Genetics and Heritability in Crime
In the cause of violence and crime, genetics are thought to be an essential factor. A model for gene-environment interaction draws on the contemporary study of human genetics and uses the concept of heritability to justify lawful violent behavior. In the recent diagnosis of people with criminal and antisocial behavior, personality characters and disorders have become significant. Also, genetic factors can be linked to other behavioral traits that are linked to criminal behavior, such as impulsiveness and sensational destruction (Ward,2019).
According to Carrington et al, (2018), the biological tendency of an individual for criminal or antisocial conduct may be impaired by such factors as low intelligence, poor nutrition, impulsive and hyperactive hormones, as testosterone, cortisol, and environmental pollutants. There are also five areas of social risk factors that contribute to antisocial crime behavior: family, school, occupation, community and peer participation, and alcohol and other drugs. The probability of a child’s future participation in crime is influenced by parental behavior.
The risk of criminal activity may increase brain damage in childhood and early adulthood. This damage normally decreases inhibitions or emotional regulation that affects the way we react to environmental stimuli. Studies suggest that offenders are more likely than the rest of the population to have had a brain injury. Brain injuries are mitigation in court in extreme cases, but the evidence is not powerful enough to link all criminal behavior to brain dysfunction (Walsh,2016).
Cognitive is defined as an information processing capability. Cognitive crime theories describe the crime as a failure in moral reasoning, reasoning, and mental development. Cognitive theories also help us understand how the personality and intelligence level of an individual is correlated with crime. The emphasis of cognitive theories is on three main sociological theories of crime and crime: stress, social learning, and theories of control (Diamantis & Laufer,2019).
According to Ward, (2019), Psychological crime theories are based on behavior theory that emphasizes the use of punishment and manipulation to control any human activity be it criminal or any other form. The theory of social learning extended the theory of behavior to support ways of learning behavior from relationships in the family and other close groups, social interactions outside the family (mainly peer groups), and the introduction of replicas of behavior in the media, especially television.
Aside from the psychological hypotheses, it is often argued that crime is correlated with particular psychiatric disorders. Psychological illness is usually the cause of a comparatively small percentage of crimes, but its perceived magnitude can be compounded by the severity of some of the crimes committed by people with mental illnesses (Walsh,2016).
Early childhood conditions that have led to crime in later life are the subject of psychological study, including inadequate parental childcare methods such as rough or inconsistent discipline. Majority of criminals often have an isolated impulsive trait, a tendency to indulge in high levels of activities to confuse oneself quickly and also acting without thought to achieve immediate pleasure (Ward,2019)
Finally, criminologists are also focused on recognizing factors in communities that are related to relatively small increases in the incidence of them committing a crime and they become focused on being linked to relatively small increases in their likelihood of unlawful activity. All this illustrates the inherent difficulty of the topic and suggests that there is no indication of whether a person commits a misconduct or whether the world has high or low crime rates.
