Several theories have been put to explain how people learn criminal actions in society. Scholars in different disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and biological explanations have tried to explain the paradigms behind the existence of bad behaviour. For instance, Hood identified the bad seed theory as the appropriate paradigm for explaining the occurrence of crime among children. The central idea is that people become criminals because they were born criminals. Hood holds that criminal behavior is hereditary, indicating that children by deviant parents are likely to be criminals.
Bad seed theory indicates that individual propensity to bad actions can be identified by tracing the kinship of the person. In circumstances where the parents and grandparents are associated with criminal behaviour, there is a high propensity of the individual becoming criminals unless they are exposed to a high control activity (Brown, Esbensen, & Geis, 2012). As a result, both physical and biological traits play an essential role in determining the behavior that a person shows in society. Earnest Hood was the first scholar to create an idea of the importance of Biological traits in explaining the cause of unacceptable activities that people demonstrate. During this period, Hood was opposed to the importance of socio-cultural and environmental actions capable of shaping the actions of individuals. Since then, scholars such as William Sheldon have engaged in research tracking the behavior of people showing criminal activities through their generation. The eugenic approach to studying criminology revealed that criminology is passed from one generation to the other (Brown, Esbensen, & Geis, 2012). Parents with criminal traits pass such genes to their children, thus increasing the propensity to illegal activities. From this view, nature becomes the foundation of all criminal activities that people show in adulthood. If an individual is born in a family with a history of murder and alcohol, there is a high probability for engaging in criminal activities.
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The environment in which an individual grows also determines the propensity of a person to commit a crime. Though wrong seed theory plays an essential role in determining the conduct of a person, the relevance of this theory cannot be understood clearly without referring to the role of environment and nurture. For instance, an individual born from a family with a criminal history may be brought up to be a right person by changing the environment (Akers, 2013). This information indicates that exposing children to activities such as violent movies, videos, and music plays a significant role in determining actions in their adulthood. Alternatively, a person born by parents without criminal genes may also turn out to become violent and engage in illegal activities if they watch extreme movies and music. However, the effects of the environment depend on the brain functioning of an individual which depends on inherited traits. Consequently, bad seed theory remains the dominant theory for explaining criminal activities
In conclusion, bad seed theory reveals that people inherit genes that determine the conduct in adulthood. People tracing their generation to people with criminal behaviors are likely to demonstrate violent actions. However, criminology should be traced by considering different theories, such as environmental and sociological theories to get a complete picture of bad behavior. Combination of these paradigms minimizes the criticism with each of the approach. Bad seed theory plays an essential role in determining an individual’s exposure to environmental and social factors that may reshape the life of individuals. In most cases, people born by deviant parents extend such practices in different institutions such as school because they remain under the influence of genes inherited from parents.
References
Brown, S. E., Esbensen, F. A., & Geis, G. (2012). Criminology: Explaining crime and its context. Routledge.
Akers, R. L. (2013). Criminological theories: Introduction and evaluation. Routledge.
