Criminological Theory
In the Criminal Justice system, conducting research is vital to understanding the occurrence of crimes. Therefore, when establishing a theory to format a systematic process of collecting and analyzing information to increase the public understanding of criminal behaviors, researchers must adequately contribute to the understanding of such theory and communicate that understanding to others (William & McShane, 2010). In this paper the subject to discuss is the establishment of a distinctive criminological theory, a theory that explains how researchers should identify the occurrence of crime and how offenders commit crime.
A theory is a useful tool that helps people understands the world around them. For example, in criminology, a theory helps the public understand the functioning of the criminal justice system, the occurrence of crimes and the methods or approaches people implement when committing crimes. In many instances, theory suggests the way things are, not the way they should be. For example, a theory is not naturally good or bad; however, people often use theories for good or bad purposes (William & McShane, 2010).
Nonetheless, the ideal criminological theory would also deal with human behavior. In that the ideal criminological theory deals with human behaviors, it is only fair to employ the social science approach in which researchers can deal with probabilities. For example, when conducting research to uncover the causes of criminal behavior, some social science researchers would utter statements such as,”self-control helps dictate the way offenders behave themselves, an offender who has low self control is more likely to use narcotics than an offender who has a higher level of self-control”.
For researchers to use this theory to its highest effectiveness the theory must make sense and explain as much criminal behaviors as possible; it must also be as concise as possible. Most important, the theory must be validity (Indiana Courts, 2010). . Over the years, researchers have initiated theories such as Biological School, Biosocial Arousal, Born Criminal, Determinism, and Criminaloid theories to address and tackle the issue of criminal behavior. Some of these theories appear controversial, and have yielded mixed results at best.
However, this ideal theory is a criminal behavior theory as well but has a unique approach in its implementation. First, the theory would attempt to explain why an offender commits criminal acts. Second, to see this effort through, the theory would identify and describe the factors in each offender’s life that directly relates to recidivism. The factors that this theory would consider as possible criminogenic needs include low self-control, antisocial values, antisocial personality, criminal peers, dysfunctional family, and substance abuse (Indiana Courts, 2010).
With this approach, the researchers would manipulate the situations or conditions to see how the offenders or ordinary people react. The researchers would base this theory on the experimental research approach and direct their efforts on monitoring the routine activities of every participating criminal. The theory would encompass a relatively small number of offenders and ordinary people. The researchers would divide the participating population into two groups, the offenders group and the ordinary people group respectively.
The theory would look at offenders and their routine activities and assess both the offenders and their routine activities. This approach would also apply to the ordinary people (Kraska, 2008). Although the experimental research approach is difficult to conduct and expensive to administer, it yield important discoveries when researchers implement it properly. With the ideal theory, the researchers would conduct it in a real-life setting to ease the complication, reduce the cost that may come alone, and addresses well focused questions as well.
As a result, the theory would require researchers to observe over a specific period, the following indicators: whether self-control helps dictate the way offenders behave themselves; whether offenders who display antisocial personality traits do not care how their actions affect others and therefore may not feel any remorse for what they have done; whether antisocial values allow offenders to disassociate themselves with their communities as well as the values and norms of their communities and cause them to engage in criminal acts; whether by an offender immersing with a group of peers who continue to ommit unlawful acts, the offender will be more likely to commit more crimes; whether the need for money can lead offenders who use illegal drug to committing crimes to obtain money for drugs; whether offenders who comes from or live with a dysfunctional family are more likely to be in a setting where they can learn criminal or substance abuse behaviors (Kraska, 2008). The researchers would evaluate whether these observations or phenomenon work.
The researchers would treat the two groups identically but give the offenders’ group a condition that interests the researchers. The researchers would measure the reactions of both groups precisely by controlling the setting for both groups and giving only one group the treatment. After the researchers complete this ideal research method, they would conclude that the differences that occurred in the reactions of the groups over the set period are a result of the treatment alone (Kraska, 2008).
As one can see, it is a fact that a theory is a useful tool that helps people understand and explain the world around them; a theory also help people understand the functioning of the criminal justice system, the occurrence of crimes and the methods or approaches people implement when committing crimes. Hence, for a theory to uncover the factors of criminal behavior, researchers must adequately contribute to the understanding of the theory and communicate that understanding to others.
When a theory meets these basic goals, it would have some real-world applications and policy implications. References Indiana Courts. (2010). Indiana judicial center. Retrieved from http://www. in. gov/judiciary/center/pubs/best-practices/criminogenics. html Kraska, P. B. (2008). Criminal justice and criminology research methods. Retrieved from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu. William, F. P. , & McShane, M. D. (2010). Criminological theory. Retrieved from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu
