Running head: WRITING ASSIGNMENT 4 1
Writing Assignment 4
Name
Institution
, WRITING ASSIGNMENT 4 2
Writing Assignment 4
Reflection Paper
In this course, I have learned many things that have enabled me to understand how crime
in the society occurs, and how it can be handled. More importantly, I have learned how criminal
justice system operates. I have come to learn many concepts in this course. Firstly, I learned
about what classical theory and its assumption of human nature. I found the assumptions of this
theory being very interesting. Nonetheless, they had very good explanation on what drives
humans into criminal behaviors. One of the assumptions that this theory makes about human
nature is that humans are rational. Thus, they are aware of every decision they make. This means
that humans deliberately engage in crime (Mitchell et al., 2015). They consider a point, in and out,
before coming into a conclusion. Due to this, humans deserve a punishment that is equal to the
damage that they caused. Secondly, this theory assumes that humans have free will. This is the
basis upon which they make decisions. I have also learned about the biological perspective of
crime. The biological theory associates criminal behaviors of individuals with biological
characteristics. I found this theory being less convincing. Indeed, after evaluating its strengths
and weaknesses, I found this theory having more weaknesses than strengths. However, it helped
me see crime in a broad way.
Learning how personality theory causes crime was also interesting. Initially, I did not
think that criminality could be a personality. However, after reading these theories, I found out
that criminal behaviors may be part of an individual’s personality. Of all the personality theories,
I was most interested with the psychoanalytic theory. This theory links the criminal behavior of
an individual with his or her childhood experiences as well as the sexual and aggressive instincts
(Mitchell et al., 2015). Individuals who were exposed to criminal activities during their childhood
Writing Assignment 4
Name
Institution
, WRITING ASSIGNMENT 4 2
Writing Assignment 4
Reflection Paper
In this course, I have learned many things that have enabled me to understand how crime
in the society occurs, and how it can be handled. More importantly, I have learned how criminal
justice system operates. I have come to learn many concepts in this course. Firstly, I learned
about what classical theory and its assumption of human nature. I found the assumptions of this
theory being very interesting. Nonetheless, they had very good explanation on what drives
humans into criminal behaviors. One of the assumptions that this theory makes about human
nature is that humans are rational. Thus, they are aware of every decision they make. This means
that humans deliberately engage in crime (Mitchell et al., 2015). They consider a point, in and out,
before coming into a conclusion. Due to this, humans deserve a punishment that is equal to the
damage that they caused. Secondly, this theory assumes that humans have free will. This is the
basis upon which they make decisions. I have also learned about the biological perspective of
crime. The biological theory associates criminal behaviors of individuals with biological
characteristics. I found this theory being less convincing. Indeed, after evaluating its strengths
and weaknesses, I found this theory having more weaknesses than strengths. However, it helped
me see crime in a broad way.
Learning how personality theory causes crime was also interesting. Initially, I did not
think that criminality could be a personality. However, after reading these theories, I found out
that criminal behaviors may be part of an individual’s personality. Of all the personality theories,
I was most interested with the psychoanalytic theory. This theory links the criminal behavior of
an individual with his or her childhood experiences as well as the sexual and aggressive instincts
(Mitchell et al., 2015). Individuals who were exposed to criminal activities during their childhood
