WILL TO KILL: A LEARNED BEHAVIOR OR A HEREDITARY TRAIT?

Will to kill: A Learned Behavior or a Hereditary Trait?

Abstract

The discipline of criminology, defined as the study of law making, law breaking, and reactions to law breaking, and the sociology of hereditary trait both encompass illegal behavior, but the sociology of hereditary trait is unique in its concern for themes and principles that are supposed to apply to a variety of violations of shared standards. Indeed, the most significant scholarship in the early evolution of the sociology of hereditary trait was Émile Durkheim's ([1897] 1951) study Suicide.

Will to kill: A Learned Behavior or a Hereditary Trait?

Chapter 1

Introduction

Hereditary trait is the concept chosen by sociologists to encompass a variety of forms of human behavior that have been defined or reacted to by members of a social system as wrong, bad, immoral, illegal, or worthy of condemnation or punishment, and the sociology of hereditary trait is the study of the social forces and processes involved in the formulation of such evaluative standards, violations of those standards, and reactions to such violations (Logan, 2005). The specific subject matter typically includes the study of behaviors defined as illegal (crime and delinquency) and forms of behavior that are disapproved or stigmatized by a sizeable proportion of members of a society such as suicide, mental illness, some forms of sexuality, and certain forms of alcohol and drug use (Heckert, 2004). Although the concept has become a derogatory public term, sociologists originally adopted the concept as a more objective and neutral conceptual category than those in use by the public.

Although suicide has been treated as a crime in some societies at some times, it is not encompassed in contemporary categories of criminal behavior, and it is not studied by criminologists. However, suicide and suicidal behavior remain of interest in the sociology of hereditary trait. Moreover, because it is not limited to behaviors defined by criminal statutes, the sociology of hereditary trait encourages consideration of the possible relationships among different forms of hereditary trait. For example, Durkheim hypothesized that homicide and suicide acted like two different “streams” of hereditary trait with nations that had high suicide rates having low homicide rates. Similarly, when questions are asked about the relationships between such behaviors as criminal violence and noncriminal forms of hereditary trait such as mental illness and alcohol use, a search for answers bridges the study of “hereditary trait” and the study of “crime.” In short, the sociology of hereditary trait encompasses the study of relationships among criminal and noncriminal violations of shared evaluative standards (norms) as well as the search for general principles or themes that apply to hereditary trait in general.

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Basic Themes And Theories

The most basic themes in the sociology of hereditary trait include the observations that (1) the specific forms or instances of behavior that fall in such categories vary over time and among societies (cultural and temporal relativity), (2) there is greater social consensus on the impropriety of some forms of behavior than ...