The Emergence of Violent Behaviour: In Conclusion

Violent criminal behaviour is a persistent problem with far reaching consequences.

In order to arrive at an intricate understanding of the ways in which criminal behaviour emerges, an interactionist perspective must be adopted, which takes into account the interrelationship between biological factors and environmental influences.

It is reductionist to narrow the focus to either one or the other when contemporary research suggests that both factors are important in the emergence of any human behaviour (Anderson, 2007).

There may be certain biological factors which are inherited that offer a predisposition towards a certain kind of behaviour but this is only ever a predisposition.

Biology cannot exist in a vacuum, it enfolds within a social context and it is the interplay between the two which results in violent behaviour. Theoretical accounts of how violent behaviour emerges are only useful in relation to how applicable they are to real-world problems in criminal investigations and the criminal justice system.

There is the need for further research to investigate what aspects of the available criminological literature is useful in the prediction, detection and deterrence of future criminal activity, and what further work there still is to be done.