NCJ Number
76347
Date Published
1980
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This audiovisual kit for police officers and students brings together the biological, psychological, and social causes of crime and reviews the political theories of crime causation.
Abstract
The kit outlines various biological theories which contend that criminal actions are motivated by physical characteristics such as body type, inherited traits such as chromosomal makeup, hormonal imbalances, and psychological defects. In addition, psychological theories are described that focus on four motivations behind many crimes: intense guilt, a desire for punishment, the need to assert individuality or masculinity, and retaliation for actual or imagined wrongs. Sociological theories are presented in two groups: social-psychological theories which see criminal behavior as learned by example and which study the effect of crime on the personality formation and basic normality of the individual; and culture-centered theories which place primary emphasis on general conditions in society rather than on the individual. Theories of differential association, reinforcement, and containment are included in the social-psychological group; theories of anomie, opportunity, lower class values, and racial discrimination compose the culture-centered group. The political theories of the labeling model and of radical criminology are also discussed, and the role of the victim as a major contributor to the criminal act is examined. An instructor's guide, a high-fidelity cassette, and a set of 80 35mm slides are included.