Running head: A MAN LED

A Man Led Into Crime: McDonald

Mackenzie Peterson
Professor Walton-Nealy
CCJ 2000
Tallahassee Community College

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Abstract

McDonald was brought into the Tallahassee Police Department after being caught committing a
sexual act on a two year old victim. Even though McDonald suffers from Schizophrenia, it is
clear that he was led to this crime through the events of his life. Rational choice theory says that
he made the choice to go into the house and do the things he did. He said the voices told him to
do these things but he still was the one who made the choice to do these things. Differential
association theory looks at how his criminal activities were learned, not engrained his mind. His
process of socialization most likely altered the way he looked at the things he was doing, making
it seem more logical in his own mind.

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Tallahassee Police were called to the scene of a Sexual Battery in-progress on February
25, 2010. Dalila, the woman who had walked in on the incident, indicated that an unknown black
male had his face in between the victims legs. After being detained and taken to Tallahassee
Police Department, the suspect was identified as McDonald and brought in for questioning. He
was thoroughly interrogated and asked questions regarding what led him to the victims house
and what he did once there. Reviewing his answers to these questions, it is quite clear that
McDonald brought this event upon himself. He made rational choices that led to the sexual act
with the victim. It is highly possible that his social associations also contributed to the events of
the evening, leading him to believe that it was acceptable and that he may have even needed it.
Rational choice theory states that all criminals think before they do anything about
situational and personal factors (Siegal, 2013, pg. 105), meaning they know what theyre doing
when they commit a crime. A few of McDonalds answers point to McDonald making certain
choices that led him to commit this crime. When McDonald was asked whose house he went to,
he clearly stated that he went to Dalilas. This indicates that he clearly knew whose house he
was going into and most likely that there would be a child there. He also stated that he believed
the victim was Dalilas little girl but in reality knew she wasnt. Therefore, McDonald had
prior knowledge of the victim and who she was. When the voices told him to go back to the
house, he consciously made the decision to go back to the house. Once he had started touching
and kissing the girl, he could have chosen to stop. However, he chose to continue kissing her
vagina for approximately ten minutes. The fact that he knew how long it was shows that he was
in a stable sense of mind and knew what he was doing. When asked if he had masturbated he
denied it. Earlier in the interview he had stated that he pulled his pants down but denied touching
himself. This most likely was due to the fact that he knew that if he masturbated, there was a

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chance of his semen being found and would most likely get in more trouble than he already
would. He also admitted to having sexual fantasies about children previously. This shows that the
idea of being with a child was already in his mind. He had stated earlier that he did not want to
have sex with the girl but these fantasies show that the idea of being intimate with a child was
enticing to the suspect. Cornish and Clarke argued that offenders seek to benefit themselves by
their criminal behavior and involves the making of decisions and of choices (Beauregard,
Proulx & Rossmo, 2007, pg. 450). This being said, McDonald used the victim to seek to fulfill
his fantasies of having sex with a child.
Differential association theory looks at how criminality is learned based on the
association with others (Andrews & Bonta, 2003, pg. 9). Two of the principles of differential
association theory state that criminal behavior is learned and learning is a by-product of
interaction (Siegal, 2013, pg. 237). When McDonald was in school, he became involved in two
fights which caused him to later be expelled. McDonald already was shown what criminal
behavior was like and led him to continue his deviance in this crime and previous crimes.
Another principle of differential association theory is that criminal behavior is an expression of
general needs and values. This basically means that McDonald needed a sexual act with a
child. He had fantasized about it before and when it finally became too much to bare, he sought
out Dalilas house to commit his crime.

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References

Andrews, D.A., & Bonta, J. (2003). The psychology of criminal conduct (3rd ed.). Cincinnati,
OH: Anderson Publishing Company.
Beauregard, E., Proulx, J., Rossmo, D. K.(2007). A descriptive model of the hunting process of
serial sex offenders: A rational choice perspective. Journal of Family Violence, 22(6),
449-463. Retrieved from ProQuest Criminal Justice.
Rafter, N. (2008). The criminal brain: Understanding biological theories of crime. New York:
New York University Press.
Siegal, L.J. (2013). Criminology: Theories, patterns, and typologies (11th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Cengage Learning.