The History of English Criminal Law

The History of English Criminal Law

Introduction

The criminology classic considers the causes of crime are mainly originated from the offender himself, rather than its external environment. For classicists, what motivates offenders is rational self-interest, and highlights the importance of free choice and personal responsibility. The rational choice theory is the clearest example of this approach. Current positivist approaches generally focus on culture, producing the breakdown of family relationships and community, values ??and a higher individualismo.Estudios show that only 16 percent of children do something wrong, unlike 26 percent of adults do something illegal.

Stress Theory

The strain theory is mainly associated with the work of Robert Merton . Merton believed that in society there are institutionalized paths to success. The strain theory holds that crime is caused by the difficulty for those living in poverty to achieve goals through legitimate means socially valued. For those who, for example, fail to educational achievement is more difficult to achieve wealth and social status assured by a well-paid employment, and therefore is more likely to use criminal means to achieve these goals. Merton suggests five adaptations to this dilemma:

Innovation: individuals who accept socially approved goals, but not necessarily the socially approved means. Withdrawal: those who reject socially approved goals and means to acquire them. Ritualism: those who buy into a system of socially approved means, but lose sight of goals. Merton believed that drug users are in this category. One difficulty with strain theory is that it does not explain why children from low income families have a poor educational performance in the first place. Indicate that much juvenile crime is not economically motivated. The strain theory fails to explain the violent crime, juvenile crime rate that causes most anxiety to the public.

Theory Of Subcultures

Relates to the theory of voltage. The difficulty of youth to achieve goals and produce a socially recognized status groups of young people who form subcultures and deviant offenders the right track with their own values ??and norms. Within these groups criminal behavior can actually be measured, increasing the status of a youth.

Theory Of Labeled

The labeling theory suggests that once people have labeled as criminal young, are more likely to delinca. The idea is that once a young man has labeled as different, it can accept the role and are more likely to join others who have been labeled the same way. Labeling theorists say that there is more likely than male children from poor families are labeled as different, and this may partly explain why young male offenders are more lower class. Opponents maintain that the perceived success of criminal profiling is attributable to a psychological phenomenon known as confirmation bias, in which people tend to notice evidence that confirms a theory rather than that which contradicts it. For example, they say, if accidents happen on a night with a full moon, a person might see it as evidence that an unusually large number of accidents occur during a full ...