Research Paper on Crime Authors: Uncovering the Psychology of Crime & Criminals

Introduction

Since the arrival of modernization and technology, the topic of crime developed to a chief concern and can be seen in numerous crime authors who script their fictitious stories in the attempt to narrow down to the offender(s). The fictitious plots are developed basing on the characters' psychology significantly on the crime and the culprit(s) perpetrating it. The delinquency fiction is based on the psychology of the characters importantly on the crime and the criminal committing it. The events in Agatha Christie's novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) portrays the pain of characters caused by the deterioration of morals in humans at the period of the world war since the victims of the killings have been observed undergoing either direct or indirect exploitation. The crime fiction mirrors the then environment where everyplace in Britain occasionally experienced criminal events. Agatha articulates that she grew up in a harsh era intoxicated by crimes (Gogol, 13). There has been a heated argument whether nature or the psychic structure of an individual is the rationale behind delinquency or the experiences and environment of a person can be supposed as the cause of crime. While the environment one is raised in is said to determine majorly why the crime is done, nature also has a part to play in the determination of the cause of the crime.

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Humans are endowed with desires for better things and all their motives revolve around what they want to accomplish. Mankind has desires for wealth, higher positions, higher educational achievements, and even a better family to upsurge their status in society and also have a sense of self-satisfaction. The insentient motives and desires are a result of the interaction of the delight, actuality and virtuous tenets and for which the characters in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd are aggressive and emotive too. The fiction has characters who have desires and motives either for wealth or vengeance, for which they resiliently advance. Such motives or desires makes the characters to camouflage to fit in different situations. The desire to accomplish something might be in one's mind and at times individuals are forced to use trickery and lies to achieve their goal, which evident in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. These psycho-sociological behaviors are acquired by social learning as a result of socio-cultural interactions.

Several complexities are evident in every character in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in which the characters' reactions registers traces of a hidden motive. All the characters show suspected reactions such as depression, excitement, aggression and dynamism before detective Hercule Poirot (Asmita, 98). Each of the characters has derns, many of which are associated with the participation in the delinquency. Accordingly, in an attempt to conceal their derns they fall for telling lies. There are numerous cases in which characters spread deceptive issues more than once to fulfill their motives regardless of the culprits' position in the crime. Hence the characters depict feelings and aggression when required to answer something. The killings of Mrs. Ferrars for ingesting Veronal and Mr. Roger, as well as a sequence of constant detection by detective Hercule Poirot, unveils various derns of characters in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Poirot applies particular approaches and fecund reasonable deductions to reveal the derns of each character and the motives as well as foreboding that dominated their brains. Many instances in the novel were intended to acquire cash. For instance, Dr. Sheppard blackmails Mrs. Ferrars for cash gains, and Ms. Flora Ackroyd and Mrs. Flora have a great appetite for monetary rewards. Detective Hercule sued the characters for cheating and nobody wanted to face him again. The novel has many more instances of motives and desires and the majority of them are inclined towards money.

The disquietude and dread within the characters are linked to their instinct to flee. The dread makes some individuals develop uncommon behaviors which makes them vulnerable to nervousness. In the novel, such instances can be traced to Dr. Sheppard while Mr. Roger Ackroyd is reading the suicide note for Mrs. Ferrars as well as when he realized Mr. Parker was at the door attempting to eavesdrop their conversation with Mr. Roger (Ortega, 113). Similarly, nervousness can be seen when Dr. Sheppard's sister Caroline supposes that Capt. Ralph Paton is in Cranchester since he was frightened and knew that the truth will be known. Mrs. Roger and Mr. Parker are victims of dread and distress and accept to be guilty after confronting with detective Hercule. The psychological processes on the way individuals see things around them and how they solve issues are affected by the interaction of id, ego, and superego. The expression might take verbal exchange and increased aggression might result in killings and damages. Emotions and aggression play a major part in the way people respond to issues. Emotions and aggression may make individuals kill or shed tears. As observed in the novel, emotions affect the way people think and may cause individuals to commit crimes. Some crimes are committed as a way of revenge on someone. Revenge is in most cases emotionally perpetrated.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd leaves readers surprised and full of disappointment since the storyteller turns out to be the killer yet he had shaped himself as a trustworthy person. Dr. Sheppard applies his talent and knowledge of drugs and technology to cheat his colleagues yet he does not feel guilty for the crime. Sheppard was guilty of killing two persons. It is through Sheppard that we discover that Mrs. Ferrars murdered her husband. Dr. Sheppard took this opportunity to exploit Mrs. Ferrars for cash. The reason for so doing was that Dr. Sheppard wished to upgrade his social status in the community. He belonged to the middle class of medical practitioners and his desire to upgrade to the upper class made him have an increased urge to get money. Dr. Sheppard wished to cheat people that were close to him. For example, he made Capt Ralph Paton to be seen as the one responsible for the death of his stepfather. He did not have any goodwill even as he hid the locations of Ralph, he actually wanted to paint him as the real culprit. In an attempt to show that he was clean, he even gave detective Hercule his diary, but Hercule was too witty to be deceived this way. Hercule Poirot was naturally a selfless schemer who aspired to produce the best in his work (Gruber, 110). Flora Ackroyd is another character who is forced to use lies and theft to get money to sustain her social standards. Therefore from these incidents, we can say that self-motives and desires can compel a person to engage in crime for self-satisfaction.

Internal and external conflicts within oneself can also compel one to do a crime like in the case of Dr. Sheppard. He saw the actuality of what will happen if he did not kill Ackroyd and that is why he did the crime. He was unable to prevent his internal desire from committing the murder and his mind was fearful since he knew his sister was good at knowing when something was being hidden from her. He feared that he will be caught and his desire to flee the punishment that awaited him, he opted to kill Ackroyd. Dr. Sheppard can be said to be a psychopath in the sense that what matters to him is collecting cash illegally. His desire to quench his financial wishes and social class predisposes him to a state where not even her close friends matter to him.

Both nature and nurture determine the reason why one will commit a crime. The question of what exactly between the two is the most like to be the reason behind a crime continues to remain unanswered. Ideally looking at it, a person's environment has the ability to affect their behavior. Likewise, a person's behavior might be determined by an innate factor. Dr. Sheppard provides us with the example of a person who is weaker, and more desperate such that he is provoked to commit a crime upon a slight challenge. Both the environment and an innate factor that concerns id, ego and superego are responsible for criminal actions. Dr. Sheppard was weak and was provided with circumstances to make quick and easy money, as well as was desperate to cover up his behavior. The three factors combined are the ones that made him to commit the crimes. He was never a hardened criminal or a psychopath, but he was a weak lass who was put in a trying and challenging circumstance. Another weak character in the novel is Flora. Her weakness and desperation for cash to maintain her social standards made her deceive and steal from her uncle. Ralph is the other victim of desperation and weakness. He breaks his marriage and gets engaged with a step cilousin when he realizes that there is an opportunity to clear his debt. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha depicts that both nature and nurture are to blame when it comes to the causal agent of crime. The characters are compelled by desires and motives as well as situations to commit crimes.

Works Cited

Asmita, Bajaj. "Analyzing the detective fiction of Agatha Christie two Approaches." (2016).

Gogol, N. Nature versus Nurture in Crime: A critical study of the Murder Of Roger Ackroyd (1926) And Murder On The Orient Express (1934). Vol. 4, No. 2. Assam Women's University. (2018).

Gruber, U. Diplomarbeit. (2012).

Ortega, A. R. Analyzing the detective fiction of Agatha Christie: Two approaches. (2014).