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Theories of Criminals

The question whether criminals are born or made is not an easy one, and the answer may lie in one's own intellectual background. Psychological theories would place the blame in learned behavior, or a combination of social/family environment and the criminal's own neurotic predisposition. Sociologists, however, would place the blame in social and economic factors, and the success of targeted intensive job programs for offenders would lend support to their arguments. Physiologists seek biological determinants for the causes of crime. Nonetheless, some crimes seem inexplicable even given all these factors, leaving the door open for the assertion that some people are just born criminals.

Psychological Causes for Criminal Behavior

Many criminal acts, such as theft, can be ascribed to obvious motives. But when people cannot seem to find a rational motive for horrible crimes, for example, mass murder, child molestation, or child murder, they search for rationales based on the mental disturbance of the offender (Hartjen, 1974, p.45). These psychological theories of criminal behavior contend that criminals conduct crimes because they suffer either from a mental disorder or impairment that borders on or represents serious psychosis (Hartjen, 1974, p.45). In addition, other psychological theories attribute criminality to neurotic tendencies or mild emotional disturbances in the criminal. Generally, most psychological theories are based on the concepts of Sigmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud was a physician and neurologist who engaged in psychotherapy with neurotic patients in Vienna. He introduced the notion of psychoanalysis as well as such concepts as conflict, psychosexual development, unconscious processes, dream analysis, and free association (Jeffery, 1994, p. 152). Psychoanalytic psychology depended on the interpretation of dreams, thought processes, verbal statements, and other body language to determine the patient's subconscious neuro...

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Theories of Criminals. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:34, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1712235.html