Charles Manson

Introduction

Charles Manson (1934) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio by a single mother Kathleen Maddox who was too young ( i.e. 16 years) to take care of his upbringing needs, making Mason to wader from relative’s homes and some institutions, which exposed him to engage in delinquency at a tender age of nine, escaping various times to engage in burglary. He established the Manson Family during 1960s in California as an ex-convict, who was jobless and had participated in correctional centers due to engagement in various crimes. Manson is a convicted serial murderer since he used his Family to execute brutal killings but there lacks evidence to implicate him with direct murders, charged due to conspiracy and his ‘Helter Skelter’ concepts. Manson is termed to have led a cult whom he brainwashed into killing eight individuals i.e. Tate-LaBianca killing spree (Allan, 2010).

Criminal Engagement and Incarcerations

He was detained in Natural Bridge Camp where he sodomized a boy in 1952 and charged with homosexual assault, moved to a federal reformatory in Virginia where he was termed dangerous and implicated with various crimes. He was taken to a federal reformatory at Chillicothe, Ohio, which was a bit safer. He won a parole in nineteen fifty four after he proved to have reformed (Allan, 2010). He was released and proceeded to stealing cars as a teenager in 1956, was incarcerated and later set free in 1958. He never stopped engaging in crime since he continued stealing, coning and was arrested in 1960 for forgery of a check from the U.S treasury. He bleached the Mann act as well as his probation. This earned him ten years’ incarceration, where he learnt how to play guitar, composed his music and aspired to be a famous musician. By this time, he had spent most of his life being imprisoned and became used to the jails and reformatory centers as home (Allan, 2010).

After his release in 1967, he went to San Francisco and several people followed him in South California, where he tried to record music to no avail. This frustrated him and moved to Spahn Ranch to form the Manson family. They could not only manipulate individuals but also foresaw a race war for blacks against whites to ensue in 1969, maintaining that those who followed him would be secure. When the prediction failed, he and his family members began to engage in various killings.

After investigation, he and his members were put under arrest and tried in 1970, being guilty of first degree murder as well as conspiracy. Manson was sentenced under capital punishment in 1971.  He was charged and found guilty of conspiracy of several killings that had occurred from the Manson Family members under the joint-responsibility rule (Allan, 2010). The criminal is famous for ‘Helter Skelter’ the concept of apocalyptic race war, which precipitated the killings and connecting him with pop culture as a symbol of macabre, violence as well as insanity. After he was found guilty and convicted his music was released. He was sentenced to death but earned a life imprisonment following the Supreme Court of California to suspend death penalty sentences. Even after its reinstatement, he was not affected since he is now serving a life imprisonment at Corcoran State Prison (Allan, 2010).

Charles Manson and Theoretical Schools of Crime Causation

Classical theory

This theory maintains that punishment as well as deterrence establishes the perception of crime control. Individuals engage in deviant behavior by applying free will hence are entirely responsible for their behaviors. Consequently, Charles Mason is now serving a life sentence due to his deviance.  Classical theory implicates the free will as well as a rational mind of the criminal. Therefore, people are made aware of their natural rights to control human behavior (Lionell & Rawlins, 2005).

Sociological theories

They substantiate the perspective of rehabilitation. The social learning theory for instance shows Manson leant deviance in his early childhood from his mother, who was incarcerated when he was five. This implicates the environmental control and that of close persons. It depicts that behavior modification can be achieved through enhancing the social environment for criminals. The social conflict theory explains that individuals engage in crime when the legal system, which is under the control of the wealthy, identifies their acts as being unlawful (Lionell & Rawlins, 2005)

Labeling theory

The theory argues that individuals engage in crime following their being identified as criminals such that they behave in a manner to fit the awarded label (Arrigo & Williams, 2006). Manson was such a victim as he was regarded as dangerous in reformatories. He found no other option other than engaging in crime and regarded himself as more than a typical delinquent.

Biological and psychological theories

These appear to recognize rehabilitation perspective as they implicate the criminal’s mental and physical states, which are treatable.  As a result, these individuals are incapacitated if their behavior related to crime is untreatable. The biological theory argues that individuals engage in crime due to genetic, neurological as well as biochemical deficits (Lionell & Rawlins, 2005).  This way, Charles Manson’s criminal behavior could be explained by this theory since he is mostly emotionally withdrawn, skeptical, materialistic, over sensitive and inconsistent in attitudes and decisions. Psychological theories points out those individuals engage in crime due to personality disparities, which develops in early childhood. Reflecting to Manson’s case, he could be termed as clinically insane. Manson started engaging in crime at a very early age and had a criminal record at the age of nine. This is mostly implicated to his upbringing where he had spent much of his early childhood in reformatories and social institution’s. He spent less time with his single mother who had to make a living through vile means as well such as stealing and prostitution. He had an unstable childhood as his mother was an alcoholic prostitute and this affected Manson’s growth and development, a concept emphasized by Strain’s theory of crime (Schmalleger, 2009).

Primary & secondary deviance

Primary & secondary deviance are reflected when Manson particularly sodomized another boy to escape parole and remain in reformatories since he viewed the outside world as inhabitable. He also continued to engage in crime following releases from prison. He was also able to manipulate people to meet his needs as asserted by Merton theories regarding adaptive behavior (Hagan, 2010)

Conclusion

To sum it all, Charles Manson can be explained theoretically to determine the reason as to why he had been engaging in various crimes. Crime causation analyses the crime, the criminal’s background information and the state of mind of the criminal (Schmalleger, 2009). These are compared to various criminal theories to determine the causation and effects of crime. Due to its complexity, crime is explained by various theories since it ranges from simple violent acts to systematized criminal syndicates. As a result, there is a close link existing amid these different theoretical schools, which aids in drafting policies to manage antisocial behaviors. On the same note, criminologists have been able to give explanations of the nature of crime hence apply the knowledge in crime reduction (Robinson, 2009).

References

Allan, B. (2010). The Heretics: Past And Present: Can We Now Explain The Unexplainable?        Hants, UK: O Books.

Arrigo, B. A., & Williams, C. R. (2006). Philosophy, Crime, and Criminology. Illinois:      University of Illinois Press.

Hagan, F. E. (2010). Introduction to Criminology: Theories, Methods, and Criminal Behavior.       Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2010

Lionell, C. M., & Rawlins, V. (2005). Theories of Crime Causation. New York; The          VonFrederick Group.

Robinson, M (2009). Justice Blind? Ordeals and Realities of American Criminal Justice (3rd         Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminal Justice Today: An Introductory Text for the Twenty-First            Century (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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