Reasons for Criminal Behavior
Crime and criminal behavior has been in existence for as long as man can remember in fact it is believed to have been present as long as man has been living. Just as some people are good and very important to the society, others are a nuisance and a liability. Over the years man has tried to come up with different reasons for criminal behavior, this led to numerous studies, research, and the introduction of various schools of thoughts trying to explain it. The most commonly known theories of criminal behavior are sociological, mental, and genetic. This paper discusses these three most common reasons of criminal behavior.
The biological theory of criminal behavior simply states that a person’s biological composition or genes may be responsible for his or her criminal behavior. The biological theory also states that criminal behavior may be because of the chromosomes a person has. First, since men are generally aggressive they are believed to be more prone to criminal behavior than females. In addition, the presence of an extra Y chromosome, such that the person has XYY chromosomes makes a person more criminally inclined.
The sociological theory of criminal behavior states that some criminal behaviors are because of social forces in that these behaviors are learned. Factors like poor economic background, strain, subculture ideas, group conflict, and language are some of the causes of criminal behavior according to the sociological theories. The environment is also seen as a cause of criminal behavior in that, a person who has been exposed to violence and criminal behavior for a long time, say since childhood, is more likely to be involved in criminal behavior than one who is not exposed to such.
Psychological theories of criminal behavior try to explain that all human beings have certain urges that if not suppressed may lead to criminal behaviors. Every person knows and understands the laws but according to their perception of these, they chose to either obey them or disobey them. It is generally believed in this theory that criminals are people with a low IQ and as such criminal behavior may be caused by lack of proper psychological development thus psychological development plays a very important role in determining whether a person becomes a criminal or not.