Moral Development: Process through which children develop proper attitudes and behaviors toward others based on social and cultural norms, rules, and laws.
Concern for parents: teaching children to distinguish right from wrong.
Studied scientifically since late 1950s.
Piaget's Theory of Moral Reasoning: Children develop moral reasoning by dealing with others in groups, not just by following rules.
Young children focus on consequences of actions (“moral realism with objective responsibility”).
Older children consider motives, fairness of rules, and cooperative problem-solving.
Four developmental stages:
Moral reasoning requires formal operations; includes awareness of rights of others.
Bio-Psychological Model: Individuals commit crime due to genetic and biological predispositions; environment only hinders or fosters.
Focus on psychological factors and relationships with others: taking possessions, aversive treatment, blocking goals.
Traits conducive to crime: low constraint (impulsive, risk-taking, little concern for others), negative emotionality (easily upset, quick to anger, aggressive style).
Traits partly inherited.
Extreme views: criminals cannot be corrected; sterilization, death penalty, long sentences, “encounter” deaths.
Attachment Theory: Early attachment style with parents/caregivers crucial for development.
Attachment: enduring affectional tie, usually with parent.
Early separation can be traumatic; trauma may numb emotions, suppress empathy, and lead to cold-blooded violence.
Physical abuse in childhood can lead to adult aggression and lack of empathy.
Attachment styles:
Key concepts: early attachment essential for love, empathy; trauma leads to violence.
Adler’s Model: People are goal-oriented with a “will to power” toward growth and wholeness.
Sexual crimes (rape) viewed as expression of will to power, not sexual desire.
Inferiority complex: feelings of inferiority drive overcompensation, potentially leading to aggression.
Superiority complex: neurotic compensation for inferiority; behaviors include vanity, domination, unrealistic expectations.
Birth order affects psychological development; childhood may compensate through performance, aggression, or withdrawal.
Key concepts: inferiority complex, superiority complex, will to power as basic human motive, crimes as expressions of will to power.
Michel Foucault’s Model: Critical of social institutions: psychiatry, medicine, education, prisons.
Society intolerant of differences; seeks compliance.
Schools and prisons are similar: structured, enforce conformity, punish noncompliance.
Mental institutions function similarly; psychiatry and psychology as partners in enforcing conformity.
Key concepts: societal intolerance for differences, creation of compliance, similarity of schools, prisons, and mental institutions.
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
| Moral Development | Developing attitudes toward others via norms and rules |
| Piaget's Theory | Stages from sensorimotor to formal; moral reasoning evolves |
| Bio-Psychological Model | Genetic traits like low constraint lead to crime |
| Attachment Theory | Early bonds crucial; trauma suppresses empathy |
| Adler's Model | Will to power; inferiority drives aggression |
| Foucault’s Model | Society enforces conformity through institutions |