Criminological Perspectives

Criminological Perspectives

        Crime has always been an indispensable element of the social lives of the people. Due to progressive evolution in the ideologies of the people and amalgamation of research and theories into crime, a number of hidden facts about crimes and criminals have unveiled. People are not born criminal but there are myriads of factors and influences that drive them to commit a criminological act. These influences could be biological, psychological, sociological or cultural. These factors induce unavoidable conditions that eventually create a suitable environment for occurrence of a crime.

        Criminological Perspectives entirely deals with a mental view or prospect of a criminal before and while committing a crime. While researching in criminology, the researchers individually analyze each of the influential factors separately rather than considering them simultaneously. The Trait Perspective of Criminology is based on the Individual Trait theory which suggests that there are certain numbers of personality traits that commove a person to commit these brutal and inhumane acts. Human personality being the sum total of unique human characteristics differs from person to person. Individuals who are impulsive, daring and aggressive tend to commit crime more readily than the ones who are sensitive to the needs and wants of others (Walsh and Ellis, 2007). The traits are broadly classified in Biological and Psychological. The former one includes certain biochemical and neurophysiologic conditions that induces criminal nature in Humans. Biochemical conditions may include the type of diet, hormonal influences, environmental contaminants, premenstrual syndrome etc. whereas neurophysiologic conditions depression, altered brain chemistry, arousal symptoms etc. Apart from this some genetic influences like Parental deviances and adoption cases are also responsible in inducing criminal behavior. The psychological trait perspective on the other hand focuses on mental aspects of the one committing crime and deliberately associates it with his intelligence and learning. Sigmund Freud believed that the id, ego and super-ego control the dynamics of the human mind. This perspective also encompass a fact that people are not born with the ability to act violent but they rather learn from previous life experiences to act as such. The Social perspective of Criminology focuses primarily on external factors and processes in the society by which these crimes become active. People tend to develop motivation to commit crime and the skills to commit crime through the people they are associated with. Another theory in relevance to this perspective states that people would commit crime if not placed any sought of controls at society places such as schools, workplaces, churches and families. The concept of Classical/ Choice theory and Deterrence was given by Beccaria and he believed that it is the human nature to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. As crime provides a substantial amount of pleasure to the ones who commit it hence to deter crime one must administer some pain. The main underlying concept of this perspective is that people’s choice of choosing criminal behavior could be controlled by the fear of punishment. The more severe, swift and certain the punishment is, the more are the possibilities of controlling criminal behavior. James Wilson, a political scientist stated that, keen efforts should be made to reduce criminal opportunities by deterring would-be offenders. Choice theory involves both shaping of criminality and structuring of crime.

        In criminological terms a determinate sentence is a prison sentence that has a defined length and cannot be changed by any agency involved in the process whereas, on the other hand, an indeterminate sentence is the one that consists of the range of years. In such cases there is always a minimum term but the release date is uncertain. Talking more precisely, determinate sentencing is geared more towards punishment while indeterminate one is geared towards rehabilitation. By scanning the above mentioned perspectives of criminology, indeterminate sentence is more preferable over the other one because in this instance, the prospect of earlier release gives prisoner an incentive to behave positively during his incarceration period. The decisions taken under this sentence accounts all the details of the offender’s crime, his circumstances while committing the crime, his criminal history, his conduct during the detention period and efforts he made towards rehabilitation. Although determinate sentencing began to spread expeditiously in late 70s and 80s yet its “tough on crime” system and its mandatory minimum sentences made it less prevalent than the other sentencing model. Indeterminate sentencing also caters more room for judicial or parole board discretion and proves to be quite effective in addressing crime cases where rehabilitation is considered as more reasonable and attainable outcome for offenders.