Psychoanalytic criminology is a method of studying crime and criminal behaviour that draws from Freudian psychoanalysis. This school of thought examines personality and the psyche (particularly the unconscious) for motive in crime. Other areas of interest are the fear of crime and the act of punishment. Criminal behaviour is attributed to maladjustment and dysfunctional personality. According to Buhagiar, "psychoanalytic criminologists were not adverse to the principle of confinement, and often favored increased penality". When looking at a specific crime, like sexually motivated serial killers, for example, this psychoanalytic perspective can be very helpful. This lens allows for exploring the link between evil and aggression. In this paper that looks at the aggression of evil, and aggression through this perspective allows for the introduction of what 'evil' actually means. Looking at this crime psychoanalytically allowed the author to define evil as destructive aggression that is innate and reactive; as a result, he came to the conclusion that everyone has the capacity for evil and can be viewed as a reaction to threat or sense of endearment.
Freudian psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud is the established original psychoanalyst to form theories and concepts surrounding the existence of mental illness and its interconnected nature with human behaviour. Throughout his research, Freud concluded that behaviour can be explained through the analysis of one's experiences and trauma giving accountability to the motivation of a person's actions. The interpretation of his findings concluded a person can adapt his/her behaviour from childhood experiences to become a part of the hidden consciousness state. He studied unobservable behaviour, parts of the personality that are not visibly noticeable within one's nature and on a basic level cannot be explained. In 1923, Freud formed an idea that the theoretical human mind had three elements that conceptually make up 'The Psyche'. Id (instincts), Ego (reality) and Superego (morality) are not tangible physical areas within the brain, rather, entities that Freud concluded make up the human personality. What Freud referred to as the "psychic apparatus", three elements of the human personality are now established as the unconscious level that dictates one's desires and biological instincts (see section 'Attributed Neurobiological Factors' for more details). Freud did not directly use his research and theories to explain how a person is led to commit a crime, but the application of his theories has been adapted by psychologists and psychoanalysts to understand the connection between the unconscious mind and criminalistic tendencies and actions. Within the realm of science, the study into psychoanalysis has been contested and debated according to its validity.
History Psychoanalytic criminology may be said to have begun with a 1911 study of parricide; but its real foundation came in 1916 when Freud published Criminality from a Sense of Guilt, in which he maintained that many criminals were driven by unconscious guilt which preceded the crime and led to a need for punishment. In applying psychoanalysis to the question of determining guilt or innocence in any given case, Freud was insistent however that analysis could only identify the guilty impulse, not necessarily the act itself. Another major contribution came in 1929 with the book by Franz Alexander and Hugo Staub entitled The Criminal, the Judge and the Public. They drew a clear distinction between the normal criminal, for whom retribution was appropriate, and the neurotic criminal who needed treatment instead. Otto Fenichel added the point that while some criminals actively sought punishment to relieve their unconscious guilt, others sought to avoid punishment in order to prove their guilt feelings were unjustified. He also stressed that criminality was a legal, not a psychological category, and considered most criminals were normals rather than neurotics (if still with unconscious motivations and possible lacks in normal consciences). Psychoanalytic criminology was further developed by August Aichhorn, Melanie Klein, Fritz Redl, and David Wineman.
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