assessing the use of biological theories in informing policy development Flashcards
biochemical theories
-pregnancy - post-natal depression
-puberty - periods, mood swings, hormone changes
-medication - the pill, steroids
-drug or alcohol abuse - hormone disruptors
-diabetes or low blood sugar levels - person can get snappy and more agressive
-menopause - massive hormonal changes
formal and informal policys
formal - enforced to control crime by officers of the law like prison
informal - tactics to reduce crime like treatments or interventions but can also be linked to things like grounding by parents
ways to treat substance abuse
-Antabuse - this is a pill that can be used to help treat alcoholism, when you take it, it prevents your body from breaking down alcohol so when you have alcohol it creates unpleasant side effects to try deter your body from from alcohol but doesnt cure alcoholism, it has now been discontinued as it was found it created symptoms like mood swings, rare cases of side effects and hallucinations
-Methadone - this is a drug that can be prescribed by the NHS to help you with a heroin addiction, when you take it, it gives you the same effect as heroin but doesnt have unhealthy and unsafe side effects so stops you using it, although you have to be on it the rest of your life
surgeries you can receive
-surgical castration - this is used now in the uk but very rarely and is a last case scenario for usually pedophiles and rapists in which they are castrated so it stops them being able to perform crimes
-lobotomies - this is where they take a very small portion of your brain to stop criminal urges, was also used for people in mental institutions and a lot of women for pointless reasons, it is now illegal but was widely used in the uk in the 50s/60s, it had a main side effect which is they would wake up every morning forgetting everything
-compulsary sterilisation - this in now an illegal procedure but was used at one point, an injection that stops fertility in both men and women
chemical castration - lowering testosterone
-stillbestrol - a form of chemical castration used to treat male prisoners. Its a female hormone that supresses testosterone to reduce male sex drive. Although it can have serious effects like breat development, feminisation and serious psychiatric disorders
-prison study - in 2012 HMP whatton tested this out on 100 sex offenders who volunteered to be given the pill or anti-libidinal psychopharmacological intervention to reduce sex drive and it was all positively received by the prisoners.
changing diet and nutrition
-gesch et al (2012) - 231 young adult male prisoners received either a daily vitamin, mineral, essential fatty acid supplement or a placebo drug, and violent behaviour reduced 37% compared to only 10% with the placebo drug
-virkunnen et al - people with a history of criminal behaviour also had low levels of serotonin
-schoenthaler et al - when inmates had a reduced sugar diet, anti-social behaviour reduced 48%
-conclusions - if prisons applied this and made sure all inmates received the nutrients they need, criminal behaviour would be down
other policies to reduce crime
-use of sedatives - this includes valium, libririum and largactil which are used to keep potentionally troublesome or violent prisoners calm
-managing. crowds with chemicals - for example, tear gas is used to disperse riots and works by causing distressing sensations like vomiting, breathing difficulties and disorientation but can cause lung cancer and even death.
-death penalty - according to amnesty international (2021) 657 people were executed in 2019 excluding china. according to the death penalty information center (2017) in 2015 the murder rate was 25% higher in death penalty states than non-death penalty states
