Psychological theories of criminal behaviour

Psychological and psychiatric theories of criminal behaviour emphasise individual propensities and characteristics in explanations of criminality. Whether the emphasis is on conditioned behaviour, the development of parental attachment, or the psychoanalytic structure of the human personality, these approaches see the wellsprings of human motivation, desire, and behavioural choice as being firmly rooted in the personality. Some of the earliest positivists were convinced that criminal behaviour was a result of genetic abnormality. Lombroso advanced the notion …

…Sociology Themes and Perspectives, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd Harrower, Julie, Applying Psychology to Crime, Hodder & Stoughton, 1998 McLaughlin, Eugene and Muncie, John, Controlling Crime, Sage Publications Inc, 1996 Walklate, Sandra, Understanding Criminology Current Theoretical Debates, Open University Press, 2001 www.britannica.com www.crimelibrary.com www.library.utoronto.ca.libraries_crim/centre/links.htm www.mhhe.com/socscience/crimjustice/reid/sg/olc/index.htm www.nene.ac.uk/ass/behav/crim/crim.html Class notes on all areas