Why some persons in society commit crime while most others do not - Essay Example

Reasons for people committing crime Introduction Criminologists have in their quest to get the main reasons why people commit crimes formulated different theories intended help explain why people commit crimes (Hagan, 2011). The main intention of these theories is to try to answer the question why there are people in the community who commit crimes as other people in the same community fail to commit any form of crime.Classical criminology theory This is the oldest theory formulated in the 1600s by Cesare Beccaria, a renowned Italian philosopher, to help explain why people engaged in criminal activities.

At the middle age period, people believed assumed that individuals committed crimes because of being possessed by the devil. The theory as formulated by Beccaria suggests that an individual commits a crime with the idea that it is a useful service to him or her. According to Beccaria, such people often avoid working to achieve whatever they need as their focus is seeking pleasure. In trying to define what crime is, Cesare recommended that any activity becomes a crime when the resultant pleasure outweighs the resultant punishment or pleasure (Hagan, 2011).

One of the principles contained in Beccaria’s school of thought was that a person was at liberty of choosing to what is unlawful or lawful while trying to obtain his or her desired objectives. The other principle in the theory was that people found criminal solutions attractive as they were faster and easier to acquire. Positivity criminology theory In this theory, scientific research was incorporated in trying to understand why there are some individuals who engage in criminal activities while others do not.

Cesare Lombroso after examining the brains of desert soldiers concluded that a person’s actions used to be controlled by various physical characteristics. With this argument, Lombroso suggested that there are situations whereby an individual may find it hard to control him or herself in the process committing criminal acts. Lombroso further suggested that there were individuals born criminals and thus committing a crime was in their blood (Siegel, 2013). It is possible for scientists to examine individual and determine whether the person was a born criminal.

The scientists would observe a person’s physical attributes which people could positively see. The theory suggests that there are those people who do not evolve completely into cultured and intelligent people. People who fail to evolve completely have qualities such as low intelligence are feeble minded and possess primitive emotions. Such people cannot control themselves and thus often commit crimes. The theory suggests that it is impossible for a society to help people whose criminal instinct is inborn, as they will always commit crimes.

Sociology criminology theory A French mathematician, Adolph Quetelet, came up with different suggestions intended to help explain the occurrence of crime in the society. Together with other Frenchmen, they suggested that a crime could be classified as a normal event (Siegel, 2013). The champion of the idea that crime was a regular event went to suggest that it was imaginable for a society to be free from any crime. The two main contributions of crime included population and societal shift. Crime was prevalent in towns as people in such places did not care or know one another and thus found it easy to commit a crime and thus without any occurrence, people committed crimes.

ReferencesHagan, F. E. (2011). Introduction to criminology: Theories, methods, and criminal behavior. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.Siegel, L. J. (2013). Criminology: Theories, patterns, and typologies. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.