Certain environmental factors are strong determinants of criminal behavior. The economic and social milieu, family status, and educational levels all play an important role in the genesis of criminality. The theory that criminals are made, not born, is supported by following authors:
Cullen, F., Gendreau, P., Jarjoura, G., and Wright, J. Gurr, T. (1970). Why men rebel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
The author contends that the potential for collective violence can be determined by assessing certain psychological variables in groups or classes in society. Groups's shares of social goods affect their feelings of relative deprivation. Relative deprivation is defined as the discontent that results from the perceived discrepancy between a group's expectations for their conditions in life and their ability to obtain those conditions; Gurr's focus in on economic deprivation. The author claims that people are particularly sensitive to declines in economic goods, especially those segments of society that are already living close to the proverbial edge. A group's potential for collective violence can be determined by analyzing changes in the group's means for obtaining social goods. Thus economic declines can precipitate violence.
Defronzo, J. (April 1996). Welfare and burglary. Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 223-230.
Government assistance to low-income persons mitigates the deprivation strain that leads people to resort to illegal activities for material gain. The author conducted a study that analyzed burglary rates for 141 cities and compared these rates with data on AFDC, cost of living, unemployment, household status, and other social and economic variables. The results of the analyses were that welfare assistance to the poor is a means of limiting burglary. The author's findings support both the strain and integrated social disorganization-strain theories of crime. The strain theory co...