What Individual Factors Have Been Found to Be Related to Criminal Behavior and How Are These Factors Thought to Be Related to Engaging in Crime?
Russell Davis
Specific biological factors have been identified which influence an individual’s propensity to engage in criminal behavior. Fetal development can be altered by the mother’s ingestion of harmful substances such as nicotine, alcohol, and narcotic drugs during pregnancy (Wright et al., 2008), and can result in organ damage, neural cellular damage, attention deficit, and hyperactivity (Karr-Morse & Wiley, 1997) (Day et al., 2002). These factors have been linked to future aggressive behavioral issues (Sood et al., 2001).
Brain damage and minor physical …show more content…
References
Blazer, D., Steffens, D. (2009). The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Geriatric Psychiatry. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatry Publishing, Inc.
Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Silva, P. A., Loeber, M. S., Krueger, R. F., & Schmutte, P. S.
(1994). Are some people crime prone? Replications of the personality crime relationship across countries, genders, races, and methods.Criminology, 32,
163-196.
Collins, W.A., Maccoby, E.E., Steinburg, L., Hetherington, E.M., & Bornstein, M.H. (2000). Contemporary research on parenting: The case for nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55(2), 218-232.
Day, N.L., Leech, S.L., Richardson, G.A., Cornelius, M.D., Robles, N., & Larkby, C. (2002). Prenatal alcohol exposure predicts continued deficits in offspring size at 14 years of age. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 26(10), 1584-1591.
Gottfredson, M., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Karr-Morse, R., & Wiley, M.S. (1997). Ghosts from the nursery: Tracing the roots of violence. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.
Lahey, B., Waldman, I., McBurnett, K., (1999). Annotation: The development of antisocial behaviour: an integrative causal model. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 40(5), 669-682.
Maccoby, E.E., Jacklin, C.N. (1983). The “person” characteristics of children and the family as environment. In D. Magnusson & V.L.