Psychological Theories of Crime

Background

To account for criminal motivation in people, criminologists have used various psychological theories that attempt to explain human intellectual and emotional development. These theories can be divided into three categories: (1) moral development theories, (2) social learning theories, and (3) personality theories. Moral development theories describe a sequence of developmental stages that people pass through when acquiring the capacity to make moral judgments. According to these theorists, this development process may or may not be completed, and people who remain unable to recognize right from wrong will be more likely to engage in inappropriate, deviant, or even criminal behavior. Social learning theories emphasize the process of learning and internalizing moral codes. Learning theorists note different patterns of rewards and sanctions that affect this process. Personality theories assume a set of enduring perceptions and predispositions (tendencies) that each individual develops through early socialization. These theorists propose that certain predispositions or personality traits, such as impulsiveness or extroversion, increase the chances of criminal behavior.

Moral Development Theories

Criminologists who apply moral development theories build on the pioneering work done by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. According to Piaget, children evolve through four stages of cognitive development. From birth to age two, children experience the world only through their senses and motor abilities and have a very immediate, experience-based knowledge of the world. Between two and seven years of age children learn to think about and understand objects using thoughts that are independent of immediate experience. During this stage children are egocentric-that is, they believe that others experience the same reality that they do. From age seven to adolescence the child learns to think logically and to organize and classify objects. Beginning in adolescence, the child develops the ability to think logically about the future and to understand theoretical concepts. Theorists relate these stages of cognitive development to stages of moral development. At first, rules are given by powerful others. Later, children perceive that they can invent and modify rules. Finally, humans perceive the ultimate importance of abstract rules.

Influenced by Piaget’s theory that development occurs in stages, in the mid-1960s American psychologist Lawrence Kolhberg proposed a multistage theory of moral evolution. In the early level of development, children strive to maximize pleasure and avoid punishment. Children at this level consider the needs of others only to the extent that meeting those needs will help the child fulfill his or her own needs. During the next period, which is characterized by conformity to social rules, the child demonstrates respect for and duty to authority. The child also seeks to avoid disapproval from that authority. As the child matures, his or her moral judgment is motivated by respect for legally determined rules and an understanding that these rules exist to benefit all. Eventually, universal principles are internalized. These principles, such as liberty and justice, may even transcend aspects of the existing legal system.

Other studies confirm that moral development is sequential, moving from external to internal control. In other words, while young children behave in order to avoid punishment or receive approval from others, adults develop internal codes and regulate their own behavior even in the absence of external enforcement. However, criminologists have not found truly strong indications of the effect of moral development on criminal activity. Sociologists who compared the patterns of moral development between delinquents and nondelinquents found some differences between the groups, but these differences were not conclusive.

Social Learning Theories

Social learning theories propose that people internalize moral codes more through the process of socialization-learning behaviors through interaction with others-rather than through a stage-by-stage development process. Specifically, social learning theorists maintain a young person learns how to behave based on how elders (primarily parent figures) respond to the person’s violations of and compliance with rules. Rewards for acceptable behavior and sanctions (penalties) for transgressions indicate what is appropriate behavior.

Repeated instances of reward and sanction also lead to the internalization of these standards. Over time the transgression becomes associated with the sanction, and it produces anxiety even when no one is present to administer sanctions. Through this process children begin to control themselves in a manner consistent with moral and legal codes.

Social learning theories of criminal motivation and behavior have substantial empirical support. A number of studies indicate that deliquents were treated differently by their parents than youths with no record of delinquency. The socialization of delinquents is marked by lax and erratic discipline or by unduly harsh discipline, such as physical punishment. These studies do not describe in detail what effective socialization should be, but they do suggest that social learning is related to criminal involvement. Such studies also indicate that social learning theory is a promising approach to understanding criminal motivation and behavior.

Personality Theories

Personality theories attempt to explain how people acquire predispositions toward certain behavior. These predispositions are sometimes discussed in terms of personality traits, such as impulsiveness and stubbornness, or personality types, such as introvert and extrovert. All other things being equal, people will consistently display behaviors that they are predisposed toward. Accordingly, some social scientists believe that certain predispositions or personality types may be associated with criminal tendencies or activities.

In his work in the late 1800s and early 1900s Austrian physician Sigmund Freud described emotional development as the process of achieving a balance between conflicting desires. According to Freud, humans must resolve the tension between their purely self-interested tendencies, which he called the id, and the control of these forces by the combination of conscience and moral attitudes, which Freud called the superego. This process begins in infancy, at which time the id reigns without conflict.

As the child develops, conflicts occur between the id and superego, which are ultimately resolved by the ego-the sense of self. This process results in a person who strikes a balance between individualism and society, between hedonism (pleasure seeking) and repression of his or her desires. According to Freud, when this development process goes wrong any number of personality disorders can result, including a tendency toward criminal behavior.

Personality theorists have attempted to gauge the effects of personality development on criminal behavior by administering personality tests to groups of criminals and noncriminals. The evidence from these studies is mixed. In some instances, researchers found differences between the two groups on certain dimensions of personality, such as impulsiveness. However, in other instances no differences were found. Studies of mental disorders comparing prisoners and other populations suggest that only a few relatively rare crimes, such as sexual crimes of violence involving extremely deviant acts, can be attributed to mental illness.

Source: “Criminology,”Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000

See Also

• Development of Criminology
• Goals of Criminology
• Biological Theories of Crime
• Psychological Theories of Crime
• Environmental and Social Theories of Crime
• Theories of Criminal Opportunity

Criminology: Psychological Theories of Crime

Introduction to Psychological Theories of Crime

To account for criminal motivation in people, criminologists have used various psychological theories that attempt to explain human intellectual and emotional development. These theories can be divided into three categories: (1) moral development theories, (2) social learning theories, and (3) personality theories. Moral development theories describe a sequence of developmental stages that people pass through when acquiring the capacity to make moral judgments. According to these theorists, this development process may or may not be completed, and people who remain unable to recognize right from wrong will be more likely to engage in inappropriate, deviant, or even criminal behavior. Social learning theories emphasize the process of learning and internalizing moral codes. Learning theorists note different patterns of rewards and sanctions that affect this process. Personality theories assume a set of enduring perceptions and predispositions (tendencies) that each individual develops through early socialization. These theorists propose that certain predispositions or personality traits, such as impulsiveness or extroversion, increase the chances of criminal behavior.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Psychological Theories of Crime in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Psychological Theories of Crime

In this Section

Criminology, Criminology Development (including Classical Criminology, Modern Criminology, Criminology Italian School and Independent Criminology), Criminology Goals, Biological Theories of Crime (including Crime Genetic Factors and Neurological Abnormalities), Psychological Theories of Crime (including Moral Development Theories, Social Learning Theories and Personality Theories), Environmental and Social Theories of Crime (including Social Causes, Social-Structural Theories, Subcultural Theories and Economic Causes of Crime) and

Criminal Opportunity.