Summary: The Psychological Theory School says that criminal behavior is a outcome of people differences in the way they mentally think. Believe that a person thoughts and feelings determine one action. These choices are because of psychological determinism, that determines that the way we reason and act is because of our best urge to do so. Underlying Principles: Individual have to be diagnose with a disorder in order to find treatment There are different stages where an individual acts on criminal behavior Individual go through the phase of finding their identity The way a person thinks or behaves could lead to criminal behavior
Criminals wanting to have a sense of control that drives them to commit crimes Major Contributions and Contributors: Charles Goring- Believed that crime and defective intelligence has a relationship. He examined about 3,000 convicts in England and found out that criminals were small, weight-less, are unintelligent, unbalance, and could be anti-social. He did a mental testing of U. S military and found out that one-third of the draftees were considered feeble mindedness. Gabriel Tarde- Believed that individuals learned from each other. These individuals engage in behaviors that characterizes examples of Imitation and innovation.
He believes that individuals will introduced new ideas and examples that will lead to imitation, where individuals observed and followed replications of another person behavior. Tarde believed that out of 100 people there was 1 person who was creative and came up with ideas and the rest were subjects to imitation. Sigmund Freud- Focus on individuals personality and how is run by the unconscious mental processes that is focus on childhood days. There are structures that are accounted for a person personality, which are the id, the ego, and the superego.
The id is the desire for food, sex and other essentials, it’s more about pleasure and satisfaction. Ego is the desire of the essentials one wants if the id by leading individuals behaviors to keep them in our society. The superego is when the individual includes the morals, such as friends, family, their partner. Connecting to Criminal behavior, Freud states that one commits crime because they haven’t fully developed the superego stage. Psychodynamic basically states that the criminals are aggressive that focus more on their childhood.
They weren’t shown much love, meaning they don’t really have that ego structure. Study says that individuals that does not have a strong ego goes for drugs. Psychosexual stages- Stages of “conflict-gratification”, such as oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. Oral if the first year where baby sucks, chew, swallowed, and licks. The anal stage is when baby focus more on touching and smelling. Phallic and latent goes from six to puberty where in the phallic stage boys experience the Oedipal complex while girls undergo the Electra Complex, where they initiate sexual feeling for parents.
The healthy boys don’t really show his hostility feelings towards their mom but the healthy girls dot showed their sexual desire to their father but are very hostile with their mother. Then they go into the latent stage where they are more interested in activities such as sports, hobbies, friends, etc. The final stage is the genital stage which the sexual desires becomes to strong so they urge for it and actually act on it. Alfred Adler- Known to developed the idea of Inferiority Complex and Superiority Complex. The inferiority Complex states that people don’t go to the standards they had placed on themselves.
This is when people are told they are stupid and not enough to the society. While Superiority Complex states that one like to be superior to others because it was brought about in the people who felt inferior to others. It is a drive for kids to try to become equal with others and not inferior to them. John Bowlby- Introduce the Attachment Theory- which states that you grow attach to another person emotionally and physically. This happened soon after birth where the mother hold the baby, but they end up growing up to lack trust and respect for others.
Mostly mother and child relationships, the child becomes too attach that adults have trouble carrying out a relationship with others. Erik Erikson- States that children, teenagers, and adults undergoes developmental phases that helps them develop their personality. Each stage shows a sign of identity crisis that will help them on to the next stage. The stages are known to be Identity vs. Role Confusion, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs. Stagnation, and Integrity vs. Despair. There’s a struggle each stage that individuals have to go through in order to go on the next stage.
August Aichorn- Developed the concept of Latent Delinquency, which states that is the results from having a poor socialization childhood. Believed that stress could only lead to the act of criminal behavior is if they possess the mental state of latent delinquency. These individuals also seek gratification, they don’t feel any guilt, and they don’t have the ability to understand other people feelings. Oppositional Defiant Disorder- A disorder where an individual, either child or teen, is continually angry, Irritated, argues a lot, and disobedient towards parent or any authority individual.
Mood Disorder- Criminals shows a lot of sign of moods, such as depression, isolation, anger, and so on. One disorder that is found in children is Conduct Disorder, which is when kids have a hard time following orders from other people and don’t know how to behave correctly. These individuals cause problems and are not mentally right. Kids with Conduct Disorder will bully, fight, carry a weapon, lie, steal and more aggressive behaviors. Mental Illness (Psychosis)- are individuals who lose a sense of reality. Could also relate to schizophrenia.
These individuals have many personality disorders, many hallucinations, can be Auditory Hallucinations, and Visual Hallucination, they hear or see something that’s not really there. There are also people who have Borderline Personality, which is when an individual have many moods, behaviors and relationships. People with ADHD, lack attention and are very impulsive, they are likely to be involve in criminal behavior. Student Assessment: I agree with the Psychological theory school, because I do believe that criminals have different ways of thinking.
Some criminals do have disorder that could lead to their criminal behaviors but there’s also childhood problem involve as well. The way they were treated when they were a kid could be an outcome to behaving the way they do as an adult. I also believe that if an individual, as a child was antisocial and have anger, depression issues, could get themselves involved in criminal activities. I believe that is based on the way you act, handle yourself, how you were treated as a child, and disorders that people might have.