Homicide as defined from the legal dictionary is the act of killing a human being by another human being. Often killing or murder is committed as an act of violence or psychotic outburst. In the world right now there are many violent societies and the rate of this violence varies from town to town, city to city and country to country. Currently the rate of homicide is very high in the United States as compared to other states or nations.
Violence and the psychotic cases of homicide are mostly based on the fundamentals of a child‘s upbringing. If a child is brought up in an environment where every situation is solved by violence it will be inflicted in him and the child will also resort to violence whenever he or she is at odds with someone. In some societies corporal punishment is the best way of inflicting discipline on a child. (Straus, 1996)
In psychotic cases mostly it’s when a child has witnessed a brutal murder of someone they know it could be a neighbor, a friend or a family member. If the child does not receive proper therapy they may grow up seeking revenge or just killing for the fun of it. If someone accidentally killed someone, it could be a domestic fight or a brawl in a pub or street, there normally several reactions to this, one could be shocked, scared, regret or thrilled with the feeling of killing someone. The last reaction leads to several murders by the person for the fun of it and he could even use a certain pattern or method of killing. This brings forth the existence of serial killers. (Straus, 1996)
More often than not the psychology state of a criminal is the main reason or cause to the criminal behavior. There are many psychological theories that try to explain criminal behavior one of them is the choice theory. The choice theory states that criminal behavior is rational. A rational action is one that is done by a person in their right state of mind. A criminal can commit an offence rationally because of various vices, greed, lust, anger, revenge, jealousy, need and vanity. (Bartol, 2005)
In this theory there are three models of criminal behavior that is the rational actor, predestined actor and the victimized actor. The rational actor is a criminal who chooses to commit an offence and the penalty for such a criminal would be more severe since they had an option of choosing not to break the law. The predestined actor is a criminal who cannot control the urge to commit a crime and at times the environment also triggers the urges, this criminal activity could be stopped by providing a better, biological, sociological and psychological environment to the offender. The victimized actor is a criminal who has undergone unequal treatment from the society and he/ she blames the society and revenges by harming the society. This could be solved by changing the legislation of the society. (Bartol, 2005)
Another theory is the Eysenck’s theory of personality and crime, this theory states that criminal behavior is the result of interaction between environmental conditions and features of the nervous system. This theory explains that a criminal has a unique nervous system and neurophysiologic setup that when they interact with certain conditions in the environment they are prone to committing a criminal offence. The mind of a human being is made up of neurons and there is an emotional part of the brain called neuroticism. The different personalities of human beings lead to different emotional reactions to situations and that is why there are different types of criminals. (Bartol, 2005)
Trait theory is another theory that is used to explain criminal behavior. This theory states that criminality is a result of abnormal biological or psychological traits. This theory suggested that criminals are human beings born with archaic behavior into the modern world. They were primitive and they committed crimes trying to fit and adjust to this modern world. Different research on this theory has shown that not all criminals suffer from both biological and psychological abnormality. Each criminal has his own unique features some have inherited the criminal tendencies from parents, some may have neurological defects and some may have blood chemistry disorders. (Bartol, 2005)
Psychodynamic trait theory was developed by Sigmund Freud and states that every person carries the residue of the most important emotional attachments of our childhood and guides the persons in their interpersonal relationships in future. This theory is made up of three structures the id-the underdeveloped part of our makeup, the ego and the super ego. It is believed that criminals have personalities that are dominated by the id, making them to lose control of their ego and hence end up committing offences. (Bartol, 2005)
Social structure theory mainly talks of hoe the social environment can lead to criminal behavior. In many societies there are many social classes, the most common are three, upper class, middle class and lower class. The differences in these classes often raise conflicts which end up in criminal activity.
Social disorganization theory deals with the urban conditions that affect crime rates in society. Disorganization in society mostly affects the lower classes, where there are a lot of school drop outs, unemployment, low income levels and poor housing facilities. These living conditions propel the residents in lower classes to commit crimes like theft, robbery with violence in order to support themselves. (Bartol, 2005)
Social process theory states that criminal behavior is a result of individual socialization and their interactions with institutions and organizations in society. If a child sees his friend beat up and steal money from another child and later uses this money to buy toys and treats then the child is going to do the exact same thing. To solve criminality in society then children have to be well groomed and brought up in a disciplined society. Children ought to know that violence and theft are vices and they are not tolerated.
The theories discussed above are all different and they were developed by different people, but one thing is clear the society plays a big role in the way it affects criminals. The researchers are trying to find a way to prevent criminal activity by improving the conditions in society that trigger criminal activity.
Gender has been discussed before when it comes to crime and it is almost obvious that more males than females are considered criminal offenders. In the world of crime male criminal offenders seem to dominate due to their aggression, dominance and physique.
Criminal’s way of thinking is distorted and that is why someone may take harmless remarks as provocative or very disrespectful. This distorted way of thinking is often pegged to a “victim stance”. Criminals always think they have been treated unfairly by the society and mostly they refer to themselves as the outcasts of the society. They feel as if the society does not value them or respect them and most of them think the only way to earn respect is by coming of as tough. To be tough they engage in violence example brutally beating up anyone who offends them and to act as a lesson to the rest. (Lipsey, 2007)
After a lot of research was carried out on ways to get rid of criminal activity, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) was advised as rehabilitative treatment for criminals. Researchers compared behavioral programs and cognitive- behavioral programs and they found out that the latter was more effective than the former. Cognitive- behavioral programs had reduced recidivism by a mean of 30%. CBT mostly targets the criminal mind and the way they think. The programs carried out to treat offenders, teach offenders to understand the way they think and the choice they make before committing a crime. This mainly is to help them be in control of their mind and several techniques are used to help them do this. These techniques are cognitive skills training, anger management and supplementary components.
Cognitive skills training aims at changing distorted way of thinking into better ways of thinking for instance; casual thinking, abstract thinking, critical thinking, goal planning and perspective thinking. When criminals develop such ways of thinking then they will have a better way of adapting to offsetting situations that may lead to criminal behavior.
Anger management training deals with teaching criminal offenders on how to monitor their thoughts and actions in events that may lead to anger or violence. They are taught to replace those angry thoughts and violent actions with better ones. They may be given ways of controlling anger for example by breathing deeply severally before reacting to annoying situations. By doing so they are able to calm down and deal with upsetting situations rationally. (Lipsey, 2007)
Supplementary components include other training skills apart from anger management and cognitive skills training. Some of these skills are social skills training, moral reasoning exercises and relapse prevention planning. The last skill has become more popular since it deals with developing cognitive risk-management strategies that enable criminal offenders to avoid conditions or aspects that lead to criminal activity. (Wilson, 2007)
There are several programs that make up the CBT program. These programs include; the reasoning and rehabilitation program, moral reconation therapy, aggression replacement training, thinking for a change program and cognitive interventions program. (Wilson, 2007)
The Cognitive Interventions Program involves a 15 lesson plan of cognitive restructuring that teaches criminal offenders to view their actions as the product of the decisions they make and not anyone else’s. The lesson is that people should always make the right choices which will lead to right actions. (Wilson, 2007)
Thinking for a change program consists of 22 sessions of group exercises that enable the offenders to realize that the way they think affects the way they behave and that it is always good to think before we act. Thinking before we act helps in making rational decisions and it helps us from acting impulsively. (Wilson, 2007)
Aggression Replacement Training is made up of three parts; skill streaming, anger control training and moral education. Skill streaming teaches the criminals social behavior by enable them to role play and use models. Anger control training enables the criminal to record their experiences during anger arousal exercises and enable them to control their reactions. Moral education teaches offenders the morals of society and how they ought to go about their behavior in order to act morally. (Wilson, 2007)
The Reasoning and Rehabilitation program involves the use of mind joggling exercises example critical thinking. Offenders are trained to stop impulsive, illogical and rigid way of thinking that drives them into committing crime and encourages them to always think before acting and analyze the consequences of evil thoughts. (Wilson, 2007)
Another thing that is dealt with in the CBT program is the rehabilitation of substance abuse. Most criminals are involved in drug and alcohol abuse in order to fill the void in their lives. The poor behaviors such as aggression, uncontrolled anger and violence are mostly effects of drugs abuse. When people are under the effects of substance abuse they tend to be cranky and act irrationally. These are the main reasons as to why criminals act the way they do so if they undergo rehabilitation and relapse is prevented then criminal offenders are able to adapt to the cognitive skills and behavioral strategies.
Conclusion
Homicide is a crime that robs the society of happiness and instead replaces it with agony and grief. Crime is normally committed by individuals who end up being known us criminals. If the authority does its duties then the criminals are punished and justice is observed though this does not bring back the loved ones it helps the families that have been victimized to get closure.
From this article we have been able to delve into the minds of criminals and learn how they think and reason. As an individual one wonders what could drive a sane human being to commit a gruesome crime like killing a 5 year old or raping a 2 year old baby girl, but through the above discussed theory we are able to get some insight.
After all has been done we only hope that the world we live in will one day be better than today and that the level of criminal activity will reduce to a minimum. This can only be achieved if each and everyone played there role as responsible and rational human beings
References
Straus & Murray A, (1996) EBSCOhost: Spanking and the making of a violent society Vol.98, Issue 4
Bartol, Anne M & Curt A, (2005). Criminal behavior: A psychosocial approach. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Lipsey M W, Landenberger N A & Wilson S J, (2007), Effects of cognitive-behavioral programs for criminal offenders. The Campbell Collaboration, Norway
Price M H, (2003) EBSCOhost: The catfish kid killings. Fort Worth Business Press vol. 16, Issue 33
Barlow D H & Durand V M, (2006) Essentials of Abnormal Psychology. California
Bersoff D M, Ogloff J R P & Tomkins A J (1996). Education and training in psychology and law/criminal justice: Historical foundations
