After three decades of research, three major psychological theories of crime have emerged: psychodynamic theory, behavioral theory and cognitive theory. Learning these criminology theories and how to put them into practice is a component of an online Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice degree program.

1. PSYCHOLOGICAL
THEORIES OF
CRIME

2. ◦ It focuses on the influence of individual’s experiences of their emotional adjustment as well as on
their personality traits and types. The psychological theories of crime contain an assumption that
there is something wrong with the mind of the offender, which causes him to commit crimes
(Sammons, 2002).
Following are some of the theories that explain this logic:
◦ Psychoanalytic Theory (Sigmund Freud)
◦ Social Learning Theory (Albert Bandura)
◦ Theory of Frustration Aggression (John Dollard, Neal Miller, Leonard Doob, Orval Mower, and
Robert Sears)
◦ Cognitive Theory (Kohlberg’s Moral Theory)

3. Explain criminal behaviour as the consequence of individual
factors such as: negative early childhood experiences
◦ Amber is 57 years old and is an accomplished professional, but she never feels like her
work is good enough and is always afraid that people will be unhappy with her
performance. She realizes that she might have this outlook because when she was
growing up, her mother criticized everything she did. If she brought home a test with an
A+ on it, her mother would comment that Amber must have cheated because she
certainly wasn't smart enough to do that well on her own.
◦ Inadequate socialization which results in criminal thinking patterns and/or incomplete
cognitive development (Roberson, 2010; Sammons 2002).

4. PSYCHOANALYTIC
THEORY

5. The three aspects of personality
◦ The id is the source of the instinctual drives, it contains everything that is present at birth.
◦ The ego is the moderator between the demands of an instinct, and the superego. Freud noted
that the ego characterizes what is referred to as reason and sanity while the id refers to
passions. The ego compensates for the demands of the ID and operates in a "reality principle"
(Roberson, 2010).
◦ The superego is designated as the conscience, this evolves during which he or she learns the
restrictions morals, values of the society.

6. WEAK SUPEREGO- would act in ways that gratified the id, regardless of the social restraints
on doing so.
STRONG SUPEREGO- Develops guilt and anxiety. This could result in a person committing
crimes in order to get caught and punished to assuage the guilt imposed by their own superego
Normally, they would express these impulses harmlessly through defence mechanisms (sport). If
the superego prevents this, the aggression or sexual desire could build up over time until it
becomes strong enough to overwhelm the ego and is expressed suddenly and violently as murder
or rape.

7. ◦ Freud believed these three pieces of the mind are in constant conflict, as the primary goal is different for
each piece. Sometimes, when the conflict is too much for a person to handle, his or her ego may engage
in one or many defence mechanisms to protect the individual (Power, 2010).
◦ Repression: unconscious mechanism in which the ego pushes disturbing or threatening thoughts out of
consciousness. Involves intentional forgetting.
◦ Denial: the ego blocks upsetting or overwhelming experiences from awareness, causing the individual to
refuse to acknowledge or believe what is happening.

8. ◦ Projection: the ego's attempt to solve discomfort by attributing the individual's
unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and motives to another person
◦ Displacement: a mechanism by which the individual can satisfy an impulse by acting
on a substitute object or person in a socially unacceptable way
◦ Regression: a defence mechanism in which the individual moves backward in
development in order to cope with stress
◦ Sublimation: similar to displacement, this defence mechanism involves satisfying an
impulse by acting on a substitute, but in a socially acceptable way.

9. COGNITIVE
THEORY

10. ◦ The cognitive theory is a thought process that stores information, so that the information can be interpreted
correctly by a criminal. The next part of the process is how criminals can take the appropriate action so that
they can make their final decision on their thoughts.
◦ The portion of the brain that controls the cognitive part doesn't allow a criminal to view or make correct
decisions because they can't process information correctly. They may view committing a crime for their own
personal satisfaction or personal needs. They don't process emotions well.
◦ A person with a cognitive issue can't process information so they end up committing crimes. People who
have cognitive behavior issues are law violator that may seek out satisfaction for their crimes.

11. ◦ Criminals lose their ability for emotions and feelings. This takes them down a path to criminal behavior and
commit crimes against innocent victims. As a result, they feel their behaviors are justified and beneficial to
satisfy their needs.
◦ The cognitive theory shows that criminals with this issue just can't control their emotions, feelings, behaviors,
along with their ability to not process information like a normal person does.
◦ This theory shows that they don't fear the law or punishment of their actions like others. They have lost all
control of processing normal thoughts

12. What is Cognitive Theory?
◦ Cognitive Theory of crime explain criminal behaviour as a defect in moral thinking, thought process and
mental development. This theory also helps us to understand how an individual's personality and intelligence
level are linked to delinquency.
◦ Example:
◦ A young male child who was raised in a home where his mother was verbally and physically abused by his
father is more likely to have a skewed idea of what a healthy relationship is. He is more likely to be an abusive
partner himself. His perception of women and relationships are most likely skewed; negatively impacted and
shaped by his upbringing and the poor parental modelling he received from the male figure within the
household.

13. Cognitive theory focuses on how people perceive the world and how this perception governs their
actions, thoughts and emotions. Most cognitive theorists break down the process into three levels of
what is called “moral development.”
• Pre-conventional level. This involves children and how they learn the external consequences of
their actions.
• Conventional level. This involves teens and young adults, who begin to base behaviour on society’s
views and expectations.
• Post-conventional level. In those over the age of 20, the focus is more on judging the moral worth
of societal values and rules and how they relate to values of liberty, human welfare and human
rights
◦ In the area of crime, cognitive theorists argue that criminals do not develop moral judgment
beyond a pre-conventional level.

14. SOCIAL
LEARNING
THEORY

15. ◦ Crime is the product of learning the norms, values and
behaviors in the society associated with criminal or non
criminal activities.
◦ Adherents of social learning theory make a common-sense
claim:
◦ Behaviour is learned when it is reinforced, and not learned
when it is not reinforced.
◦ Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1961) tested 36 boys and 36 girls
from the Stanford University Nursery School aged between 3 to
6 years old.
◦ The researchers pre-tested the children for how aggressive they
were by observing the children in the nursery and judged their
aggressive behaviour

16. ◦ Results and Implications:
◦ First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to
itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behaviour modelled by people of the same
gender.
◦ Second, the people around the child will respond to the behaviour it imitates with either
reinforcement or punishment. If a child imitates a model's behaviour and the consequences are
rewarding, the child is likely to continue performing the behaviour.

17. ◦ Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative. If a child wants
approval from parents or peers, this approval is an external reinforcement, but feeling happy
about being approved of is an internal reinforcement. A CHILD WILL BEHAVE IN A WAY
WHICH IT BELIEVES WILL EARN APPROVAL BECAUSE IT DESIRES APPROVAL.
◦ Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other people when deciding
whether or not to copy someone's actions. A person learns by observing the consequences of
another person's (i.e., models) behavior, e.g., a younger sister observing an older sister being
rewarded for a particular behavior is more likely to repeat that behavior herself. This is known
as vicarious reinforcement.

18. Bobo Doll experiment

19. THE THEORY OF
FRUSTRATION
AGGRESSIVENESS

20. ◦ It attempts to give an explanation as to the cause of
violence. According to Dollard and colleagues, frustration
is the "condition which exists when a goal-response
suffers interference," while aggression is defined as "an
act whose goal-response is injury to an organism (or an
organism surrogate)." The theory says that frustration
causes aggression, but when the source of the frustration
cannot be challenged, the aggression gets displaced onto
an innocent target.

21. ◦ The theory simply says that aggression is the result of blocking, or frustrating, a person's efforts to attain
a goal
EXAMPLE
◦ If a man is disrespected and humiliated at his work, but cannot respond to this for fear of losing his job,
he may go home and take his anger and frustration out on his family.
◦ This theory is also used to explain riots and revolutions, which both are believed to be caused by poorer
and more deprived sections of society who may express their bottled up frustration and anger through
violence

22. ALBERT FISH

23. ◦ In the early summer of 1870 a fourth child, Hamilton, was born into the home of Randall and Ellen Fish
of Washington, DC.
◦ The Fish family had a history of severe mental disorders: a paternal uncle who was diagnosed with
religious psychosis, a maternal uncle who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and a mother who claimed
to have visions.
◦ Hamilton's siblings also had problems: a brother was confined to a state mental hospital, a sister was
diagnosed with a mental affliction, and a youngest brother who was slow-witted and an alcoholic.

24. ◦ In 1874, Randall Fish died of a heart attack. Unable to care for her children Randall Fish's wife,
Ellen Fish, placed five year old Hamilton in to the Saint John's Orphanage in Washington, DC.
◦ Hamilton was forced to watch and participate in forced masturbation in-front of other children. The
children, including Hamilton, were beaten with a hair brush and a whip, until the flesh on their
buttocks bled. When the boys grew older they were required to administer punishment to the
younger boys and be forced to pleasure the nuns that looked after them (Schecher, 1990).
◦ Hamilton Fish spent five abusive years in the Saint John's Orphanage, until his mother acquired a
stable job.
◦ In 1890, Hamilton Fish changed his name to Albert Fish. He married a young woman and had
several children with her.
◦ One situational factor that had a gigantic impact on Albert Fish, was his wife running off with
another man, leaving him with six children to raise. This caused an emotional break within Albert
Fish.

25. ◦ During this time he began to rape young coloured boys, in an interview with Dr. Fredrick Wertham, Fish
stated he took coloured boys because they would not be inclined to tell and law enforcement would not
be aware of their disappearance.
◦ By 1919 his obsession with torture and cannibalism had escalated, and he began to plan an actual murder.
He began to look for children that no one would miss, such as mentally handicapped orphans, or
homeless black children. He claimed that God was speaking him, and commanding him to torture young
children.
◦ He began to read advertisements in local papers, for homes with children looking for housework, or for
young men looking for work themselves.
◦ It was through one of these advertisements that he found young Grace Budd.
◦ In the end he was caught by the police and killed.

26. THANK YOU!