cognitive explanations of crime Flashcards
What is Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning
Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning is a cognitive explanation for offending, based on people’s responses to a series of moral dilemmas, such as the Heinz dilemma. Kohlberg developed a stage theory based on this research, suggesting that each stage represents a more advanced form of moral understanding.
how does Kohlberg’s theory relate to criminality
Criminals are more likely to be classified at the pre-conventional level, whereas non-criminals have generally progressed to the conventional level and beyond, where they accept the rules of society not because they are forced to but because they agree it is the moral thing to do. The pre-conventional level is characterised by a need to avoid punishment and gain rewards, and is associated with less mature, childlike reasoning. Thus, adults and adolescents who reason at this level may commit crime if they can get away with it or gain rewards in the form of money, increased respect etc.
This is supported by studies which suggest that offenders are often more egocentric (self-centred) and display poorer social perspective-taking skills (ability to appreciate a social situation from the perspective of others) than non-offender peers. Individuals who reason at higher levels tend to exhibit more honesty, generosity and non-violence.
Kohlberg’s theory evaluation
P – There is research evidence to challenge Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning.
E – For example, Langdon (2010) has suggested that intelligence is a better predictor of criminality than moral reasoning. Groups of people with very low intelligence are actually less likely to commit crime, despite the fact that they show lower levels of moral reasoning.
E – This challenges Kohlberg’s theory as Kohlberg would suggest that they should be more likely to commit crime as they are in the preconventional stage.
Type of offence
P - One limitation is that the level of moral reasoning may depend on the offence.
E - Thornton and R.L Reid found that people who committed crimes for financial gain, such as robbery, were more likely to show pre-conventional moral reasoning than those convicted of impulsive crimes like assault. Pre-conventional moral reasoning tends to be associated with crimes in which offenders believe they have a good chance of evading punishment.
E - This suggests that Kohlberg’s theory may not apply to all forms of crime.
P - One limitation of Kohlberg’s theory is that it is based on gender biased research.
E - The research of which the theory is based on only used male participants, generalising their results to females, ignoring differences between the genders, a clear example of beta bias. When Kohlberg tested women, he found that they were less morally developed than men, exaggerating differences between men and woman, portraying one gender as better than the other as men are apparently more morally developed, a clear example of alpha bias.
E - This is a limitation as it shows how this theory cannot be applied to all members of the population and therefore lacks validity when being generalised to females
what are cognitive distortions
Cognitive distortions are errors or biases in people’s information processing system characterised by faulty thinking. Two examples of cognitive distortions are hostile attribution bias and minimalization.
what are the two cognitive distortions
minimalisation - a type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an offence where the offender does not accept the reality of the situation and is used when dealing with feelings of guilt
hostile attribution bias - a tendency to judge ambiguous situations or the actions of others as aggressive and/or threatening when in reality they may not be
Evaluation of Cog distortions
P - A strength of the theory of cognitive distortions for offending behaviour is that there is evidence to support it.
E - For example, Barbaree (1991) found among 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence at all and a further 40% minimised the harm they had caused to the victim, as well as other studies suggesting that individuals who commit sexual offences are prone to minimalisation.
E - This is a strength of the theory as it agrees with the aspect of minimisation as offenders do not accept the reality of the situation when dealing with feelings of guilt and therefore downplay the significance of an offence.
P - Limitation = can describe and acknowledge a criminal mind but cannot explain how it became criminal in the first place
E - For example, biological explanations such as genetic and neural explanations may be more beneficial in explaining criminality. For example, it has been found that there are certain genes linked to criminality such as the MAOA gene which has been found to be associated with increased levels of aggression and is a gene that many offenders possess. Furthermore, Raine examined many studies on the antisocial personality disorder brain, a disorder many criminals possess and demonstrated that individuals with antisocial personalities have reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that regulates emotional behaviour.
E - This suggests that cognitive distortions alone do not provide a complete explanation for offending behaviour and therefore it is a reductionist approach as it does not consider all of these factors.
P- A strength of the theory of cognitive distortions for offending behaviour is that there is evidence to support it.
E - For example, Schonenberg (2014) presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions. When compared with a control group, the violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile.
E - This supports the theory of hostile attribution bias, a tendency to misinterpret the actions of others, seeing them as hostile or confrontational when they are not.
