criminal behaviour Flashcards
what is lombrossos theory about criminals
Lomborsso advocated that criminal behaviour is inherited and used the term “evolutionary retarded species” and said they could be recognised by their traits e.g. large ears, enormous jaws and fat lips.
what is sheldons theory about criminals
Sheldons theory about criminals
He said that you could recognise a criminal by their body type
1. Ectomorphs (thin self conscious)
2. Endomorphs (large, social living)
3. Mesomorphs (more likely to be criminals
Both Sheldon and Lombroso’s theory’s have been debunked however perhaps crime is biologically inherited Hollins (1992) suggested that some people inherit a biological predisposition (personality) to crime.
what is the first biological explanantion for criminal behaviour
- Inherited criminality
what twin research has been done for inherited criminality
Twin research- one research into inherited crimininalty is twin research, the two types of twin are monozygotic (same genes identical) and dizygotic (50% genes shared)
Rononoff et al studied 97 twin pairs to find cocordance rates(probability that two people share the same gene for a disease) of 67% mono and 13% dizygotic. This tells us that if biology and crime are linked with genes then if both identical twin share a “criminal gene” then they should both be criminals.
what is research for challenging twin research
Challenging twin research- early twin research was flawed by small samples and poor methods into determining cocordance zygosity (the extent to which genes are similar) now research has been done with more extensive data and cocoradance rates have been found lower 35%-13% (Christiansen)
what family study did osbourne and west do
FAMILY STUDY- Osbourne and west- family study to SUPPORT inherited criminality. Compared sons of criminal fathers and non criminal fathers. They found 40% of sons with criminal fathers had criminal convictions
what adoption study did mednick et al do
mednick et al- studied 14,000 adoptees and found that if a child had both adopted and biological parents with criminal records 24.5% of the sons had a criminal record. If they only had one parent with a criminal record then only 14%-20% of sons had a criminal record.
what are the adv and disav to twin studies
advantages- Later on there has been more extensive research (Christiansen)
Fertility treatment = more research
Naturally occurring variable =reduced risk of researcher bias
disadvantages- Generalisability
Not representiive as only 1.5% of births are twins
Ethics-draw more attention to twins
Cofounding variables-ignores social factors e,g twins having different friendship groups
what are adv and disadvantges to adoption studies
adv
Tell us whether good parenting can correct bad genes
disad
Extraneous varuables- why have they been adopted.
Time consuming and need large sample
Traumatic experience don’t leave child
Ethics-consent
what did caspi et al study
Caspi et al- aim: to determine whether there is a genetic explanation as to why maltreated children develop anti social behaviour
Ppts: 442 new Zealand males, 20 years longidinal study, birth-adulthood
He focused on 154 ppts that were abused and 33 who were severely abused. He found that they lower levels of the MAOA gene which can cause high levels of aggression and anti social behaviour. They could have inherited this gene and this supports the biological explanation for inherited criminality. The toxic combination is malnutreated MAOA gene and the maltreated children (nature +nurture)
what is the second biological explanation for criminal behaviour
amygdala
What is the amygdala? almond shape structure, located near the hippocampus, essential for feeling emotion, in brain surgery the surgeons stimulate the amygdala, it also modulates all of our reactions to events that are significant
what are the two types of agression
2 types of aggression:
- Proactive aggression: a deliberate attack on a victim with lack of guilt and remorse
- Reactive aggression: impulsive response under conditions of stress and anger enraged attacks followed by guilt
what did mckloskey study about the amygdala
studied a link between IED (Intermittent explosive disorder) and the amygdala. he used 20 healthy ppts and 20 unmendicated IED patients.
They all underwent brain scans while observing pictures of faces with various emotions to observe how the amygdala responded
Finding- he found that ppts with IED responsed with greater reaction on the left side of the brain in response to the angry faces.
THIS SUGGESTS- the amygdala is sending messages to the person with IED to sense fear and feel threatened and therefore respond with fight mode
what is the charles whitman case
Charles Whitman support the amygdala explanation-
• 1966, Charles suffered severe headaches
• He was discharged from hospital
• One week later killed mother and left apology note
• Stabbed wife and left note
• August 1st 1966- Texas town sniper
• Postpartum- autopsy foun d a tumour pressing on his amygdala possibly influencing his actions however they didn’t want this to be an excuse
what are the adv and disad of the amygdala explanation
Advantages of the amygdala explanation- helps us develop more scientific evidence about the brain and also look into previous criminal cases for an explination e.g Charles Whitman
Disadvantages of amygdala explanation- may give criminals an excuse for their behaviour and reduce them from getting help
what are the issues overall with the biological explanation for criminal behaviour
Overall issues with the biological explanation as an explanation for criminality
- Reductionist- ignores social factors and individual differences, hollistic views such as inherited criminality and the role of the amygdala
- Supports diathesis stress model by looking at the nature and nurture (Caspi et al)
- Psychology as a science. (makes us look more at scientific things))
what is the first individual difference explanation for criminal behaviour
Individual difference explanation for criminal behaviour 1) personality
Personality refers to long standing traits and patterns that makes individuals think feel and act in specific ways
In addition to innate personality traits, eyesneck advocated that environmental interaction is key. He argues that people with who have a high score on extraversion and neuroticism have a higher likelihood of becoming criminals due to failure to socialize and having not learnt via operant conditioning to be law abiding citizens. Instead they have learnt this sort of conditioning
how does operant conditioning link to criminal behaviour
Positive reinforcement- Burgerly and gaining satisfaction from peers
negetive reinforcement- Stealing- avoiding spending money (avoidance)
punishment- (removal) socialised wrong, fail to be punished (not going to prison) meaning behaviour continues.
what did dunlop et al study about criminal behaviour
Dunlop et al- an Australian study on 15-75 year olds used self and peer reports of personality and found that extraversion and psychotism were unique predictors of delinquency.
Evaluation of study: socially desirable answers as self report method, Australia compared to other countries (generalisation) and ppts were students and friends.. demand characteristics??
what is the evaluation of personality as an explanation for criminal behaviour
Evaluation of personality as an explanation for criminal behaviour
- Personality may not be consistent (mishel) argues that apparent consisitency in peoples behaviour is an illusion that arises from the fact we typically observe people in similar situations
- They use of psychometric tests- personality tests are a form of self report which can trigger demand characteristics. Eyesneck test tells us rapist and child abusers are extravert, neurotic and psychotic but they do not tell us why they do this? What application does It have?
This explanation claims criminals have a particular personality type and that criminals and non criminals differ on certain aspects and dimensions of personality. It suggests that personality is biologically based and personality traits can be measured and quantified using question aires or psychometric tests. In his original model it suggest that personality is the combo of two dimensions E vs I and N vs S.
what is the second individual explanation for criminal behaviour
cognitive bias
Cognition is offered as a other individual difference for criminal behaviour. “cognition” refers to the mental process that determines actions, feelings and beliefs. The assumption here is that criminals think and process information in a different way to law abiding citizens. Cognitive distortions could play a part in criminal behaviour.
Input —- process (thinking e.g here criminals may have faulty thinking)—- output (behaviour)
Criminals may be at stage 1 of kohlbergs stages of moral reasoning e.g they have only developed to a low stage where they understand right and wrong is learnt through reward and punishment or at most stage 2 where they seek approval from others and avoidance of blame.
what are some cognitive distortions
1- Errors in attribution- the fundamental attribution error is where people under estimate situational influences and overestimate individual personality factors when explaining the behaviour of others. This can be in situational attributions where we observe a person in a situation or an dispositional attribution where it is something within the person we observe e.g personality.
we often credit our own behaviour for it being out personality yet if its bad we blame the circumstance. Hostile attribution bias (HAB) is where an individual wrongly interprets the actions of others as unfriendly e.g. misreading someone’s actions. Someone with high HAB is more likely to read someones actions as directly attacking them.
2- Minimalization is where an individual minimises or plays down the severity of a situation. It can be seen as denial or self deception and downplaying highlights non acceptance and is perhaps a way in which dealing with emotional guilt. Do criminals experience this? Kennedy and Grubin interviewed convicted sex offenders and found that the majority tended to blame victim and 25% believed that the abuse was a positive thing, thereby Lessing their involvement.
3- Impaired theory of the mind (TOM)- tom is an important social cognitive skill which is the ability to think about mental states including emotions, desires, and knowledge and others. TOM also refer to the ability to understand the thoughts and beliefs of others. If a person doesn’t have TOM they cannot empathise or have any ability to sympathise with someone or understand how their actions might make them feel (spenser et al)
4- Cognitive deficits- someone who is a criminal may lack the following cognitives- self control (have more impulsive behaviour) cognitive style (lacking empathy) and values (poor moral reasoning skills)
what are for and against for cognitive explanation for criminal behavior
For cognitive bias as an explanation: Kohlberg research (longitudinal, semi structured, range of ages and races)
Against cognitive bias as explanation: Kohlberg gender bias? Dodd (2016) andro and ethnocentric
what is the first social explanation for criminal behaviour
1)differential associations theory (contact with criminals over non criminals)
DAT suggests that the way in which a person becomes an offender is through learned attitudes and imitation of criminal acts. Through interactions with other people, individuals learn the values attitudes and techniques as well as motives for criminal behaviour through social learning. The theory is described as differential asscociation as CB can be learned from many different avenues of social interactions and experiences e.g family peers and the media.
