanding deviance: A guide to the
sociology of crime and rule-breaking. Oxford University Press.
Sampson, R.J. and Wilson, W.J., 2020. Toward a theory of race, crime, and urban inequality (pp.
312-325). Routledge.
Lilly, J.R., Cullen, F.T. and Ball, R.A., 2018. Criminological theory: Context and consequences.
Sage publications.
Gottfredson, M. and Hirschi, T., 2017. A propensity-event theory of crime. In Advances in
criminological theory (pp. 57-68). Routledge.
Agnew, R., 2020. The contribution of social-psychological strain theory to the explanation of
crime and delinquency. In The legacy of anomie theory (pp. 113-137). Routledge.
Akers, R.L., 2017. Social learning and social structure: A general theory of crime and deviance.
Routledge.
DeLisi, M., 2016. Why Psychopathy as Unified Theory of Crime?. In Psychopathy as Unified
Theory of Crime (pp. 1-13). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Robert, A., 2018. Stability and change in crime over the life course: A strain theory explanation.
In Developmental theories of crime and delinquency (pp. 101-132). Routledge.
1

2