EXPLAINING THE

PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES
OF CRIME CAUSATION

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
Moral Development Theory
Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

• Explain the concept of moral development; and,
• Relate the stages of moral development to one’s own
self.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Lawrence A. Kohlberg (1927-1987) expanded
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and applied
the concept of development stages to issues in
criminology.
• His theory of moral development (1973) was
depended on the thinking of the former (Piaget) and
the American philosopher John Dewey.
• He suggested that people travel through stages of
moral development and that it is possible that
serious offenders have a moral orientation that
differs from those law-abiding citizens.
JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• He and his associates found out that criminals were
found to be lower in their moral judgment
development than non-criminals of the same social
background.
• Moral Development Theory suggests that people
who obey the law simply to avoid punishment or
who have outlooks mainly characterized by self-
interest are more likely to commit crimes than those
who view the law as something that benefits all of
society and who honor the rights of others.
Kohlberg’s stages of development are as follows:

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
 Level/Stage Age Range Description
Obedience / Infancy No difference between doing the right thing and avoiding
Punishment punishment.
Self-Interest Pre-School Interest shifts to rewards rather than punishment – effort is
made to secure greatest benefit for oneself.

Conformity and School-age The “good boy/girl” level. Effort is made to secure approval
Interpersonal Accord and maintain friendly relations with others.

Authority and Social School-age Orientation toward fixed rules. The purpose of morality is
Order maintaining the social order. Interpersonal accord is
expanded to include the entire society.

Social Contract Teens Mutual benefit, reciprocity. Morality right and legally right
are not always the same. Utilitarian rules that make life
better for everyone.

Universal Principles Adulthood Morality is based on principles that transcend mutual

benefit. JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
Intergenerational Transmission Theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Paraphrase the concept of intergenerational theory;
and,
2. Dramatize its concept .

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Intergenerational Transmission refers to the
socialization and social learning that helps to
explain the ways in which children growing up in a
violent family learn violent roles and, subsequently,
may play out the roles of victims or victimizer in
their own adult families as adults.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Intergenerational Transmission Theory stated that
criminal and antisocial parents tend to have
delinquent and antisocial children, as shown in the
classic longitudinal surveys by Joan McCord in
Boston and Lee Robins in St. Louis.
• The most extensive research on the concentration
of offending in families was carried out in the
Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• According to the study, having a convicted father,
mother, brother or sister predicted a boy's own
convictions, and all four relatives were
independently important as predictors for conviction.
• For example, 63 percent of boys with convicted
fathers were themselves convicted, compared with
30 percent of the remainder.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• The concept of intergenerational transmission is
also used by social scientists who conduct research
on family violence such as Ann Duffy and Julianne
Momirov who utilized the concept of
intergenerational transmission to explain the social
learning of violence within families.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
 Alternative Theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Explain the concept of alternative theory; and,
2. Analyze why female offenders tend to attract male
offenders.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
Alternative Theory
Alternative theory beats the famous saying that
says, "Opposite charges attract.“

• An alternative theory focuses on assertive mating

where female offenders tend to cohabit with or get
married to male offenders.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• In the Dunedin study in New Zealand, which is a
longitudinal survey of over one thousand children
from age three, Robert F. Krueger and his
colleagues found that sexual partners tended to be
similar in their self-reported antisocial behavior.
• Children with two criminal parents are likely to be
disproportionally antisocial

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• There are two main classes of explanations
concerning why similar people tend to get married,
cohabit, or become sexual partners.
• The first is called social homogamy – convicted
people tend to choose each other as mates because
of physical and social proximity; they meet each
other in the same schools, neighborhoods, clubs,
pubs, and so on.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• The second process is called phenotypic assortment
– people examine each other's personality and
behavior and choose partners who are similar to
themselves.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
Differential Association- Reinforcement Theory

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. State the concept of differential-reinforcement
theory; and,
2. Give an example based on real-life situations.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• In Ernest W. Burgess (1886-1966) and Ronald L.
Akers combines Bandura's social learning theory
and Sutherland's theory of differential association
to produce the theory of differential-association
reinforcement.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• This theory suggests that:
 (1) the presence of criminal behavior depends on
whether or not it is rewarded or punished and,
(2) the most meaningful rewards and punishment
are those given by groups that are important in an
individual's life i.e. the peer group, the family,
teachers in school, etc

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• In other words, people respond more readily to the
reactions of the most significant people in their lives.
• If the criminal behavior elicits more positive
reinforcement or reward than punishment, such
behavior will persist.
• It means that criminal behavior will continue if it is
being positively rewarded than being punished.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• In this case, the role of the parents as the first
teachers is very important because they are the
ones that would primarily reinforce the positive
behavior of their child.
• If the parents would reward the negative behavior
of that child, then the undesirable behavior of that
child will continue until he becomes an adult.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• For Example, if the child gets zero in his quiz and
the mother will still give reward to that child then
the child would think that it is alright not to study
and would only cheat out of laziness.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Another example, if the pupil whose teacher – one
she considers as a very important person -
punishes her for her wrongdoing then there’s a big
possibility that the pupil would take the punishment
seriously and would change for good.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
 Eysenck Conditioning Theory
Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Summarize the concept of conditioning theory;
and,
2. Describe the three dimensions of human
personality.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Hans J. Eysenck (1916-1997) in his theory of
conditioning claims that all human personality may
be seen in three dimensions such as psychoticism,
extroversion, and neuroticism.
• Those who score high on measures of psychoticism
are aggressive, egocentric, and impulsive.

• Those who score high on measures of extroversion

are sensation-seeking, dominant, and assertive.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Eysenck prepared questionnaires that he called
"Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)" and
found out those criminals uniformly score higher in
any of those mentioned dimensions than non-
criminals.
• Those who score high on measures of neuroticism
may be described as having low self-esteem,
excessive anxiety, and wide mood swings.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Another argument made by Eysenck is that
humans develop a conscience through conditioning;
that criminals become conditioned slowly and
appear to care little whether their asocial actions
bring disapproval.
• He found out that extroverts are much more
difficult to condition than introverts.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Conditionability depends on certain physiological
factors, the most important of which is cortical
arousal, or the activation of the cerebral cortex of
the brain which is responsible for higher
intellectual functioning, information processing,
and decision-making.
• In short, people who are conditioned and had
conscience had a high level of cortical arousal.
JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
 Integrated Theory
Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Rephrase the concept of integrated theory; and,
2. Judge the concept of integrated theory.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Integrated theory has been proposed by James Q.
Wilson (1931-2012) and Richard Julius Herrnstein
(1930-1994).
• They explain predatory street crime by showing
how human nature develops from the interplay of
psychological, biological, and social factors.

• The main concept of this theory is that the genes

and environment are factors for some individuals to
form the kind of personality that is likely to commit
crimes.
JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• They stated that the factors that pushed the individuals to
commit crimes are intelligent quotient (IQ), body build,
genetic makeup, impulsiveness, inability to delay
gratification, aggressiveness, and even those mothers
who drink and smoke while pregnant.
• Lastly, they even argued that if a reward (such as money)
is greater than the expected punishment (small fine)
there is an increased likelihood that a crime will be
committed.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
 Maternal Deprivation
and Attachment Theory
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Express the concept of maternal development
deprivation and attachment theory; and,
2. Determine why Bowlby chose to do his
experiment to a monkey and its impact on
criminality.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• Maternal deprivation and attachment theory has been
devised by British psychiatrist Edward John M. Bowlby
(1907-1990) who expressed the notion that child needs
warmth and affection from his/her mother or a mother
substitute.
• The idea came after Bowlby experimented with infant
monkeys. The said infant monkeys were given the
choice between two wire "monkeys".

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• One made of uncovered cage wire but dispensed milk
while the other is made of cage wire covered with soft
fabric but did not give milk.
• The infant monkeys in the experiment were attached to
the warm cloth monkey, which provided comfort and
security even though it did not provide food.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
 What does the experiment have to do with criminality?
• Bowlby emphasized that the most important
phenomenon to social development takes place after the
birth of any mammal and that is the construction of an
emotional bond between the infant and his mother.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
• When a child is separated from the mother or is rejected
by her, anxious attachment results.
• Anxious attachment affects the capacity to be
affectionate and to develop an intimate relationship with
others.
• Habitual criminals, it is claimed, typically have an
inability to form bonds of affection.

JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP
JESIEBEL T. AYUSIP