Criminal Theory Essays Flashcards
1
Q
Self- fulfilling prophecy key concepts
A
- Labelling
- Expectations
- Perceiver’s behaviour
- Target’s behaviour (Internalisation)
- Recidivism
- Consequence
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
3
Q
Labelling theory key concepts
A
- Deviancy
- Positive and Negative Labelling
- Stigma
- Retrospective
- Projective
- Self-concept
- Primary and secondary deviance
- Stereotypes
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
5
Q
Anger management key concepts
A
- Novaco (1975)
- Relaxation Techniques
- Cognitive restructuring
- Assertiveness training
- cognitive preparation
- skill acquisition
- application process
- CALM
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
7
Q
Brain injury key concepts
A
- TBI, ABI
- PFC
- Hypothalamus
- Hippocampus
- Amygdala
(talk about general role and how damage could increase criminal behaviour)
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
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.
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.
11
Q
Psychodynamic key concepts
A
- Poorly developed ego
- Dominant ID
- Strong superego
- weak superego
- deviant superego
- social relationships
- pleasure seeking, self destructive impulses
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.
13
Q
Social learning theory key concepts
A
- Role model
- Observation attention
- Retention
- Imitation (motor reproduction)
- Vicarious reinforcement
- Self efficacy
- External and internal rewards
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.
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
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.
