Research Social and Environmental Explanations of Crime

Social and Environmental Explanation of Crime
Name
Institution
Social and Environmental Explanation of Crime
The last thirty years has witnessed an emergence of numerous theories that are meant to explain and understand criminal behavior in the society. While some of these theories are not currently in use, most of them have metamorphosed and are used in numerous criminal studies in the modern society (Haynie, & Osgood, 2005). Today’s criminologists combine aspects that have been drawn from various disciplines as a way to advance their comprehension on criminal behavior. In most cases, the discussion on criminal behavior centres on social and environmental factors with the social learning theory and the social structure theory being the biggest theories that are fronted to explain the prevalence of crime in the society. While these two factors are the biggest causes of criminal behavior, the neglect of other possible causes leads to the lack of ideal solutions for the problem.
For a long time, criminology has been subjugated by sociological and environmental discussions on crime and criminals. A clear example of this is the case where all the major theories on crime stress on the role of social factors in the rise of criminal behavior. The rational choice theory points out that people who engage in criminal activities do so willingly and as such the criminal justice system has come up with deterrence measures as a way of dissuading people from engaging in criminal activities. The criminal justice system tends to believe that the rate of crime increases depending with the social ranking of individuals and hence the reason why crime is relegated mostly in slum areas (Haynie, & Osgood, 2005).
The social learning theory points out that people learn to engage in crime mainly due to their association with other people in the society. Due to the exposure to crime, individuals end up seeing crime as something that is desirable or justifiable in some instances. According to theorists, juveniles learn to engage in criminal behavior just in the same manner that they learn to engage in desirable behavior. This means that for delinquent behavior to be abolished, young people have to be taught on how to desist from people with delinquent behavior.