Unlike Lombroso, Sigmund Freud believed that female criminality was more of a psychological aberration rather than a biological phenomenon. However, both Lombroso and Freud considered females to be biologically inferior to males. In 1933, during his psychoanalytic research, Freud described female offenders as passive, narcissistic, and masochistic. He insisted that these defective characteristics were caused by a "masculinity complex" or by a perpetual state of mind that he called "penis envy". Freud theorized that this "physical deficiency" made women "morally inferior"and unable to control their impulses. This, in turn, affected areas of a female's brain such as the intellectual sphere.
Surprisingly, Freud did not directly attribute female criminality to superego weakness. The superego holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals. It is our sense of right and wrong and provides the guidelines for making judgements according to Freud. Nevertheless, he maintained that females were "inclined toward crime because of their 'anatomical' deficiency. Freud's ideas have been virtually dismissed in modern day psychology and psychiatry fields.
Surprisingly, Freud did not directly attribute female criminality to superego weakness. The superego holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals. It is our sense of right and wrong and provides the guidelines for making judgements according to Freud. Nevertheless, he maintained that females were "inclined toward crime because of their 'anatomical' deficiency. Freud's ideas have been virtually dismissed in modern day psychology and psychiatry fields.
Many criminologists, psychologists, and other researchers have devised countless hypotheses to explain the actions of female offenders. During my reading this week, I came across a statement that I believe holds true in this context. David E. and Melissa Hickman Barlow, authors of Police in a Multicultural Society, stated that people perceived as a "problem population" are marginalized and ostracized and are viewed as a problem because of their potential to disrupt social order. In this instance, women who commit crime are the "problem population" and researchers marginalize them by referring to them as abnormal or insufficient in one way or another. In their minds, there must be some radical explanation as to why women commit crime. What if female offenders do, in fact, have the same reasons for committing criminal acts as male offenders? Does the criminology field really need to study female criminality and formulate an assortment of theories separate from those of male criminals?
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