Drawing upon psychological positivism, discuss the ways in which crime might be considered normal in society.
Normal is defined as “the usual, typical, or expected state or condition.” (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017) In reference to criminology, psychological positivism sees crime as a thing people are subjected to in every-day life and is ‘normal’ in that certain people are predisposed to crime due to underlying personality and psychological traits.
At the heart of psychological positivism are Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. Freud believed that our personality was made up of three systems; the Id (the pleasure principle) which aims to maximise reward and minimise punishment, the ego (the reality principle) which maintains the Id, and the super ego (the morality principle) which is where feelings of guilt come from. The super ego is “composed of two parts: the ego ideal containing all those socially approved standards; and the conscience which includes information about negative views of particular behaviours.” (Newburn, 2013; 149) Freud believed that crime …show more content…
Human beings are not totally determined by their biology; neither are they unaffected by their social circumstances.” (White, Haines & Asquith, 2012; 55). Eysenck identified there to be three personality components and believed that the “various combinations of the different personality dimensions within an individual affects their ability to learn not to offend and consequently the level of offending.” (Hopkins, 2009; 98) These three personality dimensions include extroversion (characteristics include dominance and assertiveness), neuroticism (emotional, irritable and anxious), and psychoticism (antagonistic, impulsive and lacking empathy). If an individual is high in all three personality levels, especially psychoticism, they are more inclined to commit acts of
Normal is defined as “the usual, typical, or expected state or condition.” (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017) In reference to criminology, psychological positivism sees crime as a thing people are subjected to in every-day life and is ‘normal’ in that certain people are predisposed to crime due to underlying personality and psychological traits.
At the heart of psychological positivism are Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. Freud believed that our personality was made up of three systems; the Id (the pleasure principle) which aims to maximise reward and minimise punishment, the ego (the reality principle) which maintains the Id, and the super ego (the morality principle) which is where feelings of guilt come from. The super ego is “composed of two parts: the ego ideal containing all those socially approved standards; and the conscience which includes information about negative views of particular behaviours.” (Newburn, 2013; 149) Freud believed that crime …show more content…
Human beings are not totally determined by their biology; neither are they unaffected by their social circumstances.” (White, Haines & Asquith, 2012; 55). Eysenck identified there to be three personality components and believed that the “various combinations of the different personality dimensions within an individual affects their ability to learn not to offend and consequently the level of offending.” (Hopkins, 2009; 98) These three personality dimensions include extroversion (characteristics include dominance and assertiveness), neuroticism (emotional, irritable and anxious), and psychoticism (antagonistic, impulsive and lacking empathy). If an individual is high in all three personality levels, especially psychoticism, they are more inclined to commit acts of