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Authors: David Canter
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. is somebody born a criminal or does he become that way through having the skills, experience and opportunity?’
The causes of crime lie partly in inherited characteristics and partly in upbringing and circumstances. Both aspects of a person can combine together to produce an offender. For example, consider someone with little intellectual ability, for whom school is one big turn-off, who finds more interest and excitement in mixing with his older brothers who’re already committing crimes. Is it nature or nurture that makes him a criminal?
More likely, some general personality characteristics – such as the desire for excitement, impulsivity and low intelligence – open up the social pathways that can lead to becoming a criminal. But of course tendencies such as seeking excitement can also be channelled into more productive activities such as sports (although sporting activities also need self-discipline, hard work and so on). Similarly, plenty of capable, resourceful people grow up in a criminal culture and become gang bosses, when in a different situation and having alternatives they may well have become politicians (assuming you accept the wide difference between the two occupations!).Wanting money can play a part in someone being drawn into criminal activities. Crimes involving financial gain, especially theft, can be caused by a real financial need. However, the average burglar generally makes little money from a burglary (what he makes from selling stolen goods is invariably only a fraction of the real value of the items). Many thieves see burglary as an exciting opportunity and not a carefully considered way of making money.
Calculating the actual financial rewards of burglary is difficult. The opportunity exists for insurance claims being distorted by the victim of a burglary exaggerating their claim (crime feeding on crime).
In contrast to burglary, a carefully planned identity theft is more likely to attract a criminal looking to acquire a steady income. The criminal need have no direct contact with the victim, who’s more than likely in a different country. He may tell himself that everything’s covered by insurance and so cares nothing about the victim’s feelings.
Keeping bad company
Mixing with bad company can so easily lead a person off the straight and narrow. The interesting question, though, is what leads some people into bad company in the first place.
Of course, some people are ‘born’ into a life of crime. Family and close friends are criminals and so a person discovers how to be a criminal as he grows up, whatever his own psychological make-up.
Crime movies are fond of depicting the dark underworld of the criminal community and the difficulty of quitting and becoming a law-abiding citizen. A type of moral code exists within the criminal community, but the code is a distortion of what’s legally acceptable. The many countries in which corruption is endemic show clearly that what a community accepts can be at variance with what the law requires.
In some cases, certain aspects of personality may make a person more prone to accept the opportunities provided by criminal contacts. The person joins in because of the excitement or status a life of crime provides, when a more cautious person likely turns away. This is particularly true of young offenders as I show in Chapter 16.
Abusing substances
Alcoholism and drug abuse are problems closely associated with criminals and crime, although neither conditions are usually regarded as being a form of mental illness and are certainly not a defence in law. However, alcoholism and drug abuse can rapidly lead to crime through:
Needing a lot of money to feed the habit.
Making the addict more impulsive, violent or disinhibited.
Bringing addicts into contact with criminals for the supply of the substances.
How female offenders differ from males
Statistics record that men commit eight out of every
The causes of crime lie partly in inherited characteristics and partly in upbringing and circumstances. Both aspects of a person can combine together to produce an offender. For example, consider someone with little intellectual ability, for whom school is one big turn-off, who finds more interest and excitement in mixing with his older brothers who’re already committing crimes. Is it nature or nurture that makes him a criminal?
More likely, some general personality characteristics – such as the desire for excitement, impulsivity and low intelligence – open up the social pathways that can lead to becoming a criminal. But of course tendencies such as seeking excitement can also be channelled into more productive activities such as sports (although sporting activities also need self-discipline, hard work and so on). Similarly, plenty of capable, resourceful people grow up in a criminal culture and become gang bosses, when in a different situation and having alternatives they may well have become politicians (assuming you accept the wide difference between the two occupations!).Wanting money can play a part in someone being drawn into criminal activities. Crimes involving financial gain, especially theft, can be caused by a real financial need. However, the average burglar generally makes little money from a burglary (what he makes from selling stolen goods is invariably only a fraction of the real value of the items). Many thieves see burglary as an exciting opportunity and not a carefully considered way of making money.
Calculating the actual financial rewards of burglary is difficult. The opportunity exists for insurance claims being distorted by the victim of a burglary exaggerating their claim (crime feeding on crime).
In contrast to burglary, a carefully planned identity theft is more likely to attract a criminal looking to acquire a steady income. The criminal need have no direct contact with the victim, who’s more than likely in a different country. He may tell himself that everything’s covered by insurance and so cares nothing about the victim’s feelings.
Keeping bad company
Mixing with bad company can so easily lead a person off the straight and narrow. The interesting question, though, is what leads some people into bad company in the first place.
Of course, some people are ‘born’ into a life of crime. Family and close friends are criminals and so a person discovers how to be a criminal as he grows up, whatever his own psychological make-up.
Crime movies are fond of depicting the dark underworld of the criminal community and the difficulty of quitting and becoming a law-abiding citizen. A type of moral code exists within the criminal community, but the code is a distortion of what’s legally acceptable. The many countries in which corruption is endemic show clearly that what a community accepts can be at variance with what the law requires.
In some cases, certain aspects of personality may make a person more prone to accept the opportunities provided by criminal contacts. The person joins in because of the excitement or status a life of crime provides, when a more cautious person likely turns away. This is particularly true of young offenders as I show in Chapter 16.
Abusing substances
Alcoholism and drug abuse are problems closely associated with criminals and crime, although neither conditions are usually regarded as being a form of mental illness and are certainly not a defence in law. However, alcoholism and drug abuse can rapidly lead to crime through:
Needing a lot of money to feed the habit.
Making the addict more impulsive, violent or disinhibited.
Bringing addicts into contact with criminals for the supply of the substances.
How female offenders differ from males
Statistics record that men commit eight out of every
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