Acquistive crimes are theft, burglary, robbery, fraud, deception
What do some psychologist believe criminal behaviour is ?
Some believe its a product from human nature nd is therefore inevitable.
Some believe that criminal behaviour is subjective rather than objective .This is the ideas that criminal behaviour is a socialconstruct , meaning that societies determine what is considered criminal ,often based on what is considered acceptable at that particular point in time .
How does society decide which activities are criminal and which are not?
The distinction is often based on norms, or acceptable standards of behaviour . If behaviour is different from what society expects , then this is an example of deviation from norms.
Norms are often based on what the majority do or expect others to do .This may be partly because due to the fact that is was not something practiced by the majority.
Culture has a huge role in defining criminal and anti-social behaviour .As cultureschange ,so do their norms ,and this leads to changes in the law if there is a strong shift in opinion.
what is culture ?
Culture is a collective set of norms or behaviour and values that determine the way of life a group of people.
Crime is measure by official statistics ,which give a measure of crime -like telling us what crimes are more common ,or which ones are on the increase or decrease.
However there is clear problem with statistics , that's not all crimes are reported .Due to several different factors.
That is why psychologist rely on self-report surveys to begin to uncover the "dark figure " of crime .Self report surveys are sometimes confidentialsurveys that which ask convicted criminals about other crimes they have committed ,besides the one they have been convicted/charged for, other times a also asking the general public.
Another alternative is to se Victim surveys ,where people can report crimes they have experienced even if they have decided to not to report them to the police .
