THEORETICAL ORIENTATIONS OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Crime is a highly complex phenomenon that changes across cultures and across time. Activities that are legal in one country are sometimes illegal in others. As cultures change over time, behaviors that once were not criminalized may become criminalized. As a result, there is no single answer to the question, ‘what is crime?’ and therefore no single answer to ‘what causes crime?’ Different types of crime often have their own distant causes. There are numerous hypotheses as to why people commit crimes. Some theorize that committing a crime is rational, with the offender considering the benefits and drawbacks of doing so before the criminal activity. Others may hold the opinion that criminals are inherently different from law-abiding people in terms of biology or psychology. However, the one thing these two theories have in common is that they both emphasize the role of the criminal. In other words, they view crime as an individual issue rather than one that affects the entire community. Sociology on the other hand, argues that society shapes the circumstances in which criminal activity occurs. Put differently, societal conditions trigger individuals to commit crime, thus proposing that criminal behavior is not natural. It is not innate to humans but rather circumstantial. Sociological theories of crime try to interpret crime through societal conditions and explain deviant or criminal behavior through the circumstances in which they occur. Sociological theories aim to uncover the intricacies of crime in society. They extend from an examination of the smallest details of street encounters between youth to comparative analysis of the larger picture of violent, sexual and property related crimes.