Criminal Psychology
What influence does the family have upon the development of criminal behaviour? Discuss with reference to relevant psychological theories of crime.
The family is known as the primary source of learning, it has a huge influence in regards to the person you will ultimately be including your personality and many other characteristics which helps make you the person you are alongside other external factors. The term ‘social learning’ reflects the theory’s strong assumption that we learn primarily by observing and listening to people around us - the social environment. Infact, social learning theorists believe that the social environment is the most important factor in the acquisition of most human behaviour. Suggesting that although the family is primarily our first point of reference, we learn things through other social sources. Criminal psychology looks for the causes of crime in the complex mix, or interaction, of various childhoods cognitive deficits (e.g., low IQ, attention deficit disorder, conduct problems, cognitive "scripts") with various situational, or contextual, handicaps (e.g., school failure, peer rejection, parental abuse or neglect, and gender/ethnic discrimination). In this essay I will find a link to the statement asking about the influences, if there is any of the family having upon criminal behaviour. It will argue whether factors surrounding the family such as alcohol, drug or physical abuse contribute to any person committing criminal offences or whether people commit crimes because of other factors such as social, economical, environmental or biological factors or even a case of free will.
How are criminals made? The investigations, dating back to the early part of the twentieth century with Dugdale (1910- The Jukes, New York. Putnam) Through the examinations of the belief that criminals just were criminals because of their family traits, chromosomes and DNA, environmental factors, economics through to the current belief that criminals...
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