Criminal Behaviours

Question 1

Brunner et al (1993)

Answer 1

Analysed DNA of 28 male members of dutch family with history of impulsive & violent criminal behaviour.
Found that men shared particular gene leading to low levels of MAOA.

Question 2

Raine (1993)

Answer 2

Reviewed research on delinquent behaviour of twins.
Found 52% genetic similarity in identical twins compared to 21% for non-identical twins.

Question 3

Tiihonen et al (2015)

Answer 3

Studied 900 offenders.
Found evidence of low MAOA activity and low activity from the CDH-13 gene.
They estimated 5-10% of violent crime in Finland is due to abnormalities in genes.

Question 4

Crowe (1972)

Answer 4

Found that adopted children who had a biological parent with a criminal record had a 38% greater risk of having a criminal record by the age of 18 whereas adopted children whose mother didn’t have a criminal record only had a 6% risk.

Question 5

Coccaro et al (2007)

Answer 5

Investigated the effects of the amygdala on aggression by studying people with intermittent explosive disorder (IED).
Participants with IED showed high levels of amygdala activity when shown angry faces .

Question 6

Dunlop et al (2012)

Answer 6

Extraversion and psychoticism as well as lie scales are good predictors of delinquency.

Question 7

Kohlberg (1969)

Answer 7

3 levels of moral reasoning each with 2 stages.

Question 8

Kennedy and Grubin (1992)

Answer 8

sex offenders accounts of their crimes often downplay their behaviour.

Question 9

Schonenberg and Justye (2014)

Answer 9

showed emotionally ambiguous faces to antisocial, violent offenders.
The offenders were likely to interpret any picture with an expression of anger as aggression.

Question 10

Sutherland (1939)

Answer 10

Proposed differential association theory.

Question 11

Eysenck (1967, 1978, 1982)

Answer 11

Theory of personality. Extraversion, psychoticism and neuroticism are indicators of criminals.
Suggested each trait has biological basis. 67% of variance in traits is due to genetic factors.

Question 12

Colby et al (1983)

Answer 12

10% of adults reach post-conventional level of reasoning, making the most common stage conventional.

Question 13

Osborn and West (1979)

Answer 13

where there’s a father with a criminal conviction, 40% of sons had committed a crime by 18. Compared to 13% of sons with non-criminal fathers.

Question 14

Newburn (2002)

Answer 14

40% of offences are committed by people under 21. Differential association theory fails to explain this.

Question 15

Cohen (1955)

Answer 15

More difficult for boys to imitate their role model as the father is typically away at work while the mother stays home.

Question 16

Pollak (1950)

Answer 16

men in the criminal justice system are more protective over women, so women are less likely to be arrested.

Question 17

Dabbs et al (1987)

Answer 17

9 out of 11 inmates with low testosterone levels had committed non-violent crimes whereas 10 out of 11 inmates with the highest testosterone levels had committed violent crimes.

Question 18

Taylor and Novaco (2006)

Answer 18

Reported a 75% success rate using anger management.

Question 19

UK restorative justice council (2015)

Answer 19

reports 85% satisfaction rate from victims in face to face meetings with their offenders.
Report a 37% re-offending rate.