A loving father, a faithful husband, and a successful businessman was once the image that Richard Kuklinski portrayed to the outside world. He lived in a nice home in New Jersey with his three kids and wife, appearing to be a normal citizen. In reality, he was a ruthless hitman who killed without remorse, he is known today by the nickname “The Iceman”. The life of Richard Kuklinski raises quite a few questions regarding what causes someone to be a criminal. There are people that argue that its nature and others who argue that it nurture. Some individuals believe people like “The Hitman” are born criminals while others believe it is something that is cultivated through the environment in which they were raised. Criminals like Kuklinski are…show more content… The values that are instilled in a person during their early childhood help determine whether or not one will choose to participate in criminal behavior. Richard Kuklinski grew up with severe abuse from both his mother and father who would regularly beat him. Under the theory of Social Determinism Gabriel Tarde believed that criminals were normal individuals who learned their behavior as anything else is learned. He based his ideas off of the “laws of imitation, the principles that governed the process by which people become criminals” (Adler 72). Kuklinski was raised in a household devoid of love and compassion molding him into a man filled with hate and violence. Brought up by a man who killed his own son, Kuklinski actions are imitations of his father’s. This idea is also supported by the Social Learning Theory which states that “delinquent behavior is learned through the same psychological processes as any other behavior” (Adler…show more content… It is often questioned whether it is possible to detect a link between criminal behavior and genetics. It is argued that it may be possible to inherit the predisposition to act violently, aggressively, or to comment crimes. Studies support the claims that the criminality of the biological parent have influence over the child even when said child has been adopted (Adler 84). Richard Kuklinski parents were violent aggressive people it is possible that these traits were genetically passed down to him from this parents. If Kuklinski had a predisposition of violence and also a social environment that cultivated violence him being violent was almost inevitable. It is also possible that Kuklinski was an XYY chromosomal male, who tend to be tall, physically aggressive, and frequently violent, all of which he was (Adler 83). Richard Kuklinski was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. At a young age he should signs, his lack of respect for life and remorse. As a child she would kill cats, tie their tails together and throw them over electric wires, watching them claw each other to death for is own amusement. As he talks about all the people he killed and the violent, gruesome, detailed ways he did it he seems so calm and unremorseful. He himself tries to explain how he feels nothing. Although many factors both social and biological led the creation of
