2.2 Flashcards
name the individualistic theories of criminality
psychodynamic theories: psychoanalysis (Freud), Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory.
Eysenck’s personality theory
learning theories: Bandura’s social learning theory, skinners operant theory, Sutherland’s differential association
cognitive theories: criminal personality theory, Kohlberg’s moral development theory.
describe Freud’s peychodynamic theory.
Freud believed that early childhood experiences determine our personality and future behaviour.
he believed that the human personality contains 3 elements; the Id, Ego, and Superego
the id is governed by the ‘pleasure principle’ - the blind desire to satisfy its urges at any cost. if we acted on these urges, they would often lead to criminal behaviour.
the superego (morality)
contains our moral rules. through socialisation, the child internalises it’s parents’ ideas of right and wrong and the superego develops. if we act or think of acting contrary to the superego, it punishes us with feelings of guilt and anxiety.
the ego (reality)
driven by ‘the reality principle’. it learns from experience and consequences.
e.g. a child learns to say please to obtain what it wants. the ego acts in a way that satisfies the id’s desires but is also morally acceptable to the superego.
see anti-social behaviour as caused by an abnormal relationship with parents during early socialisation, e.g. neglect, strict.
this can result in a weak, over-harsh or deviant superego:
a weakly developed superego
- can develop if the same sex parent is absent during phallic stage.
- the individual will feel less guilt about anti-social actions and behave in ways that are driven by the id’s selfish urges.
a too harsh superego
- strong identification with strict parent, causing excessive guilt and anxiety.
- can result in a person committing a crime in order to get punishing go relieve the guilt.
a deviant superego
- successfully socialised, but into a deviant moral code.
- child internalises criminal values of same sex parent - so no guilt
evaluate Freud’s theory.
strengths
- highlights the importance of early socialisation and family relationships in understanding criminal behaviour
- has influences policies developed to deal with crime.
limitations
unscientific and subjective (his opinion). relies on the claims of a psychoanalyst so can’t be proven.
- how can we know or understand the unconscious mind?
describe Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory.
Bowlby argues that there is a link between maternal deprivation and deviant behaviour. in his view, a child needs a close, continuous relationship with its primary caregiver (mother) from birth to the age of 5 in order to develop normally.
if the mother-child attachment if broken through separation, it can leave the child unable to form meaningful emotional relationships with others. he describes this as ‘affectionless psychopathy’ which is the can lead to criminal behaviour. it also leaves the child with the inability to feel remorse.
evidence:
bowlby based this theory in a study of 44 juvenile thieves who had been referred to a child guidance clinic. he found that 39% of them had suffered maternal deprivation before the age of 5, compared with only 5% in a control group of non-delinquents.
evaluate Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory
strengths
- research support - 44 thieves - supported theory that childhood experience had an impact on criminality.
- shows the need to consider parent child relationships when exploring criminality.
limitations
- accounts for 39% of delinquents who had separation in childhood, but doesn’t account for the other 61%
- retrospective: thrives and mothers are expected to accurately recall incidents from many years before
- later studied 60 children who had experienced prolonged separation before the age of 5 and found no evidence of ‘affectionless psychopathy’
describe Eysenck’s personality theory
Eysenck’s individualistic theory argues that criminality is caused by a particular personality type. He sees personalities as made up of two dimensions: extraversion versus introversion and neuroticism versus emotional stability.
Extraverts have excitement-seeking, impulsive, often aggressive personalities. Neurotics are anxious, moody and tend to over-react. Eysenck found that criminals tend to be strongly extraverted and neurotic.
Eysenck explains this in terms of conditioning and genetic inheritance. This is because extroverts genetically inherit a nervous system that needs high levels of stimulation, so they’re constantly seeking excitement, which leads them to take risks and break laws, leading to punishment.
However, because criminals tend to be neurotics with high anxiety levels, this prevents their behaviour being conditioned by punishment - they don’t learn from the experience and so they continue offending.
Eysenck includes a third personality aspect, psychoticism. Psychotics are cruel, insensitive misfits who lack empathy and are often schizophrenic. they tend to commit crimes like sexual homocide
evaluate Eysenck’s personality theory
strengths
- useful for describing how measurable tendencies can increase a persons risk of offending.
- some studies of offenders support Eysenck’s predictions that people with high E, N and P are likely to engage in criminal behaviour.
limitations
- Farrington examined a wide range of studies. these show prisoners as neurotic and psychotic but not extroverted.
- E scale measures 2 things: impulsiveness and sociability. offenders often lack self-control but are often unsociable.
- convicted criminals which the evidence is based on may not be typical offenders. less impulsive offenders are likely to avoid getting caught.
- doesn’t actually show that personality causes criminality - not all N+E people are criminals.
- self report studies like questionnaires often don’t produce valid results as many people lie.
describe sutherland’s differential association theory
argues that individuals learn criminal behaviour largely in the family and peer groups. it is the result of 2 factors:
- imitation of criminal acts
- learned attitudes: socialisation within the group exposes the individual to attitudes and values about the law.
if exposed to pro-crime attitudes, they are more likely to go on to offend
if exposed to anti-crime attitudes then they’re less likely to commit a crime.
in his study of white collar crime, Sutherland found that group attitudes in the work place often normalised criminal behaviour (by claiming that ‘everyone’s doing it’) this made it easier for individual members to justify their own criminal behaviour.
evaluate Sutherland’s differential association theory.
strengths
- supported by evidence that crime often runs in families. people with criminal parents are much more likely to commit crime - could be due to learning the criminal values in the family or through imitation.
- Walmsley also found that a third of UK prisoners claimed to have a family member also in prison.
- Matthews found that Juvenile delinquents are more likely than non delinquents to report having peers who engage in criminal activity.
limitations
- not everyone who’s exposed to criminal behaviour becomes a criminal. a person might learn how to commit a crime but not actually put it into practice.
describe skinners operant theory
if a particular behaviour results in a reward, it is likely to be repeated
behaviour that results in an undesirable outcome is not likely to be repeated.
the cause of someone behaviour lies in the reinforcements and punishments that shape it.
Jefferey argues that if crime has more rewarding consequences than punishing one’s, they’ll be more likely to engage in criminal behaviour. these rewards could be financial, but also emotional (e.g. friendship, respect)
evaluate skinners operant learning theory
strengths
- used rats to prove that animas learn from experience through punishment and reinforcement
- it’s logical that if crime is more rewarding than punishing they will be more likely to offend
limitations
- the evidence is largely based on animal studies in labs, so it’s not generalisable to how humans behave in real life situations
- ignores internal mental processes such as thinking, personal values and attitudes. it explains criminal behaviour solely in terms of external rewards and punishments
- ignores the fact that humans have free will and choose their course of action
describe Bandura’s social learning theory
suggests that behaviour is learnt through the observation and imitation of models. models are selected on the basis of a range of different characteristics such as attractiveness, perceived similarity to observer and if they’re of a higher status than us.
evidence:
a series of experiments with 4-5 year olds. they divided the children into 3 groups - all 3 were shown a video of an adult model being verbally and physically aggressive to an inflatable Bobo doll
Group 1 saw a version of the film where the model was rewarded with praise
group 2 saw a version in which the model was punished (told off)
group 3 was a control group. in the video they saw, the behaviour was neither rewarded nor punished.
later they were left to play with the doll. group 1 imitated the aggressive behaviours they had seen being rewarded, group 3 also imitated the model but less, group 2 were the least likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour
therefore whether they imitated the behaviour depended on the consequences they had observed for the model.
so if an individual observes a model being rewarded for criminality, the theory predicts they are more likely to imitate it
evaluate Bandura’s social learning theory
strengths
- takes into account the fact humans are social beings and learn from the experiences of others - not just our own.
- shows that children who observed aggressive behaviour being rewarded imitated that behaviour shows the importance of role models in learning
limitations
- based on lab experiments - artificial settings - might not have valid findings in real life situations
- assumes that behaviour is completely determined by learning experience and ignores the freedom of choice and the idea we have free will to commit crime
- not all observed behaviour is easy to imitate might not have skills to copy it
describe Yochelson and Samenow’s criminal personality theory
criminals are prone to faulty thinking which makes them more likely to commit a crime
studied 240 long-term offenders - most of them committed to psychiatric hospitals.
criminal personality theory showed a range of errors in their thinking: e.g lying, secretiveness, super optimism, blame others, victimise themselves.
evaluate the criminal personality theory
strengths
- idea that criminals have different thinking patterns has lead to further research - e.g. PICTIS - a questionnaire used to see if people have criminal thought patterns
limitations
- didn’t use control groups
- sample is unrepresentative no women and most men had been classified as insane - but generalised their findings anyway.
- high sample attrition rate, meaning that many participants dropped out before end of study only 30 remained
