Criminal Behaviour Flashcards
Define Crime
Crime is a criminal act that intentionally breaks the law
What can affect the definition of crime?
Damage - if the crime causes damage or harm to a person or their property
Time - Some things may have not been seen as a crime in the past
Culture - Some acts are legal in certain countries but illegal in other countries
How is crime measured?
Official crime levels are taken from the police
Why could crime measurements using crime levels not be accurate?
- Only the criminal acts are counted - not criminals themselves
- People may not be aware that they were a victim and therefore may not report a crime
why may people not want to report a crime to the police?
- Scared of consequences
- May seem petty
- Think police wont do anything
- Want to protect criminal
- They too may be a criminal and don’t want to be investigated
What survey could be used to measure crime?
The British Crime Survey asks people to declare crime. It shows that crime levels are much higher than in police records.
Why may the surveys be inaccurate?
People may lie
What is a criminal personality?
a personality that is atypical and is associated with crime related acts
What are the characteristics associated with having a criminal personality
- Impulsiveness
- Lack of guilt
- Pleasure seeking
- Over optimism
- high self importance
What is the core theory?
Biological theory - criminals are born - not made and is inherited from parents
Heritability - the amount of behaviour that is due to genetics
What theory do brain dysfunctions support?
They support the biological theory as genes may affect the way in which the brain works
What does the pre-frontal cortex do?
Connects anti-social behaviour and fear. Criminals may not fear the consequences of actions
What does the limbic system do?
Controls aggressive and sexual behaviour, and empathy. Over reaction in criminals who do not empathise with victims and cause criminals to be more aggressive
What does the Corpus Callosum do?
Links rational and irrational parts of the brain. In murderers, communication between both hemispheres of the brain are weak
What does the temporal lobe do?
Helps understand language and react to emotions. Less active in psychopaths
How do facial features support the biological theory
genes may affect a persons facial features. These include:
- high cheekbones
- glinting/glassy eyes
- lots of hair
What are criticisms of the biological theory?
- It ignores the role of upbringing. It could be learn and not inherited
- Not all criminals show brain dysfunctions
- cant be one gene that causes all the different types of crime
- Little evidence to support facial features theory
What is the alternative theory?
The social learning theory (learnt)
What does the alternative theory state?
We are more likely to observe and imitate those who are significant to use or are our role models (those who care for us, are in authority or are similar to us). If the behaviour is strengthened through some type of reward, we are more likely to repeat the behaviour
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Imitating someone to gain the same reward that they gain
What is the core study?
Mednick et al (1984)
What was the aim of the study?
Compare the rates of criminal activities in the biological and adoptive parents of adoptees
Who were the participants of the study?
14000 adopted danish men
What was the procedure of the study?
- the danish men were investigated between 1924 and 1947
- they looked at the convictions of the adoptees, biological parents, and adoptive parents
What were the results of the study?
- If biological parents were criminals, adoptees were 2x more likely to be criminals than if biological parents werent criminals
- If biological were criminals, adoptees were more iikely to be criminals, than if adoptive parents were criminals
- If both biological and adoptive parents were criminals, the adoptee was most likely to become a criminal themself
What was the conclusion of the study?
Genes play a large role in criminal behaviour, but environment has an effect too
What were some limitations of the study?
- the criminal records may not be reliable e.g some crimes may not have been caught
- Time spent with biological parents may have influenced behaviour
- Gender bias and ethnocentric
What are some applications of research into criminal behaviour?
Crime reduction:
- crime prevention (interventions through youth services, schools, and social services) They reinforce appropriate conduct
- Prisons are punishments and deterrents
- bans and restrictions limit what children can see and copy
- rehab (criminals are taught appropriate ‘pro-social’ behaviours)
- other programmes to teach basic skills like numeracy and literacy or specific courses for their needs
