Explaining Crime: Emphasis on the Individual

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Chapter 5

• Explaining Crime Emphasis on the Individual

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Understanding Theories of Crime

• Theories of crime try to answer at least 1 of 3
  questions
• Why are some people more likely than others to
  commit crime?
• Why are some categories of people more likely
  than others to commit crime?
• Why is crime more common in some locations than
  in others?

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• Biology and Psychology tend to focus on first
  question (individual)
• Sociology focuses on last 2 questions (social
  environment)
• Micro smaller picture
• Macro larger picture

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From Theology to Science

• Gods and Demons as Causes of Crime and Deviance
• People in ancient times were thought to act
  deviantly for several reasons
• God was testing their faith
• God was punishing them
• God was using their behavior to warn others to
  follow Him
• They were possessed by demons

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• Enlightenment
• Belief that people have their own free will and
  reason God does not directly control human
  behavior
• Despite this age of reason, the death penalty was
  used for over 200 crimes in England

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• The Classical School of Criminology
• (1738-1794) Cesare Beccaria (father of modern
  criminology), On Crimes and Punishments
• (1748-1832) Jeremy Bentham law was more severe
  than it needed to be to keep rational people from
  committing crime

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• The Rise of Positivism
• Use of scientific method to study human behavior
• Postulated human behavior is affected by outside
  forces
• Founded by August Comte
• One problem is theory assumes criminals are
  different from the rest of us

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Rational Choice Explanations and Deterrence

• Rational-choice theory assumes people choose to
  commit crime after calculating whether its
  rewards outweigh risks
• Deterrence theory assumes potential and actual
  punishment can deter crime

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• Types of Deterrence
• General occurs when members of public decide not
  to break the law because they fear punishment
• Specific occurs when offenders already punished
  decide not to commit another crime
• Objective impact of actual legal punishment
• Subjective impact of peoples perceptions of
  likelihood and severity of legal punishment

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• Evaluation of Rational-Choice and Deterrence
  Theory
• Evidence on deterrence is inconsistent
• Predicts higher arrest and imprisonment rates
  should produce lower crime rates, but this does
  not occur
• Harsher penalties should lower crime rates, but
  this pattern does not occur

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• Offenders caught and punished should reoffend
  less, but evidence of this is mixed
• No evidence that criminals make rational choices
  or weigh consequences of their actions

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Biological Explanations

• Nineteenth Century Views
• Phrenology study of skull size in relation to
  criminality
• Cesare Lombroso, Founder of positivist school
• Atavism criminals are throwbacks to earlier
  stage of evolution

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• Early Twentieth Century Views
• Earnest Hooton, biological inferiority advocated
  sterilization of criminals or exile
• William Sheldon, somatology body shapes affect
  personalities
• Endomorphs
• Mesomorphs
• Ectomorphs

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• Contemporary Explanations
• Family, Heredity, and Genes
• Early research on the Juke family
• Twin studies
• Adoption studies
• Evolutionary biology
• Chromosomal abnormalities

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• Neurochemical Factors
• Hormones Testosterone and Male Criminality
• Testosterone a cause of male criminality?
• Increase in aggressive behavior
• Hormones PMS and Crime by Women
• Premenstrual Syndrome leads to aggression?
• Neurotransmitters
• Serotonin

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• Diet and Nutrition
• Twinkie Defense
• Poor nutrition lead to criminal behavior?
• Research concludes at most a relatively minor
  effect on criminality
• Pregnancy and Birth Complications
• Poor nutrition, alcohol, tobacco use during
  pregnancy

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• Evaluation of Biological Explanations
• Crime is too diverse for biological explanations
  to account for all behavior
• Methodological problems in research studies
• Cannot easily account for group rate differences
• Social policy implications
• We cannot change biology
• Potential justification for appalling acts

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Psychological Explanations

• Psychoanalytic Explanations
• Crime arises from internal disturbances from
  early childhood
• Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis
• Mental disorders derive from conflict between
  society and instinctive needs of the individual
• Id
• Ego
• Superego

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• Psychoanalytic explanations limited in explaining
  criminal behavior
• Suggests antisocial behavior is mentally
  disordered behavior
• Neglects social factors and overemphasizes
  childhood experiences
• Research in this area relies on case histories
• Sexist in their explanation of females and their
  behavior

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• Moral Development and Crime
• Jean Piaget, mental and moral development in
  children four stages of development
• Sensorimotor birth to 2 years. learn through
  senses
• Preoperational 2-7 years. learning language,
  drawing, other skills
• Concrete operations 7-11 years. logical
  thinking and problem solving
• Formal operations 11-15 years. abstract ideas

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• Kohlberg - theory of moral development ability
  to distinguish right from wrong
• In early stages, moral reasoning related solely
  to punishment
• Later stages begin to realize society and parents
  have rules
• People recognize universal moral principles
  supercede laws of any one society
• Not everyone makes it through all stages of moral
  development

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• Intelligence and Crime
• Is low IQ to blame for criminal behavior?
• Low IQ linked to delinquency
• Poor school performance leads to less attachments
  to school
• Lower self-esteem
• Lower ability to engage in moral reasoning
• Less able to appreciate consequences of actions
• Race, IQ, and Crime
• Troubling racial overtones in contemporary
  research
• Differences in IQs between blacks and whites
• Methodological flaws in research

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• Personality and Crime
• Glueck research ink blot tests showed greater
  personality problems in delinquents
• MMPI
• Temperament
• Attention deficits
• Impulsivity
• Hyperactivity
• Irritability
• Coldness

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• New personality research has important
  implications for reducing crime
• Preschool and early family intervention programs
• Address aspects of social environment to reduce
  crime
• Problems with new personality research
• Cannot adequately account for relativity of
  deviance do not help understand why one behavior
  instead of the other is chosen
• Some people with personality problems do not
  break the law

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• Evaluation of Psychological Explanations
• Fill in smaller picture of crime
• Psychological studies often use small,
  unrepresentative samples results should be
  interpreted cautiously
• Generally disregard structural factors (i.e.
  poverty)
• Causal order remains unclear
• Rarely study white-collar offenders

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• Abnormality or Normality?
• Psychological approaches suggest crime/criminals
  are psychologically abnormal
• Can still commit crime and be psychologically
  normal
• Milgram shock experiments
• Zimbardo - Mock prison experiments