Psychology and Crime Essay

There are a number of early(a) theories developed by researchers including Bandura (1986), Beck (1982), Ellis (1976) and Ross and Fabiano (1985) describing cognitive structures or thinking frameworks that lead to roiling or illegal behaviour. These theories suggest that how an individual thinks about an external event, non the event itself, locoweed trigger feelings that lead to criminal behaviour. cognitive restructuring enables offenders to diversity their anti-social attitudes and beliefs through a process that focuses on the individuals thinking patterns.Kohlberg (1978) in the speculation of moral development was concerned with the cognitive processes behind moral judgement. He used the work of Piaget (1932) and suggested that moral reasoning advances with age. Offending occurs when there is a delay in moral development and the offender does non agree the reasoning to resist temptation from offending. (Hollin as citied in Maguire 2002) This could explain why some crimina ls are seen to grow out of criminality. This theory has been criticised on the stem that Kohlberg was explaining moral reasoning not moral behaviour.In conclusion psychoanalytical accounts do not offer a satisfactory interpretation of curse scarce neither do any of the other theories on their own. psychoanalytic theories concentrate on the unconscious, which is a contributing factor in the explanation of crime but the theory cannot explain totally types of crime. Learning theories touch at the values and beliefs that are learnt through the environment yet they do not take into account internal or cognitive factors. Cognitive approaches help us to understand crime but do not explain the causes of crime. Cognitive theories focus on the individual and how the individual can be treated to change.This is why they are in favour with criminal justice at the moment. The theories assume that all offenders are the same however it is only crime itself that can be described in such(preno minal) a uniform way. In order to explain crime all the available theories including sociological theories need to be taken into account. As for psychoanalytical theories Psychoanalytical theories stress the inner processes and conflicts as determinants of behaviour. However they do not ignore or neglect the environmental or social factors, but they favour the dynamic processes as playing a major utilisation in the development of criminal behaviour. (Hollin 1989)BibliographyAinsworth.P (2000) psychological science and Crime Myths and reality. (Essex Pearson)Hollin.C (1989) Psychology and crime. (London Routledge)Maguire.M etal (2002) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (Oxford Oxford University Press. 3rd Edition)McLaughlin.E & Muncie.J (2001) The Sage Dictionary of Criminology (Sage Publications ltd. London)Putwain.D & Sammons.A (2002) Psychology and Crime (East Sussex Routledge)