The Invention and Development of the "Psychofamilial" Theory of Criminology: A Melding of Psychological and Family-Related Explanations for Why Individuals Commit Crimes

• Main Author: Demar, Jessica Leah
• Language: en
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/271615

This paper proposes an answer to the hypothesis: What causes individuals to commit crimes? This is a question that criminologists have sought the answer to for generations. I agreed with positivist crime theory that purports crime is not chosen per say but rather it is based on a deterministic model dependent on the cause-and-effect relationship between the individual and external factors in their surrounding world. Yet, I disagreed that certain theories within the positivist frame should be separated sociologically and individually. Inspired by experiences sentencing juvenile delinquents in Pima County, I proposed the unique and comprehensive Psychofamilial Theory that I concluded adequately reconciled the strengths and rectified the weaknesses, and conflicts between the sociological-familial crime theory and the individual-psychological crime theory.