Criminals are born, not made. Comment.

Everyone is born with different genes in different environments. The environment moulds a person's character regardless of their genes. Therefore, I agree to a small extent that criminals are born, not made.

Some people may think that people born with aggressive instincts are more prone to becoming criminals in the future. The public stereotypes gangsters who pick fights as aggressive people. They have this perception that since aggressiveness is innate, these aggressive people resort to violence to solve problems. A study in Denmark from 1924 to 1946 found that chronically criminal biological parents were three times as likely to produce a chronically criminal son as were biological parents with no such convictions. Yes, some criminals may be born with mental illnesses, but how many mental patients actually commit crimes? Even if they do so, many of them are influenced by external factors. Tsutomu Miyazaki, aka “the Little Girl Murderer” murdered many girls in the late 1980s and was found to be suffering from schizophrenia. However, most mental patients receive counseling and may be cured. Thus, this reiterates my point that the environment largely affects a person’s “criminal probability”.

Also, the mass media may be responsible for a person’s transition into a criminal. Many movies glorify crime and there is desensitization to the real world situation. Movies such as Ocean’s Eleven glamorize bank robbery and this will have a negative impact on a person’s values. One will believe that it is very possible to rob a bank and get away with it, when in reality, it is probably near impossible. Thus the public may pick up negative attitudes and behavior that may spur them on to committing crimes. Even “innocent” cartoons such as Power Rangers and Happy Tree Friends promote violence by perceiving fights as cool and portraying gory scenes as amusing scenarios. In 1993, England, two boys aged 11 were charged with the murder of James Bulger, a 2 year old toddler. After much investigation, their actions were found to be influenced by the Moor Murders, a similar crime committed years earlier. Prior to investigations, the boys were found to be normal, with no history of “bad genes”. Hiroyuki Tsuchida, 22, used a baseball bat to beat his mother to death in June 2003 in Japan. He was stopped before he could do the same thing to the rest in his family. When questioned, he claimed the anime series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, had given him the idea that humans should be eliminated, so he’d decided to start with his own family. Thus, this shows that a criminal, no matter what age and regardless of genetic makeup, is capable of committing a crime due to influences from other factors. In this case, the media proved to be extremely influential in this area.

Technology may also influence a person to commit crimes. With advancements in technology, people are more able to commit quick and fast cyber crimes. Compared to the past, people now will find it easier to siphon money off someone as it is easier and more efficient to transfer funds online, since technological security is imperfect and prone to failure. Piracy, another form of crime, is often practiced as the government lacks the manpower to conduct regular checks on people who pirate goods online. Thus, many websites pirating movies and software often go undetected. This lack of authority makes people bolder, and thus cyber crime popularity rises. In America, guns can be bought easily online and it is often difficult to trace the identities of these buyers. They might be tempted to kill because weapons are easily available. Temptation lures a person into crime regardless of genetic makeup. Thus technological advancements may give rise to borderless crime.

Family background moulds a person’s character and may cause him to become a criminal. Dysfunctional families and families which use violence excessively at home will expose their children to negative values and these children may then grow up to be criminals because they think it is right. Also, children who have little attention from parents may commit crimes to seek attention from their parents- “poor little rich kid” stereotype. Take for example the recent case of incestuous rape in Austria. In April 2008, Josef Fritzl was convicted of murder and rape. Later studies show that he had grown up without a father and his mother raised him singlehandedly with harsh beatings. John Wayne Gacy, an American serial killer who killed 33 people, also had an abusive family. His father was an alcoholic who often beat him up and called him a sissy. From these, it is evident that a criminal/s family background can have negative impacts on him or her; especially if negative experiences are had during childhood.

Therefore, I conclude that criminals are not born. Rather, they are shaped by the environment around them. Whether a person turns into a criminal or not is largely based on what he goes through in life.