Criminal Psychology Flashcards
How could brain injury explain crime and anti social behaviour?
TBI can be caused by factors like car accident, fall or in criminal activity also
alcohol abuse on central nervous system = reduction of B1 vitamin due to alcohol on can lead to brain injury as it acts as nutrient for brain tissue
Frontal lobe damage affects decision making and impulse control causing outbursts of behaviour
Damage to limbic system explains high recidivism rates,
damage to hippocampus explains repeat offences as memory of criminal event stored diff
Damage to hypothalamus could affect control of rage and pleasure explaining torturers as brain can’t process appropriate info
3 strengths of brain injury
Raine- high glucose metabolism in pre frontal cortex and parietal lobe showing brain dysfunction links to muderer
Sweet, reported on Charles Whitman who shot up texas uni killing 17, autopsy found tumour in limbic area of brain supporting damage can cause violence
Williams found 60% of young adult males in prison have some form of brain injury supporting brain injury as explanation
3 weaknesses of brain injury
Polman, playing violent video games had bigger influence on aggression levels of males than watching TV violence, not brain injury but observation and imitation
Eysenck, criminal score more on PEN personality than non criminals showing personality has role in criminality
Ignores Indic differences like societal factors and not everyone with TBI does crime, not complete exp of crime
What does the amygdala and aggression have to do with crime?
Amygdala processes info from senses and determines emotional responses, if damaged can cause outburst of aggression.
Also controls moral reasoning affecting persons response to fear and social interaction=crime
Damage to right amygdala=deficit in decision making and appropriate social behaviour in men, also involved in impulse and reacts quicker than ledt to fear stimuli explaining anti social beh
In small amygdala’s more likely to trigger fight or flight making less good judgments=crime
3 strenghrs of amygdala explanation
Raine- asymmetrical glucose metabolism amygdala and more activity in right than lefts showing amygdala linked to mudering
Pardini, people with small amygdala 3x more likely to exhibit aggression, violence and psychopathy than larger amygdala ppl showing it has role in crime
Reductionist as simply focuses on amygdala as cause for crime allowing us to predict who will be criminal based on amygdala size or damage
What is XXY syndrome?
Occurs in 1:1000 male births through random mutation and not inherited, often referred to 47XXY as they likley to have extra chromosome
Males with extra Y chromosomes more likely to be in trouble with police
Compared to siblings often taller, delayed speech and language, motor skills and sensitivity to ADHD, more like to act impulsive
Intelligence usually in normal range but often IQ 10-15 lower than siblings
What are 2 strengths of XXY
Jacob, XXY males overrepresented in prisons (1 in 15 compared to 1 in 1000) so XXY may have role in crime
Reductionist as simply focuses on genetics as cause of crime so predict who will be criminal
What are 3 critisms of XXY
Stocholm, risk of conviction moderately higher for XXY but if socioeconomic factors controlled for crime is similar to control sample expect for few crimes like sexual abuse or arson- more to do with upbringing
Raine, lower glucose in pre frontal of NGRI than control, brain malfunction not genetics
Polman, violent video games bigger influence on aggression then watching TV, observation and imitation
What did Eysenck say about personality?
Personality determined by individuals biological constitution and therefore their genes
He did a test known as eysenck personally personality inventory
Ppl with high extraversion, neuritis and psychoticism=crime
What are Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism
- Extraversion: high need for excitement, impulsive, optimistic and loser temper.
RAS inhibits incoming sensations resulting in need for stimulation, may engage in exciting crime like joyriding - Nueroticism: nervous, jumpy, anxious, difficult to cope with stress, and surly upset by others and tend to overact
It is controlled by autonomic nervous system (ANS) which releases hormones like adrenaline making u jump so more ANS more nueroticism - Psychoticism: egocentric, impulsive; cold, lacking in empathy, uncooperative and hostile
Linked to levels or testosterone which support fact more males than females in crime due
What 3 strengths of Eysenck personality
Eysenck found criminals score higher on PEN scales than non criminals. Also higher E and P in violent/property offenders but less N so can be used to predict criminal behaviour
Boduszek, high levels of E were good predictor of probaltiy of repeat offenders commuting violent acts when released from prison so could use to predict
Reductionist so can also predict who will be criminal and specific crimes like joyriding so useful
What 3 weakness of Eysenck personality
Polman, higher aggression in males playing violet video games than watching violent TV so it observation and imitation
Raine, higher glucose metabolism in pre frontal cortex of NGRI murderer than control so malnfucion of brain
Barton conpared PEN scores of maximum security images who matched on ethnicity age and socioeconomic background and found they less extroverted than control so personality may not explain crime
What does self fufilling prophecy of crime explanation state?
Explains why people become offender as it made before they commit crime
An expectation is made by society of someone’s current behaviour based on past events.
So the person will reoffender due to living up to what is expected of them by others in society. ‘Once a thief always a thief’.
Uses current info about the behaviour of an offender to predict their potential future
Once crime commited, people treat offender differently making them adopt criminal characteristics as party of normal behaviour so become deviant
Affects persons self image as criminal identity internalised which leads them to produce behaviour that fulfil the prophecy
What 3 strengths of Self fufilling prophecy
Ageton interview boys about sense of identity, boys monitored over time and some arrested, these boys adopted delinquent identity=further crimes so fulfilled the prophecy
Jahoda, Ashanti people make prophecy about crime the day u born, higher number of arrest on Wednesday (believed to be aggressive) than Monday (believed to be placid) so fulfil prophecy
Reductionist, useful as simplifys crime to prophecy’s by society so can predict future offenders and intervene
What 3 weaknesses of Self fufilling prophecy
Raine, low levels of glucose metabolism in pre frontal cortex than control, criminal behaviour due to malfunction of brain not prophecies
Pardini, small amygdala 3x more likely to exhibit aggression, violence and psychopathy than ppl with larger amygdala
Polman, Violent video games more aggression than violent TV= observation and imitation of aggression rather than prophecy
What are 3 strengths of social learning theory explanation of crime?
Polman, found higher aggression of males playing violent video games than watching violent TV so observation and opportunity to imitated that causes violent behaviour
Anderson found college students who heard violent songs felt more hostile than those who heard similar non violent songs supporting idea of paying to attention to violence makes it retained and reproduced
Bandura study found children imitated more physical and verbal aggression after seeing a bobo doll be played with aggressively, support: SLT as explanation of violent behaviour
What are 3 weaknesses of social learning theory explanation of crime?
Raine, higher glucose metabolism in pre frontal cortex of NGRI murderers than control so malfunction of brain not SLT
Pardini, small amygdala 3x more likely to exhibit aggression, violence and psychopathy than ppl with larger amygdala
Eysenck personality found criminals scored higjer on PEN scales so may be to do with personality not social learning
How does arousal effect eyewitness testimony?
Witnessing crime can be very stressful making arousal levels high making it hard to take in info at time of event.
So memory may be encoded in wrong memory making recall not accurate
Being in court is also stressful as they have to recall unpleasant events and courtroom is a new environment causing arousal to be high
How does weapon focus effect eyewitness testimony?
Crimes involving weapon, persons attention is diverted to immediate threat of weapon so less attention to other details of scene so recall is later less reliable as not accurate
Also may be due to looking longer at unusual objects so may be unusualness of event rather than danger of weapon that attracts attention
How does Reconstructive memory effect eyewitness testimony?
Suggests recall of memory is subject to personal interpretation of what happen and dependant on our cultural norms and values and way we make sense of the world
Info received after crime like media footage will affect memory changing it, discussion of event may have cause memory to change as witness summarise info they seen or heard into one version making EWT less accurate
How does leading questions effect eyewitness testimony?
Leading questions suggest to witness what answer is desired. Witnesses may lack understanding of questions they being asked so could explain inaccurate memory’s
Also said that witnesses are interrupted not allowing them to give and develop a full answer
What is a strength and weakness of arousal explaining EWT
Deffenbacher found accuracy is poor when emotional arousal too high or too low so optimum level of arousal needed for accurate recall
Yuille found accuracy of real life shooting in Canada was 82% showing level of involvement can create flashbulb memory of event increasing memory accuracy
What is a strength of weapon focus explaining EWT
Loftus found ppts in gun condition (11%) was less likely to identify customer in identity parade than those who used cheque book (39%) showing feat caused by weapon reduced accuracy
What is a strength of reconstructive memory explaining EWT
Loftus and pickrall found 25% of participants remembered false memory of being in shopping mall and elaborated it in detail showing memories can be altered by suggestion
Bartletts war of the ghosts study also supports it as he found after 6 months after reading the story people rationalised parts of the story based on their schema and shortened it down
What was aim, sample and method of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer study?
Aimed to see if leading questions would influence speed estimates of vehicle
Sample: 45 uni of Washington students 5 groups of 9
Method: lab experiment, artificial activity of watching video clips IV is verb, DV is speed estimate
What was the procedure, results and conclusion of experiment 1 of Loftus and Palmer study?
Procedure: shown 7 accident film clips and then asked questionare with only change being critical question of speed estimates
“About how fast were the cars going when they ** each other? words used were smashed, collided, bumped, hit and contacted
Word smashed had higher speed estimate of 40.5mph compared to contacted at 31.8mph
Concluded: changing of word affected witness answer to critical question due to uncertainty of estimate or verb changing ppts memory
What was experiment 2 of Loftus and Palmer study?
Aimed to see if ppts could be made to remember something that didn’t happen
Sample: 150 uni students, 3 groups of 50
Procedure: ppts shown short film of multiple car accidents then revived questionare abt accident
Critical question was “how fast were the cars going when they ** each other with words changed being hit, smashed or no verb
One week later asked same 10 questions and asked critical question of “did you see any broken glass yes or no” with there being no broken glass
