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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper which examines psychological and sociological theories of criminal behavior in the “nature vs. nurture” debate. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGnatnur.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
this case, genetics) or on environment (nurture) has raged for over a century. There are those who fervently subscribe to the psychological theories that a persons genetic makeup and
gender are responsible for criminal conduct, but also an ever-increasing number of sociological theorists who support the argument that such aberrant behavior is more strongly influenced by environmental factors predominantly
dictated by socioeconomic class considerations. In other words, is a person "born to be bad," or is he or she conditioned by society to become that way? The earliest
psychological theorist was criminology pioneer Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), an Italian professor of psychiatry and forensic medicine (Lanier and Henry, p. 93). His theories were detailed in the 1876 book,
The Criminal Man. Lombroso was convinced that a persons propensity towards crime was deeply rooted in his nature, and that these tendencies are inherited (Giannangelo, p. 22). As
his student, Enrico Ferri affirmed, man does not simply become a criminal. There is no freedom of choice involved in what Ferri first coined as "born criminal" (Giannangelo, p.
22). According to Ferri (and Lombroso), a born criminal is someone "of physical, psychic, functional and skeletal anomalies... which render him strange and terrible" (Lanier and Henry, p. 94).
Interestingly, this theory was supported by sociologist Richard Dugdale, who articulated his theories in the 1877 book, The Jukes: A Study in Crime, Pauperism and Heredity (Lanier and Henry,
p. 97). Dugdale studied a New York family of Dutch ancestry that, in its 1,000 descendents over a 75-year period, a fifth of them were involved in some sort
of criminal activity (Lanier and Henry, p. 97). In a follow-up study conducted by Arthur Estabrook in 1916, an additional 578 family members were also found to be involved
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