Criminal Psychology - Topic 1: Physiological & Non-physiological

Question 1

Dabbs et al (1995) - evidence for Hormone explanation (3)

Answer 1

• Found that inmates who had committed personal crimes of sex and violence had higher testosterone levels than inmates who had committed property crimes of burglary, theft, and drugs.
• Testosterone was measured from saliva samples and behaviour was coded from prison system records.
• Inmates with higher testosterone levels also violated more rules in prison, especially rules involving overt confrontation

Question 2

Raine (Aim, Method, Sample, Procedure, Results)

Answer 2

Aim:

• to investigate the differences in brain function of NGRI (murderers who have pleaded not guilty to their charge due to the reason of insanity) and nonmurderers.

Method:

• It was a quasi-experiment with a matched participant design.
• The IV was whether the participant was a NGRI murderer or a non-murderer.
• The DV was what brain dysfunction was present.

Sample:

• There were 41 GA murders, 39 males and 2 females who had committed murder or manslaughter and pleaded NGRI

Procedure:

• The participants were injected with FDG - radioactive glucose which measures brain activity as the more activity in one area means more glucose is needed and the radioactivity means it can be tracked through a scanner.
• Once injected they completed continual performance tasks.
• During this time, 32 minutes after being injected the participants brain was scanned in a PET scanner.

Results:

• Found NGRI murderers had reduced activity in their amygdala, prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex and corpus callosum.

Question 3

Applications (2)

Answer 3

• The drug triptorelin, inhibits the production of testosterone which is linked to the high sex drives of paedophiles. It tends also to be used with those with compulsive or impulsive urges to offend, those who have difficulties controlling sexual arousal, intrusive sexual fantasies or urges, sadism or other dangerous tendencies such as necrophilia (sex with dead people).

Dabbs found that sexual offenders had higher levels of testosterone than offenders who had committed property offences.

• Use Omega 3 as Gesch concluded that antisocial behaviour in prisons, including violence, are reduced by vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids with similar implications for those eating poor diets in the community.