Criminology

Criminology

One of the biggest problems we have today is the crime rate and that it is not getting any better with people not doing anything. People are not born a criminal; they are raised into being criminals by how they are treated by their parents when they are young. If your parents did not show you very much attention when you were younger and did not get mad when you did something wrong, you are more likely to keep doing things wrong because you know there is no consequences for your actions. That will lead to bigger things that you do wrong, until finally you break the law. When you are young most police departments will just send you home with your parents so you do not learn anything from that. Another reason why kids break the law is to look cool in front of their friends and so they can join their group. Andrew Bates a 16 year old from Wallsend said, "I think children break the law because they are bored and they have nothing else to do. I would be ashamed of someone in my family if they did it but I would also try to put them in the right direction if I could. It's the responsibility of parents when young people break the law, like when their parents are kids and they broke the law and then their kids grow up in the same way." (Express 2002) And Bradley Duff, nine years old from Bedlington, said,

"Children break the law because basically they don't get what they want. I would speak to someone in my family if they broke the law and would be very disappointed. My parents are responsible for me if I do something bad." (Express 2002)

Some people say criminal's break the law because they are mentally challenged and they do not

know right from wrong, however, clinical psychologist Stanton Samenow, author of the book Inside the

Criminal Mind, says criminals are the way they are because that is what they choose to do. From his

experience, Samenow argues that even if criminals have a mental illness, they commit crimes because

they want to do so. Lots of people have mental illness, but very few of them commit crimes. (Pratt,2005) Also, criminals are quick to pick up on psychological jargon and get good at feeding it back to the counselors. In other words, crooks are good at scamming mental health workers. If someone thinks they are nuts, not a crook, and that will get them out of jail, then, they quickly learn to sound as if they are mentally ill. (Pratt,2005)

Some people say that people become criminals because they were raised in bad or poor parts of town were gang members and criminals live and fight every day. And if there children see this over and over again they will start to think it is ok because everyone else is fighting or selling drugs. Then when they see how much money they make selling drugs compared to people that work all day it is even harder for the parents thats why they need to start at a young age with there kids and not let them get to out of hand. Samenow says, "Indeed, many people come from poverty, broken homes, lousy neighborhoods filled with budding criminals -- and lead good, productive lives. And criminals can come

from wealthy homes just as easily as not." This just shows that it doesn't matter where you come from if you have the right guidance you can live any where and make it.

One way to stop kids from being criminals is the containment theory, which was written by Walter Reckless, Reckless suggested that "people can be 'insulated' from crime. If properly socialized by their parents and peers, the individual will control him- or herself. That is, the individual provides their own containment (containing their natural

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