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criminal psychology Flashcards

1
Q

name the 5 types of criminal offences

A
  • violent
  • drug related
  • acquisitive
  • sexual
  • anti- social
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2
Q

what are violent offences?

A

Aggressive crimes resulting in physical harm or death to the victim

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3
Q

what are drug related offences?

A

Crimes involving trading in or using illegal substances

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4
Q

what are acquisitive offences?

A

taking money / belongings without the consent / knowledge of the owner

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5
Q

what are sexual offences?

A

Crimes where a victim is forced to commit or submit to a sexual act against their will

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6
Q

what are anti-social offences?

A

Criminal acts that cause harassment or distress to people who do not share a home with the perpetrator

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7
Q

Why is crime hard to define?

A
  • definition changes according to time and culture
  • criminal behaviour is subjective
  • criminal behaviour is a social construct
  • crime is a deviation from norms
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8
Q

How is crime measured

A
  • official statistics
  • self report survey
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9
Q

what are official statistics?

A
  • police reported crimes
  • however not all crime are reported
    -however can still show us which crimes are increasing / decreasing & what the most common ones are
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10
Q

What are self-report surveys? & what are the 2 types

A
  • confidential survey asking about crimes that are not reported / detected
  • victim survey - questionnaires given to general
    public to find out what crimes have been committed against them , whether the crimes have been officially recorded or not
  • offender survey - questionnaires given to general public / more specific group of known offenders
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11
Q

example of violent crime

A

assault

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12
Q

example of drug related crime

A

drug dealing

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13
Q

example of an acquisitive crime

A

theft

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14
Q

example of a sexual crime

A

rape

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15
Q

example of an anti social crime

A

graffiti

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16
Q

what does the social learning theory propose?

A

criminal & anti social behaviour are learned behaviors. People are not born criminals but become criminals depending on their experiences.

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17
Q

stages of social learning theory

A

Role model - identification - observation - imitation - direct reinforcement/vicarious reinforcement - internalisation - consequences

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18
Q

What is a role model?

A

people we look up to + admire

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19
Q

What is identification?

A

The process where a person aligns themselves with another

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20
Q

What is observation?

A

The process where people pay attention to behaviours and retain them in memory

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21
Q

What is imitation?

A

A process where people recall behaviours and reproduce them in their own actions

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22
Q

what is direct reinforcement?

A

When a behaviour is strengthened and likely to be repeated due to positive outcomes for the individual

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23
Q

what is vicarious reinforcement?

A

When a behaviour is strengthened by an individual observing this same behaviour being rewarded in another

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24
Q

What is internalisation?

A

The process whereby a behaviour becomes an integral part of an individual’s personality due to continuous reinforcement

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25
Q

criticisms of slt- ignores role of nature

A

focuses too much on nurture & ignores role of nature - for example there may be a criminal gene that is inherited & this could explain why criminal behaviour appears to run in families

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26
Q

another criticisms of SLT

A
  • doesn’t explain how criminal behaviour started in the first place
27
Q

what was the hypothesis of cooper & mackie

A
  • predicted playing an aggressive video game would lead to increased aggression in children
28
Q

what was the aim of cooper & Mackie

A
  • to investigate whether violent computer games affect children’s aggression levels
29
Q

what was the method of cooper & mackie

A
  • lab experiment
  • IMD
  • IV = type of game played / observed
  • DV = measure of aggression
30
Q

what was condition 1 of cooper and mackie

A
  • pair of ppts played / observed w high aggression , low aggression or a control video game (paper + pen maze game)
31
Q

what was condition 2 of cooper & mackie (how were aggression levels measured after the game)

A
  • 1 ppt went to a toy room & chose either an aggressive toy , active toy , skill based toy or quiet toy
  • other ppt measured by interpersonal aggression - children showed how much they would punish an imaginary child who had naughty - measure by how long they pressed a buzzer for.
32
Q

how did cooper & mackie control extraneous variables

A
  • after 8 mins , observers & players swapped
33
Q

what were the results of cooper & mackie

A
  • girls who played the aggressive game were more likely to them chose an aggressive toy to play with but boys were not affected by which game they played
  • interpersonal aggression was not affected by playing / observing games
  • didn’t make a difference to aggression levels whether children played / observed
34
Q

what were the conclusions of cooper + mackie

A

-watching violent video games has the same impact as playing one

35
Q

what was the sample for cooper + mackie

A
  • 84 children 9-11 year olds in New Jersey
36
Q

criticism of cooper & mackie - ecological validity

A
  • carried out in artificial environment -> video games normally played at home / in arcades rather than in labs under strict conditions
37
Q

other criticisms of cooper + mackie

A
  • not representative of other ages + cultures -> only carried out in American children who may have been more / less affected by video games as they were very common in their country & a narrow age group.
38
Q

what is Eysenck’s theory

A

believed criminal behaviour had a biological basis & was due to high levels of 3 personality traits

39
Q

what were the 3 personality traits

A
  • extroversion, neuroticism & psychoticism
40
Q

wha is extroversion

A
  • a trait measuring how outgoing / sociable an individual is
  • more likely to anti socially
41
Q

what is neuroticism

A

a trait measuring how anxious , guilty and angry an individual is

42
Q

what is psychoticism

A

a trait measuring how impulsive + aggressive an individual is

43
Q

according to esyenck’s theory what causes psychoticism

A
  • psychoticism is a result of an excess of dopaminergic neurons
  • leads to higher levels of dopamine production + lower inhibition of impulses during synaptic transmission
  • more impulsive , aggressive behaviour
44
Q

what is synaptic transmission

A
  • neurotransmitters are released by the pre-synaptic neuron & bind to the receptors of the post synaptic neuron
45
Q

according to esyenck’s theory , what causes extraversión

A
  • reticular activation system (RAS) = part of brain stem that links the brain & spinal cord , regulating info sent to the cerebral cortex
  • low levels of arousal in cerebral cortex (as stimuli are restricted by RAS) - extroverts seek stimuli from the environment
  • extroverts also have a stronger dopamine system so will respond positively to rewards e.g money
46
Q

according to esyenck’s theory what causes neuroticism?

A
  • related to autonomic nervous system (ANS) - (regulates activity of the brains limbic system & is activated during emotion - inducing situations
  • ANS becomes over-aroused in neurotics leading to extreme emotions
47
Q

why are high extroverts likely to commit crime

A
  • as they need a lot of stimulation & are thrill seekers , the thrill of committing a crime might draw them to offending behaviour
48
Q

why might high neurotics be likely to commit crimes

A
  • more likely to get upset & over react to situations - can lead to some impulsive behaviour
49
Q

why might a high psychotic be more likely to commit crimes

A
  • more aggressive , impulsive & lack conscience
  • also have traits associated with criminal behaviour
50
Q

criticisms of esyenck’s theory

A

-ignores individual differences -> sees criminals as being broadly the same as they share the same personality type
- deterministic -> says criminal behavior is largely genetic but this suggests there is little that can be done to control it -> however evidence says criminals can be rehabilitated

51
Q

what was the aim of heaven

A
  • to see if psychotic , extraversion & self esteem were significant predictors of self reported delinquency
52
Q

what was the sample of heaven

A
  • 282 teens (13-15) from 2 catholic schools in Australia
53
Q

what research methods were used in heavens stud

A

Questionnaire + longitudinal study

54
Q

what was the procedure of heavens study

A
  • participants completed questionnaires at time 1 & 2 years later
  • questionnaire =
    1) questions taken from Eysencks personality questionnaire to measure extroversion + psychoticsm
    2) 10 item questionnaire to measure self esteem
    3) self report to measure delinquency (looked at violence , vandalism & theft)
55
Q

what were the findings of heaven

A
  • positive correlation between psychoticism & delinquency at the beginning & end of the study
  • no significant correlation between self esteem & delinquency
  • psychoticism = best predictor of delinquency
56
Q

limitations of heavens study

A
  • culturally biased -> children all from 1 religion & 1 country -> other religions & countries may have a different influence on delinquent behaviour
  • social desirability -> participants may have given social desirable responses -> even tho the questionnaire was anonymous , some children may not have wanted to admit to all the delinquent things they have done
  • low construct validity -> closed questions -> personality + delinquency are too complex to be reduced to scores
57
Q

types of punishment

A
  • prison
  • fines
  • community sentences
58
Q

what is punishment

A
  • when negative consequences result from a certain behaviour & reduce the chance of that behaviour happening again
59
Q

name 2 uses of rehabilitation to promote pro social behaviour

A
  • restorative justice
  • positive role models
60
Q

explain restorative justice

A
  • victim of crime will meet the criminal
  • offender has to take responsibility for their crime & face the consequences of their actions
  • offenders will make amends in some way e.g repairing damage
  • brings them back to community
61
Q

how do role models promote pro-social behaviours

A
  • drawn from principles of social learning theory
  • offenders have opportunity to observe others - best = ex offenders - behaving in a pro social way & achieving success
62
Q

explain the use of punishment to reduce anti social behaviour

A
  • prisons - taking away freedom rights & privileges
  • fines - money can be an incentive to committing crimes like theft so loss of money should have the opposite effect
  • community sentences - offenders pay back to society by giving up their time
63
Q

what is the effect of a deterrent

A
  • many people do not commit crimes in the first place & this is because they want to avoid the negative consequences they have seen others suffer

psychology (6 decks)

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