There are two significant psychological theories that are utilized in the explanation for the behavior of criminals. The initial theory pays attention to intelligence while the second theory is focused on personality. Other psychological theories are also inclusive of biological theories as well as situational theories. The general link between personality and criminal behavior is that a criminal is likely to have a more impulsive and antisocial personality. When it comes to intelligence, the speculations were that criminals were likely to have low IQs.
The IQ test was invented in 1904 and was dubbed the Binet-Simon scale of intelligence. It later went through a series of modifications in relation to its utilization. Thought it was officially recognized as the Intelligence Quotient test in 1912. The studies on IQ were converted to English in the United States and utilized by scientists to determine whether low IQ was linked to criminals. These results bore positive results in this respect. Though later on after the world war, there were comparisons made between the IQ of the drafters and that of inmates. The results indicated minor differences between the intelligence of the soldiers and that of the inmates.
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Another approach on intelligence and criminal behavior is that it was linked to a combination of a low IQ and ethnicity. The studies indicated that the individuals that were likely to be delinquents were those of the minority community because the results indicated that there IQ was significantly lower than those of European-Americans. A final approach to IQ and criminal behavior was that the IQ of an individual was based on their environment. This was proven when children that initially scored low scores on the IQ test received specialized training for a period of a year and had better scores when they took the IQ test again.
Four different multidimensional models of personality and antisocial tendencies were utilized by Lynam and Miller to determine how personality traits were linked to criminal behavior. From these studies, two distinct dimensions were utilized in the definition of criminal like individuals. These distinctions were inclusive of consciousness and agreeableness. Low agreeableness was linked to being an offender because of the display of a variety of tendencies such as being jealous, spiteful, and self-centered. Other characteristics such as the lack of impulse control, motivation, and ambition would result from low consciousness thus a likely trait of an offender.
Modernization brought a variety of changes in relation to property crime and violent crime. Research indicated that violent crime decreased as property crime increased. Further research gave rise to the notion that violent crime was not linked to the changes to more modern and urban society as much as they impacted on property crime. Three points were utilized in the challenging of this theory, the first was that unless there were rapid changes within society then crime rates would not increase with every societal advancement. A second notion was that in instances of rapid growth it is an expectation that both thefts and homicides would increase. The final point was that the rate of crime rise would be directly proportional to the changes in society.
It is valid to link modernization to an increase in property crime. Though the distinction should be clear that it was not linked to social values because violent crime would have also increased in a number of ways. The explanation for the increase in property crime due to modernization was because of the increased opportunities for the committing of such crimes. For instance, individuals owned more property and on numerous occasions, they were not physically available to guard them and thus criminals took advantage of such openings.
