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Criminal Behavior
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What is Criminal Behavior?

Criminal behavior sits at the intersection of sociology, psychology, law, and public policy, making it a central subject in criminology courses, criminal justice programs, and social science curricula. The topic asks fundamental questions about why individuals commit crimes, how society responds, and what systemic forces shape patterns of criminality. Its academic appeal lies in the tension between individual agency and structural influence — whether criminal acts stem from personal choices, learned behaviors, psychological conditions, or broader social inequalities. Because it touches nearly every corner of social life, instructors assign essays on criminal behavior across introductory and advanced coursework alike.

The papers archived on this topic reflect a wide range of analytical approaches. Many adopt a theoretical lens, comparing frameworks such as labeling theory, conflict theory, and radical theory to explain criminality. Others focus on specific populations, particularly juveniles, examining recidivism, the juvenile court system, and how juvenile justice compares to adult justice. Additional papers take policy and systems perspectives, treating criminal justice as a filtering process and analyzing how evidence shapes institutional decisions. Some essays engage victimology, shifting focus from offenders to those harmed by crime, while others survey the broader field of criminology and its theoretical foundations.

A strong essay on criminal behavior begins with a clearly scoped thesis — arguing for a specific explanation of criminality rather than summarizing every theory in the field. Evidence drawn from case studies, sociological research, and documented patterns of crime carries the most weight. Writers should connect individual behavior to broader social context wherever possible. The most common pitfall is treating criminal behavior as a single unified phenomenon; effective essays acknowledge that different types of crimes and different populations often require distinct explanatory frameworks.

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Paper Undergraduate

Security assessment and design for RAI dialysis chain

Businesses today are faced with a range of security challenges unlike any of those that their predecessors have ever faced. Among these different challenges are the physical protection of the building and the protection of data and intellectual property. This may sound like a relatively easy mission; however, each of these two types of security has a number of different elements to it, and the interplay of these elements can make the process of keeping a company or organization secure. For example, in terms of keeping a building physically safe, a security plan must cover the physical building itself, any equipment or supplies inside the building secure, and the staff and any visitors to the building must also be kept safe. (Moreover, the staff and visitors must feel that they are being kept safe, which appearance can be even more difficult than actually keeping individuals safe.) In terms of keeping data safe, a security system must include everything from appropriate encryption policies, password protocols, and staff training on what information must remain within the confines of the business. This last provision must also include instructions on which members of the staff have access to what information. The following security assessment and design has been designed for RAI, which is a for-profit kidney dialysis chain. The chain is currently expanding from three offices to eight sites (a process that should take about 18 months). As a part of this expansion, the company CEO has asked for a complete overview of its security procedures. This review is based on the following definition of providing security, which includes serious consideration of the nuts and bolts of security while also focusing on the too-often-neglected factors of organizational structure. This definition of security can be phrased as the "intentional actions whose purpose is to provide guarantees of safety to subjects, both in the present and in the future'

Research Paper Undergraduate

Defense and prosecution perspectives on fifth-degree theft charges

Although this individual has committed several different crimes, this paper will focus only on the theft in the fifth degree charge. Theft occurs when someone takes something belonging to another person, without their…

Paper Undergraduate

Sampson and Laub's life-course theory and the gender gap in crime

Sampson and Laub's Life-course theory suggests that social bonds deter crime, especially when those bonds involve a high degree of personal investment. For example, an individual who is heavily involved in workplace…

Research Paper Doctorate

Early alcohol use and adolescent problem behaviors: A longitudinal study

When studying violence by students in the school system, researchers recognize that the trait of aggression normally share other similar characteristics as well, such as low self-esteem and violence in their homes.

Paper Undergraduate

Poverty, strain theory, and crime: Merton's analysis of social opportunity

Robert Merton states that it is not obvious that poverty can induce a high rate of criminal behaviour. The role of poverty in his theory is that poverty deprives people of the good life where they will not have to miss anything that they desire. Social disorganization theory directly links crime rate levels to ecological characteristics of a neighbourhood. Strain theory states that there will emerge a strain or pressure when there are discrepancies between culturally defined goals and the legal/institutionalised means to achieve this goal

Essay Doctorate

Rational choice theory and psychological explanations of criminal behavior

This is a five page paper about a theory of crime, and the theory selected is rational choice theory. Rational choice theory is a psychological theory of crime. It is based on utilitarian philosophy and suggests that people make a rational choice to commit a crime, based on a cost-benefits analysis. Rational choice theory of crime is useful when explaining white collar crime and other crimes too.

Paper Doctorate

The criminal mind: examining scientific evidence and psychological theory

There have been many times through history that the population has experienced the wrath of criminals on their daily lives- whether it be on the news, in a magazine or being pick pocketed in the subway, criminal acts…

Research Paper Undergraduate

Heredity and environment in Dugdale's study of the Jukes family

The purpose of the study of the Jukes family is to describe the inherited nature of criminal behavior and to determine whether the familial nature of criminality is due to heredity or environment, which Dugdale does by…

Paper Undergraduate

A social history profile of Richard Kuklinski

This paper is a social history profile of Richard Kuklinski, a convicted mafia hitman. It examines his family, educational, and legal history in order to determine whether he suffers from a mental illness. The paper concludes with a determination that Kuklinski may have anti-social personality disorder, and with a non-optimistic treatment plan based on low success rates for treatment in psychopaths.

Research Paper Undergraduate

Challenging traditional criminology: White collar crime and social class theory

The central aim of the author's intent in this chapter is to illustrate the reasons why traditional theories concerning the relationship between lower social classes and crime are incorrect.

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