ORIENTAREA PSIHOLOGICĂ ÎN CRIMINOLOGIE
PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIENTATION IN CRIMINOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: Psychological explanations of crime formation argue that the functioning of the human mind is the primary cause of criminal behavior. The problem of finding psychological explanations for criminal behaviour was first raised when psychologists began to deal with calculating the 'mental age' and 'intelligence quotient' of criminals. The belief that human behaviour was governed by processes occurring in the mind of the individual was based on the work of Sigmund Freud in which he essentially drew attention to the importance of memories or traumatic experiences that occurred during childhood and were stored in the unconscious part of the psyche. In the 1960s, further contributions on the psychological causes of crime were made by Hans Eysenck, who argued that personality is shaped by biological, psychological and social factors. These were landmark moments in the psychological theories of crime. The following theories were discussed in the article: theories of intelligence, psychoanalytic theories, theories of humanistic psychology, theories of learning, theories of personality, theories of psychopathy, theories of cognitive and social development, differential reinforcement theory, the theory of the interaction of biological, social and individual factors, cognitive-behavioural theory and social learning theory.

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