Crime by Gender, Socioeconomic, Sociological Status, and Evolutionary Psychological Factors - Research Paper Example

A very important statistic was the equal amounts of murders committed by both Whites and Blacks, although Hispanics were not directly involved in the counts. Yet, somewhere in the numbers, they are represented anyway. The most depressing numbers were for the juvenile population who went to jail, rather than spending time in community rehabilitation programs. A good majority of these juveniles end up in the adult male population, leaving them vulnerable to violent behavior from other inmates, including rape. Programs and facilities should be designed so they can be housed elsewhere and also have opportunities to develop and grow. This research study looks at crime statistics by gender associations, along with influences in the areas of socioeconomics, sociological, and psychological issues. The goal is to understand how various issues and influences affect those who commit crimes, particularly violent crimes, to determine patterns in current offenders and, potentially, future offenders.

Yet, a set of variables that fit one mass murderer, are not true in another offender, such as in the case of Charles Whitman, who shot multiple students from the top of a tower at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966.1 An autopsy showed that he had a brain tumor in the hypothalamus region, and this was briefly thought to be the cause of his criminal behavior. While this is a possibility in his case, the majority of other violent offenders do not show brain tumors and, consequently, this cannot be held as a potential pattern in the overall picture. 

In another case, the makers of a video game were sued because a 14-year-old boy, who played one of their games, shot his father and stepmother. The case centered on the possibility that the boy developed his murderous tendencies from playing that game.2 The lawsuit was dismissed. There are, after all, many other children who play those same games and never show such tendencies. Yet, cases of bullying in schools are on the rise, leading to suicides and murders of children, such as in the case of Noel Estevez, who knifed a classmate to death, after months of intense bullying from the victim, Timothy Crump, and other school mates.