Nurture
- It is a fact that sensory areas of the brain can only develop when the environment contains sensory stimuli
- Committing a crime is not something a person is born knowing to do
- Based on the assumption that the positive or negative effects of nurture from a parent will directly affect the positive or negatives attitude displayed by the child.
- People tend to think that parents, whether biological or psychological, tend to be the biggest influence on the development of a child
- This is not so. It is in fact peers, people outside the family, who do
- Parenting effects are limited to the home. How kids are taught at home does not significantly affect the way the child acts at school, the mall, or with friends
- The environment can influence the development of behavior only in people who live in some kind of environment. It can also alter heritabilities.
Reasons for Criminal activity
- Trait theory: a process of brutalization by parents or peers
- Control Theory: looks at factors to explain why people do not become criminals. They look at these four main characteristics: “attachment to others”, “belief in moral validity of rules”, “commitment to achievement” and “involvement in conventional activities”.
- Symbolic interactionism: focused on the relationship between the powerful state, media, and conservative ruling elite on the one hand, and the less powerful groups on the other.
- Rational choice: the person rationally see that the benefits of their crime
- Treatment: rehabilitate one’s self and/ or participating in other exciting occupations
Nature
- Cesare Lombroso– “Father of Modern Criminology”
- Asserted that criminality was inherited, and that someone “born criminal”‘ could be identified by physical defects.
- He attempted to construct a purported scientific methodology in order to predict criminal behaviour and isolate individuals capable of the most violent types of criminal activity.
- Violence Gene- XYY genotype was believed by many to be correlated with aggression.
- Serotonin 5-HT/ Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA) has been linked to increased male aggression
- Schizophrenics with specific dementia that relate to sexual paranoia or criminal paranoia inevitability end up misinterpreting situations such as sexual consent or accidentally aggression/ no aggression.
- Psychopaths meet characteristics on Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist: Aggressive narcissism: superficial charm, Pathological lying, Lack of remorse or guilt etc. Socially deviant lifestyle: Parasitic lifestyle, Poor behavioural, control Impulsivity, Early behaviour problems etc.
- Sociopaths/ (ASPD) have a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. Deceit and manipulation are considered essential features of the disorders.
- MacDonald Triad: Chronic Bedwetting, Fire setting, Torturing small animals
Contact Info: Toronto Psychological Series. 4920 Dundas St. West, Suite 205 Etobicoke, ON, CANADA, M9A 1B7. 416-531-0727
