Experimental Study of the Probable Motivation of Offenses among Socially Normative Persons

Introduction. The laws and principles of general psychology in functioning of motivation triad “Need-Motive-Goal” make it possible to study the motivation of socially normative persons' transition from normative to criminal behaviour. The aim is to define probable motivation of offences in socially normative persons'. Materials and Methods. Incentive material of motivation statements was used as well as the data of the empirical study of motivation of offences among socially normative persons. Methods of correlation, factorial analysis of variance were employed. A comparative analysis of the empirical data concerning motivation of offences in socially normative persons from the experimental and control groups was carried out. Results and Discussion. The dominant motivation of potential offenses of socially normative persons is mainly related to three aspects: 1) an imperatively suppressed theme of aggression, violence, destruction, greed and profit, which is tabooed and repressed by culture, which can be manifested in offences of avarice and violence; 2) activity aimed at increasing the social status, social significance, increasing importance in the immediate social environment, up to the hypertrophied striving for material enrichment; 3) the theme of saving one's own resources, which may manifest itself in malfunctioning, actions committed by negligence or intentionally in the form of criminal omission of an act. Conclusions. It is recognized that unconscious needs, as well as conscious, but long-frustrated, or with a long-term lack of satisfaction, can form a readiness for active behaviour when the object of the need is manifested. This phenomenon applies to all categories of the population, any social stratum. Prosocial or asocial way of addressing this need is determined by the set of stable dominant motives, the dominant, which guides the line of behavior, rather than a social presentation or self-presentation of the subject. It is assumed that the probability of a stable motivational attitude to the offense among socially normative persons increases as the conflict with the culture increases, in cases of undervaluing the role of the “creator of culture” by the culture itself.