Case Scenario Analysis (Essay Sample)

Case Scenario Analysis
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Institution
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Case Scenario Analysis
Admittedly, there is a correlation between the crime statistics and the frequency of or tendencies of the criminal behavior occurring at any given time and area. Usually, crime statistics is useful in forecasting future crimes, a situation that implies the relationship existing between the statistics and the trends in criminal behavior. From a theoretical perspective, the relationship between crime statistics and the frequency of a crime is based on the routine activities and the rational choice perspective. In essence, both of these principles imply that individuals are self-determining even as criminal activities are purposeful. Substantially, this theoretical constructs mean that offenders or those who commit crimes are influenced by both environmental and situational factors, which create either desirable or undesirable opportunities for causing offenses. While crime statistics may provide a good starting point for forecasting the frequency of offenses, one can expect that many factors affect the trends of such offenses. For example, the state of economic opportunity may facilitate the occurrence of property offenses whereas most violent crimes would occur in response to the societal factors facilitating conflict or because of the availability of guns. In respect to John’s case, the psychological traits influence the likelihood of committing offenses. In fact, John suffers from the antisocial personality disorder that is has a close relationship with criminal behavior. With many factors influencing the occurrence and the frequency of crime, it follows that crime statistics has a limited accuracy.
In particular, crime statistics is not accurate in most cases because of many factors. Sometimes, the statistics are subject to manipulation by the police department. Agreeably, the government facilitates manipulation of crime data either through altering the category of crimes or by underreporting. In essence, other factors that may compromise the accuracy of crime statistics in predicting the frequency of criminal activities include the literacy levels of the investigation personnel and the ability to document correct crime reports in the records. Moreover, people may give false information on crimes because they want to satisfy their interests, which may include attracting compensation from insurance agencies. In respect to this, crime data becomes inaccurate and cannot give a good picture of the frequency of offenses during forecasting of criminal behavior. At times, people engage in dispute resolution at the family level, which compromises the accuracy of the crime statistics because some of these crimes are not reported. While there is a relationship between crime statistics and the frequency of criminal behavior, correlation does not necessarily equate to causation. Because there are many factors that influence the occurrence of different crimes, it is pertinent that statistics is used sparingly in forecasting of offenses.
Contrary to the environmentalism, which suggests that environment variations cause variations in criminal behavior, the biosocial perspectives are founded on a different assumption. In particular, the biosocial perspective is based on the assumption that environmental and biological factors often interact to influence criminal activities or behavior. In respect, to the biosocial perspective, the occurrence of crimes entails an ever- changing legal designation and it is wrong to suggest that the commission of crimes is biological or occurs because of biology. In essence, the diagnosis that John might be suffering from hormonal imbalance, which makes him engage in shooting, is explainable using the biosocial approach. Notably, the hormonal levels in people have a correlation with their violent behaviors. Impliedly, the role of hormonal imbalance in predicting John’s violent behavior is instrumental and can be revealed by focusing on the expected changes in the level of violence with age. In fact, people tend to become less violent as they get old. Pertinently, this implies that the old people are less violent because of their low levels of hormones such as androgen. Evidently, high levels of androgen secretion such as testosterone are correlated with aggressive behavior in people. In fact, in male children such as John, high levels of testosterone results in violent behaviors or increases the likelihood of exhibiting aggressive behaviors. Admittedly, the environment in which a child is raised has a significant influence on the biological expression of genes. Usually, biosocial theorists believe that poor or disadvantaged environments often facilitate the expression of antisocial genes and cause suppression of the prosocial gene in a manner that hinders the realization of an individual’s genetic potential. More specifically, rearing children who are genetically at risk for antisocial behavior in positive family environments helps to prevent the development of antisocial behavior. Similarly, children who are not at a genetic risk for antisocial behavior never develop such behaviors when they are brought up in disadvantaged or adverse environments. From this perspective, one can explain that John’s development of antisocial behavior is because of the interaction between the genes (biological factors) and the environment (the environmental facilitates expression of antisocial genes).
Besides, the biosocial perspectives are instrumental in policy applications particularly regarding treatment and prevention programs. However, the biosocial perspectives may not are not valid indicators in assessing the responsibility of crime or evaluating crime tendencies. In fact, the biosocial theories or perspectives have an inherent individualistic bias, a situation that compromises their reliability in the determination of criminal tendencies or behaviors. Contrary to the biosocial perspective that there is a strong relationship between violence and hormonal behavior, there are cases where men having higher levels of testosterone have never engaged in violence. In addition, the biosocial approach to criminology fails to explain the existence of temporal and regional differences in crime rates. For example, it is hard to find a valid explanation why the eastern Canadian provinces have fewer homicide rates compared to Western Canadian provinces. On the other hand, the biosocial indicators are invalid because they create a bias by implying that people who come from disadvantaged environments are likely violent, a situation that may not always be true. While there are significant advances in research in respect to biosocial perspectives, such views lack a valid genetic basis for crime.
Substantially, the social structure theory can explain Johnâ€&...