Yes, environment transformes people, changes their style, their character. Most of us wants to be like everyone so he wants to behave as everyone behave. It makes him change his appearence, maner of talking, character and so on.

@amandaアマンダ: That's not true. A person takes certain actions because he BELIEVES that these are good. If you are taught from birth that killing someone is good, you will kill someone. Not because you are an evil person, but because you are taught that killing someone is a GOOD deed. So in fact, that person is a GOOD person but was taught to confuse evil and good.

That's how the world gains most of the sociopaths. Many of those criminals are affected by their environment as a child or an adult, depending on what gives them the motive. That's why many adult abusers have been abused as a child or has witnessed abusive behavior repeatedly. Some grow up to lack emotion if they experience negative events for a long period of time. Children learn from what they see and hear around them. That usually determines their a lot their characteristics and morals when they're older.

it's nature vs. nurture. i have a student who was raised by a much older father of the more racist generation who grew up thinking whites were superior. he got into a lot of trouble as a child, but now as a college student, he is experiencing more and is realizing that his father's perspective is not the way he wishes to view the world. i think doing that is a challenge yet an accomplishment.

Of course, and more over that, the environment (which may be represented by: parents, society, school, books, television, and Internet...etc.) is for sure the source of inspiration of everyone of us. Criminals commit crimes for different reasons: social problems (unemployment, misery,...), political, and eventually religious...etc. We can easily understand human behaviors, by comparing them to the animals ones, Both (animal and human behavior) are commanded by ''the principle of cause and effect".