FOCUS ON TRAUMATIC OR

STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE
MALADAPTIVE LEARNED
ASSOCIATIONS AND COGNITIONS OR
DISTORTED PERCEPTIONS.

FROM MENTAL ILLNESS WERE

VIEWED AS BEING ESTRANGED
FROM THEIR NORMAL FACULTIES.

THE TERM ALIENIST DERIVED FROM

THE LATIN "ALIUS” (OTHER) AND
THE FRENCH "ALIENE” (INSANE).

Psychogenic Explanation:
The psychogenic theories trace crime in
some defect in the personality of the
offender or ‘in the inside of the person’. The
psychological theory emphasizes
feeblemindedness (low Intelligence Quotient
or IQ), the psychiatric theory on the mental
disorders, and the psychoanalytical theory
on the undeveloped ego, or drives and
instincts, or guilt-feelings of inferiority
complex.

Psychological Explanation:
Henry Goddard (1919:8-9) reported results
on intelligence tests in 1919 and maintained
that the greatest single cause of delinquency
and crime is feeblemindedness (very low
IQ). He said that feeblemindedness is inher-
ited and is very little affected by life events.
He emphasized that a criminal is not born
but made.
But Goddard did not believe that every
feeble-minded person was a criminal. He
may be a potential criminal but whether he
becomes one would be determined by two
factors: his temperament and his
environment. Thus, though
feeblemindedness may be hereditary,
criminality is not hereditary.

In 1928-29, Sutherland (1931:357-75)

analyzed 350 reports on studies on
intelligence tests covering little less than two
lakh criminals and delinquents to examine
the relationship between crime and mental
deficiencies.