Why do people become criminals? Early Criminologist theorized that certain people were simply born criminals while others were not. They also believed that one could differentiate a criminal from regular citizens physical characteristics. Today in the year 2003 it is understood that those old beliefs are not correct . People are not born criminal and one can not tell who is a criminal by merely looking at him or her. The criminologist of today have produced much better theories on why people commit crime. Because there are so many different types of criminals today, it is impossible to place them all under one theory, that is why there a multiple theories. Theories such as the choice theory, integrated theory, latent trait theory, among others allow the criminal justice system to categorize criminals. By developing all these theories criminologist hope to better understand why certain types of crime happen, with the ultimate goal of finding out how they can be prevented from even occurring. .
One of the most high profile cases that is currently unfolding is the Scott and Lacy Peterson case. This case has attracted a lot of attention nation wide. Lacy Peterson was eight months pregnant when she disappear last Christmas Eve. Her husband Scott Peterson a thirty year old fertilizer salesmen reported his wife missing after returning home from an alleged fishing trip at the Berkeley Marina about seventy miles away from their Modesto home. He stated that he had gone on a solo fishing trip for the day. Many people wondered why Scott Peterson would fishing alone on Christmas eve, while his pregnant wife was at home. Initially Scott was not a suspect, but after so much attention had been focused on him, things started to surface that pointed the finger in his direction. The first incident that cause suspicion was when Scott admitted to investigators that he had been having an affair with a massage therapist named Amber Frey.