Criminal behavior: causes, consequences, and theoretical perspectives

¶ … particular behaviors tend to cross into the realm of crime when they become obsessive and are actually acted upon. Apparently, many individuals within a society may actually think about committing crimes, but never take the actual physical steps to commit it in the flesh. Those who take precautionary measures and anticipate actions that represent the actual physical acting out of their thoughts is when behavior biases can become actual crime. One of the most appropriate schools of thought in criminology to explain this phenomenon is the theory of differential association. Originally described by Edwin Sutherland, differential association aims to explain deviance and how people go from thinking about criminal acts to actually committing criminal acts. Essentially, this theory believes that criminal acts and thoughts are learned through experience with crime. Criminal acts thus become a repercussion of intense motives, drives, and attitudes that have been learned by the individual through his or her experience within the society. Essentially, the individual lives in a world where they experience crime and thus they learn how to think and commit it from these experiences.

The media is very invasive in our everyday lives. It streams through 24/7 news programs and documentaries, making any potential bias within the reporting embedded in what society seems as truth. There are gender, racial, and socio-economic biases that are often seen in news reporting which shapes how people understand crime. For example, over-reporting of minority crimes and underreporting of racial majority crimes then makes many within society have the false assumption that minorities tend to commit more crimes. However, it is not just in the news that this bias is being constantly embedded into the mindset of society members. Hollywood movies and shows often play into the same types of stereotypes, which only reinforces the stereotypes that are presented in news bias. Essentially, Hollywood themes tend to reinforce such stereotypes because they are so prevalent within society. Thus, the media has a negative impact on how people view crime because it distorts who is the criminal and who is the victim in a way where fact and fiction both seem to support each other and the stereotype.

The Hedonistic Calculus is a theory which describes that criminal behavior often comes about as a result of someone trying to gain pleasure. However, to think that individuals or the state can control the amount of pain associated with such acts is not acceptable. Bentham believes that there are a number of variables associated with the amount of pleasure or pain that can result from an act. These are benchmarks that can help show how little control society has over individual pleasure and pain. The main variables are the intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity (nearness or remoteness), fecundity (probability it will lead to similar feelings later on), purity, and extent. The way these variables affect individuals is incredibly varied. It would be a mistake to think that using pain in terms of one variable over another will control the level of pain experienced by an individual, because not all individuals are the same. Many may not respond to some variables over others. Still, today's justice system often uses the notion that the degree of pain experienced by a criminal must match the level of pain that crime caused. This is the notion of lex talionis, which is the same idea as an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is the justification for capital murder, where the death penalty is used in cases where a criminal has committed murder him or herself. Yet, such a method may not always control the level of pain felt by the criminal, which may not be enough of a deterrent to stop him or her from committing a similar crime in the future.