Why do people commit Crimes?

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Why do people commit Crimes?

• Theories of Criminology

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Positive Theory (Positivism)

• Criminals are born not made
• This is an example of nature, not nurture
• Focused on biological and psychological factors
  to explain criminal behaviour

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Positivist Theorists

• Cesare Lombarso (1835 1909)
• Italian physician and psychiatrist
• What did he think/do?
• Studied cadavers of executed criminals in an
  effort to determine scientifically whether
  criminals were physically any different from
  non-criminals
• He believed that people were born criminals and
  facial features of criminals included things like
  enormous jaws and strong canine teeth.

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Pictures of murderers that Lambarso believed
carried facial features tied to criminal
activity.
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Murderer
Sean Penn
See any similarities!? Does this mean Sean Penn
is a Criminal?
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Positivist Theorists cont

• In the 1960s, positivist criminologists argued
  that criminal behaviour lies in abnormal
  chromosomes
• The XYY theory argued that violent male criminals
  have an abnormal XYY chromosome (XY is the normal
  pattern in males)
• However, researchers soon found out that this was
  not true and that criminals had normal
  chromosomes and that non-criminals also had
  abnormal chromosomes.
• The Positivist theory of criminals being born
  rather than made died out. There were moral
  implications with this.

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Modern Day Example

• Philippe Rushton
• University of Western Ontario psychology
  professor
• Rushton's book Race, Evolution, and Behavior
  (1995)tries to show that East Asians and their
  descendants average a larger brain size, greater
  intelligence, more sexual restraint, slower rates
  of maturation, and greater law abidingness and
  social organization than do Europeans and their
  descendants, who average higher scores on these
  dimensions than Africans and their descendants.

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Sociological PerspectivesTheory of Anomie

• Sociological Theorist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
• People who live in cities feel more anonymous and
  isolated (as compared to rural life).
• No longer restrained by the strict norms of
  society (in rural life) and given the anonymity
  in a big city certain individuals turned to
  crime.
• Durkheim is also a father of functionalism (i.e.,
  everyone has a role/function in society and that
  is how society runs/functions.
• Durkheim believes that criminals have a role and
  are needed for society to function
• If there were no crime, it would mean that
  everyone in society was the same and agreed on
  everything. This is no ideal and society would be
  too comforting people need a release.

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Anomie cont

• Kitty Genovese
• Young woman stabbed to death on a street in New
  York City -1964
• As many as 37 neighbours and bystanders all heard
  her screams for help.
• No one called the police because they all thought
  someone else would take action.
• Sociologists call this Diffusion of
  Responsibility
• Kitty Genovese Article

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Sociology contEcological School

• Believed that criminal behaviour was fostered and
  encouraged in certain environments.
• They studied a number of poor neighbourhoods and
  concluded that communities that suffered from
  high rates of poverty and social disintegration
  were more likely to condone criminal activity
  than more affluent neighbourhoods.

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Sociology contSocial Conflict Theory

• Karl Marx and Frederick Engels argued that the
  capitalist society encouraged crime as people
  competed for resources and wealth.
• Our society protects those with power and
  property. As a result, people who are
  economically disadvantaged are more likely to be
  punished by our justice system. The only way to
  solve the crime problem is to eliminate the
  capitalist system.

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Social Psychological Perspective

• Social psychology is the study of the relations
  between individuals and people.
• They are interested in how regular people can
  commit atrocious crimes.
• Stanley Milgram was specifically interested in
  how Nazis were able to commit horrible acts of
  genocide he focused on how people could do this
  just by following orders.
• Milgram Experiment
• Torturing and killing innocent civilians

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In relation to torturing article

• Displacement of responsibility and dehumanizing
  the victim are two categories of moral
  disengagement
• Bandura (1999) states, People behave in ways
  they would normally oppose if a legitimate
  authority accepts responsibility for the
  consequences of that behavior. Under these
  conditions, people view their actions as the
  dictates of authorities rather than their own
  actions.
• According to reports in the article, the torture
  and abuse of the civilians was approved and
  facilitated by the White House
• According to Bandura, (1999) person can justify
  torture by loosing empathy for the victim while
  convincing himself that the victim lacks human
  qualities.
• Furthermore, once the victim is dehumanized, he
  is no longer viewed as a person with feelings,
  concerns or hopes but as a subhuman object that
  is easily tortured (Bandura, 1999).

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Strain Theory (Sociology)

• Current societies stress the goals of acquiring
  wealth, success, and power.
• However, the means to achieve these goals require
  education and economic resources.
• These means are frequently denied or unavailable
  to those who are economically disadvantaged or
  have little opportunity for formal education.
• Example The Wire, Season 4, Episode 8
• Young African American youth yearning for the
  chance to work on the streets to sell drugs
  because they know this is the only way they can
  make money.

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Psychoanalytical Theory

• Sigmund Freud believed that all humans have
  criminal tendencies.
• It is through socialization that these
  tendencies are controlled during childhood.
• If a child has an identity problem with his/her
  parent, this problem may cause the child to
  direct its antisocial tendencies outward and thus
  become a criminal.
• Psychological Human Development also comes into
  play here

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John Wayne Gacy Jr. How did he grow up to be a
murderer?

• Theorists consider moral behaviour to be
  self-regulated through mechanisms of
  self-evaluation where one can approve or
  disapprove irresponsible or inhumane behaviour
• It clear that Gacy showed a lack of moral
  behaviour and hence, in the act was not able to
  disapprove his behaviour adequately to avoid it
  completely.
• Bandura (1977), states that most violent acts and
  inhumanities are perpetrated by people who, in
  other areas of their life are quite considerate
  in their behaviour.
• This describes Gacys behaviour perfectly as he
  was very friendly, well liked by the neighbours
  and was largely involved in the community no one
  would assume he was capable of such casualties.
  Moreover, Gacy illustrated moral disengagement by
  justifying his murderous acts

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Cont

• According to Sigelman and Rider (2009), children
  who are raised in abusive environments can grow
  up to become abusers and to learn that violence
  is an integral part of human relationships.
• Hence, it can be argued that Gacys immoral,
  violent and murderous adulthood is rooted in the
  violence from his childhood. Furthermore, abusers
  are often insecure individuals with low
  self-esteem
• Furthermore, abusers are often insecure
  individuals with low self-esteem. Abusers can
  form negative internal working models of
  themselves and others, which are most likely
  rooted in unhappy experiences in insecure
  relationships with parents and negative
  experiences in romantic relationships
• although his father hurt him physically and
  emotionally, Gacy desperately sought his fathers
  approval but was never able to achieve it. This
  insecurity led him to failed marriages and more
  interestingly, to his attraction to hiding
  himself under clown costumes and make-up in order
  for the children in the community to like him.

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John Wayne Gacy Jr.

• AE Biography Part 1
• AE Biography Part 2
• AE Biography Part 3