Intro to Forensics
Historically crime is a norm rather than exception. For that reason it can be noted that theoretically, anyone could become a criminal. In any society the benefits or prosperity is not equally distributed and there are continuously individual differences, such as in personality profiles. In saying this assorted groups are able to cope with tension. Therefore there are many factors such as values and beliefs, psychological factors, biological factors and social factors, which interact in different degrees on individuals and groups. Thus, each of these factors gives birth to people choosing to commit acts in criminality. It is usually a combination of these factors behind a person who commits crime. These factors will be discussed in more depth below.
A major factor that contributes to the reason that theoretically, anyone could become a criminal is from the classical theory of crime. The classical theory is crime caused by an individual at their own free will. With the main characteristic of classical theory of crime is that individuals are rational and have their own free will to make choices, with an understanding of the consequences. As Hall (2007) states individuals have free will to commit or avoid crime. Therefore, it can be clearly seen individuals have their own free will to make choices in life, hence when they commit a crime it is at their own personal will to do so.
As the classical theory emphasises on individual rights, the significance of free will and the regulations of the law, individuals can be seen to be self-seeking and self interested. Hence; they will make their own choices. Again it can be noted from this that it is due to individuals making the choice to commit crime, and that based on the classical theory, theoretically anyone could become a criminal.
As there are many factors as to why people choose to commit crime, social factors will now be discussed as to why they play a part in people choosing to commit crimes. Social factors play a large role in people choosing to commit crimes. There are many reasons for this. A good example of this can be seen in Travis Hirshi’s theory on weak social bonds, also known as “Social Bonding Theory”. Hirshi’s theory argued that unattached youth drifted into delinquency groups due to their weak social bonds and failed association with delinquents and delinquency itself (Evans, 2008). In saying this it is clear that we need strong positive ties to represent society in the best way possible. If the ties we share in our lives are negative and criminal like, it is most likely that negative result will occur.
Hirshi’s Social Bond theory has four elements. They included attachment, commitment, involvement and belief (Evans, 2008). People who have engaged in these four elements strongly are usually less likely to become involved in criminal activity. From this it can be seen that people