The Psychology of Crime

Roy, Saberi. "The Psychology of Crime." Ezine Articles. N.p., 11 Sept. 2008. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.

This article talked about the social-personal-moral dimensions of criminal behavior as well as what are criminals true motives to commit crimes.  The social aspect has to do with family and the environment the criminal interacts with.  For example, a child could choose to be involved in social things that are positive like art, sports and knowledge.  Or the child could become involved in the negative things like drugs, crime and alcohol.  Whichever path the child chooses is all due to how they have been treated at home and by their family.  The personal aspect deals with the person’s personality and dispositions.  Personality disorders are often a big factor in criminal behavior because the criminals try to escape reality through their criminal behaviors.  The last aspect, moral, talked about as the criminal is developing as a child they fail to develop the proper moral reasoning the average child develops.  Meaning they don't properly learn what is morally right and wrong and are constantly looking to break the law and challenge authority.  Some of the motives that drive people to engage in criminal activity include:   jealousy/envy, frustration, mental disorder, personal failures, family environment, influence of drugs/alcohol and social groups.  But the main thing is that the motives behind each criminal act are different for each criminal. 

I really enjoyed reading this article.  I found it very insightful and it makes a lot of sense.  Your childhood and childhood experiences really make up who you are.  An example of this is seen in the tv show Criminal Minds.  One of the agents, Morgan, was sexually abused as a child.  His life could have gone one of two ways.  He could become a criminal or a person that catches them.  He chose to help catch the criminals were as others don't take the same route he did.  I'm in AP Psychology now and when I read the paragraph on the moral reasoning of criminals, it makes sense.  Obviously something went wrong along the way and that made the person not develop their moral reasoning fully.  The first step of moral reasoning is avoiding punishment and obedience and if you can't fully develop how to avoid being punished and to do what you are told then you may become active in committing criminal acts. 

Psychos at Work?!

Keats, Jonathon. "Caution: Psychos at Work." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 14 June 2006. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.

This article was about how many psychopaths are bettter businessmen than your regular average joe.  The reasoning behind it, has to do with the characteristics that psychopaths posses.  At times, the business world can be very viscious, and psychopaths are more will to take risks and strive in that cutthorat environment.  But you cannot just look at a person and call them a psychopath becuase that is simply unreasonable; a casual diagnosis is impossible.

After reading this I am not really surprised.  I don't know if it's just how psychopaths are portrayed in the movies and on tv shows, but psychopaths are very charasmatic people, who are usually very organized and generally show little to no emotion.  Plus like the article said, they are able to take more risks because that is just how they are wired.  It is truely impossible to tell if someone is a psychopath just by looking at them because they appear to be so normal.  Which gets me thinking; if they don't look any different than you and I, then what is wrong with them mentally that would make them want to do what they do?   

What is "Evil"?

Stanton, Samenow E., Dr. ""Evil" Exists, but Not as a Diagnosis." Psychology Today. N.p., 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 3 Apr. 2013.

This article talks about the idea of good vs evil.  How our society has grown accustomed to that idea by making movies that show good tiumphing over the evil villan or bad guy.  Evil isn't a disorder you can label someone with, yet evil people still exist in the world.  There is a criminal spectrum that the author talks about ranging from petty crimes to mass murders.  She then goes into discussing how different criminals along the spectrum see themselves.  In a few short words the criminals don't consider themselves "evil" because to them being "evil" is defined in a totally different way.  Which is why they are able to do the things they do, because in their own minds they can rationalize their behavior and actions. 

While I was reading this article I found a lot of the infromation really interesting.  For instance, a quote from one of the criminals quoted in the article was, "Crime is like ice cream; it's delicious."  That comment really took be aback.  It made me wonder why these people think this way and how they can.  What happened in their lifes that they need to express themselves by inflicting pain and harm onto others.  That is going to be my focus in this project. 

The Assessment

“Instead she just looks at me.  My feet my legs my arms my head, her eyes keep sliding over my whole me like she’s counting.  ‘What?’  I say.  She doesn’t say a word.  She leans over, she doesn’t even kiss me, she just touches her face to mine till I can’t tell whose is whose.  My chest is going dangadangadang.  I won’t let go of her.” (150) 

Donoghue, Emma. "Dying." Room: A Novel. New York: Little, Brown and, 2010. 150. Print.

        Room is a story about five year old Jack and his mother.  Jack’s mother was kidnapped and kept in a small room, where she eventually gives birth to Jack.  Room describes the lifeline of their struggle to escape their caper and how they deal with the aftermath.  After seven years of being locked up, Jack’s mother has had enough and comes up with an escape plan based upon the book, Count of Monte Cristo.  The plan involves Jack pretending to play dead in order to get out of the small room and get help.  The plan works.  Adjusting to the real world is not going to be easy for both of them, but they have each other and the incredible mother-son bond to keep them strong in any environment.  That is what the passage is describing above; the unconditional love between mother and child is so incredible powerful that nothing, not even the change in environment, can change it.  

Emma Donoghue, author of Room, wrote an amazing survival story about overcoming your fears and the bond between a mother and her child.  The passage I chose above clearly shows that bond between Jack and his mother right before he is about carry out their escape plan and how much they rely on each other.  At first glance this bond can seem rather strange because most parents aren’t as close as Jack and his mother are in the story because of different circumstances.  Donoghue is showing the reader that environment you raise your child in can make all the difference in forming a good bond with them.  Granted the small room that Jack and his mother were locked in is not an ideal environment, but Jack’s mother made sure to make it a kid friendly environment that would help Jack grow and flourish.  That bond between Jack and his mother is tested, because Jack finds out relatively quickly that the things done in the real world are done differently than they were in the small room.  But I feel that only makes the bond between Jack and his mom that much more special because Jack must now rely on his mother for support to understand the norm of society.  This is important because it helps you understand why certain things happen in the book.  Like why she would risk Jack’s own life to escape, and why she would overdose on her pain killers.  

This model capstone project has been very fun and entertaining.  I really liked reading the short story, the non-fiction and fiction book.  What made it enjoyable was because the books and short story were spread out throughout the whole project.  The short story was a nice way to start the project.  I absolutely love the blog.  It is a very creative way of keeping all our assignments organized.  Plus it allows us to express ourselves.  There was nothing about this project that I disliked.  I did learn that there is more to the environment than global warming and the ozone.  It is really crazy how many different types of chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis and there is really nothing we can do to ignore them.  I can’t wait to do it with on a topic that I am really interested in learning more about! 

Slow Death by Rubber Duck

My reaction to the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things was very eye opening and intriguing.  I knew about all the toxins that could be in your body because of the everyday things that we do, but what really fascinated me was the fact that the authors made themselves the test subjects.  The authors poured themselves into this book and it just goes to show how passionate about the topic of pollution they are.  This book also opened my eyes to the historical part of pollution and how pollution has been with us for many years and will stay with us for many more.  It was cool to learn about how different countries handled pollution and how they overcame it; Like in Europe when they came up with sanitation for the water ways.  What also surprised me was how no country really wanted to be the first to address the BPA issue in baby bottles and plastics.  It just goes to show you how grey of an area the issue of pollution is and why many government officials won’t address it.    

Online I found many different reviews of the book, Slow Death by Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things.  Some readers on Amazon have said that this book is eye-opening and very well put together, while some think the complete opposite.  One reader commented by saying “the authors mean well, but it is very poorly written and they don’t approach the problems in a scientific way”.  On goodreads.com a reader commented that this book was funny, thought-provoking and incredibly disturbing.  The Oprah Magazine wrote a review for this book saying how far pollution as come through the years that we can no longer see it and how it should be a serious concern to all of us. 

Can BPA be responsible for Asthma in Children?

Smith, Stephanie. "Study Finds Link between BPA and Asthma." The Chart RSS. N.p., 1 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2013.

BPA is found in the lining of many different plastics.  Now after the latest study done by the Colombia Center for Children's Environmental Health, there is a strong possibility of a link between BPA detected in children and later breathing problems.  There was a study done on a group of 568 mothers and their children by taking urine samples.  Researchers found that a child's chances of having asthma were increased if BPA was found in their urine at ages 3, 5 and 7.  Also if BPA was measured in the urine at age 3, the chances of wheezing by ages 5 and 6 were increased.  From the study, the researchers concluded that there is a positive association between BPA and breathing problems.

A quote from the article, "BPA is believed to be present in almost everyone in the United States because the chemical is in so many products".  Now this doesn't mean we all are going to have breathing problems, it just means that when you stop and think, we probably have a lot more than just BPA floating around in our bodies.  Harmful chemicals are in many household products.  Companies try and eliminate exposing us to these harmful chemicals by not making their products with them, but the alternative chemicals they use instead may also hurt us.  For every good thing there are consequences and we just can't avoid these chemicals completely; it is our lifestyle now.  

Intensive Care Linked to BPA Exposure in Newborns

Raloff, Janet. "Intensive Care Linked to BPA Exposure in Newborns." Science News. N.p., 22 Feb.  2013. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

This article was about neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) that may be using devices that expose newborn babies to large doses of BPA.  Many of the devices used in the NICU like, breathing tubes, intravenous drug delivery lines and enclosed incubators, are made of plastic.  Many different types of plastic can contain BPA.  One of the best theories of BPA exposure was the level of care the baby received and the number of devices used to give the care.  A nurse and exposure-science researcher Susan Duty and her team studied 55 infants who were in the NICU in Boston.  They found out that the babies treated with four or more devices in the NICU had three times as much BPA as babies treated with three or less devices.  The team also discovered that the babies born prematurely had higher BPA levels because they aren’t able to break down the compound.  

This article only further concludes how dangerous BPA can be.  We send our newborn babies to the NICU to save them, but when we send them there, they are being exposed to BPA and further affecting their situation.  I felt this article only further concludes that there are harmful chemicals in everything, even the things that help us.  This is scary because that means there is no way to avoid becoming exposed to them.