From a psychological point of view, crime is examined from different angles:
First: Crime is considered the result of an imbalanced psychological state. According to this view, a storm of desires is hidden in the criminal’s subconscious, and the criminal has no control over it; this storm manifests itself in the form of criminal acts.
Second: Crime itself may be a psychological disease. Instead of appearing in identifiable forms, this illness expresses itself in a subtle manner, and one form of its expression may be the commission of crimes. Another viewpoint of psychoanalysis is that law itself can be a major cause of crime.
This can take two forms:
First: The existence of law creates a prohibition that generates within a person an urge to transgress it. This leads to the commission of crime. As we shall see in the discussion on crime and drugs, one argument against the prohibition of drugs is that people are drawn toward them precisely because they are banned. If this prohibition were removed, the attraction of drugs would automatically diminish. This falls under the category that, in the discussion of crime, is referred to as Mala Prohibita.
Second: The law itself encourages law-breaking. Violation of the law entails punishment. Thus, the aim of the lawbreaker is, in a way, to invite punishment, the reason for which lies in an underlying sense of guilt within him.
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