Preview

Biological Criminal Behavior

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1805 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Biological Criminal Behavior
Biological Criminal Behavior
The studies of biological behaviors have shown that criminals with a passion for their crime tend to have a genetic or physiological issue that plays a major part in their criminal activities. Gary Ridgway and John Hinckley Jr. portrayed significant degrees of physiological issues that may have contributed to the crimes they committed. Lack of education, moral support, love, and self-accomplishments may have also provided behaviors out of the norm. Criminal activities in any setting lead to the perpetrator acquiring feelings of self-gratification. Though studies are continuously, biological factors play major roles in the physiological outcomes for criminals.
There was a difference between Gary Ridgway and John Hinckley Jr. John grew up in a successful household where he had great love provided by his parents. His mom took care of him and all his older siblings obtained high education and his family lived as successful people. During his younger years, John excelled in school. He was top of his class, was a football player, and even president of several of his grades. Gary, on the other hand, was not. He was not very smart, which his IQ of 82 showed that. His mom was not the loving mom like John’s mom was and Gary’s father was abusive to his mother. Gary’s life was the complete opposite of what John’s life and family situation was.
Gary started developing problems about the same time as John did. They both started possessing issues and separating themselves from other people at about the same age. Even though they both started at the same time, Gary was considerably worse than John was. When Gary was 16, he stabbed a six-year-old just to see what it was like. The time frame until John did his shooting the only thing he did was obsess about Jodie Foster. John never did anything physical except play Russian roulette. Gary had more problems and more reasons to have psychiatric issues. He had an abusive father, an unloving mother, was



References: John W. Hinckley, Jr.. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/hbio.htm Mednick, S., & Finello, K. (1983). Biological factors and crime; implications for forensic psychiatry. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6642820 Montaldo, C. (n.d.). Characteristics of the Psychopathic Personality. Retrieved from http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/psychopaths.htm Montaldo, C. (n.d.). Gary Ridgway. Retrieved from http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/Gary-Ridgway.htm The New York Times Company. (2011). Gary Ridgway. Retrieved from http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/Gary-Ridgway.htm (Gary Ridgeway). Biography . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/gary-ridgway

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    After being accused of murder in February, David Tarloff was being kept in a locked ward three stories up in Bellevue Hospital. David Tarloff, 39, is under evaluation after his arrest in the killing of psychologist, Kathryn Faughey with a meat-cleaver on the Upper East Side. The police said after he killed Kathryn he then went on to stab Dr. Kent D. Shinbach. Tarloff, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1991, has a very long psychiatric history. After years and years of his family trying to get…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gary was a bed-wetter and was believed to be very unintelligent with a very low IQ. He had trouble in school with poor grades. Gary first attempted homicide in around 1966 at the age of sixteen years old by luring a six year old boy into the woods and stabbing him.…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    (Shteyngart) At the same time, stereotypes about Jewish/Russian culture are also used to emphasize the ethnical roots of Gary's family: "My parents didn’t spend money, because they lived with the idea that disaster was close at hand, that a liver-function test would come back marked with a doctor’s urgent scrawl, that they would be fired from their jobs because their English did not suffice", "my parents, getting up to use free McDonald’s napkins and straws", "My father... in his red-and-black striped imitation Speedo", "Let me guess: mechanical engineer?", "My parents believed that going to restaurants and buying clothes not sold by weight on Orchard Street were things done only by the very wealthy or the very profligate". (Shteyngart) This helps create the contrast between Gary's family and the community they find themselves…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John was born on St. Patrick’s Day in 1942, two years after his older sister, Joanne. John Jr. and his family grew up with an abusive father, John Stanly Gacy (Amirante). He watched his father continuously abuse his mother, Marion Elaine Gacy and two sisters Joanne and Karen. He also got physically abused along with verbally. His father would often tell him that he was a “sissy” or a “mama’s boy” and that he was a failure. Throughout John’s childhood he sought for his father’s approval, but seldom did he get it (Amirante).…

    • 3010 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Born in Salt Lake City Utah in the year 1949, Gary Leon Ridgway was the middle child of three sons. Ridgway was raised in a chaotic and underprivileged household with a domineering mother and a father who reportedly despised prostitutes (Prothero, 2006). Ridgway wet the bed until his late teens. His mother reportedly bathed him until he was well into his teenage years, paying special attention to his genitals (Prothero, and Smith, 2006). His mother frequently berated him in the presence of others and would dress provocatively and regularly spoke of sexualized encounters with the men worked with (Rule, 2004).…

    • 2670 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    What causes people to commit crime? This million dollar questions has place many criminologists and researchers searching for answers. In the past decades, people have tried to explain crime by referring to the earliest literature of criminal’s atavistic features to human biology. Recent studies have shows that crime is described in the social environment. While, no one theory can prove the causes of crime, strain theory has gain support in academic research for its five mode of adaptation.…

    • 2253 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The compositions of the human genes is believed to carry out an important role in relations to criminal aggression and it causation. With no explicit indentification of the gene, Crimimologist believe that the influence of social and physical environment is more like to predetermine one to become aggresive of crimimal more than genetical prediposition.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    drives a person to murder? Gacy’s childhood was not a pleasant one. Beaten viciously at home, and…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Parenthood Movie Paper

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gary’s behavior from the beginning of the movie is odd. He is quite and not very open with his mother. He has angry posters plastered all over his bedroom door and a padlock locking his door preventing anyone from entering his space. He sneaks in and out of the house carrying this very suspicious paper bag and when asked about it he gives very little information about what it contains. He is growing up in a space of women without a male figure in his life, as he has never known his father. He battles the fact that there is no father figure in his life the whole movie and shows that he is disgruntled at his mother because of this.…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Wayne Gacy

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    John Wayne Gacy Jr. was a man of rare form. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois, raised by his mother and father. John and his mother were very close. However, his dad was not a good person. His dad would frequently drink and would beat him. His mother knew that this kind of activity went on but she never did anything because she herself was afraid of her husband and what he was capable of during his rages under the influence of alcohol.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Wayne Gacy

    • 2065 Words
    • 7 Pages

    On March 17, 1942, John Wayne Gacy was born into an Irish middle-class family. His parents were Marion Gacy and John Gacy Sr. Gacy Jr. had enjoyed a uninteresting childhood until he suffered a head injury at a playground when he was 11. Up until age 16, Gacy had suffered blackouts due to the injury. After all he was put through, he worshipped his father like a hero, despite the fact that his father was an abusive alcoholic with a bad temper and an intense hate for homosexuals. Gacy was often accused and beaten by his father for being sickly.…

    • 2065 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    This is a statement that researches have long sought the answer for, it all boils down to nature versus nurture. Is there a clear answer? I can honestly say now that I do not believe so, after evaluating both sides I see that nature and nurture seem to play an almost even role. Therefore, I do no think it is fair to determine this question with a yes or no answer, instead I hope to present the facts and allow others to make a judgment based on those. When beginning my research I had the advantage of working with top psychiatrists in my area to try and determine the cause of criminal behavior, and I realized very quickly that there are two very convincing opposing sides and no…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Howitt, D. (2011). Introduction to forensic and criminal psychology 4th Ed. Harlow:Pearson Education Ltd. Chapter 5…

    • 1801 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many link criminal behavior to certain concepts as innate impulses, psychic conflict, and repression of one's personality.The Psychological Theory relates to Jack’s scenario because, due to his childhood experiences and mental health, Jack decided to pull the gun out and rob Mary.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Abusive and violent situations occurred in almost 50% of serial killer’s childhood homes. There were also possible abusive sexual situations like being forced to dress up as the opposite sex, being punished for childhood masturbation or bed-wetting, or sexual abuse from relatives or close family friends. Drug and alcohol addiction is also a strong prevalent factor among serial killers. Usually, they do not have strong bonds or relationships in their families. These are just a few of the suggested causes (Richard…

    • 1938 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics