criminology paper 3 Flashcards
self fulfilling prophecy
term used to describe a prediction that causes itself to become true
what is labelling?
- when something is expected of an individual by others and it becomes true.
Society can label an individual in many ways: education, parents, race, religion, diability…
The effect of labels/labellig
- labels can affect an individual self concept or how they see themselves and lead to SFP
Society may label us according to the way others treat us and this may lead to SFP
Labelling is linked to SFP because, we become what people expect us to become, so a negative label predicts a negative behaviour
Factors affecting SFP
Work better if:
- if more than one person holds the same expectation
- when those expecting someone to behave in certain way, and those behaving are not familiar to each other
- the expected behaviour is not very different from the individuals normal behaviour
- the expectation is negative
Does not work if:
- the person who expects this behaviour of the individual is of low power
AO3 + SFP/labelling
+ Jahoda 1954.
Studied delinquent rates among Western Africa. They usually chose names for boys according to the day of the week they are born They believed that Monday boys are quiet and placid and that Wednseday boys are aggressive and short tempered. Records of a local juvenile court (that covered a 5 year period) showed that 22% of violent offences were committed by the Wednsday boys and 6.9% by Monday boys. This provides support for the SFP effect as the Wednsday boys were expected to act in violent aggressive ways to internalize this expectation and behaved in this way.
+ Madon’s study 2000 highlights the strong influence of negative expectations. Labelling/SFP can be used to explain recidivism, if an individual returns home on release from prison with the label of criminal, society will react to this label and treat the individual accordingly, this could mean a lack of opportunities for employment, which may result in a need to return to crime.
+ Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968 studied SFP in the classroom. Teachers were allowed to overhear a conversation at the beginning of the year that identified 20 children in the class as late developers about to bloom, the teachers believed this was based on an IQ test, but it was random. At the end of the year, those 20 children did indeed have improved IQ scored and continued to for 2 years. The prophecy came true because the teachers responded differently to them, for example giving more feedback.
+ Snyder 1977, When male participants were told to get acquainted with a female assistant on the phone, what they were told about her affected their treatment of her, despite never having met, some were told she was attractive, while others she was not. When the male participant believed the female was attractive, he was more friendly and sociable towards her. When he was not the males responded in an aloof manner.
AO3 - SFP/Labelling
- Zebrowitz 1998 found that boys with baby face were more likely than their mature faced peers to be delinquent and involved in crime. The researchers suggested these boys were overcompensating for the perception they might be weak, rather then accepting their label. In this case, the evidence suggest that people can act opposite to their label, reducing the predictive power and the credibility of the theory.
- Lemert 1962, Found that cheque forgers had been forging cheques long before they were caught, they have been commiting the crime before they had been labelled. Therefore this self image is not affected by the label.
- SFP ignores the role of biology and learning in criminal behaviour, which means this theory is reductionist. It is also a partical explanation of offending. Murder is more than a label.
- It is not possible to test SFP experimentally because of ethical issues, as it could lead to distress and harm of the individual that is being tested and his environment.
Social learning theory AO1
It suggests antisocial behaviour is modelled and imitated by observers.
Role model AO1
- role models are people that an individual identifies with in some way such as age, gender or status.
- If the role model is observed doing sometjing antisocial such as being aggressive, this information may be retained by the observer and later reproduced the same behaviour in the similar situation.
- in order for this to occur the individual observing must be motivated to do this (internal/externalmotivation)
vicarious reinforcement
- which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour.
(learn from mistakes from others)
identifaction
- when you identify yourself with a role model and want to be like them, you will start behaving like them
meditational processes
cognitive factors, such as thinking, that influence learning and come between stimulus and response
modelling
observer is imitating the behaviour of a role model. Precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that can be imitated by the observer.
4 mental processes involved
- attention - wheather we notice the behaviour
- retention - storing the behaviour into our long term memory
- motor reproduction - ability to perform the observed behaviour
- motivation - whether the behaviour is rewared or punished.
AO3 + SLT
+ Bandura found that children imitated an adult role model hitting a Bobo doll. In particular, boys were more physically aggressive than girls who showed more verbal aggression. Both boys and girls were likely to imitate role models of the same sex as them, however girls were also likely to imitate the male role which may be based on assumption that aggression is a male characteristic.
+ number of real world applications. It can be used to help researchers understand how aggression and violence might be transmitted through observational learning. By studying media violence, researchers can gain a better understanding of the factors that might lead children to act out the aggressive actions they see potrayed on tv and in the movies. Sandy Hook, who got inspired by columbine shooting.
AO3 - SLT
- it is unethical to study aggression and encourage it. Therefore lab experiments such as Bandura’s have been used, however the effects of this study may be unclear as they only focus on certain behaviour with a controlled environment.
In addition, it is based in a lab where some children may experience demand characteristics, children may have been brought up to follow the orders of adults, so if they see an adult behaving like that to the Bobo doll they feel like that is expected from them. - Tasler 1939 suggests that ineffective parental strategies, such as poor discipline, lack of emotional support and it may produce inadequately socialised children who then go onto offend. Therefore, if a child had poor parenting and socialises with those who have already offended, they are more likely to imitate and become offenders themselves.
- Charlton (2000) found that the introduction to tv to a population who did not previously have it, and who were exposed to violence and aggression, found no children copied the violence they saw on tv, therefore there must be factors other than observation that influence our behaviour, not only social learning theory.
- SLT ignores biological factors such as damage to limbic system or MAOA-L gene which can cause aggression as well, for example in Bandura’s bobo doll study, the children were not genetically tested for aggression.
SLT exposure
- Sutherland 1939 proposed that criminal behaviour is a learned response and suggested that individuals learn criminal behaviour by becoming part of a close group whom offending has become a norm.
- according to social learning theory, not only are criminal skills acquired, but also attitudes and beliefs which support offending behaviour, together with a feeling of group identity and belonging. There is a connection here to ideas of conformity to group norms.
media influence
most of us live in a media saturated world, the media images dominate and determine the way we see the world.
desensitisation
-psychologists propose that desensitisation as a response to violence viewed in computer games can have a negative effect.
- the result of this effect is that individuals may be more likely to accept violence and aggression and may be more likely to respond violently and aggressively when presented with the opportunity to do so.
disinhibition
- a theory that explains how the media can influence aggression through a process of disinhibition.
- proposes that our normal restraints are loosened after exposure to media violence.
- aggressive behaviour becomes normalised and the norms that influence our behaviour change from non-acceptance to acceptance.
- one aspect of aggression that is particularly believed to become normal and acceptable is an aggressive response as a result of a real wrong-doing (revenge response is deemed to be ,,normal’’)
cognitive priming
- children as young as 10 may have been exposed to 8k murders and up to 100k other acts of violence on television alone (Huston 1992)
- cognitive priming is an explanation that suggests that the influence of aggression in the media and in computer games provides individuals with scripts for their behaviours.
- cognitive priming maintains that there is a priming effect of media images on previously learned behaviour or cognitive schemas.
- priming effect can activate memories and make aggression more likely.
AO3 + media SLT
+ the explanation of disinhibition has been used in real life situations. The processes of disinhibition has led to the American Army to use games as a recruiting tool. Recruited individuals with an interest in violence and aggression and a disinhibited response to aggression is beneficial for future soldiers. Solders in a war situation are likely to have to behave in an aggressive and violent way, so it is more beneficial for them to response aggressively as a norm. If they did not respond aggressively to threat situation, it could have potential issues for their own survival and those they are trying to protect.
+ Vidal Vazques (2000) aimed to investigate adolescnets views of media violence and assess the cognitive and emotional effects of watching violence in the media. Participants were 203 males and females aged 13. In a laboratory they were shown 15min clips from 3 videos, showing: action without violence, socially acceptable violence and unjustifiable violence. The participant views about media violence were tested before and after watching the videos. They found that viewing violence caused a more positive assessment of and greater attraction to violence.
+ Bastian discovered that after controlling for the effects of frustration, enjoyableness and gender while playing 2 different violent, Mortal Kombat and non violent, Spin Tennis video game, it was found that there was a significant difference between the 2 groups on rating of both self humanity and the humanity of other player, with those who played the non violent game perceiving both themselves and the other player as possessing more humanity, while the participants who played Mortal Kombat were perceived as more aggressive and possessing les humanity. Which supports the SLT exposure.
AO3 - SLT exposure
- an issue with research carried out into the effects of media on aggression is that it lacks ecological validity. Most research has been carried out in laboratory settings and has measured aggression levels on a questionnaire. This raises issues of validity as to whether the measured violence would occur in real world setting.
- D.P. there are links between adverse childhood experiences and criminality in adulthood. There is a strong case for preventing crime by targeting those most at risk of experiencing adverse childhoods and supporting people in the Justice system whose lives have been affected by adverse childhood experiences. Maternal deprivation hypothesis proposed by Bowlby suggested that a child require the continous presence of a primary caregiver throughout the critical period lasting the first 3 years, which results in the formation of monotropic.
- GENDER - Children are often rewarded (operant conditioning) for gender appropriate behaviuor, for example, a girl may be praised when playing with dolls and may be punished for inappropriate gender, specific behaviour like aggression as that is not lady like. This selective reinforcement shapes behaviours to conform to gender stereotypes. Given that the gender stereotypes of girls and boys differ siginficantly, this not only links to the developmental aspects of criminal and anti social behaviour, but to the gender differences found in criminals.
Personality
personality disorders
personality traits (not disorders) they are found in everyone
antisocial behavior
Anti-social behaviour is when someone acts in a way that
harasses or causes distress to one or more people
personality disorders
- people with personality disorders exhibit a personality style that differs from the expectations of their culture, and it begins in adolescence or early adulthood and causes distress.
- individuals with these disorders exhibit enduring personality styles that are extremely troubling and often create problems for them and those with whom they come into contact.
- their maladaptive personality styles frequently bring them into conflict with others, disrupt their ability to develop and maintain social relationships, and prevent them from accomplishing realistic life goals.
- people with antisocial personality disorder, do not seem to have a moral compass. They act as they dont have a sense of care and about right or wrong.
- lack of regard is exhibited in number of ways:
repeteadly performing illegal acts, lying to others, impulsivity, manipulation, recklessness, being aggressive towards others, failure to act in a responsible way. - Individuals with antisocial personality hurt, manipulate, exploit and abuse others and not feel any guilt.
- A person has to be 18 years old to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
ASPD - 3 major concepts
- disinhibition
- tendency toward impulse control problems, lack of planning, insistence on immediate gratification, and inability to restrain behaviour. - boldness
- tendency to remain calm in threatening situations, high self assurance, a sense of dominance and a tendency toward thrill - seeking. - meanness
- aggressive resource seeking without regard for others, and is signalled by a lack of empathy and lack of close relationships with others, and a tendency to accomplish goals through cruelty.
Gender differences
- antisocial personality disorder is observed in about 3.6% of the population, the disorder is much more common in males with a 3:1 ration of men to women, and it is more likely to occur in men who are younger, separated, divorced, of lower socioeconomic status or who live in urban areas
- compared to men with antisocial personality disorder, women with the disorder are more likely to have experienced emotional neglect (not caring about them) and sexual abuse during childhood, and they are more likely to have had parents who abused substances and who engaged in antisocial behaviours themselves.
