Biological Theories of Crime Essay

Total Length: 1593 words ( 5 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 6

Page 1 of 5

.....biological well-being and the features of the environment and how these affect a person's behavior and criminal tendencies is made clear by biological theories. Research has proved that the common traits and actions seen in criminals like delusion, brutality, loneliness and spontaneity are a function of several biological features such as physical problems, blood glucose levels and eating habits, external head damage, mental function and makeup, heredity, body systems and impaired mental function. The supporters of this theory believe that the biological insight into conventional actions of criminal minds give more effective tools, mechanisms, beliefs and examples which can work smoothly with the normal anticrime systems in keeping up their work quality.



The basic belief of the study targeted at biological makeup and criminality is that there is a connection between delusion, brutality, loneliness and spontaneity and crime. Several studies apply their own developed methods and parameters, a trend which complicates the drawing of inferences from their work. Due to the societal origins of crime, the identified links of biological make up with crime were derived from studies on the biological causes of actions and characteristics which are common to criminals such as delusion, brutality, spontaneity and others. As the number of studies covering this area is quite enormous, this paper only considered a selected group and put emphasis on the intriguing discoveries, theories and beliefs that are currently in use in criminology studies (Helfgott 50).



Question 2



The biological hypotheses claim that criminal tendencies in a person are due to one or several biological faults in the person's biological composition. The research by Raine postulates that these faults could be hereditary, cognitive (possibly due to trauma) or due to problems in their nerve function, in some cases, it could be a combination of two or all of the above (E-Criminal Psychology para 20).



Question 3



Severally, the actions and attitude of humans have been seen as a factor of their experiences and genetic build; on the other hand, the ways in which genetic modification affect one's behavior is still a hot topic of debate. Most times, this topic causes serious arguments with some even getting emotional as each try to shape the link between criminal tendencies.
This unwillingness to factor in genetic influences on criminality is subtly caused by political benefits, nonetheless, it also brings our attention to the fact that this research, formerly, was carried out using twins as the case studies, and expectedly, the results from this were often unaccepted due to this method.



However, they argued that the experiences of identical twins are quite similar when compared to that of non-identical twins. They stated that whatever similarity existed between them could be as a result of their identical life experience. Nonetheless, there remains an unwillingness to use the inferences derived from the genetic study of twins. Instead it is generally agreed that studying adopted children is a more preferable option due to the ease of studying external and genetic influences separately. A high percentage of criminal adopted children who have criminal real fathers (based on the fixed parameters) will prove that genetics has an effect on criminality. Another backing of this method is the fact that in most cases, the adopted children have no idea of their real parents and some don't even know they were adopted (MacLaughlin, John and Gordon 89)



Question 4



Sociobiology refers to the interpretation of social conduct using the evolutionary hypothesis (Edward O. Wilson). The basis of sociobiology is the assumption that a number of attitudes are passed on from the preceding generation and is subject to influences from natural selection. This concept believes that social conduct has changed over the years, in a similar way to how bodily features have changes. In most cases, animals will look for and develop themselves following behavior that benefit them in the long-term and this leads to the creation of complicated social traditions and several others (Crossman para 1-3).



Question 5



In the criminal world, "constitutional" could mean a number of things. It mostly means the bodily buildup of the subject i.e. body frame and muscular status or a number of uncommon body characteristics (stigmata). In a few cases, it….....

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Works Cited

"Buck v. Bell." West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. 2008. The Gale Group 25 May. 2017 http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Buck+v.+Bell

Beaver, Kevin M, James C. Barnes, and Brian B. Boutwell. The Nurture Versus Biosocial Debate in Criminology: On the Origins of Criminal Behavior and Criminality. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2015. Print.

Crossman, Ashley. "What is Sociobiology?" ThoughtCo. N.p., 02 Mar. 2017. Web. 25 May 2017.

Eysenck, Hans J, and Gisli H. Gudjonsson. The Causes and Cures of Criminality. Boston, MA: Springer US, 1989. Internet resource.

E-Criminal Psychology. "Criminal Behavior." Criminal Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2017.

Ford, Robert. "Biological and Psychological Theories of Crime." Nature of Crime. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2017.

Helfgott, Jacqueline B. Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2008. Print.

MacLaughlin, Eugene, John Muncie, and Gordon Hughes. Criminological perspectives: essential readings. London: SAGE, 2013. Print.

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