NCJ Number
137864
Journal
EuroCriminology Volume: 4 Dated: (1992) Pages: 5-13
Date Published
1992
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The criminal is a person whose life and identity are governed by the reality of crime, and the experience of being arrested and labeled as a criminal is important in evaluating crime causal theories.
Abstract
Both classic and positivistic schools of thought still influence criminological thinking, even though empirical research has proven their concepts to be essentially false. Psychopathology stresses that criminal behavior develops due to personality disturbances, while the multiple factor approach holds that criminals and noncriminals are distinguished by physical, mental, and social characteristics. According to Marx and Engels, however, social and economic structures are crucial elements on the causation of criminality. Together with alterations of societal and economic conditions, the mount and forms of criminality change. Examples of this are industrialization, urbanization, and the social mobility of modern capitalist and socialist societies. The economic and cultural development of a society influences social consciousness which, in turn, reinfluences economic and cultural development. What resistance a society develops against criminality depends on its sensitivity toward criminality; this sensitivity is learned on the basis of sociostructural conditions. Societal learning processes develop as a result of historical social structures and values and may be influenced by criminal legislation and the mass media. Offenders learn not only criminal skills and attitudes, criminal justifications, and value notions in criminal subcultures but also criminal roles. The commission of criminal acts depends on the question of whether such behavior has been rewarded or punished in the past and whether it is presently being reinforced. 38 footnotes