ORGINS OF CRIME 2The Origins of Crime: Biological, Developmental, or Situational?When heinous crimes are committed, the most widely asked question is “why”? In anattempt to answer this question, social psychologist study how group and individual behaviorsare influenced by the presence and actions of those around them. Social psychologists focus onthe biological, developmental, and situational aspects of one’s life and how they may influencetheir criminal behaviors. By creating a link between the person and these three perspectives(biological, developmental, and social), we gain a better understanding of the criminal and whythey may have acted in that way. According to the text (DeLisi. Schwartz.Klein. 2019) it iswidely and almost universally recognized that both biological and environmental factors areimportant for understanding a person’s criminal behavior. In fact, biological and environmentalfactors can often interact with and reinforce one another to escalate the behavior.The Role of Biological, Developmental, and Situational PerspectivesIn my clients, Aileen Wuornos’ case there were many biological, developmental, andsocial factors that may have contributed to her criminal behavior; in order to address this, wemust look at her family history and her up bringing. At an early age, my client was abandoned byher mother, she and her brother (who she developed a sexual relationship with) were left to beraised by her mother’s parents. Aileen never met her biological father because he was convictedfor molestation and rape of minor children and imprisoned before she was born, he latercommitted suicide while in jail. Aileen’s grandmother was said to be an alcoholic, and her
