Theories of Criminal Behavior

Discuss about the Criminological Psychology Assignment Resubmission.

Crime is taken to imply any form of behaviour that violates the formal laws meant to govern the social, economic and political conduct of a society. Several theories attempting to explain reasons behind people committing crimes have been developed over the years. These theories describe a person’s psychological, sociological and biological state while he or she commits a crime. The biological explanation to criminal behaviour, in this case, includes theories such as Y chromosome, William Sheldon, and Caserta Lombroso. According to Caserta Lombroso theory, an individual body structure defines if one is a criminal or not (Bretherick 2015, p. 1). In this case, a criminal will possess some features such as asymmetry of the head, have large lips and ears resembling that of a monkey. The Y chromosome theory, on the other hand, states that criminals possess extra Y chromosomes, that is, have an XYY chromosome structure hence the name “super male” (Akers 2013, p. 41). On the other hand, the psychological approach entails that idea that crime originates from dysfunctional and abnormal mental state motivating the personality of an individual. Apart from that, the crime could also be intentional as it means a way of expressing specific needs and feelings of the criminal.

In criminology, homicides fall into three categories. They include mass, spree, and serial killings. When a murder consists of the death of several people, three or more than three, all at the same instance, the case becomes a mass homicide. However, when the killing of three or more victims occurs at more than one location or at different times, the murder is a spree killing. Shanafelt and Pino (2014, p. 60) add that the execution in the case of a spree homicide is not intervened at any instance and takes place without any cooling off stage. Lastly, serial killing refers to a killing performed in a broken sequence that lasts within intervals of 24 hours or more. Shanafelt and Pino (2014) further explain that each killing performed by the serial killer provides a temporal satisfaction of “whatever motivates the killer’s actions”. Therefore, serial killers are identified as those who take significant cooling-off periods between each killing.

Ted Bundy is the exact definition of a Heartless devil. According to his perspective of his self, he stated that he was the most cold-hearted men ever lived on the planet. Bundy was charged with more than 30 homicides during 1974 to 1980; however, the count could be more.  As pointed out by Dekle (2011, p. 21), Bundy committed his first murder in Vermont, a town located across the Pacific Northwest, a place where he was born. There are no records of his father. However, the mother was Eleanor Louise Cowell. They were both raised by Cowell parents, and his grandfather was reported to be highly abusive. There are several instances that his grandfather severely beat him, and occasionally, he did the same to his mother and wife. Later the mother was forced to run away, and Bundy was forced to live with his cousin Wash in Tacoma at the age of five. His college life includes his schooling in the University of Puget Sound before moving to the University of Washington where he took Chinese. Bundy later dropped out in 1968 and registered as a psychology major. Dekle (2011 p. 40) states that it was during one of his visit to East Coast that he discovered the woman that ran away from home was not his sister but his mother. In 1973, he enrolled in University of Puget Sound Law School. However, he stopped attending classes a few months later and ventured into his killing spree. His full name surfaced at the station, and they managed to get the confirmation from Bundy’s ex-girlfriend, his former psychology lecturer, a close friend and co-worker that indeed the person described was Ted Bundy. However, the police were unable to quickly categories him as a serial killer and instead searched for a suspect in the disappearance of several women within the locality. It was unlikely to the policemen that a clean-cut law student who has no criminal record would carry out serial killings. He was arrested later and executed on January 24, 1989, at the age of 42 years.

Types of Homicides

According to Akers (2013, p. 35), biological factors contribute to the making of a serial killer. Under the biological theory, there are the principles of chromosomal imbalances that result to XYY genetic structure and the low Oxytocin level. The low oxytocin level theory claims that the decrease in the oxytocin levels in an individual result to a small amount of empathy that they feel. In most instances, the biological concepts expand reasoning behind the psychological behaviours that result in killing. In case of Ted Bundy, his biological origin comes from one out of wedlock that leads to his grandparent being his parents throughout his childhood. On the other hand, the mother behaved as if she was his sister. Bundy, therefore, lacked a strong biological connection with the mother hence the likelihood that his oxytocin levels were deficient and therefore less empathetic while committing the killings. In addition, Bundy was raised by his grandparents and his grandfather was a racist and a violent individual who used to abuse his wife and animals even, as Michaud and Aynesworth (1999, p. 57) state. As a result, Bundy’s grandfather was known to be someone who acted out of rage and is suspected to suffer from a chromosomal imbalance, inherited by Bundy.

Based on the mental approach several possible incidences would have motivated Bundy into being a serial killer. His mother and grandparents lied to Bundy all his life. His relationship with Kloepfer, his ex-girlfriend, ended abruptly when she left him claiming they had no future together. According to Michaud and Aynesworth (1999, p. 168), Bundy started watching pornographic materials at a very young age which resulted in his hardcore addictions and violent sexual behavior. His addiction reached a point where watching violent pornographic materials failed to quench his thirst. He then decided to gratify his growing sexual appetite by experiencing it for real and thus began his hunt.  

According to the psychological evaluation done on him, he turned out as a High Factor 1 Psychopath. In this case, he was brilliant, and he did not have any instances of psychopath during his childhood and teenage life. Moreover, Psychopath of high factor 1 indicates that Bundy has a grandiose sense of self, conning and lying behavioral characteristics. Furthermore, he was less remorseful, did not have empathy and hardly accepted any responsibility for his actions.

As a result of being a psychopath, he had an antisocial personality disorder. In this case, he lived his life in a manner that there was no tomorrow and hardly followed any social regulations imposed on him. As a result, Michaud and Aynesworth (1999, p. 18) claim that Bundy mentality changed over time such that things that were supposed to mean wrong slowly were less polarized and he started to perceive them as being normal. Melrose (2017, p. 1) states that people with antipersonnel disorder hardly show any other form of mental disorders.

The Case of Ted Bundy

The sociological aspects differ from the biological and psychological elements as it does not depend on the internal structure of the serial killer. In this case, it incorporates social factors such as religion, cultures, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. In addition, political concepts within lower level socio-economic communities, aggressive role models, violent media and harsh social and physical environment could also contribute to someone becoming a serial killer. Bundy was brought up in a dysfunctional family comprising an aggressive grandfathers/father. According to Humphrey and Palmer (2013, p. 97), people brought up in a family that is characterized by the male figure being violent are likely to display the same characteristics ones they are adults. Furthermore, the parenting style and family dynamics surrounding Bundy as he grew up leading to him defying moral laws hence end up with a wrong type of behaviour.

When the victim of a crime is held responsible, either wholly or partially for a crime committed against him or her, it refers to victim blaming. Victim blaming appears in different forms and often comes in a very subtle and unconscious manner. Victims of severe crimes like rape or sexual assault or mostly blamed for wearing a certain kind of ‘exposing’ dress or doing some tabooed things like drinking alcohol or attending late night parties. Even the victims of mundane crimes like pick pocketing are blamed for not taking care of their valuables like they should not have kept their wallets in the back pocket and so on (Ronel, Jaishankar, and Bensimon 2009, p. 176). It is an unfortunate aspect of the society since it fuels the perpetrators of crime to keep on doing criminal activities as they have the ‘weapon’ of victim blaming by which they can dodge the accusations and punishment. It then leads to increase in criminal activities. In addition, victim blaming ruins the victim’s self-esteem and makes them feel guilty of something they did not even do.

Positivist victimology derives its definition from the concept of victimization or victim blaming. As explained by Miers (1990), positivist victimology consists of three crucial features that include “identification of factors in individuals or their environment that conduce to a non-random risk of victimization”. The other two factors are attention on “inter-personal crimes of violence” and the recognition of victims who could be apprehended to “have contributed to their victimization” (Miers 1990). These factors have unfortunately limited positivist victimology’s potential to explain the daily social procedure of recognizing and responding to persecuting events.

Under radical victimology, the primary focus is on the human rights, that is, the rights of the victims more than its scientific ideology. The theory also includes aspects that are not included in the law and tends to analyze the participation of the country’s government in the case. 

Conclusion

In summary, actions that result to an individual violating laws or rules set are influenced by either the psychological, biological or sociological aspect in the life or even all of them. The case of Ted Bundy is a perfect example of a situation where his actions as a serial killer can be argued out to have originated from the psychological, biological and sociological factors in his life. On the other hand, victim blaming can result in several adverse changes that can lead to more criminal act, less reporting of crime incidences, marginalization of the survivors. Victimology can be grouped into positivity and radical victimology. Positivity refers to all cases where the scientific nature is used to define the victim’s case while radical victimology relates to the process that factor in the aspect of human rights that define whether one is a victim or not. 

References:

Akers, R.L., 2013. Criminological theories: Introduction and evaluation. Routledge.

Bretherick, D., 2015. The ‘born criminal’? Lombroso and the origins of modern criminology. [Online] History Extra. Available at: https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/the-born-criminal-lombroso-and-the-origins-of-modern-criminology/ [Accessed 15 May 2018].

Dekle Sr, G.R., 2011. The Last Murder: The Investigation, Prosecution, and Execution of Ted Bundy: The Investigation, Prosecution, and Execution of Ted Bundy. ABC-CLIO.

Humphrey, J.A. and Palmer, S., 2013. Deviant behavior: Patterns, sources, and control. Springer Science & Business Media.

Melrose, S., 2017. CHAPTER 3: AN OVERVIEW OF MENTAL ILLNESS – Supporting Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities & Mental Illness. [Online] Opentextbc.ca. Available at: https://opentextbc.ca/caregivers/chapter/chapter-three-an-overview-of-mental-illness/ [Accessed 15 May 2018].

Michaud, S.G. and Aynesworth, H., 1999. The only living witness: The true story of serial sex killer Ted Bundy. Authorlink.

Miers, D., 1990. Positivist victimology: A critique part 2: Critical victimology. International review of victimology, 1(3), pp.219-230.

Ronel, N., Jaishankar, K. and Bensimon, M. eds., 2009. Trends and issues in victimology. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Shanafelt, R. and Pino, N.W., 2014. Rethinking Serial Murder, Spree Killing, and Atrocities: Beyond the Usual Distinctions. Routledge.