An Analysis of Criminological Theories and Criminal Behavior

This essay delves into the complexities of criminal behavior by exploring various criminological theories. It begins by defining crime and highlighting its impact on individuals and society. The essay then examines several key theories, including social learning, control, biological, genetics, and evo...Read More

ESSAY

Crime can be considered as an unlawful action taken by a person which is punishable by
authorities of a state or country. In present time, crime is not only harmful for an individual, but
for a society, community or for a whole country as well. Essay would cover different theories of
social learning, control, biological, genetics and evolution that might help in understanding the
criminal behaviour (Downes, Rock and McLaughlin, 2016). Based on the analysis, it can be said
that sex offences and violent crimes that are recorded in different police stations of Wales and
England crime rate has increased if it is analysed over the past year. Office for National Statistics
mentioned that, around 5.3 million crimes were basically recorded in a period of 1 year, this
shows a hike of 14%. Based on the surveys that has been done by number of news channels,
citizens of United Kingdom has stated that crimes continues to fall (Crime statistics: Violent
crime and sex offences rising, police figures suggest, 2018).
(Source: Violent crime: Is it getting worse?, 2019)
Based on the above mentioned graph, it can be said that, ongoing work which was done
by police forces in last three years has been much effective and efficient in nature and they have
improved security for citizens of United Kingdom, but based on graph, crime rate or total
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Illustration 1: Violent crime: Is it getting worse?, 2019

violence is rapidly increasing which impacted negatively on thinking of public and raised fear
among them.
Based on the rational choice theory, it can be said that people basically make actions
based on their own interests which can lead them towards risks. But, many contradictory
statements has been given on this theory where economists said that they cannot believe in what
rational choice theory has shown and stated that individuals do not always takes decisions based
on rational utility-maximizing situations (White, Haines and Asquith, 2017). Reason behind this
situation is that, individuals frequently makes irrational determination and then finds it out that
why they have done it. In crime world, there are many cases which came in front where a
criminal has accepted his/her crime that was attempted by him/her. Along with this, there are
many challenges that are being faced by individuals at the time of living a good life and may lead
a person to become a criminal and these are: poverty, ageism, mistreatment and abuse, elder
abuse and more (Eck and Weisburd, 2015). It has been found that, people at the time of entering
old age, they face challenges like Ageism, that consist with a range of things like discrimination
and stereotyping against them, that basically develops a mentality or misconceptions of abilities
that they are having. On the other hand, elderly poverty has been improved but still, there are a
number of issues that came in front of them like their own children do not support them,
recession and more. Physically frail can also be taken as another problem which basically
increases risks of elder abuse among people that are coming under elderly age i.e. 60 and above
(Policastro, 2015).
Social disorganisation theory, states that the main reason behind rise in criminal
behaviour among individuals are both physical and social environments. Residential locations
like urban area has a potential of high earnings, and every single person in this era loves to have
a lavish life and which is not possible. That is why people that are living in urban areas but
coming under below poverty line mainly attempts criminal acts in order to fulfil their needs
(Wortley and Townsley, 2016). On this theory as well, many contradictory statements took place
and psychologists said that it is the depression, mental disorder and needs of a person that
basically pushes an individual towards attempting a crime. If it is talked about changes that
individuals faces during adolescence than, social and emotional are the two major factors which
impacts mainly upon their behaviour and may lead to attempt a crime (Farrington, 2017). In the
present scenario, an individual who is in the phase of adolescence looks for number of things like
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his/her own, seeks independences, things more often related to what is wrong or right. Including
this, at the age of when puberty hits the teenager, he/she become more self-conscious. All these
impacts in both negative and positive sense on their education. If, all the experiences that the
person had in its teen aged period, it will directly put positive impact. Any sort of change in
individuals life like divorce of parents might impact immensely on his/her behaviour towards
studies (Maxfield and Babbie, 2014).
According to strain theory, people in today's environment carries same aspirations, but
focuses on different opportunities as per their interests, perceptions and so on. Based on the
investigation, it can be said that social life overpoweringly regulates the behaviour of humans,
and largely this takes place because humans mainly lacks the replete that guide most animal
behaviour. Humans therefore depend on social institutions and organizations to inform their
decisions and actions. In criminal world, person with a bad intent would look at a home which is
seeking opportunity for him as there is no people around. But, a responsible person would not
feel in the same way (Farrington, 2017).
Based on social learning theory, human behaviour gets changes depending upon the
people with an individual spends much time, it means a person gets motivated and may commit a
crime through the people they associate with. In present time, a person who is getting observed
by others can be called as a model. Basically, children can be considered as one of a kind
community which easily gets influenced by models, family members, television characters and
more. What this theory has given is somewhere right but it cannot be considered as one of the
most appropriate one to understand the criminology in depth (Land, 2018).
Considering the labelling theory, it can be said that people power basically decides what
is a crime and the labelling makes a person a criminal. Based on the authors point of view,
apparent significant difference in delinquency rates between two similar cities and concluded
that it was the societal reaction to "delinquency" (so-labelled) that differed rather than the acts
themselves. High number of people if agrees on something, than the decision will be on their
favour only. This could be understood with an example, where an individual commit a crime,
and then decision taken by the jury is final and the punishment given by them depends upon the
type of crime which was done (Hagan and Daigle, 2018).
With the help of above mentioned report, it is being concluded that crime can be
considered as one of the major influential factor which is specifically complex in nature which
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varies across different cultures, time, education level and more. As cultures change over time ,
criminal behaviour change as well. This results into, rise of fear among public. Still there are
many studies going on related to subject i.e. crime. Along with this, it can also be said that there
are a range of crimes like violence without injury, with injury, stalking and harassment which
often have their own distinct causes among both victim and criminal (Robert, 2018).
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REFERENCES
Downes, D., Rock, P. E. and McLaughlin, E., 2016. Understanding deviance: a guide to the
sociology of crime and rule-breaking. Oxford University Press.
Eck, J. and Weisburd, D. L., 2015. Crime places in crime theory. Crime and place: Crime
prevention studies, 4.
Farrington, D. P. ed., 2017. Integrated developmental and life-course theories of offending.
Routledge.
Farrington, D. P., 2017. A general age-graded theory of crime: Lessons learned and the future of
life-course criminology. In Integrated developmental and life-course theories of
offending(pp. 175-192). Routledge.
Hagan, F. E. and Daigle, L. E., 2018. Introduction to criminology: Theories, methods, and
criminal behavior. Sage Publications.
Land, K., 2018. Criminal circumstance: A dynamic multi-contextual criminal opportunity
theory. Routledge.
Maxfield, M. G. and Babbie, E. R., 2014. Research methods for criminal justice and
criminology. Cengage Learning.
Policastro, C., 2015. Feminist Theory. The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, pp.1-5.
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.
White, R., Haines, F. and Asquith, N. L., 2017. Crime & criminology.
Wortley, R. and Townsley, M. eds., 2016. Environmental criminology and crime analysis.
Taylor & Francis.
Online
Crime statistics: Violent crime and sex offences rising, police figures suggest. 2018. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42815768>.
Violent crime: Is it getting worse?. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44397532>.
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