Psychological studies prove that Criminal behavior is not only affected by Environment but also Genetics and Cognition. So when a person does commit criminal behavior, there are other factors related to it. It is proven by studies that a gene of Criminal Behavior can be gained if it is in one’s inheritance, but may be submissive if the environment and cognition positively affects the person.
Many criminals (serial killers) in Jail have psychologists that talk to them. Psychologists are required to be emotionally distant with their patient as when they do get involved with the participant, the psychologist will not be able to look at the issue from a broader perspective. This is because a psychologist will have a better understanding of the surge of emotions that a person is feeling as one studies in great detail, what provokes a person to harm another human being, in such situations it is possible that the person in question has experienced trauma, with this knowledge psychologist argue that the person in question is not fully responsible for his/her actions.
Anger and Fear are two very vital emotions that provoke people to take rash decisions, which may lead to criminal behavior. It is a given that emotion affects decisions, so when studying psychology of criminal behavior, students understand the circumstances that a particular individual was a part of. However, if an individual, whose father or mother was just murdered and a psychologist was trying to explain to him/her the circumstances behind why the criminal murdered the individual parents as for the reason that they would be directly involved and nothing would justify the murder. So the individual whose parents were murdered might want to take revenge and kill the criminal however to him that might be justified not necessarily to others. (Emotion, Attribution and Attitudes Toward crime)
In conclusion, Psychology is a very complex area of discussion in addition to that when one brings into picture the area of Emotion and how the both are interconnected. This becomes very complicated. Nevertheless, emotion plays a role in almost everything, and so it also plays a role in Criminal behavior. To understand the psychology of the emotions that provokes an individual to take part in Criminal acts can be very different as not each case is the same as the other, so generalizing between Criminal acts is still in question. Nevertheless, the basic idea to understand is that criminal acts that are done are greatly affected by emotions.
Bibliography
TOK Course Notes, Mr. Eric.
Psychology Course Companion
"Crime." Crime. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Crime.html>.
West Virginia University Christopher Weber Louisiana State University, Erin Cassese. "Emotion, Attribution and Attitudes Toward Crime." Www.jiss.org. Journal of Integrated Social Sciences Www.jiss.org, 2011 - 2(1): 63-97, n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2012.
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