4.1 - Assess the use of bio theories in policy develpoment Flashcards
What is formal and informal policy??
Formal - “control crime” custodial sentences. State punishment policies imposed on offenders
Informal - Helps reduce crime - Alcohol support groups. Non offcial ways like grounding or no pocket money.
Explain treating substance abuse??
Antabuse - used in aversion therapy - prevents body from processing alcohol. It causes hangover symptoms for even a drop
Methadone - lifetime treatment for heroin. Gives off slight high but if you dont take makes H addiction worse
M provides legal, controlled safer addiction
Explain lowering testosterone
Male sex hormone - higher in those who have commited violent crimes
Ellis and Coontz 1990 - peaks from puberty to early 20s and this coralates with crime
What is chemical castration??
Stillbestrol - is a form of chemical castration that has been used in prison to treat male sex offenders. A female hormone that suppresses testosterone as a way of reducing men’s sex drive. However. It can have serious side effects, including breast development, feminisation and serious psychiatric disorders.
In 2012, a pilot scheme provided chemical castration for sex offenders in HMP Whatton. Volunteers were given a pill to reduce their sex drive. Such treatments was positively received by the prisoners who were volunteers.
Explain Modifying diet??
Gesch et al (2002)
231 young male adult prisoners.
The participants volunteered to receive either a daily vitamin, mineral, essential fatty acid supplementation or a placebo drug.
Led to violent behaviour reduced by 37% for who took the supplement, compared to a 10% reduction to the placebo drug takers.
People with a history of criminal behaviour have been found to have low levels of serotonin (Virkkunen et al., 1987).
Inmates with lower omega-3 index were more aggressive. Therefore, the supplementation of omega-3 could contribute to a decrease in aggressive behaviour in prison populations. (Meyer et al, 2015)
Explain Surgery??
Surgical castration of sex offenders has been used in the past.
A Lobotomy cuts the connection between the frontal lobe of the brain and the thalmus - serious side effects used for violent criminals and sexual preadtors
What can we link to surgery and what is it??
Eugenics links to compulsary sterilisation. Fear that humans were “degenerating” as the poor were breeding at a faster rate than the hihger classes. Passing on their bad genes quicker than the good genes could pass on.
They set up pressure groups in 1972 the Supreme Court ruled those “unfit or those with learning difficulties
Example is Nazis
