Theories on Crime Causation

Bachelors Capstone in Criminal Justice – CJ499-01

Crime has existed since the dawn of time; it is even referenced in sacred religious texts such as the Bible and the Quran, as well as classical literature such as Homer’s Odyssey. Why do people commit crime? Is crime preventable? Can criminals ever truly be rehabilitated? These are age-old questions that have plagued researchers for centuries! To be completely transparent, despite the tireless efforts made by researchers and criminal justice professionals, we may never fully understand why a person commits deviant or criminal acts; theories do exist, however, that assess the biological, sociological, and psychological factors that contribute significantly to crime causation.

We as human beings are the direct result of reproduction; simply put, we are the “copy and paste” genetic variations of our parents. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing simultaneously. While we may be born with our mother’s beautiful green eyes and raven black hair, we also stand to inherit less favorable genetic traits such as our father’s Bipolar Disorder (or another hereditary behavioral health diagnosis) that affects our mood and mental stability. According to the National Institute of Health, the following are the five most commonly diagnosed hereditary psychiatric syndromes: Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and Schizophrenia. (nih.gov, 2015) These diagnoses are very difficult to diagnose because so many of the symptoms overlap; in each condition, the brain’s circuitry is impaired which affects a person’s emotion, thinking, attention, and memory.

These biological factors that make up a person’s DNA have the potential to be concerning from a criminal justice practitioner’s point of view, because they might influence a person’s behavior, reasoning, perception, and thought processes. These factors are also what have led early researchers such as Cesare Lombroso (in his Biological Positivism Theory) to believe that a person is born a criminal and physiologically different than a non-criminal. (Beccalossi, 2014) A person who is born with Bipolar Disorder, for instance, is genetically predisposed to rapidly fluctuating changes in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to complete routine tasks. This might affect their ability to obtain and maintain employment, establish meaningful relationships, remain self-controlled, and generally be a productive member of society if left untreated. When Bipolar Disorder is severe, mania can exist which makes the person extremely “up” almost as if they are high; their mood is elated, they have excessive energy, and they do not feel the need to sleep because everything is just so great and they want to accomplish everything on their to-do list all at once. (nimh.nih.gov, 2016) Conversely, they can also have depressive episodes where they socially withdraw due to intense feelings of sadness, hopelessness, or insecurity. Bipolar Disorder also predisposes a person to symptoms such as Psychosis, which could make them have hallucinations or delusions, and substance abuse.

A manic person who already struggles with impulsivity is hallucinating due to a particularly severe mood episode before beginning to drink alcohol. The next thing he knows, he is waking up in a police station holding cell completely unaware of how he got there. The hallucination during the manic episode had made him think that he was being pursued around town by a killer clown; this made him aggressive and someone called the police on him when he began to physically assault a hot dog vendor on the street. The alcohol lowered his inhibitions and he could no longer fight the urge to remain in his home.

Another thought process on crime causation are the sociological theories. The premise of these theories center around crime being committed as a result of societal influence(s.) These influences might come from the person’s friends, family members, school peers, coworkers, or members of their community. Society arguably has the most influence on children who are impressionable and have not fully developed their attitudes and perspective yet; a child who grew up around domestic violence, racism, sexism, bigotry…etc. does not know any better and is at an increased risk of adopting these beliefs himself. Hatred perpetuates hatred in a vicious cycle if the child does not recognize the error of their ways. Influence also comes from sources that society deem acceptable, or at least permissible, such as violent video games, racial profiling, objectification of women (or men) on the internet, and glamorized deviant lifestyles (such as being a member of a gang or mob) in the media.

Today’s society is more connected than ever before in the history of the world due to the inventions of telephones, radios, television, and the internet. It takes a matter of seconds to get information out to the public via social media, email, or other mass notification systems. Nearly everyone is addicted to the cell phone in their hand and will get a notification instantly that something is going on in the world. While the development of these technologies is highly advantageous for issuing weather updates and Amber alerts to spread awareness and keep the public safe, it is also a source of virally spread inaccurate or ambiguous information. Gone are the days of fact checking and researching a subject prior to reacting. Hateful words are exchanged, hysteria is spread, and before anyone knows it, people are rioting in the streets or taking it upon themselves to shoot up a public event. (Petersen, 2019)

Poverty within a society is perhaps one of the greatest sources of crime causation. Robert Merton’s more modern interpretation of Strain Theory states that when an individual faces a “strain” or challenge such as poverty, unemployment, an absent parent, or, social isolation, the likelihood of crime being committed dramatically increases. When an individual begins to feel negative emotions such as frustration or anger due to the strain they are currently encountering, they look to fill the need however they must to alleviate the negative emotions and improve their situation. (Scheuerman & Agnew, 2014) Ronald Akers’ interpretation of Social Learning Theory holds that committing a crime and continuing to engage in crime are learned behaviors from observations of the individuals a person associates with. A person’s associates reinforce the desire to commit crime, instruct them on perfecting their technique(s) to more effectively commit future crimes, and influence that person’s beliefs on crime. One of the most highly regarded sociological theories on crime causation is the Differential Association Theory by Edwin Sutherland which states that criminality is learned through interaction with others and observing their “specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations and attitudes.” (Cressey, 1954)

When considering an example of Social Learning Theory, I thought of foster children who are highly vulnerable to outside influence. They are scared, they don’t feel like they belong, and they feel uneasy about their new environment, which makes them easy prey for gang leaders to recruit them. Recruitment begins by convincing the child that their parents don’t care about them, but the gang they belong to does; the leaders and soldiers will promise loyalty, protection, and financial security in exchange for their service (and illegal actions.) (publicsafety.gc.ca, 2018) In order to ensure their success and increase the steady flow of dirty money within the organization, members will carefully mentor the child recruit and teach them things like how to steal a car, how to manipulate, and how to use weapons and weapons systems. Over time, the child’s innocence fades and they adopt the violent behaviors and attitudes of the gang. (LaMarco, 2019)

Criminals come in all shapes and sizes; a person can never know if the person they spoke to on the bus was just a kind soul that they met by chance encounter or if they were just preyed upon by a motivated predator seeking private information or looking for an opportunity to steal their wallet. Some criminals are highly intelligent, methodical, and use carefully crafted tactics. Others are pawns in a scheme that was planned by someone they work for or report to that doesn’t want to “get their hands dirty” by committing the crime themselves. Pawns are generally the criminals that have psychological deficits, low IQs, or just lack common sense and their ignorance is shamelessly taken advantage of. Crime is nearly twice as likely to be committed by less intelligent people than it is by intelligent people; why? Intelligent people are either gifted manipulators who convince witnesses or their victims not to report the crime, they do not get caught, or they follow the rules because the risk outweighs the reward of committing the crime. These are just a few of the psychological factors that might cause or affect criminal behavior.

Per the world-renowned Psychologist Sigmund Freud’s Psychodynamic (also known as the Psychoanalytic Theory) a person’s personality is shaped by their instinctual needs being met, understanding and following social norms, and formulating their own principles of morality and reasoning. When one or more of these three forces become imbalanced, internal conflict is inevitable which tends to result in delinquent behavior while the person is coping with the dilemma and sorting out their complex emotions. Another Psychologist named Erik Erikson later expanded upon Freud’s theory calling this internal turmoil as nothing more than an “identity crisis.” (Neese, 2019)

Ted Bundy was the first person I thought of when I thought of psychological factors of crime. He was highly intelligent, highly regarded, and reportedly very charming. He was a chameleon in every sense of the word because he blended in perfectly with society and nobody ever suspected a law student of being capable of brutal murder. (James, 2016)

As the reader can see, a simple explanation for why people commit crime does not exist. Each theory offers an equally complex explanation of why it could be happening, or what series of events might have led a person to succumb to a lifestyle of deviance. There are also far too many credible contributing factors to consider in each of the theories that explain crime causation to effectively discredit two theories and select only one. The simple answer is that crime is the result of a combination of a person’s genetic makeup (and predispositions,) their susceptibility to society’s influences, and their ability to discern right from wrong after logical deliberation.