Evaluations

• + theory emphasises the role of early childhood experiences especially with parental figures. This is because of its ability of seeing children’s personality developing and chunks being parents. In crime, criminals may have trauma that resulted in their childhood and because of the superego not being made properly therefore not internalised it and resulted in it being unconscious
• +highlights the influence of of unconscious motives on criminals behaviours. The psychodynamic theory implies that individuals may engage in criminal acts driven by unresolved conflicts and unconscious desires.
• -there is no empirical evidence supporting the theory. There is little research conducted on the theory so there is no way to test or prove its validity. Therefore it cannot be used to explain all types of crime. It can also lead to criminal possibly lying to get away with crimes.
• -Gender bias: Freud only focused on male experiences and had limited understanding of female psychology. Therefore, we cannot generalise his theories to women and lacks validity (face validity).
• Overemphasise the role of early childhood: Freud had the idea that childhood and your parents shape as who you are however, there can be other factors such as environmental influence and social economic that can lead to criminal behaviour.