CCJ1191 HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Introduction to Criminal Behavior
Criminal Behavior
Intentional behavior that violates a criminal code, intentional in that it did not occur accidentally or without justification or excuse
Vastly complex
No all-encompassing psychological explanation for crime
The Study of Criminal Behavior
Should we restrict ourselves to a legal definition and study only those individuals who have been convicted of behaviors legally defined as crime?
Should we include individuals who indulge in antisocial behaviors but have not been detected by the criminal justice system?
Should we include persons predisposed to be criminal?
Theories of Crime
Provide a general explanation of crime that encompasses and systematically connects many different social, economic and psychological variables to criminal behavior
Supported by well-executed research
Two Theoretical Perspectives on Crime
Classical Theory
Free will
Decision to violate law is choice
Two Theoretical Perspectives on Crime
Positivist Theory
Determinism
Criminal behavior is result of social psychological biological influences
Perspectives on Human Nature
Conformity Perspective
Humans basically good and want to live up to their potential, influenced by society’s attitudes and values
Strain theory
Crime occurs when there is perceived discrepancy between materialistic values and goals and available means to reach goals
Perspectives on Human Nature
Noncomformist Perspective
Humans unruly and undisciplined, need rules and regulations to keep them in check
Social control theory
Travis Hirschi
Crime occurs when one’s ties to standards are weak or nonexistent
Perspectives on Human Nature
Learning Perspective
Humans learn all behavior and beliefs from the environment
Social learning theory
Rotter, Bandura
Humans born neutral and learn virtually all their behavior, beliefs, and tendencies form the social environment
Learning Perspective
Differential association
Sutherland
Criminal behavior is learned
People learn to be criminal as a result of messages they get from others who were also taught to be criminal
An excess of favorable messages to law violation over unfavorable messages promotes criminal activity
Three Perspectives on Human Nature
Criminology is study of crime; Primarily dominated by 3 disciplines:
Psychology, Psychiatry and Sociology
Sociological Criminology
Examines relationships of demographic and group variables to crime
Focuses on groups and society as a whole and how they influence criminal activity
Racial disparity
Unemployment
Poverty
Psychological Criminology
The science of the behavior and mental processes of the person who commits a crime
Focuses on how individual criminal behavior is acquired, evoked, maintained and modified
Offender personality
Offender behavior
Cognitions
Attitudes, beliefs, values, and thoughts that a person holds about the social environment, interrelations, human nature, and him or herself
Psychological criminology
Developmental Perspective
Psychiatric Criminology
Traditionally followed psychoanalytic tradition
Contemporary is more diverse and research based
Education differences
MD or DO as opposed to Ph.D. Psy.D. or Ed.D
Psychoanalytic Tradition
Psychoanalytic Tradition
Explains behavior in terms of motives and drives
Views human nature as innately antisocial
Humans are biologically driven to get what they want when they want it unless held in check by internal (conscience) and external (society) forces
Without organized society with rules and laws, humans would aggress, steal, plunder
The prime determinant of human behavior lies within the person, and after the first few years of life, the environment plays a very minor role
Measuring Crime
Official police reports
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
Self-report studies
Arrestees Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM)
Monitoring the Future Study (MFS)
National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA)
Victimization studies
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
Measuring Crime
Uniform Crime Reporting System (UCR)
Compiled by the FBI
Most cited source of U.S. crime statistics
Federal agencies do not report
Part I and Part II crimes
Uniform Crime Reporting
Common Part I Crimes
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Arson
Uniform Crime Reporting
Common Part II Crimes
Simple assaults
Forgery and counterfeiting
Fraud
Embezzlement
Stolen Property
Offenses against the family and children
Sex offenses
Drug abuse violations
Gambling
Vandalism
Measuring Crime
UCR Problems
Hierarchy rule
Reliance on agencies to report crime
Dark figure
Missing information
Measuring Crime
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
All federal law enforcement agencies must collect and report data on two categories
Group A offenses
Group B offenses
Measuring Crime
NIBRS
Group A offenses
The crime is viewed along with detailed data about aspects of the crime
Group B offenses
Information about the arrestee and circumstances of the arrest
Hate Crimes
The FBI definition
A criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin
Hate Crime Legislation
1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act
↓
1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
↓
1996 Church Arson Prevention Act
↓
2009 Matthew Shepard Act
Measuring Crime
Self-Report Studies
Interviews or questionnaires
Most individuals admit to violating criminal law
Large dark figure
Majority of self-reported crime is minor
Measuring Crime
Drug Abuse Self-Report Surveys
Measuring Crime
Victimization Surveys
Extent to which individuals are victim of various crimes
Victims able to describe the impact of crime and characteristics of offenders
Measuring Crime
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
Households interviewed every six months for three years
Designed to supplement the UCR
Provides detail about crime and victim
Relationship patterns
Intimate partner violence (IPV)
Homeless not represented
Juvenile Delinquency
Status offenses
Behavior not against the criminal code but forbidden to juveniles because of age
Running away
Curfew
Underage drinking
Truancy
Data Imperfect
Nature and extent unknown
Behavior may be regarded as “rite of passage” Stops with maturity and when stake in prosocial behavior
Antisocial Behavior
Habitual actions that violate personal rights, laws, and/or widely held social norms
Legal delinquency and criminal behavior
Actions that violate standards of society but undetected by law enforcement
Focus of the Chapter 1
The persistent and repetitive offender
Detected or undetected
The individual who has frequently committed serious crimes or antisocial acts over an extended period of time
The one-time serious offender
Chapter 1
Key Concepts
Antisocial behavior
Classical theory
Clearance rate
Cognitions
Conformity perspective
Criminal profiling
Criminology
Dark figure
Developmental approach
Differential association theory
Dispositions
Hate Crime Statistics Act
Hierarchy rule
Chapter 1
Key Concepts
Index crimes
Intimate partner violence
Just-world hypothesis
Learning perspective
National Crime Victimization Survey
National Incident-Based Reporting System
Nonconformist perspective
Nonindex crimes
Part I crime
Part II crime
Chapter 1
Key Concepts
Positivist theory
Psychiatric criminology
Psychological criminology
Social control theory
Social learning theory
Sociological criminology
Status offenses
Strain theory
Theory verification
Traits
Uniform Crime Reporting
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
In this case, deviance may occur as an act of rebellion and defiance against a social order that is perceived to be unjust. In combination with poor normative-social development, economic factors will conduce to crime more readily than either one or the other set of factors alone. Blended with personality and other hereditary factors, a given individual exposed to the same or similar environmental circumstances will exhibit a greater or less significant tendency to commit property crimes. While every crime theory has contributed to the crime issue study, each theory has looked at the issue in a different…
- 262 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The issue behind the development of human behavior lies on two different points of view. The sociological or pro-nurture and the physiological or pro-nature explanation behind human development. Pro-nature argue that humans behave seems to be influenced by generic make-up, inherited from the biological parents. Therefore, this theory proposed that the differences on people behaviors are linked to each one’s unique genetic code. Furthermore, humans develop their behavioral capacities throughout a learning process that begins when born and will last a life time growing and maturing. On the other hand, the pro-nurture theory believes that the environment inputs along with life experiences are accounted for the development of human behavior.…
- 323 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Crime is bad behavior displayed by citizens who reject societal norms and instead chose to commit crime. However, there are many types of theories of why crime occurs the most prevalent cause for crime involves the social environment of the criminal offender. Psychological theories discusses that these interruptions in childhood development is the cause for crime but because the delays developmental is the effect of the criminal’s environment. The same goes for biological theories that find genetic or biological factors that make a person more prone to become a criminal but require certain environmental factors for the person in reality to become a criminal.…
- 795 Words
- 4 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
According to the University of Phoenix CJi Interactive activities (2014), the definition of a crime is “a conduct in violation of the criminal laws of the state, the federal government, or a local jurisdiction, for which there is no legally acceptable justification or excuse”. It is a complex and very difficult definition to agree upon because there are many points of view and controversies in defining what crime is. From a psychological standpoint, it suggest that the crime is a way of expressing the inability of an individual to follow the social norm. The psychological view…
- 1065 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
The aim of this essay is to compare, contrast and evaluate two sociological theories of crime causation and two psychological theories of crime causation.…
- 1985 Words
- 8 Pages
Good Essays -
One of the theories of Criminology is the Integrated theories of crime, it represents an attempt to bridge the ideological differences that exist among various older theories of crime by integrating variables from disparate theoretical approaches. By integrating a variety of ecological, socialization, psychological, biological, and economic factors into a coherent structure, such theories overcome the shortcomings of older theories that may be criticized on the grounds of reductionism. One way one can aproach this through analizing crime by the reasoning behind it, such as the way a subject may have grown up in a abusive home which led the subject to later in life adopt the same behavior.…
- 1244 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
P3 – Describe two theories of criminal behaviour and the factors that contribute to them…
- 2780 Words
- 10 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Crime and deviance are always been a matter of fact, the ‘collateral effect’ of living among other people. Norms and rules are set in each society, from rural ones to the largest urban environments, but this cannot prevent the attitudes by some individuals, that in the most of case gang up, to not follow these norms. They are the deviant ones and they are condemned to be considered not normal, sometimes just without choosing that. Paradoxically, most of actions and situations that are considered as normal, under a more peculiar analysis may be not so ‘normal’. For example, the norms that consider smoking as a ‘crime’ are the ones that ban this action in public places, since smoking is injurious both to yours and to the others’ health but, in…
- 781 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
could say that same thing about criminals. If they act like a criminal, and by that I mean…
- 1210 Words
- 5 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Describe the relationship between socialization and crime. What are the prominent elements of socialization that contribute to a criminal career?…
- 516 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
How can crime be prevented, and why do people commit crime? Understanding why people commit crimes, one has to develop ways so they can control crime or rehabilitate the criminal (Siegel, 2015, p. 8). Self-control is the main component to a well sorted life, this is because our brains make us liable to all kinds of influences (Siegel, 2015, p. 9). For example; from watching an action movie, it shows us violent scenes that can predispose us to act violently. We are all valuable to all kinds of influences (Siegel, 2015, p. 9). In this essay, I will demonstrate how two criminal theories (rational choice theory & psychodynamic theory) can explain how crime is committed. These two theories will relate on the summary article below regarding the,…
- 866 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
There are several theories on why people commit crimes and people will never stop creating these theories. The theory that I believe it the reason why people commit crimes is the Subcultural Theory. This states that all criminals have values, norms, and beliefs but they are so much different from “our” values, norms, and beliefs. To the criminal, he is following their values, norms, or beliefs but we see it has breaking or not following ours. So this is how he gets is name as a criminal. But not everyone that is under subcultural theory is a criminal, anyone with a different value, norm, or belief out of the dominant culture is considered subcultural.…
- 468 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Not only criminals but also citizens who are not habitually in conflict with the law…
- 1182 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Why do individuals commit crimes? Society today is very well concerned with this matter. In todays time, there are psychologists, criminologists, biologists, and sociologists searching for an answer. In reality, the answer to this question is very hard to find out. However, for centuries, researchers of all kinds have been persistent in analyzing criminals for an answer. The scholarly attention to crime from various perspectives has allowed for an extensive range of theories which are based on three broad theoretical approaches of explaining criminal behaviour. These theoretical approaches, which focus on the causes of crime and deviance in modern society, are the biological approach, psychological approach and the sociological approach.…
- 1397 Words
- 5 Pages
Better Essays -
Criminality has been sociologically defined as a form of deviant behavior from the norm and the acceptable rules of society. A more generic definition of criminality is a behavioral predisposition that disproportionately favors criminal activity. It is based on the premise that the act or acts committed by an individual violates the natural rights that are given to the person by birth and or by right. The statement “Are criminals born, or made?” is wide reaching and still the subject of many debates.…
- 3466 Words
- 14 Pages
Powerful Essays