Criminal Justice Paper

Theories of social process and social development

Social process theories affirm that one acquires criminal behavior by learning from other criminals and socializing with them. Social development theories examine the different components of development influencing human behavior, these components include: psychological, familial, biological, interpersonal, cultural, societal, and ecological (Siegel, 2010). In our discussion all of these factors come into play when learning criminal behavior.

Implications of low self-esteem

Low self-esteem may lead to anxiety, stress, depression, and loneliness which results from loss of self-value and self-worth as a result of psychological problems experienced at any point of life as a result of disturbed relationships with parents, peers or colleagues. Low self-esteem if not appropriately handled can have dire effects in one’s socialization skills leading to troubled friendships and romantic relations.

There are various ways of improving self-esteem and they include: teaching the affected person’s on positive self talk when they are feeling down or about to present something before others, helping them understand that nobody is perfect, assisting them on focusing things that they can change, appreciating them, using kind words when correcting them, encouraging them and believing in them.

Social development perspective

Social development is a process of social change that helps the society in improving itself; it is influenced by various perspectives that are the political perspective, economic perspective and social perspective among others.

· Political perspective: politically their key elected persons to represent the community plays a major role in promoting social development for instance if they are innovative and their leaders keep on encouraging innovation and emphasizing on the importance of education the society will grow at large.

· Economic perspective: societies that belong to the high economic status are more likely to develop faster and they have a lower crime rate compared to societies that belong to the low social economic status

· Social perspective: socially what people do, with whom they do it and the time they do it influences a lot on their society’s development. People who engage in scrupulous activities tend to have a high crime rate and a reduced societal development rate compare to people who engage in productive activities.

References:

Huesman, L. R (1998). The role of social information processing and cognitive schema in the acquisition and maintenance of habitual aggressive behavior. New York: Academic Press.

Siegel, L .J & McCormick, C. R (2010). Criminology in Canada: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. Nelson Education.