A2 - Turning to Crime - Cognitive - Social Cognitions

Question 1

What is the attribution theory?

Answer 1

Attributions are the judgements about why people act in a particular way.

• Internal/dispositional attributions attribute behaviour ti themselves.
• External/situational attributions attributes cause of behaviour to an environmental or social factor (e.g. peer pressure)

Question 2

How has the attribution theory been studied?

Answer 2

Walster (1966) invented a story about a car rolling down a hill. In the firsr ebdubg, where the car bumps into a tree, so no one is to blame. When the car kills someone, participants blame the driver not applying the handbrake (dispositional attribution).

Question 3

What 5 techniques did Sykes & Matza find?

Answer 3

1. Denial of Responsibility
2. Denial of Injury to Victim
3. Denial of Victim
4. Condemnation of Condemners
5. Appeal to higher qualities

Question 4

Who conducted the study on hate crimes against the amish?

Answer 4

Byers, Crider & Biggers (1999)

Question 5

What was the sample used?

Answer 5

8 participants

Question 6

How was the study conducted?

Answer 6

16 hours of audio-taped narrative, which described their acts of ‘Claping’ (harassment against the Amish).

Question 7

How did the participants deny their responsibility?

Answer 7

They said that “the harassment was almost common nature” = 10.5%

Question 8

How did participants deny injury to the victim?

Answer 8

They said that “No one really ever got hurt” “it wasn’t really that much property damage” = 31.5%

Question 9

How did participants deny the victim?

Answer 9

They said that “I always thought they were of lesser intelligence” = 23.7%

Question 10

How did participants condemn the condemners?

Answer 10

They said that “I know almost all the cops…they probably had their fair share of claping” = 15.8%

Question 11

How did the participants appeal to higher qualities?

Answer 11

They said that “it was kind of like male bonding” = 18.4%

Question 12

What conclusions were made?

Answer 12

• Offenders tend to make external attributions for their violent behaviour
• They are aware of how people will see their offending behaviour > they use neutralization techniques in order to deny their actions are wrongful and harmful

Question 13

How is the study useful?

Answer 13

Case studies are rich in detail.

Question 14

How is the study not reliable?

Answer 14

There was no standardised procedure, making it hard to replicate.

Question 15

How is the study not generalizable?

Answer 15

Claping is a form of hate crime, which is therefore not representative of all crimes.

Question 16

Name all 3 evaluative points.

Answer 16

1. Richness of Case Studies
2. Low reliability
3. Low generalizability