Understanding_Modern_Theories_Of_Crime

Understanding Modern Theories Of Crime Understanding Modern Theories of Crime Natural theories of crime generally rely upon phenomena in the physical world (e.g., poverty, genetic abnormality, cognitive impairment) to explain criminal conduct. Modern theories are linked to one of three frames of reference by and through which crimes, criminals, and the behavior of the criminal law are defined. These three modernist approaches include choice criminology3, causal criminology4, and constructivist criminology.5 Choice criminology asserts that people make rational decisions and that these decisions are freely chosen. Thus, criminals are recognized as intelligent enough to understand the consequences for their wrongful behavior (i.e., punishment and imprisonment) as much as they are clever enough to appreciate both the pecuniary and personal benefits for breaking the law (e.g., Stigler, 1970: 526-528; Vold and Bernard, 1986: 31; Reynolds, 1985). Causal criminology maintains that individual accountability must be examined in the context of independent variables which are said to cause criminal conduct. In this model, explanations of crime can be based on either a single factor or a variety of factors. These factors are said to determine the behavior of an individual and, therefore, are beyond his/her control. Early constructivist criminology considered the manner in which people helped fashion the world in which crime, people, behavior, criminal, social, theory, moral, development, committing, theories, result, means, level, goals, law, however, learning, factors, transitional, time, through, refers, psychology, person, others, mode, intelligence, example, criminology, conditioning, child, according, zone, references, reasoning