Questions about crime have been around ever since man first committed it. One of the most sought after questions today is whether criminal behavior is the result of nature or nurture. As the debate continues today, research has shown evidence for both sides. However, the majority points towards the side that criminal behavior is the result of nature; it is not inherited or born with.

Criminal behavior is not inherited, it cannot be. People are not born with their personalities or views on the world; they are formed throughout childhood and life. A proven theory is that crime is partly caused by poverty and economic inequality. Prisons are filled with poor people, not rich people, because of this sociologists look to economic inequality to explain why people turn to crime. The settings of an individual also form the views of the individual. If you are born in a poverty-stricken area, then crime is a norm and you are taught to do whatever it takes to survive. It's the streets and growing up on them you see crime everyday. However in a rich neighborhood, in the burbs, you don't see crime everyday if ever. The individual has everything they need and do not need

As the research has shown, criminal behavior is learned, not born. Humans are not born with the impulse to commit crime; we don't even know what is against the law at birth. We, as humans, are born with out views on society. As we grow up and are socialized, we learn what is good and what is bad in society. This information is not known at birth. It would be impossible to be born bad because society controls what is "bad," and as a baby how can "bad" be a certain gene when the society, not human race, chooses what is bad and what is good. Although there is evidence supporting both sides in the nature v. nurture argument, most of it is in favor of nurture. Everybody is born without a society, it is not until we are exposed to a society that we learn the rights and wrongs of it, therefore being born bad is not possible, we must be taught it.

Robert Merton, a famous sociologist, had a theory on why criminals become criminals. His theory, known as the "Strain Theory," stressed the idea that because of economic inequality in American society, there is a strain between the culturally held goals and the legitimate, institutional means to achieve those goals. Basically, in our society we have major goals that everyone wa

Some topics in this essay:
, Choice Theory, Socialization Theory, Strain Theory, Middle Upper, Robert Merton, criminal behavior, behavior result nature, criminal behavior result, behavior result, result nature, economic inequality, nature nurture, bad society, achieving goals, commit crime, social classes, achieving goals society, born bad, result nature nurture,