Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on what are the main risk factors that can lead to an individual displaying criminal tendencies.

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on what are the main risk factors that can lead to an individual displaying criminal tendencies. Among 15-24-year-olds, deaths by gunshot went up by 40% between 1985 and 1991 (The Economist, 1994).

Based on statistics, nearly one million eighth-graders admit getting drunk and another 1.2 million twelfth graders are considered binge drinkers. Heroin use by young adults has doubled from 1991 to 1996 and even teenage compulsive gambling is on the rise (http://www.einstein.edu/e3front.dll?durki=8576, 2004).

Alcohol alone kills 10,000 young adults each year. Drug and alcohol abuse can also lead to other risky behaviors, such as drunk driving, unprotected sex, date rape, suicide, and violence (http://www.einstein.edu/e3front.dll?durki=8576, 2004).

These are just some of the facts and figures serving a very good example of deviant or criminal behaviors in the US and the UK. And what is quite alarming is that these criminal behaviors are becoming highly prevalent, bringing more and bigger problems to society. Because of the quite alarming data related to criminal behaviors, it has then become worth noting to understand the significant factors that can lead one person to display criminal tendencies.

Deviance is defined as the recognized violation of cultural norms. One familiar type of deviance is a crime or the violation of norms a society formally enacts into criminal law. Meanwhile, juvenile delinquency is under the subcategory of deviance. Deviance encompasses a wide range of other acts of nonconformity, from variations in hairstyles to murder (http://www.geocities.com/tdeddins/deviance.htm, 2004).

The psychological explanations of deviance are concentrated on individual abnormalities involving personality. What is viewed as criminal varies over both time and place? What all crime has in common is that perceived violations bring about a response from a formal criminal justice system. According to the statistics given by the FBI, there are actually three types of crimes being committed.