Criminal psychology is the scientific study of psychological aspects of criminal behavior. There are many theories about why people become criminals, but more criminologists study its effects and then find out why. One theory is that criminals are deviants who cannot control their impulses, and another is that they are less able to read social cues.
Criminal Psychology: Theories about Criminal Behavior
One theory about criminal behavior assumes that people break the rules because they lack self-control or have antisocial personalities. In order to test this theory, criminologists observe criminals and study their behavior. For example, a criminal’s reaction to a price tag could indicate if he is impulsive or antisocial. If a criminal reacts to the price of an object by becoming angry, he could be thought of as having a short temper. This could indicate an antisocial personality if he decides to steal the object. One famous psychologist who believes in this theory is David M. Brent, who stated that “criminals are prone to impulsive behavior” and “lack control over their impulses.”
Psychologist Moffitt argued that there is no direct correlation between antisocial personality and criminal behavior.
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The psychological theory of crime
When discussing crime, the terms “criminal” and “law” are often used interchangeably. In reality, laws are a product of society’s norms and what is socially acceptable. Laws also change over time as societal norms change. Crime is often an action that violates the law or harms somebody.
Most crimes have psychological roots that precede them, such as mental illnesses like depression or anxiety, trauma from violence in childhood, and biological predispositions to certain criminal behaviors such as alcoholism or drug addiction. The science of criminal behavior and the psychology of crime are called criminology.
It is important to understand criminology to understand why people commit crimes and how the state punishes them. The causes of crime can be divided into two categories:
According to Edwin Sutherland and Donald R. Cressey, the causes of crime are:
(1) Society’s legal system and its various norms. When these legal norms are violated, members of society may be forced to pay the price for their crimes. For example, a man who commits theft in a store with no alarm system may not be arrested or charged with theft because he is a law-abiding citizen and has not violated any norm. However, if the store owner has an alarm system, that man is arrested and charged with theft.
(2) The relationship between the norm violation and the person’s expectations about the state’s reaction to the norm violation. For example, a man who trades his watch for drugs expects that if he commits this crime, he will pay a fine because of his expectation of punishment by the state.
(3) The probability that a person’s behavior will lead to social disapproval.