The Biological and Psychological Determinism

THE FOUNDATION OF THE TRAIT THEORY
BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

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THE BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

During the late nineteenth century, the scientific method was beginning to take hold in Europe. Rather than relying on pure thought and reason, scientists began to use careful observation and analysis of natural phenomena in their experiments. This movement inspired new discoveries in biology, astronomy, and chemistry.

Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882 – above photo) discoveries on the evolution of man encouraged a nineteenth-century “cult of science.” Darwin’s discoveries encouraged other scholars to be certain that all human activity could be verified by scientific principles. If the scientific method could be applied to the study of the natural world, then why not use it to study human behavior?

Auguste Comte (1798-1857 – below photo), considered the founder of sociology, applied scientific methods to the study of society. According to Comte, societies pass through stages that can be grouped on the basis of how people try to understand the world in which they live.

People in primitive societies consider inanimate objects as having a life (for example, the sun is a god); in later social stages, people embrace a rational, scientific view of the world. Comte called this final stage the positive stage, and those who followed his writings became known as positivists. As we understand it today, positivism has two main elements:

• • All true knowledge is acquired through direct observation and not through conjecture or belief. Statements that cannot be backed up by direct observation-for instance, “all babies are born innocent”-are invalid and worthless.
  • The scientific method must be used if research findings are to be considered valid. This involves such steps as identifying problems, collecting data, forming hypotheses, conducting experiments and interpreting results.

According to the positivist tradition, social processes are a product of the measurable interaction between relationships and events. Human behavior, therefore, is a function of a variety of forces. Some are social, such as the effect of wealth and class; others are political and historical, such as war and famine.

Other forces are more personal and psychological, such as an individual’s brain structure and his or her biological makeup or mental ability. Each of these forces influences and shapes human behavior. People are born neither “good” nor “bad,” and are neither “saints” nor “sinners.” They are a product of their social and psychological traits, influenced by their upbringing and environment.

POSITIVISM becomes a major break from the classical and neo-classical theory that preceded it. The following are the key features of the positivistic school of thought:

1. 1. Positivists assume that human behavior is determined and not a matter of free will. Consequently, positivists focus on cause-and-effect relationships.
   2. Positivists assume that criminals are fundamentally different from non-criminals. Positivists search for such differences by scientific methods.
   3. Positivists assume that social scientists (including criminologists) can be objective, or value-neutral, in their work)
   4. Positivists frequently assume that crime is caused by multiple factors.
   5. Positivists believe that society is based on consensus but not on a social contract.

This cause of crime, from this perspective, is biological inferiority. Biological inferiority in criminals is assumed to produce certain physical or genetic characteristics that distinguish criminals from non-criminals. It is important to emphasize that the physical or genetic characteristics themselves are not the cause of crime but only the symptoms, or stigmata, of the more fundamental inferiority. Several different methodologies have been employed to detect physical differences between criminals and non-criminals. They are:

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1. PHYSIOGNOMY

PHYSIOGNOMY (Johan K. Lavater: 1741-1801)

Physiognomy is the judging of character from facial features. Today, the science of physiognomy is primarily of historical interest, as the precursor of the better-developed phrenology.

The earliest “scientific” studies examining human behavior were biologically oriented. Criminologist Stephen Schafer has traced the belief as far back as Aristotle. He traced the theory that there is a relationship between the type of crime and the body form of criminal back to Giambattista Della Porta (1535-1615).

But the real development of physiognomy may be trace to Physiognomist Johan K. Lavater (1741-1801, photo above), who studied the facial features of criminals to determine whether the shape of ears, nose, and eyes and the distance between them were associated with criminal and anti-social behavior.

Aside from Darwin, Aristotle and many known philosophers also stated that “man is an animal”. And from that word, early physiognomist relates such term to judge man’s facial characteristics to the animal from which they resembled. The book “Comparative Physiognomy or Resemblances Between Men and Animals” (1852) by Dr. James W. Redfield, showed several examples of man’s personality make-up with the animals whom they resemble.

Dr. Redfield’s Illustration in “of the face of John Jacob Astor” (illustration in the right) with a lion is one only of the comparative studies he presented in the said book.

Other known comparisons are shown here for scholarly purposes.

Pioneers of Physiognomy

Ancient:

• • Aristotle – calling this endeavor physiognomonics
  • Polemo of Laodecia
  • Adamantius the Sophist
  • Unknown Latin author
  • Pythagoras

Middle Age:

• • Della Porta, Giambattista (1586).

Modern Age

• • Johan Kaspar Lavater

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2. PHRENOLOGY

Phrenology is the science that studies the relationships between a person’s character and the morphology of the skull. It is a very ancient object of study. The first philosopher to locate mental faculties in the head was in fact, Aristotle.  The real scientific Phrenology, which established a direct link between the morphology of the skull and the human character, was discovered by the Austrian physician FRANZ JOSEPH GALL (1758-1828 – photo below). Gall put the foundations for an anatomic characterology. He was one of the first to consider the brain as the home of all mental activities.

In the introduction to his main work The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, Gall makes the following statement in regard to the principles on which he based his doctrine:

• • That moral and intellectual faculties are innate;
  • That their exercise or manifestation depends on organization;
  • That the brain is the organ of all the propensities, sentiments, and faculties;
  • That the brain is composed of many particular organs as there are propensities, sentiments, and faculties which differ essentially from each other.
  • That the form of the head or cranium represents the form of the brain, and thus reflects the relative development of the brain organs.

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3. CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Criminal anthropology is the study of “criminal” human beings.   It is associated with the work of an Italian army doctor, Cesare Lombroso, the known and famous FATHER OF CRIMINOLOGY. He presented in 1885 during the First Congress of Criminal Anthropology, Biology, and Sociology, his theory of the “born criminal.”Lombroso first published his theory of a physical criminal type in 1876.

Lombroso’s theory consisted of the following propositions:

1. 1. Criminals are, by birth, a distinct type.
   2. That type can be recognized by physical characteristics, or stigmata, such as enormous jaws, high cheekbones, and insensitivity to pain.
   3. The criminal type is clearly distinguished in a person with more than five stigmata, perhaps exists in a person with three to five stigmata, and does not necessarily exist in a person with less than three stigmata.
   4. Physical stigmata do not cause crime, they are only indicative of an individual who is predisposed to crime. Such a person is either an atavist—that is, a reversion to a savage type—or a result of degeneration.
   5. Because of their personal natures, such persons cannot desist from crime unless they experience very favorable lives.

RAFAELLE GAROFALO (1852 – 1934);

Lombroso was not alone in the early development of biological Theories. A contemporary, RAFAELLE GAROFALO (photo shown below) shared the belief that certain physical characteristics indicate a criminal nature. But Garofalo differs in the emphasis he placed on the physical abnormality of the criminal.

He agreed that a criminal is abnormal, as he thought of him to be lacking in the degree of sentiments and repugnance held by the other in society. He uses the word atavism (one of Lombroso’s words) and strongly believes that there was really an instinct of the true criminal, one element is that it was congenital, inherited, or somehow acquired early in infancy which becomes inseparable from the criminal’s psychic organism.

He believes that criminals are always morally inferior, and the problem is to determine the degree and nature of that inferiority. Thus Garofalo classified criminals as:

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Typical criminals or murderer
            2. Violent criminals
            3. Criminal deficient in probity
            4. Lascivious criminals

ENRICO FERRI

ENRICO FERRI another student of Lombroso believed that a number of biological, social, and organic factors caused delinquency and crime. Ferri added a social dimension to Lombroso’s work and was a pioneer with his view that criminals should not be held personally or morally responsible for their actions because forces outside their control caused criminality.

Ferri coined the term born criminal based on the work of Lombroso and described the classification of criminals closely to that of Lombroso. In explaining such classifications, he gives more attention to man’s environment.

Classification of criminals according to Ferri are:

1. 1. 1. Born Criminals. They are the one who suffers from criminal neurosis, which is not in itself sufficient to cause crime.
      2. Insane Criminals. The one who is suffering from some clinical form of mental alienation.
      3. Habitual Criminals. The one who has acquired his habit of crime mainly through the ineffective measures employed by society for the prevention and repression of crime.
      4. Occasional Criminals. The one who commits insignificant criminal acts, not because of his personality, but because of the circumstances in which he lives.
      5. Passionate Criminals. Passion is ”excusable” when the moral sense of man is normal, when his past record is clear, and when his crime is due to social passion, which makes it excusable. He regarded passion in two forms:
         • Acceptable passion. These are passions that society needs.
         • Unacceptable passion. A passion that is considered anti-social.

1. The approaches of Lombroso, Ferri, and Garofalo, the three major figures in the positive or Italian school differ. But they are all agreed that the emphasis in the study of crime should be on scientific treatment of the criminal, not on the penalties to impose on the criminal act once he or she was convicted.

   Few today can fail to appreciate that Lombroso, together with Ferri and Garofalo the HOLY THREE OF CRIMINOLOGY revolutionized the way of looking at the criminal and excited the world towards the scientific study of crime. The works of these three Italians may well last as long as Criminology itself.

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   4. BODY-TYPE THEORIES

   Body-type theories are an extension of Lombroso’s criminal anthropology. William Sheldon, whose work in the 1940s was based on earlier work by Ernst Kretchmer in the 1920s, is perhaps the best known of the body-type theorists. According to Sheldon, human beings can be divided into three basic body types, or somatotypes, which correspond to three basic temperaments.

   The study of Krethcmer by classifying types of physique and the type of crimes they are prone to commit:

   

   1. 1. 1. Pyknic Type: Those who are stout and with round bodies; tend to commit deception, fraud, and violence.
         2. Athletic Type: Those who are muscular and strong: They usually connected with crimes against violence.
         3. Asthenic Type: Those who are skinny and slender; Their crimes petty thievery and fraud.
         4. Dysplastic or mixed Type: Those who are less clear evident having any predominant type. Their offenses are against decency and morality.

2. The study of Sheldon was based on the Types of Physique and Temperament on man delinquent and youth. Sheldon developed three body types, they are:

   

   1. 1. 1. Ectomorph – is the tall, skinny body; they are fragile and who has “long, slender, poorly muscled extremities, with delicate pipestem bone.
         2. Endomorph – the short, fat body; This body type is characterized by soft, round, and whose digestive viscera are massive and highly developed. Endomorph person is overweight and has a large stomach.
         3. Mesomorph – is the athletic type. They are muscular and whose “somatic structures” are in the ascendancy. The person considered as mesomorph has larger bones and considerable muscle mass.

    

3. Sheldon claimed that varying types of temperament and personalities were closely associated with each of the body types he identified. These are Sheldon’s interpretations according to o body type:
   1. 1. 1. Ectomorph. This body type is CEREBROTONIC or restrained, shy, and inhibited temperament.
         2. Endomorph. This body type is VISCEROTONIC or relaxed and sociable.
         3. Mesomorph. This body type is SOMATONIC and is likely associated with delinquency or somatotonia, which he described as a “predominance of muscular activity and vigorous bodily assertiveness.

   

   Under this body type, most of the books do not include the BALANCED TYPE under Sheldon’s work. According to him, balanced types are made up of average build, being neither overweight, thin, or not exceedingly muscular. Balanced types were not given interpretation as far as temperament is concerned.

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   5. GENETICS AND CRIME

    (a) HEREDITY STUDIES

   The common household expressions like “It is in the blood” and “like father like son” are usually heard and said whenever there are several members in the family who are Criminals. Accordingly, heredity transmits single traits and characteristics from parents to offspring. Although modern criminologist seems not to accept the role of heredity in the formation of criminal behavior of men, it cannot be denied that it is playing a “role as a contributory factor in the genesis of criminal behavior”,

   Some scholars suggest that a penchant for crime may be inherited and that criminal tendencies are genetically based. Early studies of this type often focused on criminal families or families that appeared to exhibit criminal tendencies through several generations.

   The following studies are some proofs to show the role of heredity in the development of criminality:

   1. RICHARD L. DUGDALE (1841 – 1883)

   The Juke’s Family Tree

   In 1877 Dugdale published a study of one such family the Juke family. Dugdale traced the Juke lineage back to a notorious character named Max, a Dutch immigrant who arrived in New York in the early 1700s, two of Max’s sons married into the notorious “Juke family of girls,” six sisters, all of whom were said to be illegitimate. Max’s male descendants were reputed to be vicious, and one woman named Ada had an especially bad reputation and came to be known as “the mother of criminals.” By the time of the study, Dugdale was able to identify approximately 1,200 of Ada’s descendants. Included among their numbers were 7 murderers, 60 habitual thieves, 90 or so other criminals, 50 prostitutes, and 280 paupers.

   

   The Sir Jonathan Edwards Family Tree

   Dugdale compared the crime-prone Jukes with another family, that pureblooded progeny of Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan preacher and one-time president of Princeton University.    Descendants of   Edwards included   American presidents; vice presidents; & many successful bankers, and business people. None were identified from among the Edwards lineage who had run-ins with the law.

   The follow-up on Jukes Family Tree

   In 1915 Arthur H. Estabrook published a follow-up to Dugdale’s work, in which he identified an additional 715 Juke descendants, including 378 more prostitutes, 170 additional paupers, and 118 other criminals.

   2. HENRY H. GODDARD (1866 – 1957) STUDY

   Kallikak Family Tree 

   Following in the tradition of family tree researchers is a published study of the Kallikak family in 1912. Goddard attempted to place the study of deviant families within an acceptable scientific framework via the provision of a kind of control group.  For comparison purposes, he used two branches of the same family. One branch began as the result of a sexual liaison between Martin Kallikak, a Revolutionary War soldier, and a barmaid whose name is unknown.

   

   As a result of this illegitimate union, a son (Martin, Jr.) was born. After the war, Martin, Sr., returned home and married a righteous Quaker girl, and the second line of descent began. Although the second, legitimate branch produced only a few minor deviants, the illegitimate line resulted in 262 “feebleminded” births and various other epileptics, alcoholics, and criminal descendants. The term FEEBLEMINDED, which was much in vogue at the time of Goddard’s Study, was later recast as MENTAL RETARDATION.

   (b) TWIN STUDIES

   Studies of the criminal tendencies of fraternal and identical twins provide a methodologically sophisticated technique for ferreting out the role of inheritance in crime causation. Fraternal twins (also called dizygotic or DZ twins) develop from different fertilized eggs and share only that genetic material common among siblings. Identical twins (also called monozygotic or MZ twins) develop from the same egg and carry virtually the same genetic material. Many studies show that when one of the twins has a criminal inclination, the other one has also the same tendency (see photo below, the Fox twin, and the next photo, the Berndt twin).

   

   

   (c) MALE-FEMALE DIFFERENCES IN CRIMINALITY

   A number of writers unequivocally recognize that “the male is much more criminalistic than the female. With the exception of crimes such as prostitution and shoplifting, the number of crimes committed by men routinely far exceeds the number of crimes committed by women in almost any category and when women commit crimes they are far more likely to assume the role of followers than leaders.

   

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   6. OTHER AREAS OF BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

   The following are recent biological that attempts to biological conditions to criminality:

   (1) Research on LIMBIC SYSTEM and brain

   Limbic System is a structure surrounding the brain stem that, in part, controls the life functions of heartbeat, breathing, and sleep. It is also believed to moderate expressions of violence; such as anger, rage, fear, and sexual response. Surgical removal of the affected area sometimes eliminates expressions of violence.

   

   (2) SEROTONIN and NOREPINEPHRINE

   Low levels of the brain neurotransmitter serotonin (substance brain cells use to communicate) have been found in impulsive murderers and arsonists. Research is currently being conducted to determine whether low levels of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine are associated with compulsive gambling. If such chemical deficiencies are linked to those behaviors, chemical treatment or improved diets might help.

   

   

   (3) ENDOCRINE ABNORMALITIES (Estrogen & Androgen)

   Criminal behaviors have also been associated with endocrine abnormalities, especially those involving testosterone and androgen (a male sex hormone) and progesterone and estrogen (the female sex hormones). For example, the administration of estrogen to male sex offenders reduces their sexual drives. The same effect may be achieved by giving the drug Depo-provera, which reduces testosterone levels. However, a problem with Depo-Provera is that it is successful only for those male sex offenders who cannot control their sexual urges. It does not work on offenders whose sex crimes are premeditated.

   

   (4) Research on MINIMAL BRAIN DAMAGE

   Research on minimal brain damage has found that it increases individual chances of being identified as delinquent. Minimal brain damage is believed to be most commonly caused by nutritional or oxygen deficiencies during pregnancy, or during or shortly after birth, or insufficient protein and sensory stimulation during a child’s formative years. Because minimal brain damage is also strongly associated with lower socioeconomic status, social deprivation must be considered a critical element in its occurrence.

   

    

   (5) IMPAIRED OR LOSS OF HEARING

   At least four recent preliminary studies have found that between and 48.5 percent of the incarcerated offenders examined have hearing losses.  The percentage of the general population with a hearing loss is about 7 percent. The difference suggests to the researchers that criminals may be linked to undetected hearing loss.

   

   (6) THE XYY “SUPERMALE”

   Recent developments in the field of human genetics have led to the study of the role of chromosomes, and sex-linked chromosomes in particular, in crime causation. The first well-known study of this type was undertaken by Patricia A. Jacobs, a British researcher who in 1965 examined 197 Scottish prisoners for chromosomal abnormalities through a relatively simple blood test known as “karyotyping” Twelve members of the group displayed chromosomes that were unusual, and seven were found to have an XYY chromosome. “Normal” male individuals possess an XY chromosome structure, and “normal” female individuals are XX. Some other unusual combinations might be XXX, wherein a woman’s genetic makeup contains an extra X chromosome, or XXY, also called Klinefelter’s syndrome, in which a man might carry an extra X or female chromosome.

   

   Klinefelter’s men often are possessed of male genitalia but are frequently sterile and evidence breast enlargement and intellectual retardation.  The XYY man, however, whose incidence in the prison population was placed at around 3.5 percent by Jacobs, was quickly identified as potentially violent and termed a supermale. Characteristics are as follows:

   • are taller than the average male, often standing 6 feet or more for Caucasians;
   • suffer from acne or skin disorders;
   • are of less than average intelligence
   • are over-represented in prisons and mental hospitals
   • came from families with less history of crime and mental illness

4. This supermale phenomenon, which is also, called XYY syndrome becomes more sensational because several defendants use it as a defense to criminal behavior. Though the Hennel case becomes successful almost all cases  in the U.S. do not prosper because legalists believe that there was “no clear link between the chromosomal abnormality and behavior.”

   (7) CHEMICALS AND OTHER PRECURSORS OF CRIME

   • • Authors of the British Medical Journal Lancet in 1943 linked murder to hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Low blood sugar produces too much insulin in the blood or by near-starvation diets, was said to reduce the mind’s capacity to effectively reason or to judge the long-term consequence of their behavior.
     • ALLERGIC REACTION. Allergic reactions to common foods have been reported as the cause of violence and homicide by a number of investigators.
     • FOOD ADDITIVES. Some Studies have implicated food additives, such as the flavor enhancer monosodium glutamate, dyes, and artificial flavorings in producing criminal violence.
     • Vitamins have also been examined for their impact on delinquency.
     • In 1997 British researchers Roger D. Masters, Brian Hone, and Anil Doshi published a study purporting to show that industrial and other forms of environmental pollution cause people to commit violent crimes.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINISM

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC FOUNDATIONS OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

Prior to the development of a more scientific theory of criminal behavior or mental illness, one of the most popular explanations is demonology. When persons became “possessed” of evil spirits, they were considered to be unclean. They were often banished from society to protect others from their actions and also to placate the gods who were thought to have caused the possession. Writings of the Chinese, Egyptians,   Hebrews, and Greeks indicate widespread belief in demonism. Individuals would be possessed of good or evil spirits, the decision as to which usually depending upon the type of symptoms.

The earliest example of the practice of “psychiatry” was during the Stone Ages when cavemen would use a crude stone to cut a hole in the skull of a person thought to be possessed of devils. The process, called trephining, was thought to permit the evil spirit to escape; there is evidence that some people survived the surgery and that in some cases the operation had beneficial results. But the usual treatment for evil spirits was through exorcism.

In the eighteenth-century people began accumulating knowledge about human anatomy, physiology, neurology, general medicine, and chemistry. The discovery of an organic basis for many illnesses led to the discovery of an organic basis for some mental illnesses. This organic view of mental illness replaced the demonological theory of causation and dominated the fields of psychology and psychiatry until 1915. But by the turn of the twentieth century, it began to be argued that psychological problems could cause mental illness, and a new viewpoint in psychiatry developed.

PSYCHIATRIC THEORIES

Psychiatry is a field of medicine that specializes in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental problems. Psychoanalysis is a special branch of psychiatry, based on the theories of Sigmund Freud and employing a particular personality theory and a particular method of treatment. This approach gives emphasis on individual case studies because this is the only way to understand the unique personality of an individual.

(1) WILLIAM HEALY (The Individual Delinquency – 1915)

claimed that crime is an expression of the mental content of the individual. The frustration of the individual causes emotional discomfort, personality demands removal of pain, and the pain is eliminated by substitute behavior, which is the start of the crime and delinquency of an individual. Healy also pointed out that low IQ will predisposed men toward delinquency and adult criminality; in his research with Augusta Bronner in 1926 in Chicago and Boston. He stands on the principle that juvenile delinquency is not in any manner caused by defective organisms.

(2) SIGMUND FREUD (1856 – 1939) – The Superego, Ego and Id, 1927:

In his psychoanalytical theory of human personality and crimes, he explained that PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY (another term he uses in psycho-analytical theory) holds a three-part structure, and they are:

• • • ID is the primitive part of an individual’s mental makeup present at birth. It represents unconscious biological drives for sex, food, and other life-sustaining necessities. The ID follows the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE. It requires instant gratification for the rights of others. Accordingly, ID is the reservoir of urges, desires, drives, and instincts.
    • EGO develops in early life when a child begins to learn that his or her wishes cannot be instantly gratified. The EGO is that part of the personality that compensates for the demand of the ID the individual guide of man’s action to remain within the boundaries of socialization.
      • The EGO is guided by REALITY PRINCIPLE: it takes into account what is practical and conventional societal standards. The EGO is constantly trying to balance the ID and SUPEREGO. The ID and SUPEREGO are basically unconscious, while the EGO is the conscious part of man’s personality.
    • SUPEREGO develops as a result of incorporating within the personality the moral standards and values of parents, community, and significant others. It is the moral aspect of an individual’s personality; it passes judgments on behavior. This is developed by society’s moral pressure that makes a CONSCIENCE of man, which is responsible for suppressing the ID. SUPEREGO is divided into two, they are:

• • • • • Seek immediate gratification (act impulsively)
        • Consider satisfying their personal needs more important than relating to others;
          1. CONSCIENCE tells what is right and wrong; and
          2. EGO IDEAL forces the EGO to control the ID and directs the individual into morally acceptable and responsible behaviors, which may not pleasurable.

FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

The basic most basic human need at birth is EROS the instinct to preserve and create life. At the very early stage of humans, they experience sexuality, which is expressed by seeking pleasure through various parts of the body. Freud explains said feeling into:

• • ORAL STAGES – the first year of the child that attains pleasure by sucking and biting;
  • ANAL STAGE – the second and third years of life focus is on the elimination of bodily wastes;
  • PHALLIC STAGE – the third year of a child whose child’s attention is on their genitals. Males begin to have sexual feelings for their mother (OEDIPUS COMPLEX) and females for their father (ELECTRA COMPLEX).
  • LATENCY STAGE – begins at age of 6 where feelings of sexuality are repressed until the genital stage begins at puberty. This is also the mark of the beginning of adult sexuality.
  • FIXATED – If conflicts are encountered during any of the first three-(3) stages of development, a person can become fixated. This means that an adult will exhibit behavior trait characteristics of those encountered during infantile sexual development. An example is that an infant who does not receive enough oral gratification during the first year of life is likely as an adult to engage in such oral behavior as smoking, drinking, or drug abuse or to be clinging and dependent in personal relationships. Thus according to Freud, the roots of behavioral problems developed in the earliest years of life.

(3) ALFRED ADLER (1870 – 1937)

He developed the concept of INFERIORITY COMPLEX. This might be an explanation of crime so that men get attention, and the attention may help to compensate for a person’s sense of inferiority.

Crime may be the only way some people have ever getting much attention. Adler’s example is the resentment the first-born has of the second-born because of the time given to the infant by the parents.

(4) WALTER BROMBERG (Crime and Mind, 1948)

Claimed that criminality is the result of emotional immaturity. A person is emotionally matured when he has learned to control his emotion effectively and who lives at peace with himself and in harmony with the standards of conduct which are acceptable to society. An emotionally immature person who rebels against rules and regulations tends to engage in unusual activities and experience a feeling of guilt due to an inferiority complex.

(5) ERIK ERICKSON (1902 – 1984)

Describe the word IDENTITY CRISIS which he means a period of serious personal analysis of man to determine their own values and sense of direction. Adolescents undergoing an identity crisis might exhibit out-of-control behavior and experiment with drugs and other forms of deviance.

(6) CARL GUSTAV JUNG (1875 – 1960)

Developed and popularized the concept of EXTROVERT and the INTROVERT. These have been utilized in the modern research of psychoanalysis, especially with reference to recidivism and psychopathy.

(7) AUGUST AICHORN (Wayward Youth, 1935)

Stated that the cause of crime and delinquency is the faulty development of the child during the first few years of his life. As a child, the human being normally follows only his pleasure impulses instinctively. Soon he grows up and finds some restrictions to these pleasure impulses, which he must control. Otherwise, he suffers from faulty ego development and becomes delinquents. This mental state, which he labeled LATENT DELINQUENCY is found in youngsters whose personality requires them to act this way:

(8) DAVID ABRAHAMSEN

In his Crime and Human Mind, 1945 explained the causes of crime by this formula “Criminal Behavior equals Criminalistics Tendency plus Crime Inducing Situation Divided by the Persons Mental or Emotional Resistance to Temptation or Reaction to Crime. This is described as:

C = Crime Tendency + Situation/ Resistance (emotion/reaction)

(9) SIR CYRIL BURT (1883 – 1971), Young Delinquent, 1925

He gave the theory of general emotionality. According to him, many offenses of a particular instinctive drive is an excess of the submissive instinct that accounts for the tendency of many criminals to be weak-willed or easily led. Fear and absconding may be due to the impulse of fear.

Callous type offenders may be due to the deficiency in the primitive emotion of love and an excess of the instinct of hate.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES

To account for criminal motivation in people, criminologists have used various psychological theories that attempt to explain human intellectual and emotional development. These theories can be divided into three categories:

Moral Development Theories

Moral development theories describe a sequence of developmental stages that people pass through when acquiring the capacity to make moral judgments. According to these theorists, this development process may or may not be completed, and people who remain unable to recognize right from wrong will be more likely to engage in inappropriate, deviant, or even criminal behavior.

Social Learning Theories

Social learning theories emphasize the process of learning and internalizing moral codes. Learning theorists note different patterns of rewards and sanctions that affect this process.

Personality Theories.

Personality theories assume a set of enduring perceptions and predispositions (tendencies)   that each individual develops through early socialization. This theory proposes that certain predispositions or personality traits, such as impulsiveness or extroversion, increase the chances of criminal behavior.

(1) CHARLES BUCKMAN GORING (1870 – 1919).

Psychological theories of crime have a long history. In the English Convict, Goring studied the mental characteristics of 3,000 convicts. He found little difference in the physical characteristics of criminals  and   non-criminals,  but  he uncovered a significant relationship between crime and a condition he referred to as defective intelligence, which he involves such traits as:

1. 1. FEEBLEMINDEDNESS
   2. INSANITY
   3. EPILEPSY
   4. DEFECTIVE SOCIAL INSTINCT

Goring also believed that criminal behavior was inherited and could, therefore, be controlled by regulating the reproduction of families who produced mentally defective children.

(2) GABRIEL TARDE (1843 – 1904).

He is the forerunner of the modern-day learning theorist. Tarde believed people learn from one another through a process of IMITATION. Tarde’s ideas are quite similar to modern social learning theories that believe both interpersonal and observed behavior, such as movies, television, and printed media can influence criminality.

Since the pioneering work of people like Tarde and Goring, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals have long played an active role in formulating a criminological theory. In their quest to understand and treat all varieties of abnormal mental conditions, psychologists have encountered clients whose behavior falls within the categories society has labeled as:

• • Criminal Behavior
  • Deviant Behavior
  • Violent Behavior
  • Anti-social Behavior

(3) PSYCHODYNAMICS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR.

The psychodynamic theory originally gives distinction to the following behavior or personalities.

1. 1. NEUROTICS. These are persons who experience feelings of mental anguish and are afraid that they are losing control of their personalities.
   2. PSYCHOTICS. This is referred to as a person who had lost total control and was dominated by their primitive ID. Today this term has, for the most part, been replaced with the term DISORDER.
   3. SCHIZOPHRENIA. A most serious disorder where the person suffering heard non-existent voices, hallucinations, and inappropriate responses.
   4. OTHER MENTAL DISTURBANCES

The following are cases, of mental disturbances, which are sometimes the cause of criminality and the development of criminal behavior:

1. MENTAL DEFICIENCY – a condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind existing before the age of 18, whether arising from inherent causes or induced by disease or injury. They may commit violent crimes but definitely not crimes involving the use of mentality.
   1. 1. IDIOTS – persons whose mentality is compared to a 2 years old person.
      2. IMBECILES – persons whose mind is like a child of 2 to 7 years old.
      3. FEEBLE-MINDED PERSON – those in whose case there exists mental defectiveness which though not amounts to imbecility, is yet pronounced that they require care, supervision, and control for their own or for the protection of others- or in case of children, they appear to be permanently incapable by reason of such defectiveness or receiving proper benefit from the instruction of an ordinary school.

2. SCHIZOPHRENIA – this is sometimes called DEMENTIA PRAECOX, which is a form of psychosis characterized by thinking disturbance and regression to more relatively unimpaired, and intellectual functions are well preserved. The personal appearance is dilapidated and the patient is liable to impulsive acts, destructively, and may commit suicide.

3. COMPULSIVE NEUROSIS – a disorder of the psychic and mental functions without lesions of nerves and less severity than psychosis. Usually, it is accompanied by a morbid nature or tendency toward a particular act or object.

4. PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY – this is the most important cause of criminality among youthful offenders and habitual criminals. It is characterized by infantile level or rescinds, lack of conscience, a deficient feeling of affection to others, and aggression to the environment and other people.

5. EPILEPSY — this is a condition characterized by convulsive seizures and a tendency to mental deterioration. The seizure may be an extreme loss of consciousness. During the attack, the person becomes muscularly rigid, the respiration ceases, froth on the mouth and tongue may be bitter. 

TYPES OF EPILEPSY

• • Grand Mal – there is a complete loss of consciousness and general contraction of the muscles;
  • Petit Mal – mild or complete loss of consciousness and contraction of muscles
  • Jacksonian Type – localized contraction of muscles with or without loss of consciousness.

The constitutional psychiatric and psychological theories discussed in this area presume that criminal behavior is:

1. 1. Inherited;
   2. The result from a factor (physical or mental) that is inherited; and
   3. Result of early childhood experiences that have been suppressed unto the unconscious bringing them into adulthood.

“This theory had been vigorously criticized by a sociologist who argues that behavior is LEARNED and that it is conditioned by the environment.”

But psychological theories continue to evolve. For example, recent research in the field has shown stability of aggressiveness over time. That is children who display early disruptive or aggressive behavior have been found, through the use of studies that follow the same individual over time, likely to continue their involvement in such behavior even as adults.

Some researchers have found that aggressiveness appears to stabilize over time. Children who demonstrate aggressiveness traits early in life often evidence increasingly frequent episodes of such behavior become a major component of the adolescent or adult personality. From such research, it is possible to conclude that problem children are likely to become problem adults.

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WE HAD JUST ENDED IN OUR MODULE “BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINISM. To supplement your understanding of the subject matter refer to your downloaded PDF.

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