Crime topic 1 = What makes a criminal? Flashcards
What does this theme aim to investigate?
The characteristics that contribute to becoming a criminal (delinquent behaviour, lack of empathy, impulsiveness etc)
Key research
Raine
What type of research method did Raine use?
Experiment
What was the aim of Raine?
Investigate whether participants who were charged with murder but plead not guilty by reason of insanity would show significant dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and corpus callosum compared to control
What type of scan was used in Raine’s study?
PET scan
Independent variable in Raine’s study
Whether participant was charged with murder and plead not guilty by reason of insanity (murderers) or not (controls)
What was the dependent variable in Raine’s study and how was it operationalised?
Activity in the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and corpus callosum in the brain by brain metabolism using a radioactive glucose tracer
Sample of murderers in Raine’s study
41 murderers
What type of experiment was Raine?
Quasi, naturally occurring independent variable being whether participant plead guilty by reason of insanity or not
Control group in Raine’s study
Participants who were matched on age, gender and disorder and not murderers
Experimental design of Raine
Matched participants design because the control group was matched to murders based on age, gender and disorder possessed
What factors was the control group matched to in the murders group?
Age
Gender
Disorders: schizophrenia, brain damage, epilepsy
List of controls in Raine’s study
For individual differences: using matched participants design, control group was matched to murderers on age, gender, disorder
Participants were monitored 2 weeks prior unmediated to ensure no effect of drugs
Completed same task for 32 minute period
Started the scan AFTER the task began so novelty of task isn’t shown on the scan
What were participants in Raine’s study injected with before the procedure?
A glucose tracer to measure brain activity in certain areas of the brain
What cognitive task was given to participants in Raine’s study?
A continuous performance task
Continuous performance task - Raine
Indicate every time a 0 appeared on screen from a list of numbers that visually degraded each time: requires more effort
How long did participants complete the continuous performance task?
32 minutes
What did Raine find about the prefrontal cortex?
Murderers have reduced activity compared to control group
Less activity in prefrontal cortex means….. (Raine)
More impulsive, loss of self control, immaturity
What did Raine find about the amygdala?
More activity in right side of amygdala and less activity in left side
What do dysfunctions in amygdala suggest (Raine)?
Amygdala involved in emotional responses so dysfunction = lack of fear
What did Raine find about the corpus callosum?
Less activity in murderers compared to control group
Less activity in the corpus callosum means…. (Raine)
Inability to see long term implications of situation
Concurrent validity of Raine’s study
Inability to see long term implications of situation due to lowers activity in corpus callosum for murderers was accurate because supported by evidence in Sperry’s study
Conclusion of Raine’s findings
Dysfunctions in prefrontal cortex, amygdala and corpus callosum contribute to behaviour increasing likelihood of criminal behaviour due to findings that murders had significant deficits compared to control
Conclusions Raine made about the limitations of his study
Violence cannot be explained by biology alone such as deficits in the brain, evidence of neuroplasticity could mean environment affects physiology of brain causing it to change?
NGRI are still responsible for actions
Biological differences can’t be generalised to whole population eg non violent offenders who have these differences can’t be seen as violent
Key research
Palmer and Hollin - moral development
Jahoda - self fulfilling prophecy of Ashanti names
Raine Mauritius study on intervention programme + omega 3
Correlation between Smoking in pregnancy and testosterone and violence
Palmer and Hollin sample
126 young male offenders from a young offender institution
332 non offenders as control group for average population (male + female)
Research method of Palmer and Hollin
Self report: questionnaire given to participants
What was in Palmer and Hollin’s questionnaire ?
Qs about socioeconomic status
Socio moral reflection measure (questions about moral reasoning)
Delinquency checklist (levels of criminal activity)
Why include a checklist of delinquent activity in Palmer and Hollin’s survey?
To increase validity of study that offenders have more delinquency than control
Control for delinquency of control group
Results of Palmer and Hollins study
Most male offenders have lower levels of moral reasoning compared to control group, tends to be preconventional level compared to conventional level
Shows criminals have deficits in moral reasoning
Which was the Palmer and Hollin study?
Moral development questionnaire one
Which was Jahodas study?
Self fulfilling prophecy of effect of Ashanti names on criminal activity
What is a self fulfilling prophecy?
Expectations a group has about someone becomes reality
Because the way the group acts towards this person (due to expectation) elicits behaviour to confirm these expectations
Ashanti naming system background
Boys named after day lf week they were born which is expected to illustrate their character (astrology eg)
Monday = more calm
Wednesday = more aggressive
