Psychodynamic explanation

• The weak super ego

  There is an absence of the same-gender parent in the phallic stage. This means that the child cannot identify with the same-gender parent. This means that the Superego is not fully formed and the child has a lack of understanding of the difference between right and wrong.

  The Superego does not punish the child through feelings of guilt. This means that the child will show criminal or immoral behaviour as the Superego does not hold them back.
• The deviant super ego 

  When the child identifies with their same-gender parent, the parent they identify with is immoral or has immoral standards of behaviours.

  This leads the child to internalise morals that are not acceptable.

  This means that they do not see criminal behaviours in the same way as others and won't associate guilt with showing criminal behaviours.
• The over-harsh superego 

  A healthy Superego is firm and has rules of what behaviours are and are not acceptable. If these rules are broken, the Superego will be forgiving.

  This is different from the over-harsh Superego, which will not be forgiving. This increases guilt for wrongdoing and will lead the child to unconsciously seek opportunities where they will be reprimanded to reduce their sense of guilt.

  This leads to criminal behaviour to satisfy the Superego's need for punishment.
• Gender bias

  the idea that girls develop a weaker superego than boys and consequently their sense of morality is less

  The implication of this is that females should be more prone to criminal behaviour than males.

  This is not supported by evidence

  In a study where children were required to resist temptation, found hardly any evidence of gender differences, and when there was,girls tended to be more moral than boys.
• A limitation is psychodynamic explanations in general suffer from a lack of falsifiability.

  The many unconscious concepts within Freudian theory mean that applications to crime, such as those considered here, are not open to empirical testing.

  In the absence of supporting evidence, arguments such as the inadequate superego can only be judged on their face value rather than their scientific worth.

  For this reason, psychodynamic explanations are regarded as pseudoscientific ('fake' science) and may contribute little to our understanding of crime, or how to prevent it.
• A limitation is there is very little evidence that children raised without a same-sex parent are less law-abiding as adults

  Similarly, if children who are raised by deviant parents go on to commit crime themselves, this could be due to the influence of genetics or socialisation, rather than the formation of a deviant superego.

  the idea that criminal behaviour reflects an unconscious desire for punishment seems implausible, as most offenders go to great lengths to hide their crimes which suggests they want to avoid punishment