When we think about criminal behavior often times we think about why would someone does such a thing. There can be many different reasons as to why someone commits criminal behavior. Some of the “why’s” are biological, psychological, and environmental. All of these things can majorly affect how one thinks, feels, and acts. In this blog, I will talk about your brain’s chemical makeup, childhood experiences, and abusive households. All things that we should look at when studying criminal behavior. However, none of these factors are valid reasons for criminal behavior.
In 2018, the FBI reported an estimated 1.2 million violent crimes and about 7 million property crimes (Walden University). The chemical makeup in our brains is something we can’t choose. There are many people that would say oh they are just born that way and in some cases that’s true. You can’t choose the way your brain functions and your thoughts what you can control though is your actions. Some things that are affected by your brain’s chemical makeup are autonomic arousal, neurobiology, and neuroendocrine functioning (Walden University). Your brain’s chemical makeup seems to be a factor of criminal behavior that many people forget about. Now by all means I am not saying that this justifies their actions because it does not it is just something that we should look into more. I would love to see someone study a criminal’s brain.
Your childhood experiences can also be something that affects criminal behavior. Just like we don’t choose our chemical makeup we can not choose our parents or how we are raised. There are some children that live in abusive households where they don’t know if they are going to go a day without being emotionally, physically, or sexually abused. This can cause children to act out and turn to violent crimes. It can also cause them to turn to alcohol and drugs to cope with the abuse they have encountered. This affects their brains, it affects their thoughts and feelings. It will also cause them to irrationally think. A high-crime neighborhood usually comes into play here as well. When children are around violent crime and substance abuse 9 times out of 10 they are going to grow up to do the same.
Why people commit violent crimes is always something that has interested me because not everyone is the same so they will all have a different “why”. There will be many people that don’t want to bring up chemical brain makeup because we want to believe that people can control their own thoughts, feelings, and actions. I believe that is something important to think about when studying criminal behavior. The social environment is also very important because I child can only follow the adults that they’ve grown up around as well as the environment that they know.
Walden University. (2021, March 25). What-influences-criminal-behavior. Walden University. Retrieved October 14, 2021, from https://www.waldenu.edu/online-bachelors-programs/bs-in-criminal-justice/resource/what-influences-criminal-behavior.
There are many factors behind criminal behavior. I agree with your blog about brain chemistry, childhood experiences and abusive families. We have to admit that these factors greatly influence whether people commit crimes or not. Generally speaking, there are three factors that affect people’s criminal behavior: people’s own factors, the influence of social background, and the specific environment of the criminal behavior. I think if these three points can well summarize why people commit crimes and the reasons that may induce criminal behaviors. These three factors can also be explained by three different theories. In the book, these three factors correspond to biological theory, sociological theory, and social psychological theory. Biological theory generally holds that criminal behavior is the result of genetics, psychophysiology, neurological function, and biochemistry; Sociological theories try to explain the relationship between crime and various social factors, such as social class, poverty and social inequality; Social psychological theory tends to consider both personality and situational factors (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2017,p.291-292). Obviously, no single theory is sufficient to support the emergence of criminal acts. The emergence of a criminal act must be the result of a mixture of many complicated factors. There will be more and more factors to consider in future studies of criminal motives.
Reference
Gruman, J.A., Schneider, F.W., and Coutts, L.A. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
The reasonings behind criminal behavior can easily be ignored, so I agree that it is important to discuss the biological, psychological, and environmental factors that reside in people. A lot of these factors can be based on genetics, or they can be learned from observation. “Social learning theory (SLT) is a leading explanation of criminal behavior which maintains that crime is learned and more likely to occur when individuals differentially associate with people who are criminally involved, experience greater exposure to delinquent models, anticipate or actually receive more rewards and fewer punishments for crime, and have greater number of definitions favorable to crime” (Social Learning theory par 1). A lot of people simply take negative actions because someone else did, which is why criminal activity rates are high. As a society, we should all do our part and make good decisions to protect ourselves and the people surrounding us.
Reference:
Social Learning theory. Social Learning Theory – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/social-learning-theory.