Criminal behavior

Crime is a very complex issue and often difficult to under­stand. It easy to understand a criminal fact profit; a man wants something, so he takes it. The real question is, why did one man steal and not the other? Why do some people in a society commit: crimes and not others? What makes a criminal? Was it the way they were raised, or was it predestined by birth? There are many theories that offer explanations of criminal behavior. First we must define what a law is and from where laws originate.

Law may be defined as а legal written prohibition of some act or utterance or a legal written requirement that some act or utterance be performed. The goal of the law is to regulate people so that they can live in the society without chaos and under the best possible circumstances.

Although social groups vary in the degree of tolerance, they demand conformity to some norms. In the absence of such demands, groups would not exist because of resulting anarchy. The mechanisms used to demand conformity to the norms (rules/laws) occur in the fol­lowing manner:

- Positive sanctions: medal, prizes, merits, money, etc.

- Negative sanctions: punishments (fines, demerits, imprisonment).

We can say that some behavior is criminal only because it is defined as criminal by the government, even though the behavior is not harmful to the society in general, but is viewed by the majority as unacceptable or bad behaviour.

Crime may be defined as an act committed in violation of a pub­lic law forbidding or commanding it. Society outlaws certain acts for a number of reasons, to protect life and property, protect individual freedoms, preserve the system of government, maintain the mo­rality of the community.

Criminal behavior may be defined as the actions or in actions of individual or a group which are harmful to law. Criminal behavior generally requires deliberate criminal intention.

Abnormal behavior is not necessarily criminal, however, crimi­nal behavior is always outside the range of socially accepted behavior.

Criminal behavior reasoning

There are as many reasons for criminal behavior as there are people. Scientists have been trying to answer the question of why people become criminals for over 2,000 years. We will look at seven of the major theories which have been developed to explain why people become criminals. It is easy to see that the reasons for criminal behavior are very complex.

Each society determines what behavior will not be allowed. Laws are made to control the behavior of members of that society and the police are hired to enforce those laws. An act is a crime because the law says that the act is a crime. A person who breaks society’s laws is labeled a criminal and punished as such.

Laws are made because the people in power need to restrict the acts of the members of society. Criminal behavior theories are often used by lawmakers consciously or subconsciously as a model to reduce crime. Many of our ideas about crime and punishment result from these theories. By understanding criminal behavior, police officers can better understand the criminal justice system.

Seven theories of possible causes of criminal behavior include:

The spiritualism theory which stressed the conflict between good and evil and believed that devil forced the individual to commit the crime.

The classical school theory which was established by an Italian ma­thematician and economist Marchese de Beccaria, who believed in "Free Will", i.e. an individual knew what he wanted to do and his behavior was guided by hedonism, pleasure or pain principle.

The conflict theory which focus attention on struggles between indi­viduals and groups. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels saw the problem of crime in economics and believed that capitalism caused crimes.

The labeling theory which says that the state defines what behavior is against the law and offenders are labeled as criminals by the criminal justice system. It results for them in: loss of social status, loss of respect, difficulty to get good employment. In other words labeling and treating lawbreakers as criminals create the very behavior the state is trying to prevent.

The control theory which implies that social order is maintained because parents, schools, teachers, churches, and other social authorities teach conformity to the children. However conform cannot be taken for granted and nonconformity, such as crime, is to be expected when the social controls are not effective.

The genetic theory which believes that individual’s chromosomes may predestine him to criminal behavior. Some men are born with an extra "Y" chromosome which makes them more likely to be convicted of crimes.

Mental ilness theory stating that some forms of mental ilnesses may contribute to criminal behavior, among which: pyromania, kleptomania, sociopath (drug and alcohol abusers, pathological liars, serial kil­lers etc).