Psychodynamic explanation

• the superego


  seen as morality principle, attempts to regulate behaviour by giving feelings of guilt and pride as rewards and punishment. formed at the end of the phallic stage of development once the oedipus complex is resolved by identifying with same sex parent and imitating behaviour. likely to be related to offending behaviour because it is concerned with right and wrong. three ways this might happen
• weak or underdeveloped superego


  because of lack of identification with the same sex parent, e.g. if they are absent, superego is not able to fully form and control the id by providing the rewards and punishments needed for moral behaviour.
• harsh or overdeveloped superego

  overly strict parenting and over justification produces an excessively dominant and punishing superego. the need to justify these extreme feelings of guilt lead to the person carrying out criminal behaviours.
• deviant superego


  the same sex parent is identified with normally, however because the parent is a criminal, the behaviours that are imitated are criminal and the superego does not have the sense of morality shared by society.
• maternal deprivation theory


  Bowlby proposed that prolonged separations between a mother and child would have long term emotional consequences, effects occur if it happens before age of two and a half, and if not substitute mother-person is available. he also believed there was a continuing risk up till the age of 5.
• affectionless psychopathy


  a lack of normal affection, shame or sense of responsibility. related to the notion of psychopaths as someone who lacks understanding of the feelings of others. bowlby suggested this is a potential long term consequence of seperation. so lack close relationships with others and later likely to engage in criminality.
• explaining delinquent behaviour


  Bowlby compared 44 thieves with 44 control patients. found none of control participants experienced early separations, 39% of thieves experienced early serparations. found 14 of the thieves demonstrated affectionless psychopathy, 12 of these experiencing seperation from mother at an early age. compared to just 2 in control group of non-criminals.
• strength of psychodynamic explanation of offending

  -theories that link early childhood experience and later criminality can be used to reduce crime. freud's ideas can be used to ensure children's superego is not under or overdeveloped with parenting classes. in adoption, care should be taken not to give the child a deviant same sex parent to identify with. Bowlby's ideas have been accepted and care is now taken to reduce maternal deprivation.

  -it recognises emotional factors i.e. how anxiety or rejection can contribute to criminality. it also recognises the role of biology and childhood experiences which are important in other theories
• limitations of psychodynamic explanation of offending

  -seperation of thieves (that caused emotional problems) from 44 thieve study was not manipulated. what is demonstrated in study is an association between seperation and emotional problems, there may be other variables that cause the emotional problems. e.g. discord in home caused prolonged separations between mother and child and caused affectionless nature of some of the children. or even the affectionless character caused seperation.

  -freud's proposed that women should develop a weaker superego than men because they don't identify as strongly with same sex parent as boys do. due to resolution of electra complex is less satisfactory, freud believed there was little reason to identify with a women as she a 'lower status'. this view represents an alpha bias. if freud was correct we would expect to see more women criminals than men because of weaker superego, this is not the case.