Chapters 3-5 Flashcards
The idea that criminals are a throwback to a more primitive stage of development.
atavistic beings
The most common neurobehavioral childhood disorder, which is characterized by the following symptoms: inattention and hyperactivity that cause difficulty in school, poor relationships with family and peers, and low self-esteem.
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Theories that frame delinquency as the outcome of rational thought.
choice theories
A school of thought that blames delinquency on the choices people make.
classical school
A prison sentence of a fixed amount of time, such as 5 years.
determinate sentence
Fraternal twins who develop from two eggs fertilized at the same time.
dizygotic twins (DZ)
A branch of psychology that examines the ways that evolutionary forces shape patterns of human cognition and behavior.
evolutionary psychology
The idea that people can and do choose one course of action over another.
free will
A person’s genetic composition.
genotype
A prison sentence of varying time length, such as 5-10 years.
indeterminate sentence
The idea that criminal law must reflect differences among people and these circumstaances.
individual justice
The ability to learn, exercise judgement, and be imaginative.
intelligence
A person’s intelligence quotient, defined as the ratio of one’s mental age multiplied by 100 and divided by one’s chronological age.
IQ score
A corrections philosophy that promotes flat or fixed-time sentences, abolishment of parole, and use of prison to punish offenders.
justice model
Factors that may be responsible for an individual’s behavior, such as age, insanity, and incompetence.
mitigating circumstances
Identical twins who develop from one fertilized egg. MZ twins have identical DNA.
monozygotic twins (MZ)
A school of thought that considers mitigating circumstances when determining culpability for delinquency.
neoclassical school
A school of thought that blames delinquency on factors that are in place before a crime is committed.
positive school
Theory suggesting that delinquents are rational people who make calculated choices regarding what they are going to do before they act.
rational choice theory
A punishment philosophy based on society’s moral outrage or disapproval of a crime.
retribution
Theory arguing that motivated offenders, suitable targets, and absence of capable guardians produce delinquency.
routine activities theory
The idea that criminals can be identified by physical appearance.
somatotype
Distinctive physical features of born criminals.
stigmata
An integrated set of ideas that explains and predicts a phenomenon.
theory
A set of ideas that assume behavior is calculated and that people gather and make sense of information before they act.
utilitarian principles
The idea that offenders must be punished to protect society.
utilitarian punishment model
A set of characteristics that describe a person’s deviant beliefs, deviant ways of thinking, deviant motivations, and antisocial behaviors.
antisocial personality
Theory suggesting that behavior reflects our interactions with others throughout our lifetime.
behavioral theory
The co-occurrence of two or more disorders.
comorbidity
A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated.
conduct disorder (CD)
Aggression that is typically physical and overt; it includes behaviors such as hitting, kicking, punching, and biting.
direct aggression
A condition in which the primary motivation of thought and behavior is related to satisfying one’s self-interest.
egocentric bias
Relating to the cause of a behavior.
etiological
The major model of personality, in which the determinants of personality include neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
Five Factor Model of Personality
Aggression that is usually verbal and covert; it includes actions such as gossiping and ostracism.
indirect aggression
An individual’s tendency to use mechanisms conducive to a selective disengagement from moral censure.
moral disengagement
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of development where children think rigidly about moral concepts and believe that people who break rules must be punished.
morality of constraint
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of development where children employ greater moral flexibility and learn that there are no absolute moral standards about behavior.
morality of cooperation
A condition in which a child has an unconscious desire for the exclusive love of the parent of the opposite sex, which includes jealousy toward the parent of the same sex and the unconscious wish for that parent’s death.
Oedipus complex
A clinical disorder characterized by a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior.
oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)
The set of characteristics that describe a person’s beliefs, ways of thinking, motivations, and behaviors.
personality
Aggression that includes a premeditated means of obtaining some instrumental goal in addition to harming the victim.
proactive aggression
A precursor of early symptoms; a warning sign of another disease or disorder
prodrome
Theory stating that unconscious mental processes that develop in early childhood control an individual’s personality.
psychodynamic theory