Abstract
I’ve learned a lot in my three weeks of college, especially in my ADMJ 120 class. From the different types of crimes to what causes those crimes, all these theories and study’s are what we use to help make our country a safer place for you and me. In class we recently saw a very interesting video called “How Neuroscience Will Transform Criminal Justice” that features the Baylor University neuroscientist, David Eagleman. He talks about how whether or not we as people have free will or not. He brings up how the brain works and how it’s the most difficult thing to understand and will take years and years until we find out how to understand everyone. There are many Criminological theories but the one’s I agree with the most were the strain theory and the brain and crime theory. Those are probably the two most common one’s that make sense in this country for sure.
There are a vast majority of theories that criminologist use to determine what are the causes of a person’s crime. We may never know the why people commit crimes but we can try to find out how the crime was lead up to happen in many ways. In the video, “How Neuroscience will transform Criminal Justice”, Eagleman talks of how we are our brain. Which is basically we are what’s in our brains and whatever effects our brain affects us in many different ways. He describes many cases in his lecture, the Chris Benoit case, the case of Charles Whitman, and the case of the 40-year-old man with the sexual appetite. All case’s that had to do with damage of the brain that caused them to do horrible things [3] . This is very similar to the brain and crime theory that states three causes for criminal behavior; Serotonin, which regulates moods, appetite and memory; Norepinephrine, which regulates sleep-wake cycles and controls how we respond to anxiety fear and stress; and Dopamine, which regulates perceptions of pleasure and reward [2]. This is why many cases that aren’t explainable are caused because of a brain problem and high levels and/or levels of the three neurotransmitters.
The strain theory is big factor in why people commit crimes. The theory suggests a social structure within a society will pressure the people to commit crimes [2]. This is very popular especially in inner cities like in Chicago where many crimes are committed because of their goals to archive financial wealth and leave the inner city to escape the violence and create a better future