Psychological Models of Criminal Behavior
I. Psychoanalytic Theory or Psychodynamic Models
Psychodynamic models explain criminal behavior through normal and pathological mental processes. Key features include:
- Biological Determinism: The unconscious influences behavior.
- Pansexualism: The sexual instinct transcends behavior.
- Introspective Method: Psychoanalysis uncovers hidden motivations.
Concept of Crime: Crime is a symbolic response, expressing repressed ideas or feelings.
Origins of Behavior Disorders
Disorders arise from misalignments between the id, ego, and superego.
- Id: Governed by the pleasure principle, it represents primal instincts (e.g., sexual, aggressive). At birth, we are pure id. Man is inherently antisocial, selfish, and unsupportive.
- Ego: Develops in contact with reality, mediating between the id and external demands. Governed by the reality principle, its activity can be conscious, preconscious, or unconscious.
- Superego: Internalizes societal moral values through parental identification. It’s the seat of self-criticism and guilt, inhibiting the id’s intolerable desires. Governed by the principle of duty.
The balance of these three instances ensures mental stability. Dysfunctions, disturbances, or lack of synchronization can lead to disorders like neurosis.
Oedipus Complex
The offender seeks punishment to relieve guilt.
Therapeutic Viewpoint: Employs clinical trials (e.g., dream interpretation, free association).
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Freud is the main exponent. He believed every human act, including criminal ones, has a deep sexual connotation. The libido is the primary vital energy, struggling against two instincts: Eros (sex) and Thanatos (death instinct).
Freud distinguished five psychosexual stages:
- Oral: First year of life.
- Anal: Second and third year.
- Phallic: Between 3 and 5 years. Oedipus complex and castration anxiety emerge.
- Latency: Between 6 years and puberty. Sexual impulses attenuate due to moral standards.
- Genital: From adolescence. Represents sexual fulfillment.
According to Freud, problems or dysfunctions in these stages (due to frustration or overindulgence) can fixate the individual at an earlier stage.
Freud’s most significant contributions include the concept of the unconscious and the division of the psyche (conscious, preconscious, unconscious), as well as the discovery of the id, ego, and superego.
II. Behavioral and Biological-Social-Behavioral or Social Learning Models
1. Biological Behavioral Models
These models are based on:
- Operant Learning: Behavior is shaped by its consequences.
- Pavlov’s Experiment: Conditioned reflex through stimulus association (e.g., dog, food, bell, salivation).
Social behavior is acquired through conditioning, influenced by:
- Individual status
- Degree of conditioning
- Model of conditioning
Socialization and defective conditioning play a role in criminal behavior. The child associates punishment (unconditioned stimulus) with prohibited behavior (conditioned stimulus), developing a conditioned fear response. This acts as an internal deterrent. Offenders may fail to develop this response, lacking internal control.
This model offers solutions through behavior modification techniques based on operant conditioning. These techniques can teach offenders to associate fear with punishment.
The University of Kansas pioneered behavior modification in 1967, using the token economy system. This system rewards desired behaviors with points that can be exchanged for privileges (positive reinforcement) and punishes undesired behaviors by restricting activities. Results were limited, requiring post-treatment and highlighting the importance of discipline in education.
2. Social and Behavioral Model of Social Learning
Social learning theory emphasizes vicarious learning, explaining how criminal behavior results from acquiring criminal patterns through observation and imitation (observational learning).
Crime is learned, a normal response to an individual’s experiences. Individuals are not born criminals but learn to be through social interaction. Biological and psychological factors may predispose, but social and environmental factors activate criminal tendencies.
Learning (vicarious and observational) occurs through imitation. Individuals learn by observing others and interacting with their environment, particularly with inappropriate role models.
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Bandura argued that criminal behavior is learned. People learn through observation, using concepts like vicarious reinforcement and vicarious punishment.
Individuals observe the consequences of others’ actions (rewarded, punished, or ignored). They learn from these observations. Observing successful behavior increases the tendency to imitate it, while observing punished behavior has the opposite effect.
Vicarious reinforcement strengthens the tendency to perform a behavior observed to be rewarded in others.
Vicarious punishment inhibits behaviors by observing their negative consequences on others.
Punishment plays an exemplary role. Impunity has a strong criminogenic effect. Unpunished criminal conduct reinforces others, encouraging them to imitate it, as they see no negative consequences and potential benefits.
The social environment plays a crucial role in the etiology of criminal behavior. Offenders learn from what they see in their social surroundings.
3. Theories of Moral Development and Cognitive Processing
These theories attribute criminal behavior not to defective socialization but to cognitive processes like:
- Subjective perception of the world
- Level of moral development
- Standards and values
- Other cognitive personality variables
Piaget’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
Piaget identified three stages in the formation of moral reasoning:
- Premoral Stage: Seeking immediate gratification, avoiding punishment. Common in children.
- Conventional Stage: Formal compliance with rules, norms, and respect for authority. Punishment is the means to associate right and wrong. Formal compliance with rules strengthens concepts of what is permitted or not.
- Autonomous Morality Stage: Deep respect for the views and rights of others and universal moral principles. Represents the culmination of consciousness and the acquisition of values that promote respect for others and moral principles.
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Kohlberg expanded on Piaget’s work, proposing three major stages in the development of moral reasoning:
- Preconventional: Focus on self-interest and avoiding punishment.
- Conventional: Emphasis on conformity to social norms and laws.
- Postconventional: Development of universal ethical principles and individual conscience.
4. Factor Model of Traits or Personality Variables
Factor models moved away from the theory of a criminal personality and focused on identifying personality traits (cognitive deficits) associated with criminal behavior, independent of other variables and with predictive power.
The goal is to identify traits that explain the consistency of certain behaviors.
- Greater convergence of traits indicates greater criminal propensity. Higher presence and intensity of these traits increase the likelihood of criminal conduct.
- Prediction: Objective measurement tools (tests, questionnaires, etc.) are used.
Cognitive Deficits Associated with Criminal Behavior
- Impulsivity
- Low frustration tolerance
- Aggression
- Egotism
- Lack of empathy
- Low self-esteem
- External locus of control (blaming others for their actions)
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
These cognitive deficits are predisposing factors to criminal behavior and can be addressed with specific intervention techniques or therapies:
- Self-control techniques
- Relaxation techniques
- Emotional control techniques
- Social skills training (negotiation, problem-solving, expressing emotions, conversation)
- Planning techniques
Conclusion
Characteristics of the Factor Model
- Complex and Multifactorial: Criminal behavior is influenced by multiple interacting factors.
- Explanatory and Predictive: The model explains the causes of criminal behavior and predicts future behavior, allowing for targeted interventions.
- Instruments: Measurement Techniques: Objective measurement tools (e.g., tests) are used to assess the presence and intensity of relevant traits.
These intervention techniques aim to develop emotional intelligence, a key factor in personal and professional success, in offenders.