1. Turning to Crime

2. List all of the people you can think of who have been found guilty of crimes, past or present.

3. The key question is whether they have anything in common.
Go through your list – are there any common features?

4. Is it worth trying to find common characteristics of criminals?

5. Rank these factors as to how much they would affect a person who turns to crime:
Television
Newspapers
Films
Parents
Siblings
Genes
Peers
Brain function
Pets
Social class
Age
Education
Addictions
Occupation
Gender

6. Once you have ranked the factors compare yours with the person sitting next you.
Between you decide on the 3 most important factors

7. Now join up with another pair
Decide which 3 factors are the most important

8. Which of the factors are Nature and which are Nurture?

9. Key question Are some people born bad? Look at your list of criminals
What do you think?

10. Psychology is about explaining why people do the things they do.
Criminal psychology is about trying to explain why people commit crimes.
BUT
Different crimes have different motivations.
This means it ain’t easy!!!

11. There are many different schools of thought in psychology.
These can be divided into the nature and nurture approaches.
The ‘nature’ approach argues that criminals are different to the rest of the population (brain chemistry for example).
The ‘nurture’ approach say that ANYONE CAN COMMIT CRIME BECAUSE THE CAUSE IS ENVIRONMENTAL OR SOCIAL (e.g.PRESSURE TO CONFORM)

12. Result
 There are many different explanations as to why people commit crime.

13. Now complete the why? sheet
List as many reasons as you can