Brutality And Crime

From a long time social scientists have been working to unveil the factors which can provoke someone to indulge in a crime. A lot of factors have been described by researchers which can entice any individual to commit a crime. These factors explain why a person perform a criminal act, but don’t explain why the level of brutality/violence differ in various violent or non-violent crime. We have very little knowledge regarding the behaviour of a criminal which led to the brutality in a crime. We often describe some crime as a normal and some as heinous. Consider a crime in which the victim was shot dead and another one in which the victim was chopped into several pieces. Surely, most of us will describe the later one as more heinous or brutal …show more content…
Violent crimes affecting body - Murder, Attempt to commit murder, Culpable Homicide not amounting to murder, Dowry deaths and Kidnapping & Abduction; II. Violent crimes affecting property - Dacoity, Preparation & assembly to commit dacoity and Robbery; III. Violent crimes affecting public safety - Riots and Arson; IV. Violent crimes affecting women - Rape”[1]. The basis in above categorization is not rational and has not been explained by National Crime Bureau of India.
Criminologists need a theory which can explain a crime as violent or non-violent. We also need a theory of criminal behavior which can explain the brutality associated in a crime. This paper focus on the brutality in a criminal act.
In criminology most of the theory of crime are theories of criminal behavior. These theories put effort on explaining the behavior of the criminal but don’t explain the cause of varying level of brutality associated with criminal behavior.
The criminologist has worked hard and positively integrated factors like environment, brain dysfunction, genetic, psychopathology, weather and differential association with criminal …show more content…
All theories explain the criminal behaviour but psychological analysis move one step forward than others and link the violence/brutality associated in a crime with criminal behaviour.
Criminologists need theories which can explain each and every aspects of criminal behaviour. Firstly, a theory is needed which can label some act as a crime - labelling theory. Second theory is needed which can differentiate violent and non-violent. Third theory: which can measure the level of brutality or violence associated with a crime as well as explanation of behaviour associated with the different levels.
Till now brutality/violence associated with a crime seems to be only due to psychological factor. We don’t have any theory to explain why the level of brutality vary in different crime. Social scientists have integrated violence with the psychopath but they have not explained the cause of varying level of brutality.
Further studies and rigorous research method are required if we want to cover each and every aspect of criminal