Crime and the Individual

Abstract

Within criminology, there is a long history of the search for the causes of criminal behavior being dominated by micro-level explanations focused on the individual— that is, criminology is strongly associated with and influenced by microlevel studies of crime that direct attention to locating the causes of crime within an individual’s psychology or biology or their individual relationships to others and to social institutions. The assumption that the causes of crime are found in the individual may seem to make logical sense. After all, people and their offending patterns are different and crime varies across individuals. Thus it would appear that variability in crime across individuals must have something to do with individuals themselves. The focus on the individual, especially in a historical era dominated by the economic, social, and political relations of capitalism as a world economic system and its emphasis on individual- level achievement and success, appeals to the basic socialization experiences of people who live in most economically advanced nations (Turner 1988). From an early age, mechanisms of socialization and social institutions label and divide individuals into categories of achievement tied to them as individuals. The idea that those who fail to achieve and possibly become criminals also reinforces common beliefs that criminals and non-criminals are different kinds of people and that individual efforts and choices have something to do with their criminal behavior and status.