4.1 Flashcards
name the things you could talk about in this Q; assess the use of biological theories in informing policy development.
drug treatments; alcohol abuse (antabuse), heroin addiction (methadone), sex offenders (stilbestrol), prisoners (sedatives and tranquillisers)
diet modification
surgical castration
lobotomy
crowd control and public order offences; tear gas
genetic theories: eugenics
compulsory sterilisation, ‘racial purity’ policies.
describe drug treatments
alcohol abusecan trigger violent behaviour The drug antabuse is used in aversion therapy to treat alcoholism. it works by preventing the body from breaking down alcohol and immediately causing very unpleasant hangover symptoms if the user consumes even a small quantity.
heroin addiction often leads addicts to commit crime to pay for the drug. Methadone is used to treat them as it’s a legal, medically controlled substitute.
sex offenders - Stilbestrol is a form of chemical castration that has been used in prison to test male sex offenders. it’s a female sex hormone that suppresses testosterone as a way of reducing their sex drive.
describe diet modification in reducing crime
Gesch et al found that supplementing prisoners diets with vitamins, minerals and fatty acids caused a ‘remarkable’ reduction in anti-social behaviour (of up to 37% in the case of violent incidents)
Schoenthaler found that a reduced sugar diet reduced anti-social behaviour by 48%.
Virkkunen et al found that violent offenders have a lower than average level of serotonin, and can be treated with foods that contain serotonin such as salmon and fresh tuna.
describe how surgery has been used with the aim of preventing them offending
surgical castration of sex offenders had been used in the past in some countries, e.g. USA and Denmark.
lobotomy involves cutting the connection between the frontal lobes of the brain and the thalamus. it has been used to treat paranoid schizophrenia and sexually motivated violent criminals. But very serious side effects - few now performed
describe eugenics linked to genetic theories
eugenics obsessed with the fear that the human race was in danger of ‘degenerating’ as the poor were breeding at a faster rate than the higher classes. they were passing on supposedly inferior genes for low intelligence, insanity, poverty and criminality.
so they believed that the ‘genetically unfit’ should be prevented from breeding. Therefore, they favoured policies such as compulsory sterilisation. e.g. Carrie Buckwas forced to be sterilised as she was classified as ‘feeble minded’.
Another example of eugenic policies was that of Nazi Germany. They strongly favourited such policies as a means of ‘purifying’ the ‘Aryan Race’ by eliminating those they deemed unfit to breed in the holocaust. This included Jews in which 6 million were killed and Gypsies of which 1.5 million were killed. Others - gays, lesbians, drug users, homeless.
assess the use of biological theories in informing policy development [9]
one use of biological theories is the use of diet to positively affect aggressive behaviour, which in turn, may result in less crime. Gesch et al found that supplementing prisoners diets with vitamins, minerals and fatty acids significantly reduced anti-social behaviour, with a 37% reduction in violent incidents. As well as this, Shoenthaler found that a reduced sugar diet reduced anti-social behaviour by 48% showing the effectiveness of diet on criminal behaviour.
Another use of biological theories in informing policy development is eugenics. this involves the idea that the human race is ‘degenerating’ due to the poor or inferior breeding at a faster rate than the higher classes. They believe that they’re passing on their ‘inferior genes’, including the gene for criminality. An example of this is Nazi Germany where the sterilisation of people with undesirable traits was promoted, e.g. physically and mentally disabled. Research suggests that criminal fathers are more likely to have criminal children than non- criminal fathers (Osborn and west)
Perhaps the most extreme biological policy is that of capital punishment, in which involves ending a life by state execution. We are ‘born’ criminal’ and so nothing will stop us from being criminal and therefore capital punishment is the only option for serious offenders. Death by hanging was legal in England and Wales until the temporary abolishment in 1965. As the murder rate didn’t soar, it was permanently abolished for murder in 1969. this policy is still in operation in some states of the US, e.g. Texas. however, statistics suggest it’s not a deterrent to the crime of murder. a
name the things you could talk about in this Q: Assess the use of individualistic theories in informing policy development (9)
Psychoanalysis: Freud
Aichhorn - treating young offenders
operant learning and token economies
aversion therapy and Eyesenck’s theory.
cognitive theories and CBT, think first, ART.
describe psychoanalysis
based on Freud’s theory of personality.
sees a week superego as a cause of criminality, due to them lacking morality.
analysis of the psyche: gain awareness of unconscious thoughts, feelings and conflicts and confront and overcome them so the behaviour disappears.
hypothesis, free association, dream analysis.
evaluate psychoanalysis.
strengths:
- eyesenck found that 44% of cases criminals showed improvement.
- long term fix for criminals as it involves ‘fixing’ a part of unconscious.
- helps people gain insight to their repetitive behaviours, self destructive patterns that hold them back in development (drinking, drug use)
limitations:
- Eysenck found 44% of patients treated for neurosis improved, but this is 72% of patients treated by hospitals/ GPs. if it’s not as effective against neurosis, seems unlikely to work for criminals as Eysenck argued criminals are likely to be neurotic.
- very costly and time consuming, so have never been used on a large scale for treating criminals.
- gives analysts the power to define what’s normal/abnormal. e.g. Freud regarded homosexuality as abnormal. imposing their definitions this way can give rise to abuse
- unethical - trauma brought back
Freud - very unscientific and objective.
describe operant learning and token economies
Operant learning theory states that criminal behaviour is learned through reinforcement and punishment.
It has been applied to policies for offenders via token economies. A token economy is a behaviour modification programme used in some prisons.
‘buddy system’ uses an adult volunteer to buddy with a young offender to offer continuous reinforcement of what’s socially acceptable.
evaluate operant learning and token economies
strengths:
- Makes prisoners more manageable
- buddy system.
- cause offenders to return to crime slower.
limitations:
- have been cases in USA of food or drink being withheld as negative reinforcement. However this is an infringement of basic human rights making it highly unethical.
- only short-term positive impact. once released from prison, the positive reinforcement stops so the offender is no longer getting reinforced. this causes them to no longer show the desired behaviour and perhaps reoffend. also causes people to ask if token economies work and if harsher punishments need to be enforced for a stronger deterrent.
describe aversion therapy and Eysenck’s theory
criminals tend to be extraverted and neurotic, which makes them harder to condition due to them being more resistant to learning through punishment. therefore, need very strong punishments to change beh.
offender asked to think about unacceptable sexual fantasy until aroused.
then given an adverse stimulus e.g. electric shock or nausea inducing drug
procedure is repeated until offender associates deviant arousal with stimulus.
evaluate the effectiveness of aversion therapy and Eysenck’s theory
strengths:
- solution for people with neuroticism since conditioning is very difficult.
- helps create negative associations that motivates patients to stop engaging in these behaviours - research support of pavlovs dogs
- short-term success for alcoholism.
limitations:
- huge infringement of human rights which can been seen in its use in attempting to ‘cure’ gay people.
- very limited success - short-term
recent research using aversion therapy showed 69% of ppts reported sobriety one year after treatment, however after 5 years this fell to 38%
- patients may have long term trauma from torture they endured (unethical)
describe cognitive therapies and CBT
offenders have distorted cognitions (thinking errors) in which shape their behaviour and lead them to commit crime.
CBT aims to change offenders thoughts and attitudes and subsequently their behaviour.
2 examples of CBT programmes in UK:
anger replacement training (ART)
- interpersonal skills training
- anger control techniques - dealing with emotions and providing offenders with alternative courses of action instead of violence
- moral reasoning training
think first
teaches problem-solving skills, consequential thinking, decision making and seeing things from others point of view.
evaluate the effectiveness of CBT
strengths:
- those that complete think first programme are 30% less likely to be reconnected than offenders who receive an alternative community sentence.
- ART - Feindler et al found that it improved people self-control, problem solving skills and reduced offending in young men. (however, what about adults, females?)
limitations:
- the non completion rate for think first is often high.
- Howitt found that CBT doesn’t work when the crime was committed to achieve a specific goal rather than just poor anger management. This means CBT doesn’t work on all criminals.
- if you can’t make a rational choice (e.g. due to mental disabilities) then you can’t blame them for thinking errors.
- very expensive.
