Originally Posted by sadafnoorelahi

Q7 describe the role of biological and sociological factors in development of maladujustment and criminal behaviour and explain the treatment strategies.

“Violation of standard legal codes is known as criminal behaviour”

Introduction:

Every society has some legal codes, when individuals exhibit a behaviour which violates the legal standards of a society, it is called as a criminal behaviour. There are many biological and sociological factors associated with such a negative tendency.

Biological factors
a) Genetic factors: there is significant evidence to show that there is an association between genetic factors and criminal behaviour. Relevance of genetic factors with criminal offending and property theft was verified but there was no accepted evidence on relevance of the genetic factors with violent behaviour such as murder etc.

Experiments were conducted to show relevance of zygosity with criminal disposition. Experiment was carried out on 216 monozygotes and 214 dizygotes. It showed that 70% dizygotes exhibited such a negative tendency, whereas 33% of monozygotes showed miscreant attitude. In addition, it is also believed that individuals with chromosomal abnormality XYY are more likely to show negative behaviour.

b) Neurotransmitters: studies have been conducted to observe the effect of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, norepinephrin and dopamine on criminal behaviour. Studies showed that there was a strong relevance of low serotonin with violent behaviour, moderate linkage of norepinephrin, and virtually no linkage of dopamine with the criminal approach.

Researchers also tried to determine the effect of cortisol and testosterone on the criminal activities of individuals. Criminologists observed that there was a relatively high level of testosterone found in prison inmates than the general public.

c) Injury: effect of injury on criminal behaviour has also been highlighted. It has been observed that if there is neurological disturbance, then it causes frustration which is often finds an outlet in the form of violent outbursts. Particularly, in this regard injury to prefrontal lobe due to accident, trauma, anoxia at childbirth, disease or toxin effect is significant. Prefrontal lobe is known to control negative feelings such as aggression, frustration, anger etc. with damage to the critical part, such inhibitions are unrestrained.


Sociological factors
The inability to act according to the established standard legal codes shows the deficiency in internalization process. Therefore, it is imperative to study the agents of socialization and other numerous factors leading to criminal offences

Agents of socialization
a) Family: perhaps, the most important factor which leads to the criminal tendency is the family system. often, loss of a parent, parental separation, negligence of parents leads to indulgence to criminal activities. apart from this, it is observed that if fathers perform illegal activities, they serve as criminal models for their children to follow their footsteps.

b) School : many psychologists observed that criminals are often lowly educated. They conducted studies on prisoners in jail and noticed that a majority had not attended school beyond secondary level. They performed such activities as burglaries, automobile lifting etc.


c) Peers: peers are an important agent of behaviour, particularly criminal behaviour. It is more often observed, that children leave their school mates for criminal fellows. They feel such an association would increase their “prestige” as they become members of gangs.


environmental factors
a) Macro factors

i) Socio-economic status
Often, people belonging to low socioeconomic status indulge in criminal activities. The inability to make both ends meet leads to criminal activities.

ii) Socio-economic stratum: this refers to the social standing, social respect, repute of the family in the neighbourhood and overall in the society.

iii) Upbringing environment: it may be interpreted as the family system but it actually refers to the environment in which one grows up. It may be family or orphanages or adopted parentage system. if a child grows up in a violent environment, he perceives it to be the only way to achieve his goals.


iv) Unemployment: studies conducted in recent times have shown a directly propotional relationship of criminal behaviour with unemployment.

v) Injustice: more criminal activities are observed in a society where timely, impartial and fair justice is absent.

vi) Transitional locality: criminologists observed that people living in localities that are a transition between urban and rural areas show more criminal and violent tendencies.


b) Microfactors

i) Drug and alcohol abuse: it is observed that the use of drugs and alcohol by the individuals often leads to criminal and violent activities such as sexual assault, murders etc

ii) Specific environmental factors: in addition to above mentioned factors other characteristics which are specific for the individual may also lead to illegal activities.

Treatment strategies

a) Medication: there has been much controversy over the use of medication for the treatment of criminals. Studies have not supported any positive impact of medicine on criminal activities. Still, there are psychologists who believe that conduct disorder, antisocial behaviour can be treated using medication. Criminal psychiatrists attempt to make new breakthroughs in this regard.

b) Psychological treatment: perhaps the most important part in the treatment of criminal behaviour is psychological treatment, psychologists hold the view that criminal activities to a large extent are a result of faulty psychological behaviour. Therefore, they attempt to rectify the behaviour through different psychological approaches.

Different paradigms have offered different treatment strategies, conceivably the most important being offered by cognitive and behavioural psychologists. Behaviourists believe that wrong learning leads to criminal behaviour. they stress upon the use of aversive techniques and conditioning to rectify the behaviour.

c) Miscellaneous treatments: in addition to above mentioned strategies, focus has been laid on a number of other techniques as well. In1907, probation was introduced in England. This technique stresses on “advice and befriend “ policy. In this technique the individual who has been placed under the supervision of the therapist is treated in a friendly manner instead of punitive ways. The purpose is to help the individual in amending his ways and contributing to the society in a positive way.

Critical analysis: criminal behaviour or maladaptive behaviour is a result of number of biological factors such as injury, disease, trauma, genetic factors and imabalance of neurotransmitters. Apart from this, sociological factors namely agents of socialization and macro and micro environmental factors also contribute to the maladjustment. Scientific research does not give much regard to the use of medication in this behaviour. Focus is instead laid on psychological treatment and probation.