Anatomy of the Criminal Mind: Understanding Violence and Deviant Behavior

Numerous factors, including the amygdala, could play a role in the formulation of the criminal mentality. The cerebral region known as the amygdala is in charge of aggression, hostility, combativeness, and anxiety. The amygdala is one of many variables, though. Other variables include the sympathetic and autonomic nervous systems, the thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary, and hypothalamus, as well as brain imaging, physiognomy, and phrenology, to name a few. This essay describes the numerous sociological and environmental variables that have an impact on brain development and ultimately contribute to criminal behavior. However, it provides an insight into the workings of such minds, so as to provide a better understanding of combating criminal mind activities. Understanding these different traits will help in apprehending the motives of criminals and, therefore, provide remedial solutions on how to eliminate these behaviors and rehabilitate criminals for the better.

Keywords: criminal behavior, violence, brain structure.

Introduction

One of the most prominent issues in society is the need to understand and explain crime and criminal behavior. The ideas behind threat and fear in relation to crime are the constant concerns that influence many people, causing criminologists to raise questions. Criminology is the scientific study of crime, distinguished between emerging disciplines of psychology, sociology, and biology. During the 18th and 19th century, sociology was the reigning paradigm that dominated the study of crime. As the sciences developed, a controversy between the biological and the sociological perspectives of criminology developed. In order to understand criminology on a deeper level, it is essential to review the history and evolution of criminological thought. During the Age of Enlightenment, theorists and scholars began the search to find solutions for crime and deviance as it “was a catalyst in the emergence of the classical school of criminology” (Netterville, 2014, p. 45). A significant thinker of this era was John Howard, a sheriff and social activist who brought great ideas to the discourse. He brought significant reforms in the prisons of America by improving the sanitary conditions of the cells. The dominant model for understanding the criminal behavior has been based on the concept of nature versus nurture. The 21st century, however, became more modernized when society added the view of biological perspective to the concept of nature versus nurture. Criminal behavior is based on the several different factors, which includes physiological brain features, sociological early childhood influences, and biological composition. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to gain an in-depth insight into the criminal mind’s anatomy to understand violence and criminal behavior.

Criminology History

Classical School View

According to the classical school view, people decide to pursue wrong behaviors when the benefits are more than the costs. The classical theory, thus, focuses on crime from a legal point of view. It reinforces free will and states that punishment has an effect on the accused. Henceforth, a person is guided by free will, reasoning, and chooses own action courses. The classical theorists did not pay attention to the behavior causes. Behaviors were due to choice instead of factors that the individual was not able to control. Punishment in the right quantity and type would stop an individual from doing an act, if the punishment led to the pain that was more than the benefit. These theorists, therefore, condemned torture as a punishment form as it meant to inflict more pain on the individual instead of preventing the act from occurring in the future (Jeffery, 1959). Therefore, the punishment should be equal to the crime in order to control abominable demeanor. In the eighteenth century to safeguard the accused from arbitrary and hostile actions was considered a norm. A contributor of the classical theory was Bentham who emphasized on the crime rather than the offender. He was interested in the act’s effects instead of what motivated the offender to commit the crime. Beccaria disliked the barbaric acts in England’s courts (Jeffery, 1959). He valued the social contract theory that is, sovereignty dwelt in the people and law must be equally applied to every person.

Plato, a great philosopher pointed out that reality was situated in a spirit realm, which harbored nice objects and concepts described as ”forms”. The philosopher’s writings mainly tackled forms versus knowledge, cave versus divided line, and the soul, politics such as rulers and tradesmen, and truth. His famous work ”Republic” emphasizes on justice and outstanding society principles. Aristotle, however, focused on the scientific facts, unlike Plato (Waterfield, 2016). If scientific facts were absent, he challenged his students to use logic to make a decision. Aristotle was interested in other elements such as virtue, causality, substance, and natural objective.

Positive School View (Modern)

The positive school was formed in the nineteenth century. It focuses on the behavior of the criminal instead of the crime. It applies scientific techniques to better understand why the criminal committed the act. The school reinforces determinism and holds that punishment must be reinstated by scientifically treating the criminal (Jeffery, 1959). It rejects the legal crime definition and bases its argument on the fact that the elements, which generate the legal meaning, are capricious and contingent. It has gained prominence in criminology and has garnered support from psychology, biology, psychiatry, anthropology, social work, and sociology disciplines as they adopt science to analyze a criminal. Positivist theories can be categorized based on external factors that have an impact on behavior. These include physiological, biological, and sociological doctrines.

Physiology is a branch of biology that employs science to understand how human bodies function. Sociological theories analyze social structure impact besides social function and processes effect on individuals. The sociological perspective views crime as an ”anti-social“ behavior. Crime as an undesired behavior is traced to juvenile delinquency. Delinquency is often related to issues. In juvenile courts, however, the accused minors are not regarded as criminals. Their treatment is, therefore, different from those of the adults (Jeffery, 1959). However, other criminology specialists such as Francis Allen, Jerome Hall, Paul Tappan, Robert Caldwell, and George Vold rejected this definition, hence, the need to the further examine criminal law origins, legal history, and social issues. Biological theories view individuals basing on the innate physical traits, hereditary or genetic characteristics, and chemical, structural, or functional variations in the body (Merrill, 1939). To be precise, positivist theorists aim to search for crime causes, use scientific methodologies to test theories against observations and reject punishment to control bad behavior. They recommend treating individuals basing on medical models.

In accordance with Jeffery (1959), criminologists consider crime from the offender’s behavioral perspective instead of utilizing criminal law. The reason for this is that crime concept means judging the behavior. As per Sutherland, white collar crime socially injures the person irrespective of whether the offender was convicted or not. White collar crimes must, therefore, be treated differently by the judiciary. Sutherland however, failed to look at the legal and economic institutions interactions, unlike Jerome Hall. Alternatively, Lombroso focused on the criminal. Lombroso has been trying to find out why and how crimes are committed. Lombroso is the pioneer of the biological school together with Goring, Garofolo, and Ferri. These authors perceive criminals as born, habitual, mentally and physically inferior, insane, passionate, and occasional. The constitutional and heredital elements are still present in the works of Gluecks, Hooton, and Sheldon. Others such as Tard related criminal behavior with imitations. Quetelet and Querry reinforced criminal statistics significance with regards to age, sex, climate, and ecological processes. Bonger reinforced economic conditions and poverty. Sigmund Freud focused on the personality development whose theories have been utilized by psychiatrists to explain criminal behavior (Jeffery, 1959). Psychiatrists and sociologists reinforce family significance with regards to crime. While psychiatrists reinforce the emotional aspect, sociologists reinforce association and environmental family living. The key behavioral explanations currently are sociological as demonstrated by Sutherland, and psychiatric as demonstrated by Freud.

The Scientific Method

This method advocates for scientific approaches when addressing criminal behavior. Science elaborates on why people behave in a certain manner. As a result, the study must be conducted systematically. The steps that must be followed include making observations, designing the problem statement, formulating hypotheses, testing hypotheses, analyzing results using statistics, interpreting data and making a conclusion, and publishing findings for education or further research purposes (Criminal Justice, 2017).

The Problem

Nurture or nature aspects have been used to understand criminal behavior. However, depending only on one perspective is wrong. Various factors such as physiological (brain features), biological (genetics), and sociological (early childhood) compositions must be taken into consideration to understand criminal behavior. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to gain an in-depth insight into the criminal mind’s anatomy to understand violence and criminal behavior by employing the physiological, biological, and sociological factors. Criminal behavior refers to behaviors that violate a criminal code. For a behavior to be termed as ”criminal” it must feature conduct, harm, and prescribed punishment. The biological aspects attribute crime to physiological reasons. Lombroso emphasized on the physiological incapacity of an individual. Some authors identified body-mind types broadly utilized in clinical settings. Sheldon tried to differentiate criminals from non-criminals with regards to Endomorphic, Ectomorphic, and Mesomorphic. Other biologists have tried to align violent criminal acts to a chromosome abnormality. The psychological theories have emphasized on individual personality factors significance in establishing criminal behavior causes. Sigmund Freud indicated the human nature as assertive, aggressive that rooted in early childhood experiences. In relation to Vold, criminal behavior is a substitute response, a way of releasing complexes, guilt feelings, and anxieties. The sociologist’s view that various individuals react differently to the environment and that criminal behavior is acquired because of this interaction. Durkheim related crime with social conditions. Alternatively, Sutherland, in differential association theory, noted that criminal behavior is cultivated through association with deplorable practices (Singh & Rani, 2017).

Anatomy of the Body

Nervous System

Autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system monitors how the internal organs function. It is seen in the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems divisions which work together with the enteric nervous system (Muller et al., 2017). The sympathetic system controls ”flight or fight” response. For example, when a thief tries to break into a bank and comes face to face with a group of security officers, the thief may either fight back in defense or fly away. The sympathetic system thus prepares the body for action, increases heart rate, and lowers functions which are not experiencing stress. On the other hand, parasympathetic system controls ‘rest and digest” responses. These descriptors demonstrate that the autonomic nervous system can maintain balance and react to environmental changes (Gaskell & Rostron, 2013). The parasympathetic lowers heart rate and enhances actions, for example, digestion.

B. Brain Structures and Functions

Limbic system

Thalamus. The thalamus is the gateway to the brain. It passes a large percentage of sensory information to the forebrain (Kotulak, 1997). Thalamus lesions are related to changes in emotional reaction.

Hypothalamus. It is below the thalamus and coordinates the pituitary and autonomic nervous system. It regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, among other homeostatic systems (Kotulak, 1997). It also deals with emotions and sleep.

Pituitary. It transmits messages from the brain and utilizes these messages to generate hormones which affect several body parts (Kotulak, 1997). It also stimulates other hormonal glands to generate own hormones.

Amygdala. The amygdala processes emotions, assist the brain to acknowledge threats, and prepare the body for flight or fight reactions by raising heart and breathing rates. In addition, it promotes learning with regards to punishment or reward, consolidates memory, especially emotional memories. It also arouses emotions following a learning activity. It influences the activity’s memory strength such that emotional arousal due to a learning event fosters memory retention (Kotulak, 1997). Notably, stress hormones after learning enhance retention. The amygdala is the emotional seat. This brain part is functionally and structurally impaired in people who go out and lack empathy and remorse and use violence as in the case of cold-blooded psychopaths. They are aware of their acts and its effects such as potential kill of someone. However, they lack the feelings that hold a normal person back. In the case of hot-blooded, their emotions run out of their control and the amygdala is responsive to mildly stimuli. They do not have the prefrontal regulatory control (Raine, 2013). The cortex is above their eyes, behind the forehead, and it plays the role of planning, regulating, and controlling behavior. These hot-blooded types lack the normal regulatory prefrontal cortex control and therefore, react impulsively.

Hippocampus. It helps to form new memories of the past (Kotulak, 1997). Any damage to this part leads to amnesia.

Brain Imaging

In brain imaging, the brain structure is displayed in visual images. It draws its concept from ancient times when the scientists drew perceived images of the brain. This technique was advanced with the formation of photomicrography, photography, and microscopy. ”In vivo” imaging came into existence due to x-rays introduction and further fostered by computerized x-ray and magnetic resonance imaging. The methodologies have been used to capture nervous system images on films and computers. They capture microscopic and gorses structure images and can differentiate between abnormal and normal tissues. Advancements in this field have led to methods that can enable the quantitative measure of biochemical and physiological processes rates. The processes that have so far been formed but less used are the cerebral blood flow and glucose utilization. If the functional activity is high then, blood flow rates and glucose utilization in the tissue also skyrocket (Gonzalez-Lima, Finkenstädt, & Scheich, 1992). These applications are responsive to the excitement and enthusiasm related to brain imaging.

Raine Adriane is the pioneer of brain imaging application. Raine scanned the brains of forty-one murderers and compared it with forty control tests. Adrian found that the functioning of their brains, in the front cortex, was below average. The prefrontal cortex is responsive to high order activities, for example, regulating emotion, controlling impulse, and decision-making. Hence, if a person has a difficult time performing these activities, it is most likely that the they will turn that anger into a rage and finally homicide (Raine, 2013). With regards to genes, Terrie Moffitt found a gene, involved with crime, changes the regulation and production of serotonin in the brain. In addition, it was discovered that the gene is influenced to trigger stress.

Raine also went ahead to examine nurture influence on criminal behavior. The reason for this is because genes are influenced by environs capable of aggravating or muting aggressive behaviors. Several people, with a similar aggressive propensity, turn out to be peaceful whereas others end up becoming gangsters. Nurture starts in the conception stage. Expectant mothers who are drug abusers increase the chances of the child becoming an offender later in life (Raine, 2013). Moreover, poor nutrition triples the antisocial rate when they become adults.

The research study led to the conclusion that violent behavior is a result of biological, social, and environmental elements. The study of violent behavior can help to come up with ways on how to prevent crime. The prisoners may not have the motivation to change as they perceive themselves to be hardcore criminal at heart (Fresh Air, 2014). These sentiments thus, raise the question that if the brain dysfunction increases the chances of one becoming a criminal offender, then should these people be held responsible for crimes committed? What if one had a birth complication, exposed to toxins such as lead and had a low heart rate though, not all people with low heart rates become criminals and had the genes that accelerate violence, how can these people be held accountable and punished?

To conclude, studying crime from a biological perspective has several implications for law. In terms of genetic consideration, not all offenders are equal from the biological perspective hence, criminals should not receive similar punishment for similar crime. The people who do crimes which are a result of genetic composition and brain dysfunction out of their control must be exposed to less harsh strategies (Sugrue, 2016). Deterrence theory defies genetic consideration and asserts that punishment fear refrains people from pursuing crimes irrespective of their biology.

Abnormalities

Lesions and Mental Illness

Thomas Szasz, the psychiatric professor holds that mental illness is not a medical illness. Criminal tests indicate that people possess mental diseases that trigger them to commit criminal offences. A mental illness may also be termed as a brain lesion and is evident in the ”medical” illness model. An issue becomes a disease if the symptoms lead to the lesion. No changes, no disease. Mental disorder as a lesion dominates mental disorder. Thomas Szasz is against the illness dimension. The lack of bodily lesion in mental disorder means that it is not real. Mental disorder is further perceived as a break-down or meaning loss. The things done or said by the person are irrelevant. The break-down concept is applicable to daily responses. The police may for instance, contact a psychiatrist to carry out an examination if a person behaves weirdly. This concept has received numerous acknowledgments because it aligns well with daily responses and does not depend on unproven brain lesions (Meynen, 2017). Whether or not a dysfunction is harmful relies on societal context and values.

Biological Make Up

Human Traits and Characteristics

Characteristics and traits persist from one generation to another. Aristotle and Plato used association to elaborate on how present mental processes emanate from past processes. The philosophers based on the principle that memories and undesirable traits could persist via generations (Criminal Justice, 2017). Plato called for production control by the government while other studies cited uprooting unfit members from the society.

Heredity and Evolution

Herbert Spencer argued that everything in the universe was from a single source. The things advanced as time went by then, became differentiated and integrated. Spencer also seconded ”survival of the fittest” and natural selection. Charles Darwin described species origin through natural selection and man decent and selection with respect to sex. Lombroso rejected the classical theory view of crime (Criminal Justice, 2017). Lombroso, for instance, asserted that bad behavior was inherited and that a criminally born person was spotted by assessing the physical defects.

Social Darwinism

Gregor Mendel played a role in the formation of social Darwinism by showing how observable characteristics were inheritable and how a trait may be seen in one generation, which had not been seen in prior generations. These atavisms could be behavioral or physical. These theorists were generally concerned about whether the social development could be controlled or not via traits manipulation (Criminal Justice, 2017). Graham Sumner highlighted that issues such as poverty were due to inequalities and that natural selection and survival for the fittest would imply a natural decline in issues.

Trait Theory

Traits are triggered by the genetic factors or nature and environmental factors or nurture. Traits such as neuroticism are considered when examining behaviors. For instance, John and Dave are brothers and share a similarity in genes, however, John ends up becoming a criminal despite the same up-bring and eating similar food. The brothers may not share similar DNA exactly hence, John inherited a gene that stimulated towards dangerous activities. It may also be due to different relations with the parents (Criminal Justice, 2017). Hence, nature or genes and nurture (relationship with parents) could be attributed to the variations between John and Dave.

Physical Trait Theories

Physiognomy. Examining the physical traits to establish one’s behavior or a character was used in the ancient times. Pythagoras is recognized for the physiognomy theory which emanates Greek’s “physis” implying ”nature” and ”Gnomon” implying to interpret or judge (Criminal Justice, 2017). This theory assesses a person’s character from the outer outlook, particularly the face.

Phrenology. It stems from the Greek’s ”phren“ implying ”mind“ and ”logos“ implying knowledge. It holds that behavior is traced to the brain. Franz Gall concluded that the person’s weaknesses, character, or strengths could be established by the skull’s physical features. There are twenty-seven organs on the skull. A depression in an area revealed a weakness or strength. In case of several areas, it triggered a person to take part in crime (Criminal Justice, 2017). One area symbolized murder acts. Johann Spurzheim expanded Gall’s work to form the hierarchic organs system and formed a model which indicated organs location.

Body Physique and Crime

Ernst Kretschmer identified the ”pyknik“, asthenic, and athletic elements related to dysplastic, cyclothymic, and ”schizotheme“ behaviors. Cyclothems featured depression and had little muscular formation, round shape, soft skin and committed crimes that were serious. Schizothemes were apathetic, antisocial and committed serious crimes. They were either athletic (strong and broad) or asthenic (tall and thin). Displastics resembled any shape and were highly emotional and related to sexual crimes. William Sheldon revealed an alignment between physique and personality via personality patterns and physical builds. Sheldon employed Lombroso’s criminal man, Darwin’s survival of the fittest, and eugenics. The researcher advocated for ”ideal “people. A difference from the ”ideal“ was related to personality and behavior disorders. Sheldon tested the ”somatotyping“ system based on the ectomorphs (linear, thin, flat, and delicate), endomorphs (heavy, round, soft shape) and mesomorphs (muscular, sturdy, rectangular) classifications. In terms of juvenile delinquency, Sheldon showed that the mesomorphs could to take part in crimes; ectomorphs could commit suicide, and endomorphs likely to be mentally ill. However, Sheldon’s theories were statistically tested. The balanced types were later added to the somatotypes (Criminal Justice, 2017). Rather than the conclusion that the body type resulted in delinquency, it was concluded that taking part in delinquency may be due to a mesomorphic type instead of balanced, ectomorphic, and endomorphic types.

Genetics in Modern Biological Theories

The genetic code discovery led to a further comprehension of the process via which hereditary traits are generationally passed (Criminal Justice, 2017). It focused on the function and structure of chromosomes.

Chromosomes. Humans have forty-six chromosomes, a pair dictates sex. The sex chromosomes are X and Y, with men featuring the XY chromosomes and females the XX chromosomes. The male determines a child’s gender. Y chromosome fertilization results in a male fetus and vice versa. Some males, however, can feature an extra Y chromosome, reflecting abnormality (Criminal Justice, 2017). Y chromosomes are related to increased testosterone production. It is thus, alleged that the males with an extra chromosome are violent. Although not proven scientifically.

Twin Studies. Fraternal twin is a result of two eggs and shares around half of the genes while identical twins are from one egg and share all genes. With the social environment held constant, it is alleged that the innocent twin can likely assume the fellow twin’s criminal behavior and is fifty percent with regards to identical twins, unlike fraternal twin which is around twenty percent. Additionally, identical twins were more likely than fraternal twins to both take part in delinquent activities (Criminal Justice, 2017). Identical twins also reflected more delinquent group, unlike fraternal twins. The identical twins high rate involvement in criminal activities is because they share almost all the genes.

Adoption studies. An adopted child whose one of the real is a criminal is likely to take part in property crime (Criminal Justice, 2017). It has an adverse impact on boys.

Biochemical Explanations

Hormones indicate why people engage in crime. Androgens are related to masculinity while estrogens are related to femininity (Criminal Justice, 2017). Progesterone is linked to female reproduction.

Testosterone. Testosterone is male hormones. Even though females secrete this hormone, the rate is high in males (Criminal Justice, 2017). High levels are associated with violence levels in both males and females.

Premenstrual Syndrome and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. Premenstrual syndrome first emerged in 1980 in England when it was used in defense of violence. The premenstrual disorder is a kind of syndrome but differentiated by interference level the process has on a woman’s ability to take part in daily activities and is based on genetic facts. Women with a particular genetic structure have an abnormal sensitivity to own hormones leading to rising stress and rational symptoms. Postpartum depression is also linked to females. New mothers encounter depression a few weeks after birth because of progesterone decline (Tsujii et al., 2017). As a result, around two percent of mothers encounter suicides, hallucinations, panic attacks, and mental disturbance symptoms. Women have used depression, syndrome, and dysphoric disorder in a case.

Neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters send messages into neurons. It affects several brain functions, inclusive of those that affect mood, emotions, behavior, and learning. Biological crime cases have focused on norepinephrine related to ”fight or flight“; dopamine which enhances learning and thinking, attention, sleep, motivation, reward, and pleasure; and serotonin which affects sex desire, sleep, appetite, aggression among others (Criminal Justice, 2017). High nor pine levels, low dopamine, and low serotonin are related to aggression.

Diet, food, allergies, sensitivities, vitamins, and minerals. High proteins contain high amino acid (tryptophan) for producing serotonin. Tyrosine-protein is associated with nor pine and dopamine production. Hence, most aggressions may be controlled with high proteins and low refined carbohydrates consumption. Refined carbohydrates affect behavior. Whole grains, for example, are slowly turned into glucose, which triggers insulin production before becoming energy. Refined carbohydrates are processed quickly leading to rapid insulin and blood sugar decline. As result, refined carbohydrates deprive the brain glucose necessary for appropriate functioning. Blood sugar decline also trigger adrenaline release and dopamine and are related to anxiety, aggression, and irritation. Hypoglycemia (due to reduced blood sugar) has been used to successfully eliminate crime. Therefore, reduced refined carbohydrates, increased vegetables, and fruits consumption reduce bad behavior. Refined carbohydrates are blamed for crimes as they have high lead and cadmium that damage the brain tissue and affect neurotransmitters production (Criminal Justice, 2017). Aggression is also due to an allergy to certain chemicals such as chocolate, which has phenyl-ethylamine besides food additives. Criminals further lack vitamins B6 and B3.

Environmental toxins. The front brain is sensitive to toxins such as manganese and lead. Behavior problems are related to increased levels of these metals. It is notable that lower-income people are likely to leave near facilities that handle dangerous metals, increasing brain impairment unlike the high-income brackets (Criminal Justice, 2017). This may be the reason why the low income and minority groups who reside near these areas feature high crime cases.

Biosocial Perspective

Biosocial perspective is social and behavioral sciences, which describe disabilities, mental illnesses, and personality disorders as biological traits responding to environmental stimuli. It is a combination of the biological and sociological perspectives. Disillusion was first associated with behavioral and sociological perspectives based on the notion that an individual biologically functioned with the social environments. Modern theories integrate sociological behavior with biological development. Biosocial theories hence indicate that genetic disposition is evident with particular behaviors. For example, even though low intelligent quotient people may not be related to crime, these people may suffer from stress and frustration, leading to criminal behaviors (Criminal Justice, 2017). Attention hyperactive disorder has also been related to increased criminal behavior. It, however, makes sense with individuals detected with conduct disorder.

Developmental Psychology

Theories of Development

Jean Piaget examined the four stages of cognitive development. Jean Piaget describes the children’s understanding of ”schemas“ and how they utilize assimilation and accommodation. The motor stage is in two years and indicates that the infant utilizes own motor abilities and senses to comprehend the world. The preoperational stage which is between two and seven years, the child utilizes metal objects representations and is able to utilize symbolic language and thought. In concrete operation stage, which is between seven and eleven years, the child utilizes logical principles when solving problems (Criminal Justice, 2017). Formal operations, twelve years upwards, the child uses logical principles in a systematic manner and with the ability to utilize abstractions.

Lev Vygotsky holds that social interaction plays a role in cognitive development. Hence, children are active learners, however, their knowledge is constructed socially (Criminal Justice, 2017). Children learn from society members are more expert.

John Bowlby founded the attachment theory. He holds that children were born pre-programmed to form attachments (Criminal Justice, 2017). The attachment between the caregiver and infant ensures the survival of the infant.

Sigmund Freud emphasized that fact that the first five years are important to adult formation personality (Criminal Justice, 2017). Freud commented that the personality of a child is a result of how the parents controlled the aggressive behaviors.

Erik Erickson expanded Freud’s theories. Ericson stressed that a person can go through a psychosocial crux that could possibly impact favorable or unfavorable effect for personality development. In each stage, a child acquires skills and attitudes resulting from the successful psychological conflict negotiation (Criminal Justice, 2017). These elements at the various phases are trusting versus mistrust, autonomy versus doubt and shame, initiative versus guil