This presentation is about the different psychological theories involved in juvenile delinquency

1. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES AND
RESEARCH IN JUVENILE
DELINQUENCY
A. Samanvithaa
M.Phil Clinical Psychology

2. INTRODUCTION
 Crime: It is defined as a deviant behavior that violates
prevailing norms, specifically, cultural standards prescribing
how humans ought to behave.
 Delinquency: It is a legal term used to designate law
breaking minors.
 Criminology: It is the scientific study of law breaking and
serious attempts to uncover the causes of criminality. It
includes inquiry into process of making and breaking laws
and reacting to breaking of laws.
 Criminologists: Psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists in
the field of criminology.
 Criminologist-Sociologist: Develops explanations for
certain kinds and degrees of criminality.
 Criminologist-Psychologist: Discover processes involved
in acquisition of criminal behavior patterns by specific
individuals.

3. INTRODUCTION
 Psychologically-based criminologists explain criminal
behavior as the consequence of individual factors, such as
negative early childhood experiences, and inadequate
socialization, which results in criminal thinking patterns
and/or incomplete cognitive development.

4. DELINQUENCY
 Early beginners not only commit more crimes, but also
continue longer.
STAGES:
 Emergence (8-12) : Child begins with petty larceny (sweets,
toys, cigarettes, money, etc.)
 Exploration (12-14): May move on to shoplifting, vandalism,
etc.
 Explosion (13): Substantial increase in variety and
seriousness (common theft, burglary, personal theft, etc.)
 Configuration (15): Drug trafficking, motor vehicle theft,
armed robbery and personal attack.
 Outburst (adulthood): more sophisticated or more violent
forms of criminal behavior (fraud, homicide, etc.)

5. DELINQUENCY
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR:
 Some boys – occupational aspirations, highly motivated in
school, conformist in behavior.
 Others – “corner boys”, not heavily involved in delinquency,
but also not intensely meshed patterns of mobility striving/
achievement; Unmotivated, conformist – actions center about
short run hedonism.
 Heavily caught up in delinquent activities; “Tough Kid”,
“Delinquent”.
Delinquent boys – more personality problems than the other 2
groups; May be – come from lax and criminalistic family
backgrounds than non-delinquents.

6. PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY
 Psychopathic personality is characterized by affective and
interpersonal traits such as egocentricity, deceit, shallow
affect, manipulativeness, selfishness, and lack of
empathy, guilt or remorse.
 DSM-III – Psychopathy – renamed – antisocial personality
disorder which was then defined by persistent violations of
social norms, including lying, stealing, truancy,
inconsistent work behavior and traffic arrests.
 This is a new dimension and a new category, since – not fit
into the categories of Psychosis (Confusion ×) and Neoursis
(Underlying guilt and anxiety ×).

7. PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY
 Studies – individuals – incapable of feeling guilt, remorse or
empathy for their actions.
 Cunning, manipulative and know the difference between right
and wrong, but dismiss it as applying to them.
 First impression - appear charming, engaged, caring and
friendly.
 Outwardly – logical, reasonable, and with well thought-
out goals, appear capable of self-examination and will
openly criticize themselves for past mistakes.
 Do not show the common symptoms associated with neurotic
behavior (nervousness, high anxiety, hysteria, mood
swings, extreme fatigue, and headaches).
 In situations – normal people – upset, psychopaths appear
unnerved, and emotionally void of fear and anxiety.

8. PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY
 Theories of psychopathy – more serious and violent
delinquent acts.
 Theorists – serious and persistent crime and delinquency as
an outward manifestation of mental illness.
 Antisocial personality disorder, also called psychopathy, is
the prominent disorder used to explain criminal behavior.
 The criteria for the disorder include a pattern of violation of
the rights of others, including law-breaking activities that
began in childhood or early adolescence.
 Generally, explanation for a crime – lust, greed, envy,
revenge and anger, but these are seen only in normal
people.
 Criminals accept the crime that they committed; explanation
for behavior – complete, but not satisfactory.
 They are never frank, even to themselves; internal
dispositional influence them more than external
circumstances.

9. ASOCIAL AND ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
 Draw a distinction between the inability to control or inhibit
impulses toward socially unacceptable acts (Asocial) and
the directly abnormal motivation to commit socially
unacceptable acts (Anti-social).
 Asocial behavior – socially unacceptable; results from a
breakdown in socialization and acculturation; failure to learn
or to accept socially defined ethical and moral principles and
standards for behavior, or to acquire normal techniques for
regulating behavior and substituting acceptable acts.
 Antisocial behavior – directed and intentional violation of
socially defined standards for behavior, motivated by hostility
toward the social system.

10. PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
 A family history of Delinquency.
 Parental Personality Disorders.
 Dysfunctional family pattern (Aggression).
 Maternal Deprivation.
 Unconscious motives and defense mechanisms. (which they
would refuse to admit).
 Personality (Conduct Behaviors).
 Intelligence.
 Feelings of inferiority (Need for Attention).
 Need for Power.

11. Thus, to understand crime, we need to look for deeper and less
obvious explanations of criminal behavior than are usually
provided.
The psychopathology of criminals have attracted not only
psychiatrists and psychologists, but also philosophers.
One philosopher – research – criminal behavior arising from
guilt (unconscious).
“The psychopathology of criminal behavior is the
psychopathology of everyday life.”

12. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 Id, Ego, Superego.
 Id – instinctual drives; Ego – understood social norms that
harness the id; Superego – learned moral reasoning.
 Delinquent behavior – result of imbalance between these
three parts of our personality and is a symbolic way of
meeting our unconscious needs.
 Delinquents – very weak, unformed Superego 
unrestrained and unmodified instinctual impulses (Id).
 Anti-social characters – self-centered, overbearing
individuals who must have their wants satisfied immediately,
regardless of consequences  considered immature.
 Cannot tolerate present frustration for future benefits  lack
patience necessary for scholastic learning.

13. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 Since they lack guilt-inducing conscience – falls prey –
temptation of the moment, truanting, lying, cheating or
stealing; No remorse.
 Lack capacity to form stable, loving attachments – basis –
considerate and altruistic behavior.
 The internal conflicts that lead to delinquency – result from
a conflict between the id and societal norms understood by
the ego, are very painful to the individual, so the individual
pushes them into the unconscious.
 Then, the individual develops coping strategies called
defense mechanisms to cope with the conflicts, and these
defense mechanisms can lead to problematic personality
traits and problematic behaviors, such as delinquency.
 Projection, Denial, Reaction Formation, Displacement.

14. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 Features of early upbringing – interfere with superego
formation.
 Include child’s earliest exp. with mother, initially, and later,
father and other adults.
 Relationship – close and loving – favors process of
identification (self-reference ideal based on his image of
parent).
 Loving relationship – incentive to conformity and desirable
behaviors; rebellion and badness – withdrawal of love 
child learns good and bad  Superego forms.
 Maternal relationship – less close, parents – over burdened,
preoccupied, uninterested, neglectful – learning of rules –
reduced.
 Inconsistent parenting – worse consequences.

15. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 Mother – hostile – child obeys under observation, but no
internal constraints.
 A child who experiences any sort of abuse or neglect, or any
other form of child-threatening behavior, may consequently
exhibit pathological disobedience.
 Disobedience, which is quite common among adolescents, is
a constant transfer of unfulfilled childhood desires into
aggressive behavior.
 Disobedience develops into pathological behavior when it
becomes destructive.
 Delinquent children have difficulty in accepting the authority
figure  consequence of a specific fear of the father or the
father-substitute figure deeply rooted in childhood.

16. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 In essence, delinquent behavior is seen as the external
manifestation of an internal disease.
 Erikson expanded on this theory, explaining delinquency as
an ‘‘identity crisis’’ created by inner turmoil.

17. BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING THEORIES
 Behaviorists – delniquents – low frustration tolerance; quickly
lose patience and become aggressive – to solve a puzzle
that is insoluble – reward after solving.
 H.J. Eysenck – constellation of traits – criminal –
Mesomorphic physique – atheletic body, muscular, broad
shoulders.
 Porteus – trait –Psychomotor style (Q score) – maze test –
delinquents – swift and careless, not bother about cutting
corners, touching edges (Psychomotor Clumsiness);
delinquents – higher Q score.
 Association between Q score and delinquency – type of
errors made.
 Disobeying rules – defiant attitude; wavy pencil lines touching
edges and corners – poor muscular control.
 Eysenck – half-physiological and half-psychological attribute
– association with delinquency – Conditionability.

18. BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING THEORIES
 Delinquents – badly behaved and socially unconforming –
slow in conditioning, high on inhibition (to be conditioned).
 Broken and disharmonious parental homes, erratic or
inconsistent discipline, parental absence and neglect 
Delinquency.
 More unrepentant and unconforming offenders – strikingly
untroubled by anxiety and guilt, have a slap-happy, devil-
may-care attitude to life.
 Extraversion and introversion – associated – conditionability
and delinquency.
 Extraversion – Ectomorphic physique; Introversion –
Endomorphic physique; below average introversion (or above
average extraversion) – Mesomorphic physique.

19. BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING THEORIES
 Below average introversion – slow conditioning, low
aspiration, low reaction to stress, low seduction threshold,
low persistence, etc.
 But, research – criminal types – more predominantly –
Extraverts (sociable, adventurous, relatively unreflective).
 Psychopaths and Hysterics – Neurotic Extraverts; misfits –
oblivious of their own peculiarities, apt to attribute their
difficulties to imaginary ailments or adverse circumstances for
which they feel no personal responsibility.
 Operant Conditioning. ‘‘The strength of criminal behavior is a
direct function of the amount, frequency, and probability of its
reinforcement.’’
 Social Learning Theory.
 Vicarious Learning. “As a delinquent attracted attention,
peers increased their delinquency to gain the same
attention.”

20. INTLLIGENCE THEORY
 Connection between intelligence and delinquency are
longstanding and much debated.
 When IQ became the measure of intelligence, it was
concluded that criminal behavior was caused by low
intelligence.
 Wide variation in IQ scores among both criminals and non-
criminals; good schooling – high IQ test score, low motivation
– low score.
 The gap between prisoner scores and the general population
– reduced when comparisons – similar economic, linguistic,
and educational backgrounds.
 Any relationship between IQ and delinquency – indirect.
 IQ impacts mediating factors (such as performance in school,
self-control, the influence of deviant peer pressure, and
psychological well-being) – in turn influence delinquent
behavior.

21. COGNITIVE THEORY
 Cognitive development theories, initially developed by the
Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget.
 Refined by Lawrence Kohlberg and his colleagues:
 Preconventional stage (age 9-11) , children think, "If I steal, what
are my chances of getting caught and punished?“
 Conventional level (adolescence), adolescents think "It is illegal
to steal and therefore I should not steal, under any circumstances."
 Post-conventional level (adults over 20 years old), individuals
critically examine customs and social rules according to their own
sense of universal human rights, moral principals, and duties.
 Offenders have failed to develop their moral judgment
capacity beyond the pre-conventional level.
 People learn morality from people we interact with on a
regular basis— family, friends, and others in the community.

22. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY
 Development of pro-social and antisocial behaviors – four
distinct periods of time: pre-school, elementary school,
middle school, and high school.
 The development of antisocial behavior can be cumulative
and increasing in direction – because of connection with
antisocial peers, family, etc.
 Activities in one period of time can increase chances of
continuing those behaviors in a later period of development.
 These antisocial behaviors and interactions also decrease
the likelihood of engaging in positive peer relationships and
activities.
 Increased rate of delinquency – adolescence – normative
part of development – peaked in the teen years and then
desisted.

23. PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTS
 Multi-Phasic Questionnaire (MPQ) – High in Psychopathic
Deviation, Paranoia, and either too High or too Low in K-
scale.
 Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) – High in
Neuroticism (Emotional Instability), Extraversion.
 Developmental Psychopathology Check List (DPCL) – High
in Conduct Disorder.
 International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE) – High
in Anti-social Personality.

24. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEAPIES
 Offenders – erroneous thinking patterns – intensive,
individual psychotherapy – to address this problem.
 Range of correctional interventions – direct confrontation of
thinking errors and behavior modification techniques.

26. ATAVISTIC MAN
 Cesare Lombroso (1835 -1909) - criminals could be identified
by physical characteristics.
 He called this group “Atavistic man”
 Asymmetry of the face
 Eye defects and abnormalities
 Excessive dimensions of jaw and cheek bones
 Ears of unusual size, or very small, or ears that stuck out
 Lips fleshy, swollen & protruding
 Excessive length of arms
 Supernumerary fingers and toes
 Nose twisted, upturned, or flattened, or aquiline or beaklike
 Receding chin, or excessive long, or short and flat
 Abnormal dentition.

27. FEMALE OFFENDER
 Cesare Lombroso – research – female offender:
 Most women are not criminal.
 Those that are, are usually occasional criminals.
 But some women are atavistic criminals.
 They are harder to detect than men. They are more cunning and
more vicious.

28. REFERENCES
Book:
 Gibbons, D. (1978). Society, Crime, and Criminal Careers: An
Introduction to Criminology (3rd ed., pp. 162-165). New
Delhi: Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd.
 Macdonald, J. & Whitaker, L. (1976). Psychiatry and the
Criminal: A Guide to Psychiatric Examination for the Criminal
Courts (3rd ed., pp. 3-17; 22-24). Ilinois: Charles C Thomas
Publisher.
 Toch, H. (1961). Legal and Criminal Psychology (1st ed., pp.
274-290). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc.
 West, D. (1967). The Young Offender (1st ed., pp. 137-154).
London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.

29. REFERENCES
Journal Article:
 Beeley, A. L. (1955). A Socio-Psychological Theory of Crime
and Delinquency: A Contribution to Etiology.Journal of
Criminal Law and Criminology,45(4), 2nd ser., 391-399.
 Kostić, M. (2013). BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
THEORIES ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.Law and
Politics,11(1), 1-10.
 McDavid, J. W., & McCandless, B. R. (1962). Psychological
Theory, Research, and Juvenile Delinquency.Journal of
Criminal Law and Criminology,53(1 March), 1st ser., 1-14.
 Moore, M. (2011). Psychological Theories of Crime and
Delinquency. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social
Environment,21(3), 226-239.
doi:10.1080/10911359.2011.564552

30. REFERENCES
Magazine Article:
 Hare, R. D. (1996, February 1). Psychopathy and Antisocial
Personality Disorder: A Case of Diagnostic
Confusion.Psychiatric Times, 1-1.
Website:
 Montaldo Crime Expert, C. (2016, February 29).
Characteristics of the Psychopathic Personality. Retrieved
February 17, 2017, from
http://crime.about.com/od/serial/a/psychopaths.htm