Psychodynamic explanation

• Freud's psychodynamic theory of personality

  Three distinct components: the id, representing primitive desires and the need for gratification, the superego, representing moral and social constraints, and the ego, representing reality and the ability to delay gratification
• Superego


  Formed at the end of the phallic stage of development, when children resolve the Oedipus and Electra complex
• Psychodynamic explanation of offending behaviour

  The superego, the moral component of the personality, is crucial in explaining criminality
• If the superego (the moral part of the personality) is deficient then criminality is inevitable as the id (pleasure principle) is not properly controlled and we are going to give into our urges and impulses
• Problems with the super ego

  1. A weak Superego may develop if the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage of psycho-sexual development

  2. A deviant Superego may develop if the child internalizes the morals of a criminal or deviant same-sex parent
• Over-harsh Superego


  May develop if same-sex parent is overly harsh
• Over-harsh Superego


  May result in an individual being crippled by guilt and anxiety
• Being crippled by guilt and anxiety


  May lead to committing crime in order to satisfy the superego's need for punishment
• Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis predicts that if an infant is deprived of a mother or mother figure during the critical period of attachment in the first few years, there will be serious and permanent consequences
• Consequences of maternal deprivation

  • Delinquency
  • Affectionless psychopathology
• Affectionless psychopathology


  Characterised by a lack of guilt, empathy and feelings for others
• Bowlby presented evidence that early maternal deprivation was related to later criminal behaviour, notably through his famous '44 Thieves' study
• Thieves in the '44 Thieves' study

  • 14 could be described as affectionless psychopaths
• Affectionless psychopaths in the '44 Thieves' study

  • 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives
• The implication of Freud's theory is that there should be more females drawn to crime, and therefore our prisons should be over represented with females
• This is not the case, suggesting Freud's theory is inaccurate
• Our legal system is based on the premise that criminals have personal and moral responsibilities for their crimes, and only in extreme cases, such as a diagnosis of mental illness, can someone claim they were not acting under their own free will