Criminals are born, they are not made. The fundamental definition of criminal is a person who engages in offensive behavior in the community (Harrower, 2001). The offense can range from minor theft to murder. Criminals are born not made is a topic that this article is going to discuss, and will examine theories which try to explain the behavior of criminals. Taken separately, these theories about why individuals commit crimes cannot completely explain all types of crimes and crime. Psychologists have proposed a variety of theories and reasons for why individuals commit crimes.

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Other psychological theories about crime consider the personal factors, such as inadequate socialization and adverse experiences early in life, learned behaviors, personality, and mental health disorders, which may lead to criminal thought patterns. This research attempts to determine the various personality traits which connect perpetrators with their personalities. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between personality traits and criminal behaviors, as well as determine if these factors are predictive for future recidivism. Personality is an important factor for a variety of behaviors, and criminal behavior is one.

They hypothesize that certain biological, physiological, or personality traits are already established, and these traits would affect an individual toward crime. Some claim that at the time of birth, a person is already determined to be criminal. Two professors at Harvard, having reviewed studies of all these factors, said no one could ever predict if any given individual would become a career criminal. In a comprehensive review of a number of studies, James Q. Wilson and Richard J. Herrnstein found that criminals are born, not made--a view they acknowledge is hotly controversial.

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Some have said that criminals are born, and those are the philosophers and scientists who think genetics plays a role in human behavior, and therefore that criminals are a consequence of that; those are twin studies and adoption studies. There are also studies which have been done which proves that criminals are made by society, these are scientists and philosophers who consider it is the environment, for example, the persons interactions with the society, which shape a persons behavior. The born-or-made argument, known as the nature vs. nurture debate, raises the question whether criminality is caused by genetic factors, therefore inevitable, or is a product of the environment, the social environment, situation, and other outside factors. The innate or learned characteristics may account for criminals creation.

In other words, criminals are born with a particular type of personality--we are all--but criminal personalities are those that are vulnerable to risk for mental illnesses, like antisocial disorders or psychopathy. Are individuals predisposed to becoming a criminal, or are they made so by their environment. If crime (or, say, certain crimes) were genetic, then an intelligent, compassionate society could no longer insist that the criminal necessarily committed his crimes as a free agent.