Biological Theory Of Crime Essay

Anyone can take part in a crime act, but there are individuals whose situation, environment and health will place them at a higher risk of committing crimes. These crimes fall into four main factors; psychological, biological, economic and social. one or more of these factors are used to explain an individual’s act s act of criminal offence. The more risk factors an individual has, the greater the risk of their crime.

The psychological factor is broken down into four key traits, which will be explored to gain an understanding of how these four traits are in relation with criminal behaviour. The first factor discusses the role of personality traits and how it can contribute and predict the criminal behaviour of an individual. Personality
The theory of crime based upon biological factors would suggest that criminal behaviour is a product of hereditary, ‘that criminals are born not made’. It is proposed that there is a biological explanation for crime behaviours. Extensive research has been carried out to prove this argument, and it is considered that parents can genetically pass on their prior behaviour, to the extent where parents who may have possessed criminogenic needs, could potentially pass on those traits that lead to criminal behaviour. Genes influence how parents bring up their children; genes affect the responses that children evoke from their families and the others around them, and as children grow older, genes sway their choice of companions and surroundings. Genes can define an individual’s ability to control temperament, impulsivity, low self control, and a lack of empathy. The effect of genetics on criminal behaviour can be explained in a way of looking at appearance similarities on the brothers and sisters in a family resembling those of their parents. It can be seen that physical inheritance has clearly played a role in the clustering of physical characteristics within the family, and when applying this concept to genetic behaviour, if physical characteristics are passed on from generation to generation, it is certainly possible for psychological characteristics to be passed on as well. Some of those psychological characteristics include genes that are altered with substance abuse, which can often lead to negative behaviour in accordance with