Crim Psych Topic 1: What makes a criminal?

Question 1

Key Research - Raine et al

Answer 1

Aim:
- to look at direct measures of brain functioning using PET scans in a group of murderers who were pleading not guilty by reason of insanity

Sample:
- 41 criminals who had committed murder or manslaughter
- all referred for brain scanning to find evidence they were NGRI

Procedure:
- participants were injected with a radioactive glucose tracer which would show the level of activity in different regions of the brain
- participants then completed a continuous performance tasks which involved them indicating each time the number ‘zero’ appeared on a screen ; numbers visually degraded over time to require more effort of each participants pre frontal cortex

Results:
- compared with controls, NGRIs had: more activity in their occipital areas, no differences in their temporal
- NGRIs: less activity in the corpus callous
- lower glucose metabolism indicates a lack of activity

Question 2

Palmer and Hollin - moral development

Answer 2

• investigated whether young offenders differed in their moral development compared to non offenders
• compared criminals from young offenders institutes in West Midlands against age matched controls to see if they are different in their moral reasoning
• data was gathered by self report questionnaire. It asked about socioeconomic status and incorporated 2 psychometric measures
• the sociomoral reflection measure showed that the male offenders had the least mature moral reasoning and were at kohlnergs preconvential stage
• young male delinquents have more deficients in their moral reasoning

Question 3

Jahoda - Self fulfilling prophecy

Answer 3

• tribe in Ghana
• they believe that the day you are born on affects your personality
• their children are given a soul name based on the day they were born on
• boys born on a Wednesday are though to be more violent and aggressive while Monday boys are meant to be calm
• Jahoda examined the names of criminals who have committed violent offences over a 5 yr period
• kwadwo boys accounted for 6.9% of all offences
• kwaku boys accounted for 22% of all offences
• the boys are seated defensively = self fluffing prophecy

Question 4

Raine - Mauritius study

Answer 4

lower activity in the prefrontal cortex has been linked to lower resting heart rates, which is associated with aggression

in the Mauritius study, 100 3yr old children were matched with a control group and received a 3 point intervention.
1. nutrition - diet provided
2. physical exercise
3. cognitive stimulation

at age 11 - the group that received the intervention showed better concentration and had more mature brains

at age 17 - they showed insignificantly lower levels of conduct behaviour, less cruel to others

in a follow up study, Raine gave a further 100 children Omega 3 and a control group was not. Parents of those receiving omega 3 reported lower levels of delinquency, aggression and attention problems