Criminal Theory Essays Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

Self- fulfilling prophecy key concepts

A
  • Labelling
  • Expectations
  • Perceiver’s behaviour
  • Target’s behaviour (Internalisation)
  • Recidivism
  • Consequence
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Self- fulfilling prophecy evaluation

A
  • Jahoda (1954) - boys and days of the week (s)
  • Fuller (1984)- black girls comprehensive (w)
  • Provides useful knowledge into first crimes and recidivism
  • Fails to explain those who don’t internalise a label
  • Unethical to study criminal behaviour directly
  • Hard to establish cause and effect
  • Brain Injury may be a better explanation - considers biological factors
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Labelling theory key concepts

A
  • Deviancy
  • Positive and Negative Labelling
  • Stigma
  • Retrospective
  • Projective
  • Self-concept
  • Primary and secondary deviance
  • Stereotypes
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Labelling theory evaluation

A
  • Restivo and Lanier (2013) - labelling and criminal activity, self concept
  • Used a longitudinal study
  • Deterministic
  • Bull and Green - faces and stereotypes
  • Reductionist
  • SLT is better as explains violent crimes
  • Helps with profiling (labels are not always false) this may also have implications
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Anger management key concepts

A
  • Novaco (1975)
  • Relaxation Techniques
  • Cognitive restructuring
  • Assertiveness training
  • cognitive preparation
  • skill acquisition
  • application process
  • CALM
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Anger management evaluation

A
  • Hunter (1993) - treatment group showed significant changes in impulsiveness, depression and interpersonal problems.
  • Only male sampling
  • Howells (2005) - no statistically significant difference between pre and post treatment.
  • Ineffective in reducing recidivism (turns to verbal aggression)
  • Only successful in limiting violent crimes
  • Can help criminals to stay on the right path as teaches how to deal with episodes
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Brain injury key concepts

A
  • TBI, ABI
  • PFC
  • Hypothalamus
  • Hippocampus
  • Amygdala
    (talk about general role and how damage could increase criminal behaviour)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Brain injury evaluation

A
  • Brower and Price - frontal lobe damage links to criminal and anti-social behaviour.
  • Phineas Gage, Charles Whitman
  • Case studies conducted after damage
  • Reductionist - ignoring social factors
  • Data collected in studies is self-report
  • Implications is that if it is a factor, there is limited treatment available.
  • Applications is that we can pre-screen and allow for early intuervention
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Hormone therapy key concepts

A
  • Rationale - based on hormone imbalance so removes these.
  • Anti- androgen (300-400mg in muscles every 7-10 days)
  • Sex offenders
  • Life-long therapy
  • Recidivists
  • Lie detectors, questionnaire’s and a ring to measure arousal.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Hormone therapy evaluation

A
  • Maletzky (2006) - treatment led to lower rates of sexual recidivism.
  • Very expensive and hard to administer which makes it inaccessible to most
  • Meyer et al found that 18% of offenders re-offended after MPA and 55% re-offended after not having MPA.
  • Side effects may prevent someone for carrying on with treatment long-term
  • Findings from meta analysis show that testosterone-lowering treatments are linked to reduction in recidivism.
  • Still labelled as a sex-offender in society so lack of employment and weak relationships so increase recidivism.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Psychodynamic key concepts

A
  • Poorly developed ego
  • Dominant ID
  • Strong superego
  • weak superego
  • deviant superego
  • social relationships
  • pleasure seeking, self destructive impulses
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Psychodynamic evaluation

A
  • Glueck and Glueck - juvenile delinquency, two times as likely to have experience physical punishment
  • Retrospective information in studies
  • Amygdala theories may be more credible as explains biological factors
  • Deterministic
  • Unfalsifiable (can’t be true)
  • Can use early childhood intervention if proven that a deviant superego is linked with criminal behaviour such as teaching morals and emphasising the importance.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Social learning theory key concepts

A
  • Role model
  • Observation attention
  • Retention
  • Imitation (motor reproduction)
  • Vicarious reinforcement
  • Self efficacy
  • External and internal rewards
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Social learning theory evaluation

A
  • Bandura 1961, 1963 and 1965.
  • Eron and Huesmann- viewing habits and aggressive behaviour
  • Relied on retrospective data such as from parents
  • Reductionist as an explanation of criminal behaviour
  • Lab conditions (Bandura)
  • Learning criminal behaviour can be reversed e.g. positive role models.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Eysenck’s theory

A
  • Extraversion - cns low level of arousal so risk-seeking behaviour
  • Neuroticism- activity in limbic system (amygdala- tend to see everything in threat, hippocampus- slow to learn)
  • Psychoticism(increased testosterone and low levels of MAO)
  • Socialisation (learn through conditioning, extraverts lack the ability so poor socialisation)
  • Central nervous system (under arousal is criminal)
  • cerebral cortex - under aroused because the stimuli is restricted by the RAS which leads to thrill-seeking behaviour
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Eysenck’s theory evaluation

A
  • Rushton and Christjohn (delinquency and high PEN scores)
  • Correlational research (cause and effect)
  • Farrington et al - high PN but not E
  • Labelling may be better as studies identified school teachers labelling as delinquent makes them act like it
  • Deterministic - high pen scores will equal criminal.
  • Understands both social and biological factors making it less reductionist than other theories
  • Introduce early intervention such as anger management at a young age to reduce criminal behaviour.
17
Q

Amygdala key concepts

A
  • Left amygdala - emotions processed slowly leading to lack of empathy if less activity.
  • Right amygdala - emotions such as anger are at a much higher rate if higher activity
  • Fear conditioning - lack of fear of consequences
  • Facial recognition in emotions - leads to a lack of empathy
  • Memory of events - inability to learn from past mistakes
18
Q

Amygdala evaluation

A
  • Raine showed that murderers who pleaded NGRI showed less activity in the left amygdala and more activity in the right amygdala compared to controls.
  • However, the amygdala was not the only cause as other brain parts had issues so is not the only cause of criminal behaviour.
    -Deterministic (ignores free-will)
  • Uses triangulation to measure (self-report, scans and case studies)
  • Matthies et al (16-18% reduction in amygdala volume with people who had high aggression scores)
  • May be seen as a pointless find as no psychological treatments can fix brain damage so can not reduce criminal behaviour.
19
Q

XYY key concepts

A
  • 1 in 1000 men have XYY
  • Male
  • Taller, delayed physical development, hypotonia.
  • Explosive temper, lack of empathy, impulsivity.
  • No cure
  • Violence to property not people.
20
Q

XYY evaluation

A
  • Whatmore (1967) (more likely to commit property crimes)
  • Witkin et al (no direct link between XYY and crime in 12 cases, 41.7% were likely to be involved in non-violent crime, 4.31% likely to be involved)
  • Low generalisability as the syndrome only affects men
  • Deterministic as overly generalisable and can only explain the cause of crime in men.
  • Fails to account for individual differences.
  • Labelling may be the cause due to physical appearance which creates this criminal behaviour.
  • Treatments and early intervention can be put into place for those men born with XYY syndrome.