Criminological Theories on Violent Crimes: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Criminological Theory relating to Crimes
of Violence
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
LO1. Understand different criminological approaches that relate directly to violence...................2
1 Explain the types of criminal violence and their impact on victims.........................................2
1.2 Explain social learning and strain theory in relation to violence...........................................2
1.3 Explain control balance and rational choice theory in relation to violence...........................3
LO2 Understand criminological theory in relation to youth violence and drug-related violence...4
2.1 Explain using criminological theory how the characteristics of violent young offenders
differ from those of their victims.................................................................................................4
2.2 Evaluate criminological theory models of alcohol-related violence.....................................4
2.3 Evaluate the psychopharmacological, economic motivation and systematic models of drug-
related violence............................................................................................................................4
LO3 Understand criminological theory in relation to intimate partner violence and sexual assault
.........................................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Explain the risk factors that relate to intimate partner violence and sexual assault..............5
3.2 Explain the existing protective measures for victims of partner violence and sexual assault
.....................................................................................................................................................6
3.3 Evaluate trends in intimate partner violence and sexual assault using statistical information
.....................................................................................................................................................7
3.4 Evaluate criminological theory in relation to intimate partner violence and sexual assault..8
LO4 Understand criminological theory in relation to hate and terrorist violence...........................9
4.1 Analyze criminological theory in relation to hate violence...................................................9
4.2 Analyze criminological theory in relation to terrorist violence.............................................9
LO5 Understand the major causal factors and theories that relate to serial murder......................10
5.1 Evaluate theories relating to serial murder..........................................................................10
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5.2 Evaluate the impact of causal factors on serial Murderers in given case studies................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Crime can be defined as any unlawful act that changes across culture and across time. There are
many types of criminal violence and every violence has different types of impacts on the victim.
In this theory the Social learning theory and Stain, a theory has been analyzed to understand the
nature of criminal violence. Moreover, various criminological theories help to identify the
characteristics of the Youth offenders and system Models associated with the violence which are
drug-related. In this study, various criminological theories have been analyzed for identifying
hate and terrorist violence. Moreover, major casual factors and theories related to serial murders
have been analyzed in this study.
LO1. Understand different criminological approaches that relate directly to violence
1.1 Explain the types of criminal violence and their impact on victims
There is presence of various types of crimes that put on the implication of impacts on the
victims. Criminal violence can be reflected in the form of assault, robbery, sexual harassment,
kidnapping, manslaughter and domestic violence (LegalMatch Law Library, 2019). Violence
cricks come into society with the mixture of mental sickens that leads to the path of the
emergence of criminal violence. On the other hand, it has been perceived that criminal violence
takes place due to the psychological problem in the human mind. Criminal violence's leads to the
path of severe change in the lifestyle of victims and victims need for certain therapies to come
out from the trauma created by criminal violence. The prime most impact that takes place in the
victim's life that they start feeling guilty about being victimized and victim's gain probable
changes that affect psychology. They become subjected to anger, anxiety, depression, lack of
sleep, fear about violence and frustration. There will be an occurrence of Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) that affects the victims badly and changes their temperament to lead a normal
life (FutureLearn, 2019).
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1.2 Explain social learning and strain theory in relation to violence
The social theory will provide a way for the accused person to gain powers based on the stamina
and courage to lead a stable life. Social learning theory belongs to the projection of evaluation of
values and attitudes that will punishments to the accused person to come out form the wrong
stage and this will carry forward with the help of orientations, rationalisms, and theories, which
comes up with an intention to provide punishments to the accused person (Law.jrank.org, 2019).
The social theory will deal with the propagation of certain theories that will help the victims to
walk into the path of peaceful life, which can be illustrated in the following manner such as;
 Differential Reinforcement: This theory will come up with the teaching practice to the
victims involving the crimes via the technique of reinforcements. This will lead to
reflection based on the types of punishments reinforced in an alternative manner.
 Beliefs related to Crimes: Accused person delve them into the crimes that can be served
with the support of preferences that includes types of crimes.
 Imitation of Criminal models: This part of the theory will project with the
demonstration of imitation of types of behavior that will be relating to the reinforcement
of crimes (Law.jrank.org, 2019).
1.3 Explain control balance and rational choice theory in relation to violence
Control balance theory will present the controlling of the presentation of imbalance and
collaboration of motivation that will help the accused person to get change in their behaviors
(Oxfordbibliographies.com, 2019). Control balance theory can be differentiated into two types
of parts such as control deficits and control surpluses. Thus, it can be stated that both the stages
help the accessed person to work towards the rectification on the part of violence. Rational
choice theory belongs to the projection of assumptions that will present the number of various
types of criminological theories. This theory refers to the reflection based on the various
perspectives that come into the path types of crimes such as robbery, sexual harassment ad so on
(Oxfordbibliographies.com, 2019).
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LO2 Understand criminological theory in relation to youth violence and drug-related
violence
2.1 Explain using criminological theory how the characteristics of violent young offenders
differ from those of their victims
The young defenders can be comprehended with the help of specific reasons that will be dealing
with the part of the time. Time can be projected with the support of the occurrence of violence at
weekends. The other factors can be reflected with respect to the time, those young offenders to
be the victim during the late-night timings (Children.gov.on.ca, 2019). On the other hand, it has
been perceived that there are subject of young offenders that become the victim of criminal
violence that takes place for sexual assault. The occurrence of sexual assault can be reflected in
that it takes place after the consumption of alcohol.
2.2 Evaluate criminological theory models of alcohol-related violence
The propagation of criminological theory models will help to comprehend the alcohol-related
violence. As per the criminological theory models, it has been observed that there are various
types of alcohol related criminal violence and this can be illustrated via victimization of
childhood and making them subject. Moreover, criminological theory models have projected the
propagation of violent lifestyles. This also leads to the projection that is based on the reflection
number of crimes that take place due to the habit of consumption of alcohol (Children.gov.on.ca,
2019). The implication of alcohol leads to the path of criminal violence such, as domestic
violence, sexual assault, child abuse and so on.
2.3 Evaluate the psychopharmacological, economic motivation and systematic models of
drug-related violence
There is the propagation of the Psychopharmacological Model of Violence, which delves with
the reflection based on the subject of intoxication of criminal violence. This depicts the types of
crimes that come forward due to the alcohol consumption and this will be carried forward by the
support of drug and alcohol. On the other hand, it has been observed that the
Psychopharmacological Model of Violence that alcohol-related criminal violence that will be
demonstrated with the help of rural and urban drugs (Children.gov.on.ca, 2019). Thus, it can be
stated that the Psychopharmacological Model of Violence leads to the projection of various types
of criminal violence.
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LO3 Understand criminological theory in relation to intimate partner violence and sexual
assault
3.1 Explain the risk factors that relate to intimate partner violence and sexual assault
Persons having certain risk factors are more prone to be victims or perpetrators of IPV, which is
intimate partner violence. However, such risk factors contributing to IPV may not cause such
violence directly. Not everyone who has been found out to be at risk does not necessarily have to
be perpetrators of violence (Freilich et al., 2015). Risk Factors causing perpetration of intimate
violence includes:
Individual Risk Factors
 Low income
 Low self-esteem
 Young Age
 Low verbal IQ/ Low achievement in academic
 Drug use and heavy alcohol
 Anger as well as hostility
 Lack of problem solving skills for non-violent social problems
 Impulsiveness
 Unemployment
 Having fewer friends
 Borderline personality traits
 Having a past of physical abuse
 Insecurity as well as emotional dependence
 Having a hostile towards women
 Unplanned Pregnancy
 Being victimized for psychological or physical abuse
Relationship Factors
 Marital fights-conflicts, tension as well as other struggles
 Jealousy, negative emotion, possessiveness
 Instability in marriages, separations or divorce
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 Economic Stress
 Detrimental family relationships as well as interactions
 Associations with aggressive as well as antisocial peers
 Social Isolation
 Dominance over one partner by the other (Farrington, 2017)
Community Factors
 Poverty along with its associated factors
 A higher density of alcohol outlet
 Poor support from the neighborhood as well as cohesion
Societal Factors
 Gender inequality
 Societal inequality of income
 Educational, social as well as economic policies along with weak health
3.2 Explain the existing protective measures for victims of partner violence and sexual
assault
Protective measures are needed to be taken for mitigating Intimate Partner Violence, which
includes relationship factors as well as community factors.
Community Factors
 Collective efficacy from the neighborhood- People suffering from violence or those who
are the perpetrators of violence will be able to recover them through a collective effort
from the neighborhood. If the neighborhood shows concern for the person suffering from
such crime, then it would of higher significance for the reduction in the prevalence of
such crimes
 Coordination of services, as well as resources among several community agencies-
Support from several community agencies to the victims through providing several
issues, would be highly effective (Shamma and Sandberg, 2016).
Relationship Factors
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 Higher quality of friendship- With increasing support from the friend circle as well as
increasing quality of friendship may help in the reduction of such crimes
 Social Support- Social Support from people would be a proficient protective factor for
the victims. The latter would be able to recover themselves from such violence.
3.3 Evaluate trends in intimate partner violence and sexual assault using statistical
information
Crime Trends
From 1995-2015 in the 20 years, the rate of intimate partner violence among men as well as
women decreased from 2.8 and 15.5 respectively to 0.5 per 1000 men and 5.4 per 1000 women
respectively. In 2015, it has been seen that the rate of crime committed by relatives was 67%
while it was 54% and 43% by intimate partners as well as acquaintance respectively, whereas the
crime rate committed by strangers was 42%. It has been estimated that 32% of women will be
victimized for physical violence, 47% for psychological aggression as well as 16% for contact
sexual violence. On the other hand, 7% of men will be victimized for contact sexual violence
(Wymbs et al., 2017).
Figure 1: Intimate Partner Violence committed by Sex
(Source- Caetano et al., 2017)
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Figure 2: Estimation of Intimate Partner Violence by sex
(Source- Caetano et al., 2017)
Figure 3: Estimation of Intimate Partner Violence by ethnicity, race and sex
(Source- Caetano et al., 2017)
3.4 Evaluate criminological theory in relation to intimate partner violence and sexual
assault
Social Control Theory
As opined by Freilich and LaFree, (2015) Social Control Theory entails the occurrence of
deviance due to the broken bond between society and individual bonds. In accordance with
theory, it can be said that individuals are likely to commit crime due to broken bond with society.
The ignored individuals then become more prone toward committing intimate partner violence.
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Early Biological Theories
In accordance with this theory, White et al., (2017) have said that there is a relation of criminal
behavior to defective intelligence. This implies that defective intelligence may lead an individual
to commit a crime.
LO4 Understand criminological theory in relation to hate and terrorist violence
4.1 Analyze criminological theory in relation to hate violence
In accordance with criminology theory, people commit crime after analyzing the potential risks.
It implies that individuals who are more prone to crime are more oriented towards hate violence
if they find out that it would not cause much harm to them.
In accordance with Social Control theory, people are more towards committing the crime if they
become disoriented from society thereby creating a feeling of hatred.
4.2 Analyze criminological theory in relation to terrorist violence
In accordance with biological theory, there is a relation of criminal behavior to defective
intelligence. This implies that defective intelligence may lead an individual commit crime, which
further implies that individuals may be more prone towards terrorist violence (Freilich and
LaFree, 2015).
LO5 Understand the major causal factors and theories that relate to serial murder
5.1 Evaluate theories relating to serial murder
There are many causal factors and theories related to serial murder. As per the opinion of Smith
and Malinowski (2018), there are three different approaches for understanding the nature of
serial murders namely Biological approaches, Psychology based approaches, and Sociological
approaches.
Biological approaches
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As per Biological approaches, it has been found out that most of the serial murders have
chromosomal abnormalities. As per the opinion of Eck and Weisburd (2015), most of the serial
killers have extra Y-chromosomes and that is why they have aggressive and violent behavior.
From the biological theories, it has also been found out that serial killers have distinctive
criminal features like asymmetrical faces and unusual size of the nose.
Psychological approaches
From the impulse, a theory of Psychology it has been found out that most of the serial killers
have innate qualities and different thought processes that led them to commit crimes. As stated
by Williams et al. (2017), the Attachment psychology theory states that the early life experiences
of a child-like breaking the bond between the mother and child can lead the child to commit
crimes like Serial murder.
Sociological approaches
As influenced by Fox and Farrington (2016), the Sociological theories and Models help to
analyze the behavior of the social beings and the type of relationship a people has with society.
Social pathology has been taken into consideration for understanding the behavior of the people
associated with the serial murders. The sociological approaches also help to analyze the deviance
associated with social structural conditions in the cause and its impact on the people to commit
serial murder.
There is a relationship between the biological, psychological and social theories related to serial
murder. According to Cline (2016), various types of psychological factors can lead a person to
commit serial murders like depression and stress. On the other hand, from the biological theories
and models of serial murder, it has been found out that different biological factors like mental
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