Individualistic Theories Of Crime Flashcards
What are the psychodynamic theories of crime?
Sigmund Freud: Id ego superego
Bowlby’s attachment theory
Megargee’s ‘overcontrolled’ violent offender
What do the id ego and superego make up?
The psyche
What is the id, superego and the ego?
The id represents desires
The superego restricts us from doing bad
The ego is the decision maker
How does a weak superego lead to criminal behaviour?
Weak superego can be developed due to poor relationships within the family, which results in the person not worrying about taking part in anti social behaviour
Don’t see criminal acts as wrong and are happy to satisfy their id
How does a deviant superego lead to criminal behaviour?
If a child’s same sex parent is criminal, they wont understand that these acts are wrong.
Develops a deviant superego as they aren’t punished for deviant behaviour
How can a strong superego lead to criminal behaviour?
Makes someone feel guilt over the smallest things, which makes them feel that they need to commit crime in order to get caught and be punished - eases the guilt
Also stops a person express desires building up. Aggressive or sexual desires can build up and overwhelm the ego resulting in them being expressed suddenly through violent acts - murder/rape
What does Bowlby mean by ‘affection less psychopath’
Disruption of the relationship with the mother can damage a persons ability to relate to others.
Can’t form meaningful social relationships.
What did Bowlbys ‘44 thieves’ study show?
Maternal deprivation was related to later criminal behaviour.
39% of young criminals experienced disruption in their relationship with their mother, compared to 5% of a non-criminal group
How is Bowlbys study criticised?
Unrepresentative sampling- too small
Overestimated the impact of early life experiences
What does Megargee argue about an ‘over controlled’ violent offender?
Represent a small group of violent offenders; inability to express anger in ‘normal’ ways and eventually explode- anger and aggression all at once
Normally no history of aggression
What is a criticism of Megargee’s theory?
Does not separate whether offenders do not experience anger normally or whether they just don’t express it
What is the evaluation of the psychodynamic approach?
Rely on concepts such as the unconscious mind- cannot prove this exists
Only explain behaviour after it’s happened
Highly subjective
Time consuming
Name the social learning theory
Bandura’s Bobo doll study
What does Bandura’s bobo doll study show about criminal behaviour?
Behaviour is learnt through observation and imitation- learn criminal behaviour from those around us
What were the statistics for Bandura’s study?
Tested 72 children; 36 boys 36 girls
Aggressive model was shown to 24 children
Non aggressive model was shown to 24 children
No model shown to 24
What were the outcomes of Bandura’s study?
Children observing the aggressive model copied such behaviour
Girls showed more physical aggression responses if the model was male
Boys were more likely to imitate same sex models than girls
Boys more physically aggressive
What are the criticisms of Bandura’s study?
Cumberbatch- children who had not played with the doll before were 5x more likely to imitate aggressive behaviour
Can be seen as unethical
Study was measured immediately- don’t know if there’s long term effects
Name the psychological theory
Eysenck’s theory of the criminal personality
What does Eysenck say about certain personality types?
Some personality types are more likely to commit crime because they crave excitement, but are slow to learn that crime has bad consequences.
Who carried out Eysenck’s questionnaire and what did it suggest?
700 soldiers being treated for neurotic disorders at the hospital where he worked.
Suggested there were number of different personality traits.
What were the 3 dimensions Eysenck proposed?
Extraversion/Introversion
Neuroticism/stability
Psychoticism
What personality traits are more likely to lead to criminal behaviour and why?
Extrovert
Neurotic
Psychotic
More likely to offend because it is difficult for them to control their immature impulses.
What are the criticisms of Eysenck?
There is no consistency in people’s behaviour- changes all the time
Theory tells us the traits of a criminal nut not why they commit crime
Bias- knew the soldiers
How is Eysenck’s theory useful?
Suggests criminal tendencies are detectable in childhood- interventions in place to reduce crime
