personal theory of crime causation at the start of the course.

I would attribute crime largely, although not totally to social conditioning / acculturation. I would also distinguish between serious and petty crime with serious crime more likely to issue from acculturation.

My reasons for saying so are due to the fact that our cultures prompt us to perceive the world and ethics in certain ways. There are some religious fundamentalist societies, for instance, that condone situations that other societies would condemn. A person growing up in an Islamic society may consider sainthood to be achieved by killing an enemy or by treating women in a certain way. Contemporary Western society would consider this a crime. Extreme Orthodox Judaism also practices violence as do Religious Zionists; their upbringing condones this. Shii'ism and the Jamaat-I-Islami are two of the foremost Islamic fundamentalism groups in South Asia who focus on nationalistic aims...
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