Psychological Approaches

There a many different psychological models of criminal behavior ranging from early Freudian
notions to later cognitive and social psychological models. I cannot review them all here.
Instead, there are several fundamental assumptions of psychological theories of criminality (and
human behavior in general) that I will follow here (Mischel, 1968). These are:
1. The individual is the primary unit of analysis in psychological theories.
2. Personality is the major motivational element that drives behavior within individuals.
3. Normality is generally defined by social consensus.
4. Crimes then would result from abnormal, dysfunctional, or inappropriate mental processes
within the personality of the individual.
5. Criminal behavior may be purposeful for the individual insofar as it addresses certain felt
needs.
6. Defective, or abnormal, mental processes may have a variety of causes, i.e., a diseased mind,
inappropriate learning or improper conditioning, the emulation of inappropriate role models, and
adjustment to inner conflicts.
The last assumption of the psychological model would suggest that a variety of different causes
or reasons exist for criminal behavior and that general principles targeted at the individual would
be effective for crime control. However, the model also assumes that there is a subset of a
psychological criminal type, defined currently as antisocial personality disorder in the DSM-IV
and previously defined as the sociopath or psychopath (APA, 2002). This type of criminal
exhibits deviant behavior early in life and is associated with self-centeredness, a lack of empathy,
and a tendency to see others as tools for their ends. Controls for these individuals would be more
extreme and general public policies may not be stringent enough to curb the behavior in this
small subset of criminals.
Given these six principles to establish psychological explanations of criminal behavior we can
suggest first that traditional imprisonment, fines, and other court sanctions are based on operant
learning models of behavior for crime control. Operant learning models are based on the
utilitarian concepts that all people wish to maximize pleasure and minimize pain or discomfort.
Skinnerian based social psychological theories of reinforcement and punishment are influential
in this model of criminal control although the idea of punishment for crime has a much longer
history (Jeffery, 1990). Technically speaking, punishments are any sanctions designed to
decrease a specific behavior; thus, fines, jail sentences, etc. are all forms of punishment.
However, Skinner himself recognized that punishment was generally ineffective in behavior

modification and that reinforcement worked better (e.g., Skinner, 1966). Actually, a caveat
should be applied here. Punishment is effective if applied properly, but unfortunately it rarely is
applied properly. Punishment needs to be immediate (or as close to the time the offence occurred
as possible), inescapable, and sufficiently unpleasant (in fact the more it is subjectively perceived
as harsh the better). Given the judicial system in the U.S. it would be hard to apply punishment
to its maximal effectiveness, thus it is not an effective deterrent as seen in the stable homicide
rates of states that carry the death penalty. Nonetheless, punishments and sanctions for criminal
behavior are based on behavioral psychological principles.
Because harsh forms of punishment do not appear to significantly decrease recidivism rates,
other psychological principles have been applied. In terms of cognitive behavioral psychological
principles, rehabilitation and relearning, retraining, or educational programs for offenders are
forms of psychologically based methods to control crime. These methods are based on the
cognitive behavioral methods of teaching an alternative functional response in place of a
formally dysfunctional one as opposed to simple punishment. These programs can take place in
prisons or outside of the prison and have long been demonstrated to be successful (e.g., Mathias,
1995). So any form of retraining, reeducation, or reentry program is based on psychological
principles of criminality and reform. Rehabilitation programs are often rarely implemented in jail
or prison however. Many of these programs appear to be especially beneficial for drug and
alcohol offenders. Likewise, any form education such as the DARE program and recent efforts to
curb bullying in schools are based on these methods. In line with this, changing the environment
of the offender such as providing more opportunities would be a psychological behavioral
principle designed to cut crime.
In line with other psychological methods are policies aimed at maintaining a visible presence of
law enforcement and methods to maintain self-awareness of people in tempting situations. Such
methods are preventative. For instance, it has been a well-known social psychological principle
that situations that diminish self-consciousness and self-awareness lead individuals to being less
restrained, less self-regulated, and more likely to act without considering the consequences of
their actions (e.g., Diener, 1979). The simple act of placing mirrors in stores can increase selfawareness and decrease shop-lifting. Likewise, the presence of visible law-enforcement can cut
down on substantially crime. Making sanctions and the consequences for crime well-publicized
and available to the public is another psychological method to control crime in this vein.
Various forms of criminal profiling are based heavily on psychological principles and represent
an effort to either apprehend existing criminals or to identify persons at risk for certain behavior
(Holmes & Holmes, 2008). More recently there have been efforts to develop methods to identify
individuals at risk for certain forms of deviant behavior including criminal activities based on
personality and social variables. These psychological variables can be identified in the school or
at the home at an early age and include such disorders as learning disabilities, ADHD,
depression, and others. Since many individuals with these problems often go on to demonstrate

criminal behavior or have legal problems later efforts to identify and treat these issues are forms
of psychological crime control policies (APA, 2002).
Thus, methods of crime control policies based on psychological principles target the individual
and attempt to reform or prevent criminal behavior from that perspective. Any policies requiring
therapeutic intervention, retraining, or education are psychological in nature. Any policy
designed at preventing crime by targeting individuals such as raising consciousness, promoting
self awareness, or identifying individuals at risk are also psychological. Likewise, psychologists
have long recognized that the best predictor of future behavior is the individuals past behavior
(Mischel, 1968). So policies that are specifically designed to deal with repeat offenders are also
based on psychological principles of criminality.
http://seiken2.hubpages.com/hub/Three-Theories-of-Criminal-Behavior