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Drawing on Freudian and Attachment Theories assess the Relationship between early year's experiences and criminality.
Psychological theories have attempted to explain the reasons for and how criminality occurs. The psychoanalytic perspective involves two major theories - Freud's theory of the Sexual Stages of Development and the Theory of Attachment purposed by Bowlby (1947). These theories conclude that there is an association between the formation of personality in childhood and that of future criminal behaviour. The Freudian theory of development suggests that we go through several stages of development - these stages are motivated by one's sexual desires. These desires are unconscious elements - controlled by internal forces - which Freud claims are the id, ego and superego.
The id represents the individual's impulsive desires which are regulated by the superego. The ego acts out the socially desirable behaviour. The id works in keeping with the pleasure principle, which can be understood as a demand to take care of needs immediately (e.g. this could relate to the behaviour of stealing). These demands are innocently explored through childhood - through the four stages of sexual development. Freudian theory believes that criminality is influenced by mental disturbances -which have aroused by a conflict between the id, ego and superego, or it may be the result of improper fixations during one of the stages of development. This mental disturbance often displays itself in the form of behavioural disorders such as social aggression or passiveness.
Therefore Freud would argue that criminality is caused by a difficulty that has not been overcome during childhood. The adult individual displaying the criminal behaviour has developed a defective personality, based upon conflict, impulsiveness and aggression. Freudian theorist believe that this childhood conflict during his or her younger years has caused the adult individual to lack the ability to feel empathy, remorse, regret or guilt and has failed to develop a sense of right or wrong. Therefore, Freudian theory believes that criminality is a result of personality defects that have been influenced by a disturbance and lack of progression in the stages of development occurred in childhood.
In addition Bowlby (1947) and Ainsworth (1969) have also explored the notion that early childhood experiences may affect adult behaviour and the prospect of criminality. Bowlby's (1947) research into juvenile delinquents revealed that those delinquent who as infants had lost contact or experience separation with their natural mother were found to be more prone to delinquent behaviour in their teenage years. Similarly Ainsworth's research with infants and the temporary separation of their mother or caregiver encourages children to act in an anti-social manner - either withdrawing or displaying aggressive tendencies. These studies have added support to the notion of the Attachment theory which implies that possible social factors in an individual's life may affect the likelihood of delinquency and or criminal activities.
Glueck and Glueck (1950) conducted an extensive survey examining over 400 factors and their potential to cause juvenile delinquency. They compared a control group of 500 11-18 year old young men to an experimental group of 500 young men of the same age who were in young offender's institutions. The findings revealed that delinquent boys were 1.5 times more likely to have experience a distant relationships with their mothers. In addition, parenting skills also seemed to have an impact on the likelihood of criminal behaviour.
For example delinquent boys were 2 times more likely to have experienced physical punishment from their parents. Furthermore, Glueck and Glueck (1950) found that the parenting skills of the delinquent boy's parents were 2 times more likely to be inconsistent with their discipline techniques, in comparison to non-delinquent families. In addition, the majority of boys interviewed (93%) came from homes where there was lax parental supervision and they were allowed to make their own decisions. Therefore, these findings suggest that the attachment or bond between a child and their main care giver is important in the formation of personality and the development of their moral beliefs.
This research also identifies how the parental use of punishment may be a cause of delinquency and anti-social and criminal behaviour. However, later research was to show this conclusion to be incorrect (e.g. Schuck, 1974). Later studies have infact indicated that parental permissiveness was a cause of juvenile delinquency and aggression (Lipton, Martinson, and Wilks, 1975). This latter point is a criticism of the Freudian approach to parenting skills. Freudian theorists argue that parents should be permissive and allow children to work their way through problem situations without the parent causing internal trauma in the child by being too strict in their expectations with their child. The Freudian theory believes that healthy development will be encouraged through a warm parent-child bond, whereby the child is helped through interactive talk to uncover and reveal the unconscious conflicts that are inhibiting the child's progression. Therefore, Freudian theory suggests that anti-social or criminal behaviour is heavily influenced by early year's experiences and the child's ability to progress through the sexual stages effectively.
The problem with assessing Freudian and Attachment theories is within the lack of scientific validation these theories have gained. Freud himself claimed that his theory needed no empirical testing. Therefore it has been suggested that Freud's psychological beliefs were essentially based on theoretical subjective speculation (Torrey, 1992). However, this statement causes substantial problems in the replication of his studies and tests of reliability. It can be argued that personality and behaviour is an individual property - however, within the assessment of the association between psychological theories and criminality it is impossible to treat the individual as an individual entity.
Reports have often generalised and claimed that 'juvenile delinquents are more likely to commit crime' (e.g. Bowlby) - therefore to assessing this claim it is essential to include reliable research studies in doing so. Therefore, the above account lacks reliability and possibility validity - due to the differences in research methods that these studies utilised to collect and generalise their findings. Most research that attempts to find an association between childhood events and adult behaviour is up against questionable validity - due to the nature of the material they are researching.
For example, assessing childhood experiences is difficult - as it is retrospective information. If relying on self-reported information this is open to distortions, elaboration or down-playing of events. Also if details of criminal behaviour or childhood incidences brought to the attention of professionals are sought, this can also be distorted, due to the nature of relying on a third person to interpret the events of the individual in question. Therefore it must be brought to one's attention that assessing the relationship between early year's experiences and criminality is a complicated issue that may not have any clear cut conclusions to be drawn. Another complication involved in the assessment of such psychological theories such the Attachment theory is that the conclusions are highly dependent on social and cultural ideologies of childhood and acceptable behaviour. For example, children and parents from different social groups and different cultures interact differently.
This means that what is consider lax parenting techniques in one social circle may be considered differently in another. Similarly the concept of criminal behaviour is also determined by political ideology and how societies see a certain type of behaviour. Different societies and cultures may be more tolerate of certain types of behaviour than others. Another complication of the assessment of psychological theories such as the Freudian approach to personal development is that it fails to account for environmental influences that may affect a child's early years -for example, parenting skills have been mentioned above, however other social factors may play an important role as to whether the individual may be exposed to or be involved in criminal activities.
For example, the Social Control Theory looks at the elements that keep an individual from committing criminal offences or acting in a deviate manner. Therefore, social control theories try to explain why people conform to society - regardless of their childhood background. Factors in society that may contribute to reasons why people conform to desirable ways of behaviour may include schooling, family, church, social networks and the community they live in. Although Freudian theory does address how moral development occurs through childhood, yet it fails to effectively incorporate how social interactions may influence one's internal thoughts.
In conclusion, drawing on Freudian and Attachment theories to assess the relationship between early year's experiences and criminality has provided us with little scientific evidence to suggest that criminal behaviour is a result of childhood experiences. Due to the likelihood that parental figures will be involved in the early years of an individual's life, parenting styles were looked at in this discussion. However, the evidence discussed above gives us mixed opinion as to whether particular parenting techniques adopted through childhood have a bearing affect on how a young adult will act in the future. It may be more beneficial to assess other factors, such as environmental and social aspects, as well as psychological factors as to how individuals as children and adults respond to situations within their life as a child and as a growing adult. It may be that certain life events may have affected the individual to react in a anti-social manner - however, if these events did not occur during the early years of a person's life, then psychological theories such as Freud's and the Attachment Theory may not pick up important indicators of potential and actual criminal behaviour.
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References
Bowlby, John. (1947). Forty-four Juvenile Thieves: Their Characters and Home Life. London: Bailliere, Tindall, and Cox.
Glueck, S., & Glueck, E. (1950). Unravelling Juvenile Delinquency. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Lipton, D., Martinson, R., & Wilks, J. (1975) The Effectiveness of Correctional Treatment: A survey of treatment evaluation studies. New York: Praeger.
Schuck, J. R. (1974). The use of causal non-experimental models in aggression research. In Jan de Wit and Willard W Hartup (Eds.), Determinants and Origins of Aggressive Behaviour. The Hague: Mouton & Co.
Torrey, E. F. (1992). reudian Fraud. New York: HarperCollins.
Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1969). Object relations, attachment and dependency. Child Development, 40, 969-1025.
McCord, J. (1978). A thirty year follow-up of treatment effects. American Psychologist, 33, 284-289.
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