MODULE: Criminology Integration 1 (Criminal Sociology, Ethics and Human

Relation, Correctional Administration

CHAPTER II
PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIME

Biological Explanations of Criminality

Heredity and Crimes
A. Famiy Studies
1. The Study of the Juke Family (Richard Dugdale)
Ada Juke – Mother of Criminals
2. The study of the Kallikak family (Henry Goddard)
He married feeble minded girl.
3. The study of Sir Jonathan Edward family
No one of the descendants were become criminal.
Physiognomy
• It is the study of facial features of a person in relation to his criminal
behaviour. Revived by Swiss theologian Johann Kaspar Lavater.
Phrenology or Craniology
• It is the study of the external formation of the skull. This is associated with
the work of Franz Joseph Gall.
Physiology of Somatotype
• It is the study of the body build of a person in relation to his temperament
and personality and the type of offense he is most prone to commit.
• This approach was originate by Ernst Krestchmer
• And develop by William Sheldon.
Kretchmer Body types
• Asthenic type- thin and long narrow; This body type is associated with
schizophrenia and tends to be idealistic, introverted,withdrawn and prone
to commit larceny and fraud cases.
• Pyknic type- round and fleshy body. Persons with this built tend to be
moody, extrovert, jolly and realistic. They are prone to commit deception
fraud and violence.

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• Dysplastic type- partly asthenic and partly pyknic with no identifiable
mental illness. Their offenses are against decency and morality.
Sheldon body types

Body Type Physical Attributes Temperament

1. Tall, thin, bony droopy Cerebrotonic

Ectomorph shoulders

2. Round, fat, short, tapering Viscerotonic

Endomorph limbs and small bones

3. Muscular with athletic built Somotonic

Mesomorph

Psychoanalytic theory
• This theory blames criminal or delinquent behaviour to conscious that is
either so overbearing that it arouses feelings of guilt,or so weak that it
cannot control the individuals impulses and leads to a need for immediate
gratification
Sigmund Freud
• The founder of Psychoanalysis viewed criminality as a result of too much
guilt feelings.
Freud attributed these feelings to man’s personality structure:
a) The id- it is the impulsive part of the personality and unconscious.
b) The ego-This is the objective, rational part of personality
c) The Superego- is the conscience of a person.
Mental Disturbances and Crimes
1. Mental Deficiency- This is a condition of arrested or incomplete development
of the mind existing before the age of eighteen, whether arising from inherent
causes or induced by diseases or injury.
Classes of Mental Deficiency
A. idiots- peersons with mental defect to a degree that they are unable to
guard themselves.

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B. imbeciles- persons with mental defect, which though not amounting to
idiocy, is yet so pronounced that they are incapable of managing themselves
or their affairs.
c. Feeble minded- they require care and supervision and control for their own
or for protection of others or in the case of children, they appear to be
permanently incapable of receiving proper benefit from instruction in ordinary
people.
d. Morally defective- persons with strong vicious or criminal propensities
2. Psychosis
This is a common category of mental disorder among youthful offenders and
habitual criminals.
Common types of Psychoses are the following:
a. Schizophrenia- This manifested by delusions or hallucination or a clear cut
thought disorder. It is also known as dementia praecox.
b. Paranoia- it is a psychotic delusion characterized by incorrect or unreasonable
ideas which can be seen as truth by people suffering from this disorder. A Greek
term which means a mind beside itself.
3. Neurosis
• This is another common type of mental disorder linked to criminal
behaviour. They are not grossly violate social norms or represent severely
disorganized personalities.
The most common neuroses with their respective symptoms are the
following:
A. Neurasthenia- This is a condition of weakened nerves that manifest in
fatigue and nervousness and sometimes in physical symptoms such as pain.
B. Anxiety- also known as anxiety state or anxiety reaction with the person
feeling anxious, fearful or apprehensive.
C. Obsessive compulsive neurosis- This is the uncontrollable or irresistible
to do something.
d. Hysteria- This refers to an unhealthy of senseless emotional outbreak
coupled with violent emotional outbreak.
E. Phobia- it is called exaggerated fear of things that normal people fear to
some degree and fears of things that ordinary people do not fear.

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Cognitive theory
• This psychological theory of behaviour is based on the belief that people
organize their thoughts into rules and laws, and that the way in which those
thoughts are organized.
• This organization of thoughts is called moral reasoning when applied to
law legal reasoning.
Behavioral theory (B.F Skinner)
• Based on the belief that all behaviour is learned and can be unlearned.
Edwin Sutherland on Intelligence and Crime
This studies found that IQ was an important predictor of both official and self-
reported juvenile delinquency, as important as social class or race.
Social Process theories
It viewed that criminality is a function of people’s interactions with various
criminality is a function of people’s interactions with various organizations,
institutions and processes in society.
A. Social Learning theory
• Crime is a product of learning the norms, values and behaviors associated
with criminal activity.
1. Differential Association theory-developed by Edwin Sutherland, it assumes
that persons who become criminal do so because patterns and isolation from
non- criminal patterns.
2. Differential Reinforcement theory
• Proposed by Ronal Akers in collaboration with Robert Burgess.
• According to him people learn to be neither “all deviant” nor “all
conforming” but rather strike a balance between the two opposing poles
of behaviour.
3. Neutralization theory
• This theory writing by David Matza and Gresham Sykes.
• They viewed the process of becoming a criminal as a learning experience
in which potential delinquents and criminal master techniques that enable
them to counterbalance or neutralize conventional values and drift back
and forth between illegitimate and conventional behaviour.
B. Social Control theories
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• People commit crime when the forces that bind them to society are
weakened or broken.
Travis Hirschi identified four main characteristics:
• Attachment to others
• Belief in moral validity of rules
• Commitment to achievement
• Involvement in conventional activities

Sociological Theories of Crime Causation

Robert Ezra Park, Ernst Burgess. Louis Wirth work on social ecology
conclude to create criminal interactions.
Social Structure theories- Economic class position as a primary cause of crime.
Social Disorganization theory- (Henry Mckay and Clifford Shaw)
Focuses on the urban environment that affects crime rates, the institutions
cannot carry out their expected or stated functions.
Anti-social behavior will flourished when indicators are present.
Strain theory- (Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton)
 It holds that crime is function of the conflict between the goals
people have and the means they can use to legally obtain them.
Cultural Deviance theory (Thorsten Sellin, Walter Miller, Albert Cohen, Richard
Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin) –
 Those independent subcultures maintain a unique set of values and
beliefs that are in conflict with conventional social norms.
Subterranean Values are morally tinged influences that have become entrenched
in the culture but are publicly condemned.
Containment theory (Walter Reckless and Howard Kaplan)
 He claimed that a strong self- images insulates a youth from the
pressures and pulls of criminogenic influences in the environment.
 Howard Kaplan found that youth with poor self- concepts are the
ones most likely to engage in delinquent behavior for their
successful participation in criminality actually helps raise their self-
esteem.

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Social Bond theory (Travis Hirschi)
 It claimed that all individuals are potential law violators; He links the onset
of criminality to the weakening of the ties that bind people to society.
Social Reaction theory /labelling theory (Edwin Lemert and Frank
Tannembaum)
 This theory viewed that people become criminals when significant
members of society label them as such and they accept those labels as a
personal identity.
Developmental Theory/ Multiple Factors
 Intervened personal factors such as personality and intelligence, social
factors such as income and neighborhood, socialization factors such as
marriage and military service, cognitive factor such as information
processing and attention/perception and situational factors such as
criminal opportunity, effective guardianship, and apprehension risk into a
complex Multifactor explanation of human behavior.
Distinct Groups of Developmental Theories
Life Course theory
Views criminality as a dynamic process, influenced by a multitude of individual
characteristics, traits and social experiences.
Social Development model by Joseph Weis, Richard Catalano, J. David Hawkins
and their associates claimed that weak social controls produce crime.
Farrington’s Theory of Delinquent Development
By David Farrington who found out that personal and social factors control the
onset and stability of criminal careers
Interactional Theory by Terrence Thornberry
Who proposed that criminals go through lifestyle changes during their offending
careers?
1. Age-graded theory by Robert Sampson and John Laub who claimed that as
people mature, the factors that influence their propensity to commit crime
change.
2. Latent trait- holds that human development is controlled by a Mater Trait
consist of personality, intelligence and genetic make-up present at birth or soon
after some criminologists believe that this master trait remains stable and

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unchanging throughout a person’s lifetime whereas others suggest that it can be
altered, influenced, or changed by subsequent experience.

References:

Intro to Criminology: Atty. Gabao, Ramil

Intro to Criminology: Prof. Armando Alviola

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