The developmental theory is one of the more controversial theories in criminology, whether a person can be born criminal is one of the more debated questions of time. The theory itself can not truly answer that. What this theory can do well is exemplify the route, or give reasons as to how criminal behavior, actions come about in humans. Events that happen early on in someone’s life are likely to help shape events that may happen later on. Human personality traits and behavioral patterns progress through a developmental process that continues to unravel from birth into the rest of ones life (Whitbourne). The developmental theory itself consists of multiple pieces from other theories such as biological, social, and psychological theories ultimately connecting to violent, property, white collar, and organized crimes. It takes a lot of different factors, views and points to truly understand the development of a human alone, but to understand the development of criminality in someone can get very complex.
Originally theorists at first had believed if you were criminal it is because you were simply born that way and considered you as a sinner. This was the Demonological theory which dominated the early explanations of crime in the 18th century (Hagan Ch5). Early theorist Cesare Beccaria’s primary goal was not to understand crime and criminals but to reform criminal law and punishment (Hagan Ch5). After that there was the Neoclassical theories, specifically Cornish & Clarke who came up with the Rational Choice Theory in 1986. They believed criminal activity was a choice made based on costs, benefits, and opportunities. Which in some cases may be true but for all that is certainly not the case, for much of its key criticism falls on the fact most crimes are not carefully planned if planned at all.
The development theory heavily relates to crime in general being that it is the process of what creates the criminal behavior in a human. When it comes to violent crime, specifically murder, in serial killers there was usually a past, or drastic event or change in their life that ended up resulting in their brain working differently from the normal person. To whereas they may have a lack of empathy, and or emotion with many other interpersonal self-conflicting issues resulting in them finding this relief, satisfaction, joy or reason for killing others. It is rare for people to kill multiple times for no reason, it is also not sane. Looking at typologies of serial killers by Holmes and DeBurger’s taxonomy, visionary killers hear voices and have visions, hedonistic killers murder for their own pleasure, power seekers find satisfaction or joy in feeling power or control over others violently. These are direct links to the development of feelings, thoughts and character with traits of mental illness. Howard Kaplan’s self-derogation theory of delinquency asserts people who are ridiculed by their peers suffer a loss of self-esteem, assess themselves poorly, and abandon the motivation to conform (Hagan Ch7). The world has seen this fairly often especially in the development of, for example, a school shooter, nearly three-quarters of school shooters had been bullied or harassed at school (Chatterjee). They find it hard to conform, feels this is what they must do, self esteem at an all time low and decide violence is their only answer. Also at a young age when children are antisocial, or struggle to develop good social skills this can lead to violent behavior as well. Social disorganization theory depicts social change, social conflict, and lack of social consensus as the root causes of criminal behavior, deviance tying it back to the developmental theory (Hagan Ch7). Or if the child isn’t around a good environment with responsible decent people to look up too they may form their behavior from what they see them do. Banduras Modeling Theory asserts that people learn to behave by modeling themselves after others who they had the opportunity to observe (Hagan Ch6).
Organized crime are the unlawful activities of the members of a highly organized, disciplined association engaged in supplying illegal goods and services, including gambling, prostitution, loan-sharking, narcotics, and labor racketeering (Hagan Ch13). It has largely been the domain of Italian Americans for the last half century, other immigrant families as well looking to make a lot of money, illegally. It connects to the developmental theory going into understanding why the organized group is committing these criminal acts, what brought them to this stage of work. In this case of organized crime, they do it for money, wealth. The motive, reason for it happening is for money and financial goals, not too different from that of white collar crime. While it also has slim chance of being biological, since organized crime is conducted mostly by families there could be a stretch made relating modern day mobs, mafias to the Juke and Kalliak family. Families of criminals breaking many laws for pleasure and wealth. A better route would be the psychological warfare it causes to its own members, born into being taught how to be in the “family business”, it can be pressuring and the person believes they have to because it is their family and this is what they have observed and been taught since a young age. Tying back into the socialization theory, the youth of the family only look up to their family members who are involved in the organized crime, in result gives high probability they will follow in their footsteps, early development of the next generation.
The direct link to property crime is not as strong, going back to the theory of crime being based off of pleasure and opportunity, this can be a link to occasional offenders, those who offend purely based off opportunity. Arson, setting fires also could be related to the developmental theory but more so on the psychological side finding a sort of satisfaction or comfort in it. Shoplifting is seen as a gateway crime ultimately leading to more serious and extreme crimes. Herbert Edelhertz defined white collar crime as any illegal act or series of illegal acts committed by nonphysical means and by concealment or guile, to obtain money or property, to avoid the payment or loss of money or property, or to obtain business or personal advantages (Hagan Ch11). The connection here is the greed, obsession with wealth and materialism. This is a crime that could be developed through other smaller crimes leading up to the larger white collar crime incident. Easily could be linked to a psychological need or want for money, money disorders.
Psychological and biological theories are usually very close in sync, the brain is the organ of the mind and the locus of the personality, while basic determinants of human behavior are genetically based or inherited (Hagan Ch6). Psychological theories of crime state that criminal behavior is the result of individual differences in thinking processes. There are a countless number of various psychological theories. Essentially the main idea in most believe it is the thoughts and feelings of the person that ultimately lead to the criminal acts, or behavior. There are three main theories that play a key role into the overall gist of the psychological theory as a whole.
The first is psychodynamic theory, which is centered on the notion that an individual’s early childhood experience influences his or her likelihood for committing future crimes. The second is behavioral theory. Behavioral theorists have expanded the work of Gabriel Tarde through behavior modeling and social learning. The third is cognitive theory, the major premise of which suggests that an individual’s perception and how it is manifested (Jacoby, 2004) affect his or her potential to commit crime (CrimJust). Psychological and biological factors are significantly close in their contribution to crime and the developmental theory entirely. The biological theory is essentially the belief that most behavior, actions are the result of biological propensities inherited from more primitive developmental stages. This immediately has a crucial impact making it a factor within the developmental theory. Referring back to the question whether a person can be born criminal, each person has different biological features that help contribute to their behavior and actions. People with mental illness are arrested and sent to prison in disproportionate numbers, these individuals have been arrested for petty crimes such as jaywalking or wandering behavior, for example trespassing, as a preventive law and order measure. Nearly 28 percent of Connecticut residents treated for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder had been arrested or detained (Ghiasi). While a study conducted by the Social Defense System in Belgium looked at 99 cases of those who had committed murder, and or attempted murder stated that 59.6% of them suffered from some form of mental illness (Pera). Most of these mental illnesses are genetically passed down or either biologically born with, it is not the persons fault for criminal behavior, activity but the systems failure to be more aware and trained to handle a situation better and also ensure people with these issues are looked after and given help when needed. Interplay among heredity, biology, and the social environment also must be considered (Hagan Ch7).
Psychologist William Sheldon concluded that different body types were indicative of criminal behavior, actions (Hagan Ch6). Such as endomorphs being heavy set, mesomorphs being athletic and strong, with ectomorphs being thin and fragile. There are also criminal families such as the Juke and Kallikak family who have generations, lineages of their members committing crimes ranging across nearly all levels (Dugdale). Genetics definitely plays strong role in the biological theory resulting in its overall impact to not only the developmental theory but also all forms of crime. Due to these biological factors they can find themselves ending up committing violent, and property crimes with possible spontaneous behaviors that could result in white collar, and organized crime being that mental illness is still a fragile topic and at times can not be so predictable. From the biological and psychological mental aspect to the physical aspect this theory directly links to the development of criminal behavior and actions while finding itself getting into these types of crimes.
The developmental theory is a mix of biological, and psychological factors that contribute heavily to the early development of a persons criminal behavior and or activity. Through these means the developmental theory connects to violent crime in cases of murder, mass murder, serial killings through its factors of mental illness, biological and psychological theories. Connects to property crime in cases of shoplifting, arson, and burglary and the development of peoples want for money and or deeper underlying psychological issues. Connects to white collar crime and organized crime in revealing the development of the illegal business, with the root need of financial gains other than greed and wealth. How the developmental theory could help prevent these criminal actions, behaviors is by bringing about more awareness to mental health, especially for troubled youth.
Tying into the socialization theory of how who they socialize or associate with form their personality and behavior, youth hanging with the wrong group of people easily will have that impact. Labeling youth as criminals ,felons or bad kids does not help either, labeling people not only hurt them in the real word when trying to get into a school or apply for a job but it has a mental impact that hurts a persons self esteem. There should be more support for young troubled people other than juvy or expulsion from school, but possibly even a center or separate school filled with therapists and counselors for these students. Even middle aged people can go through this developmental process when a significant chance takes part in their life, there should be more affordable access to therapists and medical attention. A commonly used method by detectives when trying to catch a criminal is by creating a profile, and in that profile you want to get the best idea or shape of who the person is and why they commit the criminal acts they have. In a profile they essentially map out how it all started, developmental stages, reasons for why they commit these actions with these behaviors in the first place and when they create a good profile they are more likely to stop the criminal and apprehend them. The developmental theory is crucial to criminal behavior and action and also highly used when attempting to get inside the mind and or understand the thought process of criminal behavior, actions.
Using the developmental theory to prevent crime allows for a more in depth realization and understanding of deviance in humans. By seeing what connected most murderers early on from psychological traits to biological. Prevent school shootings by adding not more security guards but more therapists that students can easily access, notify staff and students to help and recommend someone to therapy or a mental health expert if they feel the person needs it. If noticing your child or a young student in class dissocializes oneself try and get them involved, figure out what is keeping them secluded. A lot of criminal behavior and action roots from a young age, they need more accessible therapists and mental health experts too. Not saying this will solve all crime but it will have a large impact. Property crime is bad but not as serious as the others, but some are seen as gateway crimes such as shoplifting and can be seen as the door to more dangerous acts of criminal behavior. What the developmental theory does to help prevent property crimes is by helping agents or detectives build profiles (Winerman) and figure out why things are being stolen, usually money reasons in this situation, and apprehend the criminal. Owners of vehicles, homes etc must take a good amount of accountability as well regarding property crimes. It is their property therefore it is their job to protect it and keep it secure, yes there are bad people who will want to take or steal their things but what they can do is get a home security system with cameras and a sign in the front yard, automatic lights outside, these things do work and make an impact on amount of property crime (Rakoczy). In cases of Arson there are deeper rooted psychological issues that must be understood and figured out, usually injured in fire at a young age or traumatized by it, someone they knew died in a fire etc. When it comes to white collar crime, when you have a suspect you can look at the development of their financials and if anything drastic or expensive recently happened in their life. White collar crime is the obsession of wealth, greed and materialism. People steal money for countless things and have their own financial wishes and different scenarios of who needs what. What the developmental theory does in stopping this is playing in its role of getting into the root causes of how it all started. What made the criminal develop into this sort of behavior, and psychological state. Regarding organized crime it is essentially nearly the same, these people will commit illegal acts for money, they have a great want for financial gain.
The developmental theory is highly controversial, lots of different beliefs of many people. Ultimately it is simply human personality traits and behavioral patterns that progress through a developmental process that continues to unravel from birth into the rest of ones life consisting of multiple pieces from other theories such as biological, social, and psychological theories connecting to violent, property, white collar, and organized crimes. Its key job in helping stop these crimes is within its use of profiling, creating a background of criminal behavior, and actions and getting to the root causes of how the criminal began committing their acts and the main reasons as to why and how they continued to develop and exhibit criminal act and behavior.
Works Cited
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