Criminal Behavior

Criminal Behavior

Criminal Behavior

Crime has been around forever. People will often do what they have to do to get what they want. Criminal behavior can be defined as any behavior that has criminal intent or results in punishment by law enforcement of some type. Criminal activity is born of instinctive impulses that the criminal chooses not to ignore. Most non- criminal people still have some of the same impulses, but they have learned to restrain them. Many psychologists have done research as to what causes criminal behavior. There are two possible theories on the matter. The belief is that the answer lies within the “Nature vs. Nurture” theme, that it is either an inherited trait or learned behavior. Is it the individual’s genetic makeup that makes them a criminal or is it the environment in which they are raised that determines their outcome.
So the main question is “what causes criminal behavior?” Research has concluded that both genes and environment do play a role in the criminality of a person. There are two possible theories on the matter. Both theories lie with in the “Nature vs. Nurture” theme. The research has stated that it is more often an interaction between genes and the environment that can predict criminal behavior. Having a genetic predisposition for criminal behavior does not determine the actions of an individual, but if he or she is exposed to the right environment, then the person’s chances are greater for engaging in criminal behavior. It almost seems like an unconscious trigger system. Personality Psychologist Eysenck created a model based on three factors known as psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism, or what is referred to as the PEN model (Eysenck, 1996). “Psychoticism was associated with the traits of aggressive, impersonal, impulsive, cold, antisocial, and un-empathetic. Extraversion was correlated with the traits of sociable, lively, active, sensation seeking, carefree, dominant, and assertive. Finally, neuroticism was...

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