AC 4.1 The use of criminlogical theory in informing policy development

Question 1

Give 2 crime control policies

Answer 1

• token economy
• CBT (Cognitive behavioural therapy)

Question 2

What do cognitive theories assume?

Answer 2

• Cognitive theories assume that criminality is caused by cognitive distortions and thinking errors
• CBT is offered as a talking therapy, aiming to help offenders identify their thinking errors, challenge and change them

Question 3

What are the programmes involved in CBT?

Answer 3

• One to One - focused on social skills, self control, attitudes and values
• Anger management - aims to teach offenders how to recognise their own feelings of anger and control their behaviour

Question 4

What are the three stages of anger management that Ainsworth identifies?

Answer 4

• cognitive preparation - offenders analyse their patterns of anger
• skills acquisition - offender learns the kills to manage their anger eg relaxation
• application practice - offenders apply these skills in a controlled and non-threatening environment

Question 5

Give 2 strengths of CBT?

Answer 5

• helps tackle the underlying causes of criminal behaviour, therefore acts as a long term change to behaviour and reduces offending
• Julia Keen At Al studied the progress of young offenders and found they had increase awareness of their own anger and increase capacity to control it

Question 6

Give 2 weaknesses of CBT?

Answer 6

• requires clients to motivated or it won’t work
• offenders may change their thinking patterns but it doesn’t mean their behaviour will change completely

Question 7

Define formal policy making?

Answer 7

This is policy set up and controlled via the law or government agencies.
These can either be crime control policies - aimed at preventing crime
or State punishment policies - aimed at punishing crime after it has taken place

Question 8

Define informal policy making?

Question 9

What are the biological treatments to help control crime?

Answer 9

• chemical castration - forced upon an offender to ‘cure’ their offending (non permanent)
• surgical castration - permanent version
• methane drug treatment
• emetic drug treatment
• dietary changes

Question 10

What crime control policies were developed by Merton’s strain theory?

Answer 10

• Tackling poverty
• Education in prison

Question 11

What is the zero tolerance policing policy?

Answer 11

• Developed by right realists
• punishing even the smallest of crimes
• used in New York

Question 12

Give one strength and one weakness of the zero tolerance policing policy?

Answer 12

+ New York subway users found they felt safer
- found to be too harsh and doesn’t follow a case to case basis

Question 13

What is the community policing policy?

Answer 13

• developed by left realists
• police go into the community to build a relationship with communities to be available to give advice if they feel uncomfortable to go to the station or if they wish to report something

Question 14

Give one strength and one weakness of the community policing policy?

Answer 14

+ People made reports to the police that they wouldn’t had done if they had to go to the station as communities feel safer
- Communities may feel a sense of force or as if the police are trespassing them/ getting too much into their business

Question 15

What is restorative justice?

Answer 15

• Developed by the labelling theory
• victim and offender get a chance to speak
• can help victims get a sense of why the offender did what they did
• give offender a chance to recognise the impact of their actions which may lead to them having a change in attitude which may reduce reoffending

Question 16

Give one strength and one weakness of restorative justice?

Answer 16

+ reduces reoffending as offenders can see the impact of their actions
- does not work for crimes like rape

Question 17

What is token economy?

Answer 17

• used in prisons
• involves reinforcing desirable behaviour with a token that can be exchanged for a reward like pizza or seeing family
• prisons teach people if they behave in the right way, they will be rewarded
• use din hopes that they won’t reoffend after leaving prison

Question 18

Give one strength of token economy?

Answer 18

Hobbs and Holt used a token economy programme with groups of young adults across 3 behavioural units and and fourth unit as a control. There were significantly more positive behaviour shown in the token economy, proving that it works.

Question 19

Give 2 weaknesses of token economy?

Answer 19

• Token economies make offenders easier to manage but have little real rehabilitative value ad do not prevent reoffending.
• Many argue withholding basic things like time outside is a violation of human rights and it is unethical