Crime topic 1

Question 1

What was the sample of Raine’s Mauritius study?

Answer 1

100 of 1795 child participants with low resting heart rate - compaired with a matched control group

Question 2

What was the procedure of Raine’s Mauritius study?

Answer 2

Children received a three part intervention programme of enrichment and were tested on various things before and after:
1. Nutrition - milk, fruit juice and a hot meal a day of fish or chicken or mutton
2. Physical exercise - afternoon sessions of gym, structured games and free play
3. Cognitive stimulation - the children went to two specially constructed nursery schools the provided a multimodel curriculum aimed at cognitive stimulation based on toys

Question 3

What were the results at age 11 of Raine’s Mauritius study?

Answer 3

The children could focus their attention better than controls
They had more mature brains and the level of arousal in their brains had increased

Question 4

What were the results at age 17 of Raine’s Mauritius study?

Answer 4

They children scored 52.6% lower on conduct disorder ratings than controls
They were less cruel to others, less likely to pick fights, not so hot tempered and less likely to bully other children.

Question 5

What was the aim of Palmer and Hollins’s study of moral development?

Answer 5

Wanted to find out if moral development really does indicate criminal behaviour

Question 6

What was the sample of Palmer and Hollin’s study?

Answer 6

Offenders - 126 lames aged 13-21 obtained thoughts offenders institute and magistrates count - mainly committed burglary and theft.
Non- Offenders - 332 mixed gender, aged 12-22 from schools and university in the west midlands

Question 7

What was the procedure of Palmer and Hollin’s study?

Answer 7

All participants completed a questionnaire. The socio-moral reflection measure (11 questions) that measures their moral reasoning.

Question 8

What were the results of Palmer and Hollin’s study

Answer 8

Offenders worked at the pre-conventional level of moral development
Non-offenders worked at the conventional level of moral development

Question 9

Who were the people involved in Jahoda’s study and why were they used?

Answer 9

The Ashanti tribe of Ghana who believed that the day you are born affected your personality - their children are given a soul name based on the day they were born.

Question 10

What were the Monday boys and Wednesday boys’ characteristics?

Answer 10

The Monday boys (kwadwo) are thought to be placid and relaxed, whereas Wednesday boys are believed to be violent and aggressive

Question 11

What were the results of Jahoda’s study?

Answer 11

Kwadwo (monday) boys accounted for 6.9% of offences
Kwake (wednesday) boys accounted for 22% of offenders

Question 12

What did Jahoda actually do?

Answer 12

He examined the names of criminals who had committed violent affects recorded in court

Question 13

What were the conclusions of Jahoda’s study?

Answer 13

As everyone knew what day of the week a person was born on, they would be treated differently.
With everyone expecting Wednesday boys to be violent and aggressive, they simply lined up to people’s expectations
So the expectations that other people have of us, can make a person criminal through a self fulfilling prophecy.

Question 14

How can smoking during pregnancy affect testosterone?

Answer 14

It results on higher pre-natal- testosterone exposure to the foetus that leaves its mark on finger length - mothers who smoke have higher testosterone levels, and this can in turn reduce Oestrogen expose, resulting in higher foetal testosterone levels.

Question 15

What was the procedure of Raine’s NGRI study?

Answer 15

Each participant injected with a glucose tracer
Each participant was then monitored for a 32-minute period while they completed a continuous performance task. After the 32 minutes, each participant was then given a PET scan.

Question 16

What was the Continuous performance task of Raine’s NGRI study?

Answer 16

Participants indicated each time the number ‘zero’ appeared on a screen; the numbers visually degraded over time to require more effort of each participant’s

Question 17

What were the Controls of Raine’s NGRI study?

Answer 17

each person was compared against someone of the same age or gender as them, but who was not accused of everything. The six murderers with schizophrenia were further matched with six schizophrenic controls.

Question 18

What was the sample of of Raine’s NGRI study?

Answer 18

41 people charged with either murder or manslaughter.
39 men and 2 women - mean age of 34.3 years - all pleading NGRI
They all had various conditions including head injury or organic brain damage (23), Schizophrenic (6) or epilepsy (2)

Question 19

What were the results of Raine’s NGRI study?

Answer 19

reduced activity in pre-frontal cortex
Less activity in left side and more activity in right side of amygdala
Reduced activity in corpus callosum

Question 20

What does reduced activity in the pre frontal cortex mean?

Answer 20

Could result in impulsivity, loss of self control, immaturity, altered emotionality and an inability to modify behaviour

Question 21

What does reduced activity in the corpus callosum mean?

Answer 21

Suggests an inability to grasp the long term consequences, as had been seen in split brain patients (sperry)

Question 22

What does the distribution of activity in the amygdala suggest?

Answer 22

As the amygdala is involved in our emotional responses, this could suggests that the NGRI’s may have experienced a lack of fear.

Question 23

Outline the conclusions of Raine’s NGRI study?

Answer 23

It is possible that these differences in Brain metabolism could make a person more likely to be violent
However, Raine was at pains to emphasise the limitations of his own study.
He said the results cannot be taken to indicate that violence is determined by biology alone and don’t show that the NGRIs are not responsible for their actions, and they can’t be generalised to other non violent offenders