Trauma's Impact on Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Analysis

This essay delves into the psychological perspectives influencing behavior, particularly focusing on the impact of trauma and its connection to criminal behavior. It explores behaviorist and psychodynamic theories, highlighting their similarities and differences in explaining human actions. The essay investigates how trauma, as an emotional response to past incidents, can significantly alter behavior, leading to anxiety, fear, and altered social interactions. Furthermore, it examines criminal behavior through the lens of cognitive theory, discussing factors like poverty, unemployment, and an unfair justice system that contribute to unlawful activities. The link between trauma and criminal behavior is analyzed, emphasizing how traumatic experiences, especially in childhood, can lead to unethical decision-making and a higher likelihood of criminal involvement. Finally, the essay touches upon trauma-informed practices implemented within the UK justice system, emphasizing the importance of safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment in addressing offenders' needs and promoting rehabilitation, with Desklib offering additional resources for students.

Psychology of Behaviour

Table of Content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Psychological perspectives and their influence on behaviour:....................................................3
How trauma influences behaviour:..............................................................................................5
Criminal behaviour and its casual factors: ..................................................................................6
Link between trauma and criminal behaviour:............................................................................7
Trauma informed practice, and its implementation within justice system in UK ......................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Understanding of psychological approaches enables to identify new scale aspects actively
which physiologically influences behaviour, and relates to significant behaviour patterns and
experiences. The psychological approaches have competent role, to generate significant
extended paradigms worked on, for trauma informed practices engagement. Trauma informed
practices in justice system is significant approach that recognizes impact of trauma on offenders,
and ideal embedding coping skills that have to be worked on. Embedding new ideals and specific
recognition, and regulation of behaviour has prime impact on individual’s experiences along
with their psychology well-being criteria (Levenson, Prescott and Willis, 2022). Recent study
will identify psychological perspectives and their influence on behaviour, within context of
trauma influence behaviour. The study will also further determine investigation theories of
criminal behaviour and casual factors, in link between trauma significantly. Research will shed
light on individual perspectives, ideal thought procedures and varied scale trauma experiences
among people.
One trauma informed practice that has been implemented in justice system within UK,
its effectiveness and reasoning will be analysed within extended targets. Safety, choice,
collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment are some specific parameters to ensure physical
and emotional safety concerns within providing Trauma Informed care. The Trauma-informed
practice in justice system works as approach that further recognizes impact that trauma has on
offenders and changes perspectives. It seeks not to re- traumatize with blame and sanction but to
recognize strengths and skills. This enables to build confidence and re-educate embedding new
coping skills to enable recognition and regulations diversely enhanced on diversely
(Manian, ,Lieberman and Kerr, 2022).
MAIN BODY
Psychological perspectives and their influence on behaviour:
The psychological perspective is an approach of understanding and making assumptions
about the human behaviour. There are many psychological theories that explains human nature
and provides tools to understand about various behaviours (Li and et.al., 2019).
Behaviourist Theory:

This theory explains about the technique of learning by interacting with the environment.
The theorists explain that the people who are better at understanding things by interacting with
the environment can be included in the category of the behavioural learners. It is a key for
educators as it impacts on how a learner reacts and behaves to the situation. This theory can be
helpful in understanding human nature in various kinds of situations. It helps in analysing the
behaviour of humans when they face any unpredictable situation or day to day situations.
Behaviourist theory helps in finding out the positive and negative aspects of human nature as the
humans are required to act according to the situations. The reaction of a human can be positive
when he does not feel any harm or threat in the situation (Psychological theories, 2021).
A human when feels like he is not safe or there is threat for him in the situation then he
will act to protect himself and will react in a manner that can be negative. This theory helps a
person in understanding that how to behave in any situation because people will be rewarded for
their positive behaviour but can be scolded on their negative behaviour. The theory explains that
anyone can be trained to act in a manner to the given conditions (Mazar and Wood, 2018).
Psychodynamic theory:
Psychodynamic theory explains about the behaviour which is a result of any past events.
It means that the behaviour of any person can be influenced by the negative or positive incidents
that has taken place in his life. The events of past in his childhood can cause serious problems to
the person in his adult period of life. The theory completely determines about the unconscious
factors of the past on which no one had control. It explains about the three main factors of life
any person. The ID, it is a part of the behaviour that explains about the needs and desires which
is required to be fulfilled immediately (Murphy, 2019). It can be explained as the children are
very aggressive towards their desires they try their best to achieve it immediately. They are
driven with the ID component of the behaviour.
The Ego, this factor explains about how much a person values himself and feel that he is
better than others. This factor is a reflection of how a person thinks about himself. A person
when feels like someone is insulting him he and his ego is damaged then he will act in a way as
his feelings are hurt and will react in anger. The Superego, this part explains about the morals of
a human which he has learned from his parents or surroundings. The ID and Superego can
sometime go together as it can be a reaction of something positive but can also go in the conflict

with the Ego. This conflict can create anxiety to a person by making it hard for him to take
decision.
How trauma influences behaviour:
Trauma is an emotional response of any unexpected past incident that left an impact on
life of a person. A person is left scared after the incident and can have nightmares and flashbacks
which can effect on his regular behaviour. Trauma can create many problems in life a person by
giving him anxiety and post-traumatic situations. A person after facing an incident that left an
emotional impact on his life can effect his behaviour by making scared all the time and stressed.
The trauma creates an impact on life a human by making him feared as the person will not even
be able to speak for himself. This can make an effect on growth of a person and his overall
performance in his day to day works.
The trauma can make an effect on the interacting behaviour of a person by making him in
the opinion of avoiding others. A person who has faced many problems in his childhood can lead
him to depression and anxiety. People after facing the kind of incidents that makes them think
that no one will treat them in a good manner will avoid making new friends and interacting with
people (Trauma, 2021). The post-traumatic effect can create a negative impact on relations of a
person by making him uncomfortable with the surrounding people. The trauma of facing
domestic violence can create a deep impact on behaviour of a person by making him afraid of
any violent situation. This can make the person avoid every violent situations.
Similarities and differences between the theories:
The Behaviourist theory and psychodynamic theory has many similarities and differences
in the way they explain about the human behaviour.
Similarities:
 Both the theories has a similarity that they are based on the human assumptions of any
situation. It means that the humans does have a little of freewill as they can use some of
their instincts but do not have higher control on their behaviour.
 Another similarity is that the both theories recognizes the facts and conditions that can
effect the life of a person based on their behaviour and reactions to the past incident.

Differences:
 The major difference between the theories is that the Psychodynamic theory does not
have any scientific evidence to support the concept of human behaviour. The behaviourist
theory is based on the researches and scientific methodologies.
 Next difference is that the psychodynamic theory is based on the past incidents and how
they impact on the present times. The behaviourist theory does not focus on the past
incidents but helps in understanding the behaviour based on the present interactions with
environment (Ward and Carter, 2019).
 Another difference is that the behaviourist theory focuses on the behaviour that can be
scientifically measured. It recognizes the importance of the external environment and its
impacts on the life of a person. The psychodynamic theory focuses on the internal factors
of the behaviour of a person.
Criminal behaviour and its casual factors:
Criminal behaviour refers to the act of an offender that can lead to any activity that is
considered as an unlawful act. It can be explained in many ways as there are a lot of factors that
leads to the criminal behaviour (Criminal behaviour, 2022).
Cognitive theory:
The theory explains about the main aspect and techniques of how a person solves his
problems. This theory is linked with criminal behaviour as a person indulges himself in non-
moral ways of solving any problem. The theory can be described as when a person is facing
problems regarding his financial conditions, and he does not have any solution to this problem as
there are no employment areas for him. This situation can lead him to finding solution in
unlawful ways so that he can come up with the solutions to his financial condition.
The theory is beneficial in understanding the psychology of human mind as it can find the
result of the actions. It will be able to explain the mindset of a person in situations where the
control is not in his hands and the only ways to for the problems he sees is non-moral and

unethical (Wortley, 2018). This theory explains that the criminal behaviour is a defect in the
moral thinking and mental development. This theory also helps in understanding the personality
and intelligence level of a person who involves himself in the criminal activities.
Factors that lead to criminal behaviour:
 Negative impact- A person when gets impacted by the negative influence of the society
will be feeling pleasure in his criminal behaviour without even knowing it.
 Poverty- This is one of the major factor that leads to criminal activities. A person when
he does not have money to buy food for his family will choose the way of crime and
stealing so that he can provide food to his family.
 Unemployment- The person when does not have any sources of income and is in high
need of money will choose the way of crime (Factors of crime, 2020). The person does
not understand that this is a criminal behaviour as he thinks it is the last way to earn
money.
 Unfair justice system- This can be one of the major factor of crime as the justice is not
served to everyone. This creates a mindset of a person that the unlawful activities are the
only way to earn their rights.
Link between trauma and criminal behaviour:
The cognitive theory can explain the link between trauma and criminal behaviour in
many ways that can influence the personality of a person. The theory can explain the link
between trauma and criminal behaviour as the decisions of childhood or past can make an impact
on the present life a person. Link can be explained as when a child is facing problems of child
abuse, and for saving himself he uses force and takes action in unethical way. This can create a
post-traumatic situation for the child as for surviving he is required to use unethical means and
act in unlawful ways. The trauma can affect the human interactions of that person as the person
is required to be looking for the people who can understand his situation and why he acted in the
unlawful way. The only people who can understand his situation will be the people who faced
the same problem and acted the same. They are the people who are offended for the crime they
did thinking that it was necessary.

The trauma is one of the main reasons for crime. The criminals who face trauma are
mostly the ones who have been abused in their childhood in emotional or physical ways. Trauma
can create an impact on life of a person by making face the situations he did not intend to.
Childhood incidents such as the death of a loved one who have died in other than a usual way
like accident or a murder (Daffern and et.al., 2022). This can create aggressiveness in the person
for taking revenge or justice as he thinks that this is the only ways to solve his problem. This
kind of incident can create traumatic situations for him and lead him to nightmares.
Trauma informed practice, and its implementation within justice system in UK
The trauma informed practice is strength based framework grounded in understanding of
and responsiveness to impact of trauma, which emphasizes aspects connected to physical,
psychological and responsiveness to impact of trauma. UK's justice system offers trauma
informed practices, where principle oriented working is practically focused on for bringing
informed efficiency levels. The emphasis of trauma infused practices is based on, emphasis
towards analysing survivors to rebuild sense of control and empowerment. Trauma informed
care approach strives to bring ability in individual with motivation to connect and utilize the best
communication, for realizing direct impact trauma further possess. Implementation within justice
system in UK further also correlates to Trauma informed practices management, for analysing
changes and optimizing wellness goals competently. Practices further correlates on trauma
informed management for scaling up expertise rise and delivering optimum theoretical
implementation, into behaviours among individual parameters. Trauma informed practices also
enables to gain engaged on competent knowledge as per individual behaviours, based on varied
scale aspects informatively. Justice system innovatively develops rise in Trauma informed
practices, based on further intricate diversity paradigms based on justice system management
among various cases primitively.
Trauma informed care is approach that assumes individual is more likely to have history
of trauma, where it recognizes presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges role trauma
plays in individual life including services staff actively. It requires system to make paradigm
shift, where intention of Trauma informed care is correlated to treat people having symptoms or
issues related to sexual, physical and emotional abuse traumas. Implementation has been done to
determine strengths, within behaviour and improvise overall improved working integrity towards

functional changes. Trauma informed care is guided with four assumptions where realization
about Trauma, integrates based on people and groups recognizing signs and responding towards
gaining untapped knowledge within individual aspects (Rich and Garza, 2022).
Realization of trauma, signs of trauma and systematic resonance to trauma signifies that
resisting to varied experiences are crucial to analyse further integrated knowledge correlated
improvement. The practice is effective by integration of best 5 principles which are safety,
choices, collaboration, trustworthiness and empowerment which ensures physical and emotional
safety at individual levels for providing Trauma informed care. Individual needs are ideally
identified, with establishment of consistency among boundaries and clarity of working tasks.
Collaborative efforts with services providers are more likely to participate in services which are
effective, and engaging to bring on competent new vision worked on. There is focus developed
on specific strengths, empowering them and developing coping skills which provides new
healthy specific benchmarks. Trauma realization further enables to identify specific competent
engagement goals, based on primitive scale expansion for realization of untapped trauma
management.
Creating physically and emotionally safe environment enables to establish trust,
autonomy and creation of collaborative relationships among varied opportunities within strengths
and empowerment focused perspectives. Using strengths, and empowerment focused
perspectives promotes resilience which are the principles of trauma informed care to reduce re-
traumatization and promotion of healing. It improvises new scale understanding, and
engagement among new paradigms diversely based on collaborative understanding goals for
informed practices diversity (Wassink-de Stigter and et.al 2022).
Trauma informed mental health assessment refers to process that includes clinical
interviews and standardized measures which are designed to gather in depth practical
understanding. There is nature, timing and severity of the traumatic events focused on for
improvising people who are facing trauma and specific events are connected to trauma related
symptoms. This enables to identify observed behaviour patterns, and ideally innovate designs for
delivering extended trauma health oriented aspects. Trauma informed mental health assessment
signifies new standardized measures to be taken, for improvising behavioural paradigms towards
integral goals within longer run. Professional assessment of reports is also done, by integrally
focusing on specific parameters connected towards trauma informed mental health records.

Reasoning includes professional assessment of integrated diversity, where authentic trauma
informed care delivery is focused on for improvising determinants. Trauma informed practice
essentially also aims at key elements such as realizing prevalence of trauma, recognizing trauma
effects among individuals which are involved within program (Champine and et.al, 2022). The
UK justice system further enhances professional scale parameters related to trauma informed
mental health assessment, based on leveraged rise. It builds recognition of new skills, strengths
and builds optimum confidence and embed new coping skills for generating improvement in
regulation of behaviour systematically. Assessment reports, systematically extensively prioritizes
further scale expansion towards optimum derived paradigms to ideally standardized scenarios.
Reoffending rates are also an important parameter, for analysing specific functional scale
goals based on varied technical changes and offending rates. The trauma informed practice,
based on reoffending rate further plays crucial role based on integrated diversity goals for
generating untapped functional improvement. The UK reoffending rate is key to operation within
repetitive cycle and represents major policy challenges, where Trauma informed practices are
integrally crucial. This also has been found to be competently essential, in improvising
functional vision and generate effective therapies, treatments being given to trauma affected
people (DaCunha, 2022).
CONCLUSION
The study from above analysed aspects in research, has summarized integral
understanding of psychological theories where human behaviour has prime correlation in trauma
influenced behaviour. Psychodynamic theory and behaviourist theory have been analysed within
study integrating functional knowledge on human behaviour, where trauma influences behaviour
significantly. The research in recent report have summarized integration of best behaviour
aspects, related to human behaviour parameters for generating optimum recovery. Research in
report also concluded trauma informed practices which influences systematic parameters, based
on engaged functional knowledge goals. There has been extended focus evolved on systematic
implementation of criminal behaviour and factors for acknowledging theoretical parameters,
based on functional oriented scope within longer time period. Behaviour theory has been taken

within recent report, where it has concluded link between trauma and criminal behavior
parameters based on specific functional vision engagement (Wassink-de Stigter and et.al 2022).
Considering professional assessment and reports, reoffending rates plays crucial role for
delivering engaged on optimized aspects within human behaviour parameters. Report
summarized knowledge based on varied scale psychodynamic theories implementation, and
trauma infused criminal behaviour. Psychological theories explain integrated behaviour among
individuals, based on criminal conduct and trauma influenced. Trauma informed practices are
integrated to determine justice system in UK, which further correlates on optimum expertise
diversity for gaining functional knowledge. Study also summarized in depth proactive utilization
of various theories, where implementation of engaged professional goals further advances scope
among people to leverage infused behaviours.

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