Psychological Theories of Crime - Essay Sample

Introduction

The criminal justice system is concerned with questions about individuals committing crimes, particularly, seeking to find explanations behind reasons as to why individuals commit crimes. Two of the most delivered perspectives regarding criminal justice revolve around social and psychological theories of crime which are influential in shaping the thoughts of the society on crime and delinquency. However, the psychological theories of crime deliver important explanations about criminal justice by focusing on the association among learning, behavior, intelligence, and criminal actions or behavior. It provides the need to understand psychological theories of crime deriving that one needs to be cognizant with them if at all they need to understand the questions concerning criminology. In most of the cases, there are no physical differences between criminals and noncriminal; however, criminals are more likely to exhibit poor social behavior, unintelligence and in other cases are likely insane.

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According to the psychological theories of crime, they consider individual factors such as negative early childhood experience, and inadequate socialization that could result in the crime involved thinking patterns. The psychological theories of crime are classified into three major approaches which bring about the various understandings and discussion in an attempt to understand and explain the reasons as to why people commit a crime. The first theory is the psychodynamic theory, which centers on the notion that early childhood experiences may influence the likelihood of committing crimes. The second is the behavioral theory focusing on how a person's perception of the world changes their behavior. The third is the cognitive theory, centered on an individual's judgment and its manifestation in affecting their potential to commit a crime (Moore 226-239).

Psychodynamic Theory

The psychodynamic theory of crime is based on the work of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, who believes that three primary forces shape a person's personality; the id, ego, and superego. According to the Freud, the Id is a primitive part of an individual's mental set up that represents the unconscious biological drives for life necessities such as food. Majorly, id serves the instinctual needs, for instance, please or other forms gratifications while disregarding the concern for other individuals. Within the second element, ego, it represents understanding social norms whereby it compensates for the demands of the id by guiding a person's actions and behaviors to ensure they are constrained within the boundaries of the society. The principle of reality governs the ego element. On the other hand, the aspect of the superego develops as an individual incorporates the values of the community and other moral standards since it focuses on morality. Therefore, when a crime is committed the psychodynamic theory tries to imply that an individual commits crime because they have an underdeveloped superego.

Also, the psychodynamic theory suggests that criminal perpetrators are aggravated and frustrated since they may be drawn continuously to previous events or experiences that occurred during their early childhood development. The imbalance between the id, ego, and the superego elements cause delinquent behavior which implies that a conflict between the three personalities forces an individual to develop a defense mechanism to cope with the arising conflict. Thus, this could render the emergence of problematic behavior and criminal activities. Moreover, according to the proponents of the psychodynamic theory, they suggest that an individual's personality is controlled by unconscious mental development grounded in early childhood. The occurrence brings about the involvement of other criminal justice occurrences such as mental disorders and crime, and mental illness and crime.

Behavioral Theory

The behavioral theory also referred to as social learning theory argues that behavior is learned and holds that actions are determined through learning experiences, majorly, the behavioral theory implies that people change their responses about the reaction this behavior instills in other individuals. According to criminal justice, behavioral theory suggests that people are not born with innate ability to indulge in criminal acts, but violence is learned through a process of behavior modeling. For example, a child could learn violence through observation of other individuals such as parents. Theoretically, the behavioral theory is conditioning, a form of learning involving stimuli and rewards. When an individual's actions are reinforced through conditioning, then it means that behavior is learned.

However, the significant causes of behavior changes are family interaction, the media, and environmental experiences. Family interactions are critical since they imply that, an individual or child who is aggressive and likely to portray criminal behavior is more likely to have been brought up in a family full of violence, aggressiveness, among other actions that could promote criminal activities. On the other hand, environmental experiences suggest that people residing in crime-prone areas are likely to display aggressive behavior more than people living in low-crime environments. One can argue that environments with high-crime rates are without customs and rules thus indication on the absence of conventional behavior which creates a social context and culture. As for mass media, it controls what people can view and affects criminal justice since it is difficult to discern the role of media about crime. Some of the content displayed such as films that depict violence deliver an effect to behavioral change since they create a perception concerning the social structure. Thus, providing an impact on the social learning theories as they beckon us to accept the involvement of media in criminology today.

Cognitive Theory

Correspondingly, the cognitive theory is based on the occurrence that cognitive processes are at the core of behaviors, emotions, and thoughts. Within the details of the cognitive theory of crimes, it focuses on the mental processes of a person by attempting to understand how criminals perceive and mentally represent the environment around them. In other occurrences, the cognitive theory represents the moral and intellectual development of an individual by implying that the concept of moral development to criminological theory is based on different levels. Level I, preconventional; Level II, conventional; and Level II, post-conventional. The preconventional level focuses on the obvious consequences that an action may impose and is common in children. The conventional level focuses on the expectation and views of the society and is common among the adolescence while the post-conventional level focuses on the critical examination of moral values, principles, and human rights and is common among the adults. According to theorists, offenders fail to develop moral judgment capacity being the preconventional level and the different cognitive theories examine crime and delinquency from a life advancement view.

Conclusion

Psychology plays a significant role in understanding criminal justice since they form a fundamental relationship. With the attempt the explain the reasoning behind committing crimes, different theorist derives a connection between the various psychological theories of crime as they interact with criminology. The psychodynamic theory, behavioral theory, and cognitive theory form a significant selection of assumptions involved in criminal justice as they explain the different reasons for crime and delinquency. Moreover, other involvements such as mental disorder, mental illness, and crime provide a significant explanation to the details of criminal justice (Lewis 1-4).

Works Cited

Lewis, J. Scott. "Psychological Theories of Crime." The Encyclopedia of Criminal Justice and Criminology (2014): 1-4, DOI: 10.1002/9781118517383.wbeccj183

Moore, Megan. "Psychological theories of delinquency and crime." Journal of Human Behavior in The Social Context 21.3 (2011): 226-239, DOI: 10.1080/10911359.2011.564552