Cognitive explanations of offending behaviour Flashcards
What did Kohlberg propose?
moral reasoning to criminal behaviour - higher the stage the more sophisticated the reasoning
What did Kohlberg find using his moral dilemma technique?
a group of violent youths were significantly lower in their moral development than non-violent youths, even after control for social background
What are criminal/non-criminals likely to be classified as?
criminals - pre-conventional
non-criminals - conventional & beyond
What is the pre-conventional level characterised as?
a need to avoid punishment and receive rewards
What are cognitive distortions?
errors/biases in people’s information processing system characterised by faulty thinking
What does evidence suggest?
that people who commit violent acts are associated with a tendency to misinterpret the actions of other people
What did Schonenburg present?(offenders images)
55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions
What did Schonenburg find?(images offenders)
when they were compared to a control group, the violent group perceived the images more as being hostile
What did Dodge and Frame show children?
a video clip of an ambiguous provocation
What is minimisation?
attempt to downplay the seriousness of the crime or deny the offence
What did Barqabee find?(among rapists)
among 26 rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence at all and a further 40% minimised the harm they caused to their victim
What did Pollock report?(molesters)
that 35% of a sample of child molesters argued that the crime they committed was non-sexual and they were just being affectionate
