Charles Manson and His Criminal Term Paper

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The death penalty with which he is threatened is meaningless because societal neglect and brutality had killed him years earlier -- indeed, well before he had ever known a real life (Bernstein, 1992, p. 174).

Charlie has never known a real life, and his lack of social understanding, and of society understanding his needs, has led to his life of crime and imprisonment.

Another theory of criminology includes the theory that poverty is also a cause of criminology in many people. Charlie's early life was certainly spent in economic and emotional crisis. His mother, when she did keep him, was a heavy drinker who made money from robberies and theft. When she abandoned him, as she often did, he had no way to take care of himself, and so he turned to crime for the money he needed. When he lived with relatives, he continued this early pattern. He was first caught stealing at the age of nine, so clearly he learned this behavior quite early. Poverty was certainly not the only cause of Charlie's life of crime, but it certainly does apply to his life and his life behind bars.

Finally, the social learning theory may ultimately be the most useful in understanding what made Charles Manson into the deviant social being he became. This theory essentially states that crime is a learned deviant behavior, and Charlie certainly had someone to learn from - his mother. She went to prison for robbery when he was only five and the rest is history. He lived with very restrictive relatives after she want to prison, and throughout his life he desperately wanted to be with his mother, even though she made it clear she did not want him. He learned from his mother to rob and steal, and continued the pattern throughout his life. It is almost as if he was looking for her approval of him through emulating her own dysfunctional lifestyle.

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Charlie could have just as easily learned the strict, religious behavior of many of his relatives. That he chose to emulate the one person in his life who simply did not care for him is interesting, and it helps prove the social learning theory of criminology. He learned from his worst social influence, rather than his best social influences, and this seems to be the case with many criminals. They learn negativity early, and use these behaviors to survive for the rest of their lives.

In conclusion, Charles Manson's life could become a textbook for many theories of criminology and crime causation. His early life was filled with stress, lack of love and a normal upbringing. He reacted to his environment by gaining attention any way he could - and it was usually illegal. He had no concept of social norms or behavior, and so, he made up his own rules to survive. As he grew older, his behavior became ingrained, and prison was the only constant in his unhappy life. He literally did not have the social skills to survive in any way except by illegal means. When he was released from prison in 1967 he said, "Oh, no, I can't go outside there...I knew that I couldn't adjust to that world, not after all my life had been spent locked up and where my mind was free. I was content to stay in the penitentiary, just to take my walks around the yard in the sunshine and to play my guitar...'" (Bardsley, 2002, p. 16). Sadly, Charlie seems to have known and understood himself better at that point than anyone else did. If he had been allowed to stay in prison, then the Tate and LaBianca murders would not have occurred. Today, Manson resides Corcoran State Prison in California. All of his requests for parole have been denied, and his next parole hearing will take place in 2007.....

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