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Essay / Discussion of whether a criminal is born or made
The statement "A criminal is 'born' and not made" suggests the idea that a person's birth decides whether they will be a criminal without any other decisive factor. This eliminates the idea that environmental factors have anything to do with a criminal's life course. In this essay there will be different views and opinions on crime from a Marxist and functionalist approach. It will look at the biological factors of crime and how they affect people, including different studies and then how these are demonstrated in the media. Crime is an action or activity that violates the law established by government legislation, it is the violation of any law that may result in injury to one or more members of the public. Committing a crime can result in two common forms of punishment, such as fines or jail time. Deviance can be behavior that does not violate an official law but is not considered normal. This is normally the case when a person deviates from the social norm, particularly in a social or sexual way, and will usually only result in disapproval from other members of society. . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayFirst, the approach of Marxism is a very early insight into crime; it was first developed by Bonger in 1916 and further developed by writers such as Chambliss. in 1975. This group of people believes that crime is a response to capitalism and that capitalism itself is a crime. Marxism states that crime is decided by the upper class to benefit them and maintain control of the majority. It refers to crime and deviance as a response to fight against the upper class. However, they say that ordinary people don't know that this is what they are doing. make. (Stephen Moore 2016). This view is a very biased look at the so-called class war in society, the idea that the upper class wants to take over the middle class and that the rules are different for each class. This implies the idea that crime is punished more harshly in the middle class while the upper class can commit more serious crimes with impunity. The next view is functionalism; it is a series of theories, none of which is supported by concrete evidence or research. They come from a man named Durkheim and he believes that crime is an essential part of society. He theorizes that crime is an important and healthy part of society and a driving force for social change. He states that the only time it becomes a problem for society is when crime rates are unusually high or too low. His theories suggest that high crime and deviance lead to chaos, while low crime and deviance lead to no change. Although this theory can be considered more accurate than the Marxism view, it is also very questionable in that not all crimes and deviance can be used for social change, like rape, you cannot can never justify this to a victim and murder is never an issue either. it's a good thing, so saying crime is healthy may be insensitive and unjustified. The biological approach to crime suggests that crime can be explained by looking at the genes, hormones and chemicals found in your body. The main assumptions of the biological approach are that a number of biological factors andBiochemicals that you inherit from birth can lead you to commit crime, such as genetics, neurotransmitters, and hormones (Newburn 2007). Criminality can be shared by genetics. Many studies have been conducted over the past decades to test the impact of biological factors in criminals. One of the best known is the study of twins. One of the most sophisticated versions of this study was carried out in Denmark by Karl. O Christiansen in 1974 took 3,586 pairs of twins between 1881 and 1910 and monitored them. Through his research, he found that 50% of MZ (monozygotic) twins would both be criminals if one of the twins participated in criminal activities, while in DZ (dizygotic) twins, only 20% would both participate to criminal activities.crime if the other twin was involved (Newburn 2007, page 135). While these results at first glance show some correlation with the argument that crime originated, there are also many variables that may conflict, such as the fact that they both grew up together, so their social life could have made them both criminals or that the influence of one twin could impact the other rather than just their genes. Christiansen himself admitted that this study was inconclusive because it was impossible to rule out other factors. Additionally, if the crime was 100% committed and caused by your biology, then these results should show that in the MZ twin, if one is criminal, both should still be criminal because they share the exact same genes. Another biological factor to consider is hormones. Testosterone has often been assumed to be a cause of higher aggression and violent activity, explaining why there are more male criminals than females. Research has found a correlation between high testosterone levels and violent criminal offenses. The research involved more than 4,000 military men and found that there is a link between testosterone and criminal offenses. However, when they controlled for this experiment and took social factors into account, the numbers decreased significantly. Other research has also linked abnormally high testosterone levels in male sex offenders, although other variables are often involved. These studies and research confirm that there is a relationship with certain biological factors in the likelihood of you becoming a criminal, but this does not prove that all criminals are made. As if that were the case, the results should show that social and environmental factors did it. doesn't change the likelihood of men with high testosterone becoming criminals, as if it was just in the hormone you couldn't change that socially. The news/media likes to portray the crime as mostly born and not committed in support of the above statement, most articles are all about chemical solutions such as these, two separate examples of chemical castration, a case of a man who had violent fantasies of rape and murder. volunteered to be chemically castrated and another one where they talk in Russia and elsewhere it is mandatory for convicted pedophiles to be chemically castrated, they do it because it reduces the chance of reoffending. The fact that it reduces the risk of recidivism shows a strong argument in support of the argument born from this debate, but it is not complete confirmation that it is all biological, as it only reduces the risk of recurrence without completely eradicating it, even after the.