ABSTRACT
Baldwin (1990) suggests that the link between age and crime rates can be partially explained by considering arousal rates observing that children can quickly become used to stimuli that had previously excited them and thus seek ever more thrilling inputs. The stimulus received from criminal type activities does nevertheless decline with age, as does the level of physical fitness, strength and agility required to perform many such activities. Baldwin interestingly explains both the learning of criminal behaviour and its subsequent decline in terms of stimuli in the environment which does then pose the question as to whether the production of adrenaline is biologically or socially dictated.
