Criminology Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

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28th November 2014
For any organized society, some ethical values are usually held in high regard. The main indication of a collapsed or a collapsing society is a loss of culture as well as lack of any moral responsibility. This can manifest itself through various ways, starting from the fundamental organizational unit, the family. This is what in turn brings about cases of crime within a given jurisdiction. A more disorganized society results to a poorer upbringing which in turn brings up messed up individuals that elevate the levels of crime within that locality. The relevant authorities within such a neighborhood have to take measures in order to deal with this menace. Sometimes, such activities arise out of the general bitterness or unrest about a certain prevailing condition that might be brought about by things such as the political climate at a given time.
A bad regime, or a regime that is taken to be discriminatory, can easily be turned against, through a violent revolt, or a silent manner; homicides, assassinations and cold war. As most leaders can say, it is better to deal with a violent reaction than a silent one, since it’s easier to see and tackle it, than the silent one which can easily hurt a regime. It is through the growth of discontent and apathy within the neighborhoods that combine with small groups to form dangerous criminal organizations that can hurt any government if not checked. It is these groups that breed violent criminals, who by their own thinking, feel justified to do all the criminal acts that they are doing. Theories in criminology can offer a slight insight into what goes on in the minds of these criminals.
A case in point happened in Israel, involving the assassination of the then prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin by a 25 year old law student by the name of Yigal Amir in 1995.Various conspiracies have been formed ever since, trying to explain the reason for the killing. Some stated that the prime minister was killed inside his car, while another claimed that the assassin, Amir, did not operate in isolation(ADL,1995).One thing for sure is that a majority of the Jewish population in Israel was pleased with the killing of the leader, since they felt he was not fair in dealing with everyone. Amir was later arrested and taken to face the law. While on trial, he justified his reasons for the assassination, claiming that it was for the good of all the Jews that Rabin was dead. That there would be no more western puppet trying to rule Israel with partiality. Such a confidence under trial speaks a lot of the criminal in question, and begs the question what was in his mind that made him plan and execute his mission successfully.
We can associate this criminal behavior by application of the modeling theory. When we look at the background of Amir, the assassin we get a lot of clues that might had influenced him. First, he was born and raised under strict Jewish culture. His education was centered upon intolerance to mistreatment (Jewish Virtual Library, 2014).This was further strengthened and later turned him into a radical when he joined university to study law and later political activism. All these were modeling him to become a staunch critic of the prime minister. He after joined the Jewish fighting organization, where he now reached the pinnacle of his ambitions. We can see that the environment in which he grew up inland the influences he got at each stage of his life molded and modeled him into the unapologetic assassin he finally became. Modeling theory is based upon the fact that the effect the environment has on an individual, usually has a reciprocal effect on the same environment (Robertson, 2014).In other terms, the surrounding affects the development of the individual, who in return displays these finished development on the general society. For example, if the surrounding commends the individual in actions he does, then the individual will strive to be excellent or even outdo his initial self. In Amir’s case, the activist wing and later the Jewish fighting organization that he was part of seem to have encouraged him further, hence modeling him. However, this is just one of many overlapping theories that explain the behavior of Amir.
Closely related to this modeling theory, is the operant behavior conditioning. This basically occurs when an individual is conditioned in such a way that he gets rewards or a specific response towards his behavior. As a result, he gets conditioned to expect such returns each time he manifests certain behavior (Handrick, 2014).Amir obviously experienced this from a very early age, in his university years as an activist. Later in that Eyal group, as expected of any cult, one is always vilified and praised for any act of heroism that he does. This might have contributed to the growth of the assassin in Amir.
We can associate this with the choice theory. Choice theory is basically a method whereby an individual looks at all the available options, measures the effects after and before, and then picks out the most favorable of them all. In such a situation, most people who commit crime usually view it with a bias towards the immediate action rather than the consequences of their decisions (Levin & Milgrom, 2004).An individual may be influenced by the degree of bond and connection he has with the victim, such as attachment or commitment. Amir felt very much detached from the leadership of the prime minister, even claiming that the leader only cared about 98% of the population, and the remaining two he never cared about at all (ADL, 1995) .As a result, he felt less guilty at the prior thought of shooting the prime minister, Mr.Rabin, and felt nothing mattered whether he died or not, in fact, he felt that good things would come once Rabin was dead. His discord with the government of the day resonated with the general dissatisfaction of the populace, and made him feel that he and they will gain much with Rabin’s assassination.
Under the trait theory, we can take Eysenck’s dimensional analysis of personality. He uses three dimensions out of which we can clearly see extraversion as the most outstanding trait in this case. This trait is characterized by a quick and violent reaction to anger, and a high level of stimulation when aroused by a certain causative factor. Amir clearly fits this billing of an extravert based on his trait. He failed in managing himself during his moodiness and anger, and on the contrary, deciding to display an outward reaction of discontentment with the leader of the government of the day, resulting to his crime (Sincero, 2012).
We can clearly highlight the general strain theory (GST) in the context of this crime. As its name suggests, these theory basically tries to explain the social problems that cause an individual to commit crime. In general, crime occurs when an individual wants to acquire something that will help him have a better standing in his society. Strain theory covers the part which involves an urgent need to commit such a crime for the sake of social betterment. The group in which he belonged, called Eyal or Jewish Fighting Organization, must have expected something from him in order for him to leave a mark. He also feels that he and other Jews, especially the 2% Jews that are discriminated, are forced to be under a lower class in the country. ...