Understanding Criminal Behavior Research Paper

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particular behaviors tend to cross into the realm of crime when they become obsessive and are actually acted upon. Apparently, many individuals within a society may actually think about committing crimes, but never take the actual physical steps to commit it in the flesh. Those who take precautionary measures and anticipate actions that represent the actual physical acting out of their thoughts is when behavior biases can become actual crime. One of the most appropriate schools of thought in criminology to explain this phenomenon is the theory of differential association. Originally described by Edwin Sutherland, differential association aims to explain deviance and how people go from thinking about criminal acts to actually committing criminal acts. Essentially, this theory believes that criminal acts and thoughts are learned through experience with crime. Criminal acts thus become a repercussion of intense motives, drives, and attitudes that have been learned by the individual through his or her experience within the society.

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Essentially, the individual lives in a world where they experience crime and thus they learn how to think and commit it from these experiences.

The media is very invasive in our everyday lives. It streams through 24/7 news programs and documentaries, making any potential bias within the reporting embedded in what society seems as truth. There are gender, racial, and socio-economic biases that are often seen in news reporting which shapes how people understand crime. For example, over-reporting of minority crimes and underreporting of racial majority crimes then makes many within society have the false assumption that minorities tend to commit more crimes. However, it is not just in the news that this bias is being constantly embedded into the mindset of society members. Hollywood movies and shows often play into the same types of stereotypes, which only reinforces the stereotypes that are presented in news bias. Essentially, Hollywood themes tend to reinforce such stereotypes….....

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