Unearthing crimes and criminals...

Ever wondered about how criminals look like in real life (by this I mean let's not talk about people who essay roles of criminals on television) and what provokes them to commit immoral acts? Do you feel affirmative about genes being responsible for making a person choose a criminalistic approach? For this, an exhaustive knowledge about criminology is a mandate. Criminology is a captivating study which enlightens one about the causation, correction and prevention of crime. There are various forms of crimes such as crimes against property (burglary, auto-theft) , crimes against morality which includes prostitution, gambling and illegal drug use, White-collar crimes such as evading taxes, stealing money from an employer, insider trading, etc. and organized crime which is nothing but a structured group of criminals who come together for drug trade, weapon smuggling and the like. In this article, I have talked about a few interesting things about how a criminal's mind is shaped up, his traits and what prompts them to take to crimes and things suchlike. For the same, I have extensively read about criminology and other related topics. 

Copious factors are involved which induce a person to choose the unfair way ,I will talk about some significant ones here. Ceasare Lombroso, an Italian criminologist, physician and founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology had always believed that human nature was responsible for crime, it was a characteristic trait. He was the one who made the words 'born criminal' sound true enough with the help of anthropological criminology. He stated that criminals have peculiar defects or oddities in them which separates them from normal humans and that crime is inherited by them. Criminals, according to him, are persons with a hunch like the apes have had before the evolution. More intricate features include sloping forehead, ears of unusual size, asymmetrical face, long arms and such other physical anomalies. He was also of the belief that thieves, murderers and rapists could be distinguished from specific characteristics and pointed out that there were much more traits of a criminal such as no sense of pain or any touch, more acute sight, lack of or no moral sense, no remorse, impulsiveness and cruelty and too much use of tattooing. But unfortunately, Lombroso couldn't prove his findings and the same were challenged. It was only revived with the discovery of the XYY chromosome which suggested that men with an extra Y chromosome are more violent. It also said that such persons have more arrests than the ones without an extra Y chromosome. Even this discovery was challenged and ultimately didn't hold much water. Later, a study was conducted on examination of twins and non-twin siblings who have been adopted out into different families at or soon after birth and it was concluded that there's a greater similarity in the criminal histories of the sons and their natural fathers than between sons and their adoptive fathers. Such discoveries and examinations make it concrete that genetics are involved but there are two shortcomings which render those useless, the first one being the method of selecting twins for separated twin studies has sometimes inflated the chance that both will be found to have an arrest record. and the second one is that the interaction between children and their adopted parents may itself increase the risk of later involvement in crime.

Second factor involved can easily be targeted towards the family. Family plays a pivotal role in the moulding of a child's mind. Parents who are neglect-some or who don't know how to bring a child up and imbibe good qualities or virtues in him are solely responsible for the birth of criminal minds. Firstly, neglect or avoidance of good parenting hails from several factors like large family size, ignorance or illiteracy of parents, monetary issues, etc. Another reason may be because of harsh parenting like nagging or beating the child, scolding unnecessarily and more than needed discipline. The third cause stems from parents being criminals and the fourth can be associated with family disruption such as divorces. A child's mind is that of a dough, it is tender and it depends on the way one shapes it. Hence, care should always be taken how to expose a child into the world and it is a parent's duty to protect the child from the lawbreaking lot.

The third causation of crime is associated with school performance and intelligence. Studies have shown that students with a low IQ succumb to crimes because of inability to do well in exams. Fourth cause is fairly related to third which talks about the influence of peers. Children start behaving the way their peers do at educational institutes and gradually end up being like them. For example, there have been several drug consumption cases at school and this has always been a result of influences.

A major factor behind crime is poverty and unemployment. When people fail to earn a livelihood due to illiteracy and such other reasons, they resort to crimes. Poor and hungry people who are always on a hunt for means to survive take to such heinous modes of making money. Another reason to quote is that of public tolerance to crime. People who have had enough of injustice and bore problems also take to crimes thinking of that as a revenge and get burdensome on the society. As regards women, even menstruation is one of the reasons for the causation of crime.

Criminals who are arrested are given a second chance and hence there exists a process know as 'correction of offenders'. As they say, 'To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace.' There's a need to do this in a country like India where crime rate is at its zenith and there's always a fear dwindling on the minds of commoners. Criminals are given psychologists to help them with their issues and about life behind bars. There're also social workers at prison to to understand the criminals' problems and help their families. Criminals are also given religious education in prisons to calm them down and make them sane. To encourage criminals to earn money, they are paid remuneration for their odd jobs at prisons and almost every prison follows the 'no work no meal' norm for them. Legal and medical help is also available to them. Legal aid includes parole and probation.

More than redeveloping minds of criminals for good, it is better if we take steps to prevent crimes in the first place. Some criminals who find it difficult to even live from hand to mouth become addicted to committing crimes because of high prices of necessary commodities and other essentials. Poverty is the mother of crime. Since our country has become accustomed to soaring prices, they are left with no other choice but to do it. Another way of preventing crimes is the Crime Prevention Council of India which was set up in 1938 whose motto is to provide rehabilitation to the disposed prisoners and make them hate crime. Their notions                                                                           towards crime are changed and they start their life                                                                            afresh with a new purpose.