ARE CRIMINALS SOCIALLY DETERMINED
OR BORN OFFENDERS?
ARTEFACT
The artefact chosen is a symbolic image illustrating a criminal behind the bars of a double
helix gene depicting one side of the nature/nurture debate that criminals are made. This
image was taken from Google after searching the universally asked question, ‘are
criminals born or made’. The search came up with lots of different images, this one in
particular stood out, just like the criminal is doing to the bars of the jail/DNA strand.
Finding this image further sparks my interest in the nature/nurture debate, are criminals
born or made?
PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE
Australia has a high prevalence of criminals committing a variety of offences each year. In
2009, it was found that over 344,274 people were charged with a criminal offence, this
number increasing slightly each year (Weatherbun, 2001). The need to find the cause of
why these delinquents offend has increased with the number of crimes in Australia each
year due to the effect these felonies have on the community. The curiosity of why people
commit crimes is also heightened due to the fact that these criminals usually present
ordinary faces to the world and can be anyone. Were they born that way or created from
their social and cultural surroundings?
LITERATURE REVIEW
One of the greatest debates among psychologists and criminologists is the
aforementioned argument about whether criminals are a product of social, cultural and
environmental influences or if their criminal behaviour is a genetic inheritance? This
question has been deliberated over decades resulting in plenty of literature assisting both
sides of the argument.
One side of the debate favours the delinquent behaviour influenced by the social, cultural
and environmental surroundings of the individual. It was found that criminals have a
tendency to start at a young age between ten and sixteen, the age of experimentation,
easy susceptibility to peer pressure, rebellious behaviours and the age where the
conscious is at its most vulnerable (Donohue & Siegelman, 1994). This leads to the fact
that the earlier an individual involves him or herself with crime, the later they tend to
finish (Weatherbun, 2001). Another predictor of crime commonly found in literature,
generally known as the strongest indicator is inadequate acts of parenting including;
parental neglect, deviant parental behaviours, family or parental conflict or family
disruption (Weatherbun, 2001; Dagg, 1991; Sampson & Laub, 1993). This is supported by
statistical evidence from the ABS and individual Australian State Crime Research and
Statistics studies.
Furthermore, there is a lot of statistical evidence in these studies to show that the
economic status of these felonious individuals can have an effect of them and the kinds
of crimes they commit. Like predicted by many researchers and theorists these offenders
typically come from the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, those whose lives are
marked by poverty and unemployment (Weatherbun, 2001; ABS, 2010). In these studies, it
can be seen that individual’s who are prone to crime tend to offend more frequently and
commit more severe offences during periods of unemployment (Weatherbun, 2001;
Grogger, 1998). Parents of these offenders who are exposed to this economic
disadvantage are also found to be more at risk of inadequate parenting practices
(Weatherbun, 2001).
Such social and economic surroundings like these can lead to individuals becoming
truants, which further exemplifies delinquent behaviour (Lochner, 1999). Truancy is often
associated with poor school performance and lower intelligence in regards to IQ, which
limits the individual’s ability to differ what is right and wrong and appreciate the
consequences of their actions thus leading to criminal tendencies (Weatherbun, 2001;
Wilson & Herrnstein, 1985). The combination of these lifestyle trends, particularly the
truancy is known to bring criminals together often in gangs or similar criminal
organisations. These gangs are renowned to further promote criminal activity by
communicating and motivating each other’s deviant attitudes and values (REF).
Contrasting to this is the side where criminals inherit their felonious behaviours in their
genes. It is found that most commonly in Australia males are more likely to commit a
crime than females with a 97% to 3% prison rate of males to females (ABS, 2010). This
statistic coincides with the study that criminals have a trend of inheriting an extra Y
chromosome, making their sex gene XYY (Connor, 1995). This notion has been studied
several times all over the world, with Dutch psychologists conducting the most successful
studies. In these studies, the thought of a chemical imbalance in the brain causing a gene
mutation in males was a hot topic of interest for these researchers in determining
whether or not criminals are born. Another frequent study conducted worldwide is
examining the fates of twins, identical and non-identical to determine whether there was
a genetic component leading to criminal and antisocial behaviour. Although both studies
have been conducted several times, not enough evidence can be provided to fully erase
the thought of criminals being made over born (Connor, 1995).
In order to have a successful argument for both sides of the debate, a lot of research
went into finding answers. The most common methodology used to research and find
evidence was using statistics. This provides qualitative evidence for researchers to
analyse and to find common trends in the data in a way that limits scientific error. All
scientific methods of research have their limitations. Using statistics provides figures for
an entire group of people and therefore individual figures cannot be isolated. Another
limitation is that because statistics is a form of analysis, it cannot be used to prove or
disprove anything merely support or disconfirm the study. This leads to many researchers
misusing the information and creating an unfair study backed up for inaccurate results. In
order to constrain these limitations, many studies adopted another scientific method of
individually analysing some criminals, providing an opportunity to isolate some cases and
do a more thorough investigation on these individuals. For example, the Dutch
researchers taking a few sets of twins at a time and looking into their genes as a mean of
finding any mutations that could possibly cause antisocial or criminal behaviour.
This debate has been of interest for decades due to the fluctuations in criminal numbers
nationwide like aforementioned because of the desperate need to find a cause of these
felonious tendencies of some individuals. If the side where criminals are made is
established to be true then interventions for some can be used. Examples of this could be
early juvenile punishment for young offenders or controlling deviant parental behaviour
(Donohue & Siegelman, 1994). However, this method does have its limitations like not
knowing every household with inadequate parenting or not being able to pinpoint
exactly what individual fitting the personality previously mentioned will be a criminal
offender in the near future.
On the other side, if established that criminal urges and antisocial behaviour come from a
genetic mutation would mean that no blame could be placed on poor and inadequate
parenting, unemployment, poor school performance and involvement in gangs. This
would also mean that a genetic mutation could occur erratically and unknowingly
therefore unable to stop easily.
The consequences of settling this debate has further interested more researchers in
continuing to study this hot topic of crime, each time coming up with slightly different
results. Maybe in the next decade this debate will be solved, are criminals born or are
they made?
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS
The influx of criminal offenders in Australia raises concern to the citizens of this country thus
becoming a population health issue. Studies conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology
(AIC) display common trends of chosen victims for different criminal offences including assault,
theft and threats. Many victims were found to be unmarried, have a relatively high income, have
resided in the same postcode for more than a year and have an active lifestyle outside home.
Males were also found to have increased likelihood of being a repeated victim. The people fitting
these profiles are more at risk of being victims of crime and more affected by this issue of a large
population of criminal offenders (Johnson, 2004).
The AIC further studied the socio-demographic characteristics of crime victims but narrowing it
down to the actual offence. Males have a higher chance of being physically assaulted, threatened
or being robbed while females have a higher chance of being sexually assaulted (Australian
Institute of Criminology, 2012). This puts into perspective that any gender can be a target of crime
and no one group is safe from the complete absence of crime. Conducting these studies however,
can help police and public health experts develop crime prevention strategies for areas prone to
crime or people who have previously been a victim to it. These strategies can help minimise the
prevalence of crime in Australia, which would be beneficial to all of society.
ANALYSIS OF THE ARTEFACT
The artefact chosen represents one side of the nature/nurture that criminals are born rather than
made. This side of the argument is the one least accepted by people due to the difficulty it
presents when trying to prove its occurrence. The combination of this and the fact that it studies
the genes of criminals appeals to more than the other side of the debate thus the reason for me
choosing the DNA strand as prison cells for the artefact.
Sometimes when I am watching a news documentary or reading a book on a serial killer who
raped and killed ten people then proceeded to eat them my first thought it always ‘what would
lead them to do such horrible things?’ I would like to think that it was not entirely the offender’s
fault and there is something inside of him like a gene mutation that gave him these psychopathic
thoughts and tendencies. Thinking the other side that these people were influenced by society
and culture scares me too much because it is more unnatural to me but can also happen to more
people.
During this assessment piece of I learnt a lot of common crimes in Australia, victims of those
crimes and common lifestyle trends these offenders possess. This will help me in my future studies
by knowing the components of a literature review and also learning some issues affecting the
public health system. This assessment piece also helped me establish different strategies to
breakdown a two-sided debate and decide what side to take.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABS. (2010, March). Recorded Crime Offenders. Australian Bureau of Statistics .
Australian Institute of Criminology. (2012, March 3). Crime Victimisation. Retrieved November 1,
2012 from Australian Institute of Criminology:
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/facts/1-20/2011/3_victimisation.aspx
Connor, S. (1995, February 12). Do Your Genes Make You a Criminal? The Independent .
Dagg, P. (1991, May). The Psychological Sequence of Therapeutic Abortion, Denied and
Completed. American Journal of Psychiatry , 578-585.
Donohue, J., & Siegelman, P. (1994). Is the United States at the Optimal Rate of Crime? American
Bar Foundation .
Fagan, A. A., & Najman, J. M. (2003). The Gendered and Long Term Relationship Between Family
Practices and Children's Aggression and Deliquency.
Grogger, J. (1998). Market Wages and Youth Crime. Journal of Labour Economics , 756-791.
Johnson, H. (2004). Crime Victimisation in Australia: Key Results of the 2004 International Crime
Victimisation Survey. Australian Institute of Criminology .
Lochner, L. (1999). Education, Work and Crime: Theory and Evidence. Working Paper .
Sampson, R., & Laub, J. (1993). Crime in the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life.
Harvard University Press .
Weatherbun, D. (2001, February). What Causes Crime? Crime and Justice Bulletin .
Wilson, J., & Herrnstein, R. (1985). Crime and Human Nature. Simon and Schuster .