Psychological explinations of offending behaviour: Psychodynamic

Psychodynamic Explinations-Maternal Deprivation theory-Bowlby proposed that prolonged seperations between the primary care giver in most cases the mother and a child would have long-term emotional concequences. Seperation will only have this effect if this happens before the age of about two and a half years, and if there is no subsitute mother-person avalible. Bowlby also felt there was a continuing risk up until the age of five years. One long-term concequence which was proposed due to seperation was affectionless psychopathy, a lack of normal affection, shame or a sense of responsibility. This is related to the general notion of a psychopath as someone who lacks understanding of the feeling of others

Explaining Behaviour-Bowlby's work as a psychiatrist in a child guidence clinic in London meant that he regularly worked with children who had been caught stealing as his patients. He observed that a number of these delinquent thieves had experienced early and frequent seperations from pcg and they also displayed signs of affectionless psychopathy. These characteristics enabled them to be thieves because they could steal from others as it didn't matter to them. He tested his hypothesis in 1944 by comparing 44 thieves attending his clinc with 44 control patients…