Chapter 1 Fundamentals of Crime Causation

CHAPTER 1 FUNDAMENTALS OF CRIME CAUSATION Learning Objectives: At the end of this chapter, the learners are expected to be able to: 1. Investigate various criminological perspectives, such as biological, psychological, sociological, and ecological theories, to comprehend the multifaceted causes of criminal behavior. 2. Analyze how individual traits, including genetics, personality, cognitive processes, and psychological disorders, influence the propensity towards criminal behavior. 3. Examine how societal factors like poverty, inequality, peer pressure, family dynamics, and community environments contribute to the likelihood of criminal activity. 4. Understand the application of criminological theories in the criminal justice system, including policy development, crime prevention strategies, rehabilitation, and recidivism reduction. 5. Develop the ability to critically evaluate different theories of crime causation, considering their strengths, limitations, and relevance in understanding and addressing criminal behavior. 6. Explore ethical dilemmas in crime causation theories, including issues related to intervention strategies, profiling, the presumption of innocence, and the balance between punishment and rehabilitation. Introduction: The fundamentals of crime causation explore various perspectives on what leads individuals to commit crimes. Biological or medical determinism delves into how genetic, neurological, or physiological factors can influence behavior. Psychological determinism examines the impact of individual experiences, personality, and mental processes on criminal behavior. Psychiatric determinism focuses on the role of mental disorders or illnesses in influencing criminal actions. Sociological determinism emphasizes societal, cultural, and environmental factors that contribute to criminal behavior, such as poverty, social norms, or peer influence. Understanding these perspectives helps in comprehending the multifaceted nature of crime causation, where biological, psychological, psychiatric, and sociological factors intertwine to shape human behavior and its criminal outcomes. Causes of Crimes Causes of crime may be environmental, hereditary or psychological. Environmental causes are ruled out as independent causes of crimes. But psychological conditions are said to be determinant of an individual’s reaction to persuasive environmental influence. Criminologist says that certain offenders are born to create crimes in the environment. Other cause may be the poverty. Due to low condition of their living, they are enforced to commit crimes. Discrimination against minorities may become the cause of crimes. Emotional disorders are also cause of crimes. Major Theories and Causation of Crime A. Biological Theories Biological theories focus on aspects of the physical body, such as inherited genes, evolutionary factors, brain structures, or the role of hormones in influencing behavior. Biological theories about the causes of crime on the idea that the physical body, through inherited genes, evolutionary factors, brain structures, or the role of hormones, has influence on an individual’s involvement in criminal behavior. Growing understanding of these mechanisms suggests that certain biological factors, such as particular genes, neurological deficits, low serotonin activity, malnutrition and environmental pollutants may all affect a person’s biological propensity of criminal or antisocial behavior. The challenge for biological theories of crime is to adequately represent the complex interplay between inherited characteristics and environment. B. Psychological Theories Psychological theories focus on human cognition and its development, and how this relates to criminal behavior. Psychology presents a number of perspectives on the causes of crime. Of particular importance are theories exploring the relationship between crime and individual personality, social factors, cognition and developmental factors. These psychological theories have different degrees of focus on individual, family, group and societal psychology. Psychological literature shows that a key variable identified in the development of individual characteristics, and any criminal propensities, is the role played by parents, in terms of factors such as child-rearing practices, attachment, neglected, abuse, supervision, and the parents own anti-social or criminal behavior. C. Psychiatric Theories Psychiatric theories encompass various perspectives to understand and treat mental health conditions. Some major theories include psychoanalytic (Freudian), behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, and biological perspectives. Each offers distinct viewpoints on the causes and treatment of mental health issues. For instance, psychoanalytic theory delves into unconscious drives, while cognitive theory focuses on thought patterns, and biological theory explores neurological factors. These theories often intersect and evolve over time, contributing to our understanding of mental health. D. Sociological Theories Sociological theories focus on the influence of the organization of society and social conditions. Sociology encompasses a very wide range of theoretical perspective, but generally regards crime as a social phenomenon, and emphasizes the cultural and social elements of criminal behavior. Some sociological theories emphasize the relationship between social structures, such as language, ethnicity and class, and criminal behavior. Other theories emphasize the effect of social conditions on an individual’s propensity to become involved in crime. Other theories of crime causation 1. Developmental Life-Course Theory Developmental life-course theories focus on human development and how individual and social factors interact in different ways and at different developmental stages to influence individual propensity for criminal behavior. Developmental life-course explanations see crime as the result of a development process that starts before birth and continues throughout a person’s life. It seeks to understand the interaction between individual factors such as genetics and personality, and social factors such as family and community wellbeing. 2. Geographic Theories Geographic theories focus on the location of crime and how physical environments promote or discourage criminal behavior. Geographical theories of crime focus on analyzing data about the geographic distribution of crime, modifying the physical environment to reduce the likelihood of crime and targeting initiatives to geographic areas with high rates of offending. Using data about the geographic distribution of crime, it is possible to find patterns that can be used to inform crime prevention projects. Geographic theories of crime prevention that focus on the physical environment tend to focus on such things as how urban planning, building design and the design of public spaces affect crime, and also on how physical environments can be modified to make businesses and residences more resistant to crime (sometimes called “situational crime prevention”). 3. Economic Theories Economic theories focus on how offending is influenced by incentives. The economic theory is based on the notion that individuals respond rationally to the costs and benefits of criminal opportunities. Thus, factors that increase the expected costs of crime (such as increasing the likelihood of apprehension or severity of punishment) or reduce the expected benefits (such as improved educational or job opportunities) can reduce the incidence of crime. The economic framework can also encompass other theories of crime that provide a richer understanding of rationality and decision-making (such as the biological basis of impulsivity), the costs of crime (such the social capital in anti-social peer networks) and the benefits of crime (such as local economic conditions).