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Discuss psychodynamic explanations of offendingParagraph one
Psychodynamic explanations of offending behaviour - focuses on the influence of early
childhood experiences and how they impact later development. For example, Freud’s
concepts of the unconscious mind and tripartite (three part) personality can be used to
explain the development of criminal behaviour.
-The superego is the part of personality that is likely to be related to offending behaviour, as
it embodies our conscience and sense of right and wrong, having the ability to stop a
behaviour.
-If an individual’s superego is weak or under-developed (through failure to identify with the
same sex parent in the phallic stage, around the age of 4), then an individual will have little
control over anti-social behaviour and be more likely to act in ways that gratify the id, which
is based on the pleasure principle and wants immediate gratification. Therefore being more
likely to commit a crime
-Ronald Blackburn argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then
criminal behaviour is inevitable as the id is not properly controlled.
-if an individual's super ego is strong or developed it means that a person feels guilt for their
actions and this level of guilt means that the unlikely to do something that they think will
affect others in a negative way (like a crime)
Paragraph two
Three ways that a superego can underpin a crime:
The deviant superego - if the superego that the child internalises has immoral values this
would lead to offending behaviour.
- It focuses on the concept of identification and occurs during the phallic stage, when
the superego is developing
- The child identifies with the same sex parent to resolve either the oedipus or the
electra complex (The attachment of the child to the parent of the opposite sex,
accompanied by envious and aggressive feelings toward the parent of the same sex)
- Identification means adopting similar behaviours to the same sex parent and if that
behaviour is deviant in any way, the child adopts similar behaviours and morals (e.g.
a boy who has a criminal father internalises his father’s criminal values)
The overdeveloped superego - a healthy superego has rules but is also forgiving of
transgressions.
- The individual has not had issues with developing as such
- An overly-developed superego means the individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety.
- Would suggest that an individual is less likely to commit a crime, but could argue that
a crime serves as a release from the overwhelming feelings of guilt. However, this is
argued to occur only when the criminal is caught and punished.
- This may (unconsciously) drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to
satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment.
,The underdeveloped superego - if the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage,the
child can not internalise a fully formed superego as identification can not occur making
immoral/criminal behaviour more likely.
- Normally occurs when the issues happen for the individual at the ages of 4, when the
superego is developed
Paragraph three (evaluation of freud's theory)
-According to Freud’s theory, women have weaker superegos than men (because a boy’s
fear of being castrated is stronger than a girl’s fear of losing her mother’s love).
- If this were true, though, this would predict that women commit crimes more than men
because women would be more likely to have an underdeveloped superego.
- However, the opposite is true: Men are (on average) more likely to commit crimes than
women, which suggests that psychodynamic explanations of criminal behaviour are
inaccurate.
Paragraph four
According to Freud’s theory, the ego uses defence mechanisms to mediate between the id
and the superego
-they are used by the unconscious mind to reduce anxiety because psychodynamic theorists
believe anxiety will weaken the ego and the id and/or the superego
Defence mechanisms implicated in offending behaviour:
-displacement - the focus of a strong emotion is shifted from its actual target to a neutral
target eg. a man fights a stranger in a pub because he's angry with his parents
-sublimation - when a strong id impulse is expressed in a more socially accepted way eg
football fan wants to murder but instead gets involved in football hooliganism
-rationalism - explaining behaviour in a rational and acceptable way when it's actually very
negative. Offenders use this defence mechanisms as a form of justification for their criminals
a person kills sex workers because they believe they are a threat to civilised society
Paragraph five (evaluation of defence mechanisms)
-Englander (2007) argues that the displacement defence mechanism may explain violent
behaviour. For example, a person may be angry about something that happened at work
and this anger may manifest as getting into a fight in a pub later that day.
-believed to have generated from the unconscious mind and this means that they are
untestable
Paragraph six (maternal deprivation)
- Bowlby - the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent upon the
child forming a warm,continuous relationship with a mother figure.
-The maternal bond was seen by Bowlby as vital to a child’s well being and development.
-Failure to establish such a bond during the critical period means the child will face a number
of damaging and irreversible consequences in later life.
-If there is a disruption (like separation) in the relationship with the primary caregiver, this is
maternal deprivation
, -the child will form a negative representation of the world as a hostile place and will struggle
to form attachment, leading to delinquent behaviour as they grow and can not develop close
relationships with others as they lack the necessary early experience to do so.
-Affectionless psychopathy is characterised by lack of guilt,empathy and feelings for others
Paragraph seven (research to support)
44 juvenile thieves-
44 Thieves were compared with 44 Non-thieves from a delinquency centre. Bowlby collected
data via interviews and questionnaires from the 88 juveniles and found that 17/ 44 thieves
had experienced early prolonged separation from their mothers before 5 years.
15/17 of these thieves were classed as affectionless psychopaths (no guilt/ remorse), while
only 2/44 non-thieves had experienced such separation.
Paragraph eight (evaluation of the research)
-Methodological concerns: took the form of interviews with the subjects.
-this method has been criticised for researcher bias as Bowlby’s own theories and
preconceived ideas may have influenced the questions he asked and his interpretations of
the answers.
-For example, Bowlby’s expectation that maternal deprivation could cause a child to become
a psychopath could have biassed him to diagnose children who were separated from their
mothers as such.
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