Tell Tale Research Paper

Developmental characteristics are usually noticeable in early age. “It describes experiences that are common factors in the background of offenders, such as school failure, abuse of alcohol, or childhood victimization”. They are also introduced to some risk factors; some might be exposed to less and some more than others. They could have gone through anti – social behavior. Major factors that played a huge role in offender’s life were social risk factors.

A person is not born as a criminal, it is watched and picked up on by the individual through social influences. The theory can predict whether an individual will turn to a criminal path rather than one that abides by the laws. If a person watches crime be committed and is around crimes and deviant behvavior during their impressionable years, it is much more likely that they will follow in those footsteps and become a criminal themselves. The motivation for crime could be heightened by being low-class or living in a high-crime community. One of the main critiques is that people can be individually motivated.

In her article White Trash, Nicole Hahn Rafter assumes that the relationship between genetics and crime is that genetics is passed through generations and that eventually they distribute throughout the entire population. The authors argue that deviant behavior of each family is identified with distinct characteristics (genes). They make an assumption that if a trait is displayed in more than one generation, then it must be inherited. The heritance of genes coincides with the idea that the distribution of social power is inherited. For example, if your family was wealthy, you would be wealthy, but it your family was poor, you would be poor.

Ted Bundy's example, however, defies this generalization, and it can be argued that his criminal tendencies were influenced by his genetics. This is also true in many other situations when criminal conduct is primarily

Criminal behaviour has always been an interest for psychologists, for they could never quite come to a conclusion between nature and nurture. Research concerning this topic has been organized for many years and due to the never ending debate, is still being conducted. I have decided to read and write about this myself, for I was genuinely curious about the matter and wanted to be a part of the research, as I felt responsible to do so. I believe that in order to stop something, it must be discussed and scrutinized. What effects do genes have on criminal behaviour, why do peer pressure and habitat influence a person to commit crimes and are men really more violent than women?

This theory clearly rules out the effect of inherited or innate factors, and the last is the cognitive theory, which is based on how the perception of an individual is manifested into affecting his or her potential and capability to commit a crime. (Psychological theories of crime) Relating these theories to the case under study, it’s clear that the behaviour can be traced most times to faulty relationships in the family during the first years of

As Ossorio and Duster explain, criminal behavior was due to a wide range of variables from family history to how strict the penal system of a certain area

Fifth, the specific direction of motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable. Sixth, a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law. Seventh, Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity. Eighth, the process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning. Lastly, while criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.

In the book Inside The Criminal Mind by Stanton E. Samenow: chapter two, argues that parents don’t turn children into criminals; it talks about the early childhood of criminals and how it starts for most of them. For one, at a young age the child begins to isolate themselves from others. This behavior can start as early as preschool years and it will

The methodology used consisted of numerous surveys and statistics analyzation to provide the research discussed. Roettger, Will, Fritsch and Burkhead and Pueschel and Moglia have all suggested children of incarcerated parents are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior. Roettger states upon having a father incarcerated, a child is more likely to engage in serious deviance and get arrested. Will states antisocial behavior is one of the most robust predictors and pathway to adult incarceration. Fritsch and Burkhead stated affected children can act out, which includes: hostile behavior, school truancy, substance abuse, running away, and aggressive acts.

To be quite honest, I have never heard of James”Whitey” Bulger, and I was born and raised in the city of Boston. My family has resided in Boston since the early 1970’s and they have never mentioned him. Therefore, in order to write this paper and actually know who is James “Whitey” Bulger, I watched the recent film Black Mass which is based on his story. I found the Bulger story to be quite terrifying and unbelievable, I believe the film did a great job portraying his life as a gangster in Boston. Bulger story gives a perfect demonstration of the criminological theories we have discussed in class.

Today, there are proven facts that people who have parents that are criminals have a high chance of becoming criminals themselves. Not only can people become criminals because of their family but they can also become criminals because of the environment that they surround themselves in. This is where nature versus nurture comes into play. A person’s nature is their genetic makeup, basically meaning that a person’s nature is the genes they get from their parents. Also, a person’s genotype, one’s genetic makeup based on the sequencing of the nucleotides we term, provides them with physical traits that set the stage for certain behaviors (56).

We all know that parents, since the child is born, are always by their child’s side since they share a same home and should be the one to monitor their children while he or she is growing up. David P. Farrington (Farrington, n.d) stated that family factor, poor parental child-rearing methods especially lack of guidance and control from parents, is the most common answer when people are asked about the main cause of crimes. Moreover, according to Lieb Roxanne (1994), family components can predict an early sign of delinquency. Some weak way of predictions are based on the socioeconomic status of the family, and the less affection of the child to parents. However, the lack of guidance and letting the child to feel being unwanted is a strong predictor or root of

The biological theory suggests that personality is inherited, therefore, criminal behaviour is as a result of the genetic and biological composition of an individual. A person

There are some people out there that believe there is one reason why people commit crime and that is because they are genetically predisposed to it. In my opinion, I could never be able to fathom the thought that there is one specific reason why people commit crime. I also believe crime has a lot to do with how someone is brought up and the environment they are in. It is hard for me to believe that there are people out there that are just born with a predisposition to commit crime. Committing crime to me isn’t necessarily always a bad thing.