Criminological Research
Offenders commit crimes for different reasons. Criminological theories attempt to explain why crimes occur. For the Final Paper, you will evaluate the theoretical study of crime and crime causation by examining the crime of an offender and applying a criminological theory discussing why the offense occurred.
You must discuss both the offender and the crime in detail. Additionally, you must research the criminological theory to be used; discuss the theorist responsible for coining the theory, the year it was created, the premise of the theory, and how it is applicable.
Below is a list of offenders that were reported in the media as a result of the heinous nature of their offense. Select one of the offenders, and research their crime. You may only use scholarly sources when citing in your paper. Wikipedia is not an acceptable source.
First, select an offender from the list of offenders.
Offenders
Alex and Derek King (12 and 13 when they killed their father)
Andrew Luster (Cosmetic fortune heir who was convicted of drugging, raping, and videotaping assault of young women)
Bernard Madoff (perpetrated world’s largest Ponzi scheme, bilking investors of billions of dollars)
Charles Cullen (Most prolific serial killer in New Jersey history, killed patients with drugs from the hospital)
Cheng Chui Ping (Smuggled thousands of Chinese immigrants to the United States)
Eric Rudolph (Serial bomber responsible for several anti-abortion and anti-gay bombings, killing two and injuring 111)
Jesse Timmendequas (Raped and murdered a seven-year-old girl)
Joel Steinberg (lawyer who beat six-year-old daughter to death)
John B. Taylor (former Wendy’s manager who robbed and shot seven employees)
Kathy Boudin (radical involved in robbery that led to the death of two police officers and a security guard)
Ken Lay (Enron accounting fraud, wiped out employee-stockholders’ pensions)
Michael Devlin (kidnapped and sexually abused two boys while living openly as their “father”)
Robert Chambers (nicknamed the “Preppie Murderer,” killed 18-year-old woman in Central Park)
Sante Kimes (grifter who, with son, murdered elderly socialite to get townhouse)
Seung-Hui Cho (South Korean student who killed 32 people and wounded 17 others at Virginia Tech)
Susan Smith (falsely claimed carjacking to cover drowning of her children)
Zacarias Moussaoui (would-be 9/11 hijacker now serving life sentence in federal prison)
Then, select one theory from the list.
Theories
Age-Graded Theory
Anomie Theory
Arousal Theory
Behavioral Theory
Biochemical Theory
Cognitive Theory
Control Balance Theory
Critical Criminology
Critical Feminist Criminology
Cultural Deviance Theory
Deviance Place Theory
Differential Association Theory
Differential Coercion Theory
Evolution Theory
General Strain Theory
Instrumental Theory
Integrated Cognitive Antisocial Potential (ICAP) Theory
Interactional Theory
Left Realism Theory
Lifestyle Theory
Rational Choice Theory
Theory of Crime and Genetic Theory
After you research the criminological theory and the case, your paper must
Explain the theory in detail.
Discuss the theorist responsible for coining the theory including the year the theory was created.
Describe the premise of the theory.
Explain how it is applicable.
Discuss both the offender and the crime
Sample Solution
The offence under consideration is serial murder, also referred to as serial killing. From the legal standpoint, serial killing is the unlawful homicide of at least two people, usually attributed to one person in discrete events occurring at different times (Adjorlolo & Chan, 2014).. Granting this definition is widely used, the offense is not formally recognized in most legal contexts, including that of the United States (Adjorlolo & Chan, 2014). Serial murder should be delimited from mass murder, in which several people are killed in a single instant and place. Contemporary discourse among criminologists typically is focused on appropriate definition of serial murder.
