Criminal Behaviours - The Characteristics Of The Behaviour

Question 1

What are the 2 components to describe

Answer 1

• types of crime
• normality of criminal behaviour

Question 2

Describe types of crime

Answer 2

There is 7 types of crime according to Kathryn Farr and Don Gibbons (1990s)
- Property predatory crime
- Property fraudulent crime
- Interpersonal violence general
- Interpersonal violence sexual
- Transactional vice
- Order disruption
- Folk/mundane crime

• The Office of National Statistics (ONS) collected and published information about the different types and amount of criminal behaviour in the UK. It currently categorises criminal behaviours into 2 ‘primary offence groups’:
  1) Victim-based crimes (Murder, violence, etc…)
  2) Crimes against society (public order offences, drug offences, possession of weapons, etc…)

Question 3

What is Property predatory crime

Answer 3

Where people are involved in attempting to or taking the personal property of others without their permission e.g. burglary, robbery, car theft.

Question 4

What is Property fraudulent crime

Answer 4

Persons are involved in deceit or manipulation with the purpose of converting property or services of others to their own use e.g. Embezzlement, fraud and bribery

Question 5

What is Interpersonal violence general

Answer 5

Persons are involved in actions that threaten or cause actual person harm e.g. murder, assault and kidnapping

Question 6

What is Interpersonal violence sexual

Answer 6

Persons are involved in actions that threaten or cause actual person harm and contain a sexual element e.g. rape, sexual abuse and incest

Question 7

What is Transactional vice

Answer 7

Persons are involved in ‘victimless’ offences where there is a willing exchange of goods or services e.g. prostitution, illegal gambling and drug sales

Question 8

What is Order disruption

Answer 8

Persons are involved in actions where there is no direct victim, e.g. resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, loitering and rioting.

Question 9

What is Folk/mundane crime

Answer 9

• a broad category whereby persons are involved in actions that can range from minor rule violations, e.g. fishing without a licence, to more serious violations, e.g. load regulations on commercial vehicles.
• Although much legislation is justified in terms of creating order or efficiency, folk/mundane criminal acts tend to foster public ambivalence and the public generally regards such acts as inconvenience or nuisance, rather than a crime.

Question 10

Describe normality of criminal behaviour

Answer 10

• Research by John Muncie and Eugene McLaughlin (1996) suggests that although most people consider themselves to be ‘law abiding citizens’, if the average person in the UK were convicted for their crimes, they would have spent a total of 6 years in jail and been fined up to £61,000.
  Therefore psychologists have to consider:
  1) who is a criminal
  2) is criminal behaviour always wrong
  3) what problems are generated for research

Question 11

Describe who is a criminal, in relation to the normality of criminal behaviour

Answer 11

Defined by time and culture
1) Acts deemed criminal vary historically
- For instance, homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967 but is not criminalized today.
- In contrast, 17th-century Britain punished minor thefts with hanging.
2) Cultural Differences
- What constitutes a crime differs across cultures
- For example, while homosexuality isn’t explicitly criminalized in Egypt, individuals have been charged with “debauchery” for LGBTQ+ expressions.
—> This means that research is often limited to those who have been caught, charged, and punished, potentially excluding “successful” criminals who evade detection

Question 12

Describe if criminal behaviour always wrong, In relation to normalisation of criminality

Answer 12

• There are occasions when criminal behaviour is actually morally right.
• Sometimes people break the law and demonstrate criminal behaviour in order to highlight a problem with the law, the unjust actions of a particular individual or group, or prevailing social norms of society in general.
• Consider Nelson Mandela, who was punished for his behaviour. He was arrested and convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the state, but then later was awarded with the nobel peace prize and later became president of south africa. His behaviour was criminal, but it was the right thing to do.

Question 13

Describe the problems for research in relation to the normalisation of criminality

Answer 13

• The problem is that when we’re trying to research criminal behaviours, we’re not trying to explain all types of criminal behaviour at the same time.
• For example, someone can be a criminal because they’ve committed a really violent act against someone and someone can be a criminal because they’re done a protest.
• When we compare the two, they are different types of crime.
• Therefore we need to focus on certain types of crime individually to find out what is actually going on.

Question 14

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Answer 14

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