Untitled

Page 1

Do you believe that criminal behaviour is caused by biological factors,social learning theory or a mixture of the two?

Personally, I believe criminal behaviour is caused by a mixture of the two theories. I think this because on the one hand, it is a known fact that children imitate the behaviours of others; through this they learn to talk, read, write, cook, study etc. So it is very possible that criminal behaviour can be learnt through observation, imitation, reinforcements and punishments. Also, I believe this because in poor areas where opportunities are limited, rates of criminal behaviour are at their highest. This could be due to people committing crimes as they are bored or have little money and then their children following in their footsteps.

However I can see that nature (biological factors) also play a role in criminal behaviour. For instance the corpus callossum (bridge between hemispheres in brain, allowing irrational ) has shown to be less active in murderers with weaker communication between the two hemispheres. This could lead to crime as the mind does not have a 'conscience', advising the person to not commit the crime.

New Page