A Person's Environment Is a Determining Factor of Offending Behaviour'. Discuss the Usefulness of This Explanation

Since modern criminologists recognise crime to be a product of “moral, political and social processes”(Crutchfield et al 2008:1),   the conventional view that crime is defined as offences against the criminal law code of a given society is extremely inadequate (Crutchfield et al 2008:1). Moreover, the notion that a person’s environment is one of the determining factors of offending behaviour would appear to be a truism, with limited value as an interpretive or analytical tool to better understand the aetiology of criminal acts. The stereotypical classification of people into crime perpetration risk categories is a counter-productive measure, which breaches the grass roots loyalty and shared good will between and among national stakeholders. In much earlier times, the dominant thinking was that criminals either suffered from some kind of character defect or were simply unable to adjust to the tenets of the society in which they lived (Darrow 1972: 57). There was no deeper analysis hinging upon the prevailing political agenda of the day.

According to Crutchfield et al (208:363) critical theory scrutinises both the social system as well as the quantum of mainstream academic visions of society. It has two major strains namely critical race theory and feminist theory. It builds upon conflict theory and focuses upon the criminal justice system as power brokers within society, competing against other stakeholders for a share of power. As such, rather than the perpetrator of a crime being exclusively analysed on the basis of pathological suspicion, instead the societal structures are regarded as being potentially just as pathological as the individual, if not more so. This paradigm is an important mechanism to enable a more inclusive and comprehensive analysis of the aetiology of crime. It prevents the conclusion that an individual’s breaches of law can be fully attributed to their specific environment alone. When environment is cited as a causal factor of criminal... [continues]

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