Sigmund Freud

• Freud believed that our mind/personality was divided into 3 parts:

  1. The ID - Controls our selfish and animalistic urges.
  2. The Ego - Seeks rational and sensible control.
  3. The superego - Our ‘moral conscience‘.

  Freud states that a healthy personality needed a balance between all 3 parts.
• How could the ID dominating lead to criminality?

  Criminals are controlled by their ID rather than their ego.

  If an individual fails to move from from ID as a child to Ego-centric, they will engage with criminality to satisfy these urges without moral consideration.
• Advantages of Psychodynamic Theory

  1. Even though his theories are seen as unusual, there still are merits to his views.
  2. Highlights the importance of adverse childhood experiences on criminality which cannot be underestimated.
  3. The ID, ego, and superego all link to parts of the brain - The Limbic System is the brain’s emotion-centred (ID), and the Pre-Frontal Cortex is responsible for rational decisions (Ego).
• Disadvantages of Psychodynamic Theory

  1. Lack of scientific evidence at play and a lack of objective interpretation.
  2. Difficult to truly quantify scientifically that the unconscious truly exists.
  3. Freud knew most of his patients and lacked quantitative data, therefore, he was not objective.
• Supporting study - John Bowlby (1944) (1)


  Studied 44 juvenile delinquents and compared them with non-criminal delinquents.

  > Of the delinquents, 39% had experienced separation from their mothers for the first 6 months, or more, during their first 5 years of their life by comparison to only 5% of those from the control group.
• Supporting Study - John Bowlby (1944) (2)

  How does this help understand stability within homelife and criminality?

  Juveniles with an unstable home life are more likely to fall into committing criminal activities.