Motivation is a significant factor in understanding deviant and criminal behaviour. This can be seen as motivation being a facet of psychology that is highly studied and practised in behavioural analysis (Simpson and Balsam, 2016). Motivation is the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviours in individuals, whether intrinsic or social (Cherry, 2022). It allows us to understand the reasoning behind one’s behaviour and how it is influenced by one’s social environment. Specifically focusing on deviant and criminal behaviour.
In this paper, there will be no participants utilised as it is not feasible nor safe to interview those who have committed deviant acts and/or criminal acts for ethical reasons.
The research approach that will be utilised is a ‘critical literature review’. A critical literature review is a methodology that is used to highlight a researcher’s hypothesis or enhance a conceptual model and theories based on the literature being studied (Romund, 2017).
This critical literature review has given an insight to how these four main motivations – Prosocial, Non-Normative, Neutral and/or Anti-Social – have characteristics that are associated with crime and deviant behaviours.
The study has also highlighted the various characteristics that can be used to predict and prevent crime and deviant behaviours based upon the mentioned studies. Main observations to arise include the importance of placing emphasis on education and teaching the younger generation morals from a young age. The results obtained by this current study aids our understanding of criminal and deviant motivated behaviours.