Southern New Hampshire University Module Two Supplemental Resource Introducon What factors lead to criminal behavior? Most criminologists rst look at a person's childhood upbringing. There are mulple styles by which children can be raised: · Permissive: Parents who create lile structure or few rules for their child . Authoritarian: Parents who are extremely strict and do not allow their child to provide feedback regarding the rules · Neglecng: Parents who are dismissive and uninvolved in their child's life · Authoritave: Parents who create reasonable structure and are recepve to feedback from their child Peer relaons in childhood also play a signicant role in leading to criminal behavior. Children who are socially rejected and isolated from their peers (parcularly due to aggressive behaviors) are much more likely to develop the ansocial personality traits that oen lead to criminal behavior. In addion, the likelihood of criminal behavior is greatly increased when this rejected individual is inuenced by deviant social elements, such as gangs. Poverty frequently plays a role in inuencing criminal behavior as well. Those raised in impoverished circumstances have a much higher chance of comming not only a crime, but more oen a violent crime. There are also various biological factors that can contribute to criminal behavior. Studies on twins separated at birth have shown that there is a possible link between criminality and genecs. However, it is dicult to dierenate between what may be a genec predisposion and what may be the inuence of the environment in which each twin was raised. Birth complicaons, exposure to drugs in the womb, and poor nutrion can also inhibit or damage brain development and lead to developing ansocial behaviors. Evoluonary, Learning, and Situaonal Factors It has been noted that environmental condions can contribute to an individual acng out criminally. Many psychologists claim that the environmental inuences can not only be corrupve, they can create a toxic learning model for young people to emulate. Young people who are raised in the company of chronic criminals observe these ansocial behaviors being role-modeled and recreate them in their life as a way of adapng to their environment. There are also situaonal factors that play a role in criminal behavior or acts of violence. Crimes of frustraon occur when feelings of frustraon lead to overly aggressive behavior. An example of this is
Southern New Hampshire University the riots that took place at Woodstock in 1994, where many individuals became outraged at the high costs and poor condions; as a result, they ended up destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars in property. The most common example is a mob mentality created at occasions such as sporng events. This situaon is commonly linked to deindividuaon; an individual in a crowd loses a sense of personal responsibility and self-control as a result of being submerged within a group. Moral disengagement is another situaonal phenomenon where individuals do things against their personal moral beliefs at the request of an authority gure or under peer pressure. This is similar to the concept