Theories of Crime and Cain and Abel

            Adam and Eve are considered the father and mother of the original sin.  Having introduced sin into the world they passed this knowledge to their children, Cain and Abel (Genesis 4).  Cain and Abel made offerings to God, but God rejected the offerings of Cain and favored the offerings by Abel.  At some point later, Cain killed Abel in a fit of jealous anger and Cain was marked by God (Genesis 4).  Using this week’s readings, I believe the theories of differential association-reinforcement (DAR) would be less likely to apply to the murder of Abel, but frustration-induced criminality could apply.

            Differential association-reinforcement theory states that deviant acts are learned through interpersonal interactions with their social environment (Bartol & Bartol, 2014).  Given the limited population of the earth at this time in history, Cain and Abel would have learned their behavior from Adam and Eve.  There is no other recorded murder prior to Abel’s, therefore, the act of murder would be less likely to be caused by DAR.  Other behaviors learned from Adam and Eve related to a sinful nature, may have been learned which could have led to frustration.  Given the nature of God’s punishment on Adam and Eve, I would presume there would be a desire by them to regain His favor and do what is necessary in an attempt to reenter the Garden of Eden.

            When humans are unable to experience feelings that have previously produced rewards, they resort to animalistic instincts (Bartol & Bartol, 2014).  When their behavior is blocked in pursuit of a goal, they experience increasingly aroused responses from an unpleasant internal state called frustration (Bartol & Bartol, 2014).   This response could lead to an explosion of violence, such as murder, in the case of Cain and Abel.  Cain’s frustration of not being able to please God was so intense, he experience anger and his countenance fell (Genesis 4).  This frustration was so great, he murdered his brother in a fit of jealousy.

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Reference

Bartol, C.R. & Bartol, A.M. (2014) Criminal behavior: A psychological approach (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.