The study of criminal behaviors is a complex and wide field. Different studies have proposed various causes of criminal behavior but so far, no consensus has been arrived to as to what exactly makes individuals to engage in criminal activities. The study of criminal behavior is a concept that interweaves sociological, biological, and psychological theories. Biological theories of crime center on the biochemical, genetic, and neurological factors that can influence criminal behavior. These paradigms also look at the complex association between a person’s biology and the wide span of environmental or social variables that are examined by sociological theories ( Hirtenlehner & Kunz, 2016) . Psychological theories examine two types of crime factors that focus on people and their social environment. The first factor is family influences, like broken homes, poor upbringing, and criminal parents. Second are individual factors, like intelligence, cognitive processes, and personality. An elaborate psychological paradigm discusses the importance of decision-making, learning, inhibiting, and motivational processes and the need to interweave biological,, family, peer, neighborhood, and school factors ( Bruinsma, 2016). Sociological theories look at crime as irrational behavior. The standard sociological theory suggests that people choose between legal behavior and criminal behavior based on a number of variables, including the risk of being caught and convicted. Whereas the sociological theory of crime causation may not necessarily have a multidisciplinary approach, this approach is implied in the wide selection of variables that sociologists examine like intelligence, age, income, and the effect of peer pressure. In general, the theory of crime causation is made up of concepts from various disciplines like biology, sociology, and psychology. The intersection of these theories attempt to explain why individuals resort to crime. As the concept continues to evolve, it is likely that other theories from different disciplines will be used to explain crime causation.
References
Bruinsma, G. (2016). Proliferation of crime causation theories in an era of fragmentation: Reflections on the current state of criminological theory. European Journal of Criminology , 13 (6), 659-676.
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Hirtenlehner, H., & Kunz, F. (2016). The interaction between self-control and morality in crime causation among older adults. European Journal of Criminology , 13 (3), 393-409.
