Causes of Crime Flashcards
Is the Slender Man case a reflection of developmental immaturity?
- Yes, you cannot walk to Northern Wisconsin with some granola bars and a water bottle
What two issues came up in the Slender Man case?
- Competency because of age
- NGI issue because one of the girls was suffering from childhood schizophrenia
What are the diagnoses of the two girls who were in the slender man case?
Morgan Geyser: Schizophrenia, childhood onset (thought that the killing was necessary and that they would become proxies for Slenderman)
Anissa Weier: Schizophrenia spectrum-disorder –shared delusion disorder
What was the progression of NGI issues in the Slenderman case?
The court decided the kids were competent to proceed but there were NGI concerns –> decided to keep them in adult court
What is the trajectory of Morgan’s competency to proceed?
- Morgan found incompetent
- Morgan found to have regained competency after treatment by the court and state psychiatrist
- However, the psychiatrists requested that Morgan stay at the WMHI for ongoing treatment of schizophrenia to remain competent
What is the trajectory of Anissa’s competency to proceed?
- Two psychologists believed she was not competent based on lack of emotional immaturity and lack of strategic decision making quality (understanding the court system comprehensively: time frame)
- She just wasn’t old enough (developmental immaturity)
- She had above average IQ but lacked skills in processing speed
- All three psychologists thought she was bright and understood the charges (and how serious) she faced at the most surface level
If you find somebody not to be competent, what do you ask next?
Can they be brought to competency in the next 12 months? If not, they decided a different track, like a mental health related track.
What is the 2021 update with Anissa and Morgan?
Morgan:
- Plea deal reached without trial
- Treatment in psychiatric hospital
- Diagnosed with schizophrenia
- Sentenced to 40 years and still hospitalized
Anissa:
- Found NGI
- Minimum of 3 years in hospital
- Sentenced to 25 years –> supervised in the community during this time
- Shared delusion; Schizotypy
What was the legal aftermath of the Kip Kinkel case?
- Initially plead NGI –> but dropped because he was shown to have control over his behavior
- He was the first juvenile sentenced to prison in Oregon and was not given possibility of parole
- He is still incarcerated
What does the Kip Kinkel case tell us about the the criminal justice system?
- Less attention to risk factors
- Developmental immaturity: Kip didn’t understand what he was doing
What is the basis for Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime?
- All crime is a product of low self control and criminal opportunity
How is low self control defined in Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime?
Impulsive, self-centered, risk seeking, prefer simple tasks, prefer physical activities over mental ones, and poor anger control
How does Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime relate to high psychopathy individuals?
They have difficulty with self-regulation and passive avoidance
Does Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime have a social or biological emphasis? Is there research that still supports this?
Socialization – no, biology and socialization can coexist
What is key parental socialization emphasized in Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime”?
Supervision, recognition of child’s deviant acts, and consistent punishment of negative behavior
What happens when socialization does not occur in children according to Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime”?
The child will not develop self control
What is the best parenting style that aligns with Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime”?
Authoratitative
What are other ways children could develop effective self control in the absence of parents?
School and neighborhood environments
What are cognitive mechanisms that explain behavioral disinhibition?
- Sensitivity to reward
- Impulsivity
- Propose that individuals inherit a common liability (vulnerability of this happening) for a range of disorders related to behavioral disinhibition
What are environmental factors that explain behavioral disinhibition?
Person shaped and shape the environment
What are risk factors for delinquency?
- Pregnancy problems
- Difficult temperament
- Hyperactivity
- Family disadvantage
- Peer rejection
- Higher levels of trauma (Adverse Childhood Experiences)
- More risk factors means increased risk
What are parenting techniques that predict delinquency?
- Lack of monitoring/parental supervision
- One of the strongest predictors of delinquency
- Associated with increased involvement with delinquent peers
- Inconsistent/harsh discipline
- Reinforce aggression by modeling and not reinforcing positive behavior
What is the basis of Moffitt’s Developmental Taxonomy Theory?
- Life course persistent (15 years or younger): Most serious delinquent offenders and this is a pathway to persistent offending
- Adolescent limited (15+): Less serious, more likely to desist with age (little biological and environmental risk for these groups)
What does Moffitt posit about life-course persistent offenders?
Executive functioning deficits
- Important role in delinquency
- Verbal skill deficits
- Poor inhibitory control
What fraction of juveniles display executive functioning deficits? And what exacerbates this?
2/3: environment without a lot of resources to assist with improving upon deficits
What do delinquents score low on in neuropsychological testing? What can exacerbates this?
- Selective attention
- Ability to inhibit an innapropriate response
- Reading deficits/visual processing deficits
- Inattention to these issues or lack of resources to fix them: this creates a negative view of children just having a “bad” attitude
What diagnosis is strongly correlated with violent behavior and what do these symptoms look like?
ADHD
- Highly impulsive component
- Learning disability combines with disruptive behavior
What are the implications of negative parent-child interactions?
- Children more difficult to parent
- Negative interactions in school
- Supportive home environments buffer
- Goodness of fit between the parents and child: helping with parenting
What is Quinsey’s Taxonomy?
Life-course persistent offenders are divided into two groups: Associated with early neuropathology (1) and no neurodevelopmental pathology (2) (these are the beginnings of primary psychopathy individuals and can become high psychopathy if there is no intervention)
How does Quinsey’s theory differ from Moffitt’s?
Quinsey believed in subgroups of life course persistent offenders where genetics influenced the life strategy rather than pathology
What do Moffitt and Caspi assert about females?
- Life course persistence is rare in females
- Sex ratio of 10 males to 1 female
- Majority of girl delinquents are adolescent limited
- Subculture of more violent girls that could be gang related
What is Moffitt’s Theory for Girls?
- Same predictive individual and family risk factors for boys and girls
- Boys have increased risk of antisocial behavior
What is Moffitt’s Theory for Girls?
- Same predictive individual and family risk factors for boys and girls
- Boys have increased risk of antisocial behavior and legal intervention
What is the hypothesis for Caspi and colleagues (gene x environment) theory?
Does childhood maltreatment interact with MAOA genotype to predict antisocial behavior as it relates to childhood abuse history
What did Caspi and colleagues find?
Low activity of MAOA showed increased risk of antisocial behavior but only if they were abused as children
What does low activity genotype for MAOA mean?
Suggests disrupted serotonergic systems predispose individuals towards aggressive behavior by increasing impulsive tendencies to negative emotions
What does low MAOA activity mean for serotonin levels?
High serotonin levels in the blood
What relationships were shown between serotonin levels and violent behavior in men?
- High whole blood serotonin was characteristic of violent behavior
- Low brain levels of serotonin but high levels of blood serotonin are associated with behavior disorders
- This is due to the difference between the origins of brain and blood serotonin (environment, genes)
What does serotonin hypofunctioning mean as it relates to criminal behavior? What about dopamine hyperfunction?
- Predisposes individuals to impulsive, aggressive behavior
- Addictive tendencies
What do all three theories emphasize as mentioned by Beaver?
- They all are interactions
- Neuropsych functioning deficits linked to criminal behavior
- Self-control is associated with neuropsych functioning (General theory of crime)
- Low activity version MAOA linked to self-control and neuropsych deficits (Caspi) (reduced limbic volume, hypoactive hippocampus, and reduced activity in areas of prefrontal cortex)
What is the takeaway from Beaver’s study that looks at all three theories?
It’s complex set of interactions!
- There is still more research needed
- Low self control partially mediated by the neuropsych x MAOA interaction
Why would genetics be involved in crime?
- Brain functioning
- Intelligence
- Neurotransmitters
- Arousal levels
- Nature and nurture issues are complex (environmental and temperament (goodness of fit))
What did the adoptive mother study demonstrate?
- 18 months predicted callous or unemotional behaviors at 27 months
- Positive reinforcement by adoptive mothers protective against callous-unemotional behaviors and parents who used punitive parenting style was more predictive of callous behaviors
What are protective factors?
- Low stress family, SES, and neighborhoods
- Structured & nurturing family
- Few chronic stressful life events
- No emotional or temperamental impairments
- Highly intelligent
- Learning to do one thing really well
- One caring adult
What is Quinsey’s View on Primary Intervention?
-Enhance maternal health
-Decrease economic inequality
-Reduce family adversity
-Foster prosocial peer contacts
-Foster connection to school
-Early intervention
-Stop child abuse
What is Quinsey’s View on Primary Intervention?
-Enhance maternal health
-Decrease economic inequality
-Reduce family adversity
-Foster prosocial peer contacts
-Foster connection to school
-Early intervention
-Stop child abuse
What is Merton’s Strain Theory? What is the reason for these goals?
The discrepancy between common social goals and legitimate means to attain those goals. These goals are created via structural limits in society where the individual engages in deviant behavior to meet these needs. The social structure encourages crime.
What is the American Dream Theory?
- The commitment to the goal of material success
- Crime is an efficient way to make immediate monetary gain
- The pursuit of money “by any means necessary”
What is the differential association theory?
- Criminal behavior is learned in association with others especially when incarcerated
- Socioeconomic status is important because:
- More likely to live in a high crime area
- More likely to be exposed to learning
- Family stress makes it harder to control/socialize
What are subcultures of violence rooted in?
Honor
What is the social control theory?
The assumption that people will engage in delinquent behavior when their social bond to society is weakened (lack of social connections)
