Page 88 - Veritas

WHAT MAKES THEM CRIMINALS?

Ms. Ann Mariya Thomas

Heston was born in a dysfunctional household. His mother was an alco-
holic and his father a recidivist who was serving time in prison. Heston

would constantly get bullied in his school because of his family back-
ground. He did not have any friends and even the ones he had left him

after they got to know about his father. Heston’s peers isolated him and
thought him to be someone dangerous. Heston had outbursts which led

him to be aggressive and break things in his house. Heston’s mother
would call him his “father’s son” because he was short-tempered just

like his father and this infuriated Heston even more because he did not
want to be his father. Heston decided to endure all this until he could

leave school and live by himself. Hence, he worked hard in school. Until
one day, on his way back home, he was ambushed by one of his bullies

who demanded money from him to which Heston refused. Matters esca-
lated quickly and Heston was brutally beaten up. Before Heston could

stop himself, he took a brick to crush the other kid’s skull. The kid died
and Heston fled the scene.

Heston’s family and his environment as seen above were precarious. De-

spite everything that was going on in his life and no one to support him
other than his alcoholic mother, he had a strong resolve. Then what caused

him to lose all that resolve and kill another person?

Psychologists, criminologists, and forensic psychologists alike have been
studying criminality and criminals for decades. To this day they focus their

research and studies on mapping out the mindset of a criminal before
and after the crime has occurred. If these

studies are brought to fruition and backed
up with strong arguments and evidence, they

can help in crime prevention and help control
crime rates in countries. In the early 1800s,

Cesare Lombroso aimed to study the caus-
es of crime and proposed a biological theory

that indicated that criminality is inherited.

VERITAS 73