psychodynamic explanation for offending

• affectionless psychopathy

  a behaviour disorder in which an individual has no ability to experience shame or guilt, which may make it easier for them to commit crime
• maternal deprivation

  the loss of emotional care that is normally provided by the caregiver
• psychodynamic explanation

  this refers to any theory that emphasises change and development in the individual, particularly those theories where drive is a central concept in development. This most well-known example of a psychodynamic theory is Freudian Psychoanalysis
• super ego

  part of Freud’s conception of the structure of the personality. The superego embodies our conscience and sense of right and wrong, as well as notions of the ideal self. Developing between the age of 3-6
• Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory

  • long term separation between mother and child would have long term emotional consequences
  • this would need to occur before the age of 2.5 years
  • the long-term risk is affectionless psychopathy
  • Bowlby worked as a psychiatrist in a child guidance clinic in London and regularly worked with children who had been caught stealing as his patients
  • he observed that these children had experienced early separations and started to show signs of affectionless psychopathy
  • compared 44 thieves attending his clinic and 44 control patients
  • none of the control patients had experienced early separation, whereas 39% of the thieves had experienced frequent separations
  • he also found that those with an affectionless character had almost all experienced frequent separations- 86%
• Freud's iceberg model

  • weak/underdeveloped super ego, a child who does not identify with their same sex parent or whose parent is absent, develops a weak superego, little control over anti-social behaviour and is likely to act in a wat that gratifies their instinctual id impulses
  • over developed super ego, a child may develop a strong identification with a strict parent, excessive feelings of guilt and anxiety, they may commit crime with a desire to be caught and punishment would remove/reduce their feelings their feelings of guilt. defensive mechanism (repression, denial and displacement)
  • deviant super ego, in a normal relationship, a child takes on the moral attitudes of their same sex parent, in the case of criminal parents, the child would adopt criminal attitudes- pro crime/deviant
• emotional factors - strength

  • this is the first explanation of criminal behaviour that deals with the role of emotional factors
  • this is often overlooked, and can considerably affect behaviour
  • particularly focusing on how anxiety and rejection may contribute to certain feelings and therefore behaviours
  • this explanation also considers the early childhood experiences as important factors that shape behaviour and the development of a personality
• causational - limitation

  • Bowlby’s 44 thieves study suggests that prolonged separations from the parent, may cause emotional problems
  • there is simply an association between separation and emotional problems, and there may well be other variables that cause emotional problems
• real world application - strength

  • the treatment of young people can be slow and difficult, so Bowlby suggested that it would be easier to prevent long separations at childhood, rather than treat the consequences
  • specifically identifying emotional separation, rather than physical as the pivotal factor
  • children can endure physical separations if there is emotional care
• complex set of factors

  • delinquency is caused by a number of factors, of which Bowlby acknowledged (e.g. poverty, bad housing, lack of recreational facilities)
  • David Farrington (2009) conducted a 40 year longitudinal study in the UK, beginning in the 1950s with 400 boys from South London
  • he found that important risk factors at the age of 8-10 for later offending
  • family criminality
  • daring/risk taking personality (Eysenck’s theory)
  • low school attainment
  • poverty
  • poor parenting
• limitations

  • not falsifiable
  • androcentrism- alpha gender bias
  • psychic determinism