Throughout the history of civilisation the enduring problem of crime has bought with it huge social and economic problems. In order for a psychologist to understand the root causes of criminal behaviour it is necessary to investigate the definition of a crime.

Although no one definition of a crime is universally accepted, because of political and cultural differences, it is possible to give a broad definition of unlawful behaviour. Roe (2003) classifies a crime as “a wrong against a state, either by commission or omission, regarded by that body as a criminal and one to which a punishment has been attached”. A society’s legal system is based on this premise, and therefore a violation of acceptable conduct is a violation of the laws of that society.

The study of criminal psychology has been given a number of names including forensic psychology, legal psychology and criminal psychology but under all these titles, psychologist have aimed to gain knowledge of criminal behaviour in order to both investigate and absolve crimes and ultimately to prevent them.

One of the most famous theories pertaining to the psychological causes of crime is that of Genetic transmi

Bandura suggested there are three principal influences on a person’s behaviour. The first is external reinforcement, as found in the theory of operant conditioning. The second is known as vicarious reinforcement, which involves learning by the actions of other people. This ‘observational learning’ may cause a child to behave in a similar way to his peers and parents. For instance, if a child saw his peer attack another child without punishment, he may mimic this behaviour. Some people, it is suggested, will be copied more than others such as parents, teachers or respected models. The third influence is known as self-reinforcement, which involves the pride felt when a person succeeds. This causes a person to repeat good behaviour in order to regain a sense of pride. The same effect is caused by bad behaviour, and the ensuing shame felt by a person who has caused it.

Eysenck believed that he could measure the three character traits using a personality questionnaire, designed to identify individuals with particular tendencies. A problem which has been suggested with Eysenck’s theory is that of EEG readings, which are used to display cortical arousal. When Gale and Edwards (1983) attempted to establish differences between introverts and extroverts as identified by Eysenck’s questionnaire using an EEG machine, no significant differences were found. This may show that the questionnaire cannot identify specific personality traits effectively. Eysenck claimed that criminal behaviour was the result of “stimulus seeking by extroverts attempting to achieve an optimum level of stimulation”, suggesting that those with attention seeking tendencies are trying to compensate for low stimulation levels. Other research (Zuckerman,1969) has suggested that in fact, ‘sensation seekers’ have a more active central nervous system, being more aroused than most people and more arousable. Another possible problem with the theory is that psychologists (McGurk et al, 1981) have isolated personality traits which are related to criminal behaviour but not identified by Eysenck.

Social learning theory, unlike others, does not see people as passive respondents to external stimulus but suggests that behaviour is influenced by anticipation and an individual’s attitudes. Based on prior experience, people have expectations about the consequences of their actions. Social learning theories in general have shown the importance of environmental factors on criminal behaviour. A problem with this is that they tend to simplify a complex set of behaviours. Also, the ways in which psychologists have attempted to test the theories have usually used specific learning tasks in artificial conditions, which lack ecological validity. This theory, like others which attempt to explain criminal behaviour, fails to account for the fact that many juvenile delinquents will display less criminal behaviour as they enter adulthood.

Freudian psychologists propose that a person can only lead a stable life if the id, ego and super-ego are well balanced. If the superego is weak and the id is strong, a person will seek physical pleasure, undeterred by the threat of punishment dictated by parents and society. The failure to develop a strong enough super-ego (which allows us to behave in a positive way) is attributed to absent or poor parenting. Kline argued that normal law-abiding citizens who have control over their id acknowledge the threat of punishment and this provides sufficient deterrent from antisocial behaviour.

Crime, like all human behaviour is a complicated issue with many facets and there are different causes and effects of each crime committed. The different psychological approaches to crime place the emphasis on different factors, ranging from biology, personality and unconscious conflict to social learning. It is still not known for sure whether biological factors can be a direct cause of antisocial tendencies but it has been found that even if this

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