what are the psychological explanations of crime?

Answer 1

This is not the best answer but it is a response:

Crime is a fluid concept. What is criminal in any given time or culture may be accepted in another. Crime often is about gratification; "I want, I will get", be that an object or power over someone else. So, if what you impulsively want is illegal (underage sexual encounters, stealing from peers and strangers or becoming violent to get your way) you are a criminal. Psychologically most people are able to function within societies current definition of what is legal and what is illegal (criminal) and regulate their behaviour accordingly. There is the minority, however, who impulsively, backed up with self justifying rationales or absolute denial, opt to engage in criminal activities.

It is difficult to generalize about all crimes because there are so many forms of crime; the path that leads to someone becoming a bank robber is different to the path followed by a rapist or credit card defrauder. However, the underlying issue is that they all know that what they do/desire is illegal and behave in a way that reflects the need for immediate gratification with little or no consideration for their peer group or society (some would label this sociopathy). When looking at interviews with criminals or reading their memoirs, often there is a sense that they are functioning, at some level, like 2 year olds; developmentally, it could be said that the immediate gratification is a display of delay, distortion and/or damage. This is not about intellect, it is about impulse control. In Freudian terms, the criminal (like a two year old) has a runaway Id, no superego pulling on the reins to regulate and moderate behaviour.

The frequent explanation of some crime being generated by poverty feeds into this; a person has been brought up in grinding poverty will be damaged by their surroundings and there comes a time when they fight to escape it and overcome the VERY difficult societal situation or they choose to fight the society which ends up being described as "criminal".

The Soviets viewed crime very much as a disease; if someone is going to commit a crime they are being anti-social and to be against your social group is "ill" so a lot of people, not just political activists, ended up in psychiatric institutions. Interestingly, they had a point. Crime is often a choice. If you have chosen to commit a crime against your society then you must be malfunctioning (ill). I am not sure if being criminal is an illness but I think if we treated criminality more like we treat an infectious disease of the respiratory tract, by seeking to find and deal with the causes of the damage that makes people resort to the wrong choices (acting on impulse rather than controlling it) the problem would be greatly reduced.

I'm rambling now!!! Sorry....

A seriously big subject. Great question.

Answer 2

There are many people and many psychology behind them! We cannot generalise anything in vague manner. Each person is having, his own life-patterns and its governing psychology. So, the colour of crime also differs accordingly. For example, a man who was brought up in a poor family in his childhood,if happened to become a thief, he steals petty articles, and petty cash, with that itself he got satisfied.
If a woman was badly affected by her father in her childhood along with her mother, and her mother got divorced , in the later years that woman may not trust in the marital life! And the above two examples can be otherwise also! Here, nothing could be predictable!
Each and every criminals have their own psychological explanations for committing crimes!

Answer 3

Those that lack (or feel like they lack) the means to have something they desire sometimes feel justified in taking what they want forcefully.

This is exaggerated by those on drugs who have heightened emotions - heightened joys, heightened fears, heightened needs and heightened desparation.