Development of Offending

Question 1

What is the XYY chromosome hypothesis?

Answer 1

Women have 2 X chromosomes and men have XY
Men can be occasionally born with 2 Y chromosomes- XYY
Some of them have low IQ and are big
XYY is extra masculine as one Y is what makes a man masculine.
Masculinity is associated with aggression
XYY men may be even more aggressive as they’re extra masculine

Question 2

What’s an issue with the XYY chromosome hypothesis?

Answer 2

Men have the XYY chromosome pattern but don’t show abnormalities
Only men who have the XYY chromosome and who show the abnormalities have been detected
Not all men who have the XYY chromosome have low IQ and engage in criminal behaviour

Question 3

What physical traits could cause offending behaviour to develop?

Answer 3

Mesomorphs: preponderance of bones, muscles, connective tissue and heart/blood vessels. These people are adventurous, power/dominance, enjoy risk taking and are ruthless

Question 4

How does the environment cause individuals to develop criminal behaviour?

Answer 4

Failure of socialisation
This means they have immature tendencies
This means they’re only concerned with themself and want immediate gratification
Socialisation means that individuals are more social and therefore less criminal
Antisocial behaviour is punished by significant people in your life, e.g. parents, socialisation causes this person to feel unpleasant when they behave antisocially- classical conditioning

Question 5

What is Eyenck’s biosocial theory of crime?

Answer 5

Biological factors has an impact on criminal behaviour
Their impact is depends on environmental or social factors
Biology of the individual (genes/neurotransmitters) Affects the psychology of the individual (person becomes neurotic)
Social factors (socialisation by harsh parent)
Leads to crime if the opportunity is there

Question 6

What is the societal or macros level theories of explaining the development of criminal behaviour?

Answer 6

Crime is due to social structure
Law favours some groups to the detriment of others that want the same things
Dominant/privileged classes retain their dominance and privilege
Power is gendered, male power is reflected in law, e.g. women are possessions to men
Connection between hate crime and prevailing economic conditions

Question 7

How can the community develop criminal behaviour in an individual?

Answer 7

Crime isn’t randomly distributed geographically
Some suffer from crime more than others
Crime is committed closely to the offender’s home, with a buffer zone as the risk of recognition is too high
People who live in these crime prone areas may experience more extreme social problems
e.g. economically deprived putting them at a heightened risk of offending

Question 8

How do cognitive theories explain the development of offending behaviour?

Answer 8

Criminals have low IQ
Low iq leads to poor learning skills
this means they don’t have the ability to earn a living (unemployed), make senseless risks, get caught easily
Some characteristics that are associated with criminality are also associated with low iq, like unemployment and school failure

Question 9

What are the issues with the cognitive theory?

Answer 9

Some offending behaviour needs intelligence
like fraud and identity theft
There was the race and low iq debate
Poverty was seen as a result of low iq, so poverty was genetically determined rather than due to socioeconomic factors

Question 10

What twin study supports the biological theory of developing offender behaviour?

Answer 10

Identical twins MZ share 100% genetic makeup
Non-identical twins DZ share 50%
Correlation of 0.7 between MZ twins for their criminality
0.4 for DZ twins

Question 11

What are the issues of twin studies?

Answer 11

MZ twins are treated similarly because they’re identical
This may enhance their similarity in terms of eventual criminality
Adoption studies are important too, no relationship between the number of criminal convictions between adopted parent and adopted children, but there was a relationship between the criminal convictions of the adopted child and their biological parent

Question 12

What are the criminogenic factors in childhood that cause offending behaviour to develop?

Answer 12

Deviant parental characteristics e.g. criminality, substance abuse, mental health problems
Family disruption e.g. divorce, instability, marital conflict
Problematic parenting e.g. issues with controlling their anger, arguments with the child, inconsistent enforcement of rules
Punitive ways of raising children e.g. strict discipline
Lack of father figure
Lack of supervision
lack of love
Rejection

Question 13

How do groups and socialisation develop offending behaviour?

Answer 13

Peers and family influences

Question 14

How can the social learning theory be used to explain the development of criminal behaviour?

Answer 14

Vicarious learning, learn about consequences from observing others
Learn directly from family and friends
Modelling: imitation of behaviour

Question 15

What is Bandura’s bobo doll experiment?

Answer 15

Video of adult (model) acting aggressively towards bobo doll. Children who watched this video were also aggressive towards the doll.

Question 16

What are reinforcers?

Answer 16

Consequences that increase chances of a behaviour
e.g. social approval, sex, money, social inclusion

Question 17

What are the criticisms of the social learning theory?

Answer 17

Not clear why criminal behaviour is sometimes learned and sometimes not
Which conditions people learn to be a criminal under isn’t well explained

Question 18

How does self regulation explain the development of offending behaviour?

Answer 18

Self regulation failure and intimate partner violence perpetration is linked
Ability to control your behaviour in various situations
When many behaviours require self control, self regulation can be used up momentarily
Link between self regulation and aggression
Failure to control impulses leads to many types of problematic behaviour, including aggression and violence.

Question 19

What did DeWall, Baumeister, Stillman and Gailliot 2007 find?

Answer 19

Ps engaged in a task that uses up self regulatory resources
Inhibited desire to eat a donut
Ps weren’t to eat the donut
Ps who had previously employed self regulation were more aggressive than ps who had not

Question 20

What impacts the ability to self regulate?

Answer 20

People differ in the ability to self regulate, some people can self regulate better than others
Situational factors can also impact self regulation

Question 21

Is free will a mental resource?

Answer 21

Raine 2002
People who have Prefrontal deficits have low autonomic arousal
Leads to development of aggressive and antisocial behaviour
Linked to psychopathy

Question 22

How can biology influence the development of offending behaviour?

Answer 22

Hormones like testosterone can be linked to aggression
Twin studies suggest that genetics may play a role in linking adult violence across generations
Heritability of aggression is about 50%, many genes are related to aggression
Hormones such as dopamine can impact aggressiveness
RBFOX1 gene is involved in neural development, it’s linked to aggression

Question 23

What are eclectic approaches?

Answer 23

Some cases of crime can be a one time event
Others can be symptomatic of chronic problems
Different causal factors can come into play over long periods of time

Question 24

What individual characteristics can cause the development of offending behaviour?

Answer 24

Low self control
Bad neighbourhoods
Media violence
Violence modelling

Question 25

What did Anderson and Dill’s 2000 study on violent media find?

Answer 25

University students
Completed a measure of trait aggression
Also reported their video game playing habits
Those who reported playing more violent video games engaged in more aggressive behaviour

Question 26

What did Engelhardt, Bartholow, Kerr, and Bushman 2011 study on violent media find?

Answer 26

People who play violent video games show diminished brain responses to images of real life violence. They have been desensitized to violence
This was positively correlated with aggression

Question 27

What is the association between media and aggression/negative perceptions?

Answer 27

Average child sees 100,000 acts of violence and 8000 murders before the end of elementary school
The rate of violence on prime time TV is five to six incidents a year but on Saturday mornings it’s 20 to 25
Minorities are virtually absent and when they do show up, are victims or criminals
TV has no clear effect on school achievement or academic skills
Girls who watch the most TV have the most negative attitudes towards women

Question 28

How do violent video games increase aggression?

Answer 28

1. Practise, repeat behaviour over and over
2. Reinforcement, they make you feel good/have a good time, games are entertaining and interactive
3. develop a script of acting aggressively
4. become desensitized to violence and aggression, ps who played violent video games had lower heart rate and lower skin-response measure (lower arousal).

Question 29

What are the issues with Eyesnck’s biosocial theory?

Answer 29

Theory has good scope
Tries to explain a range of crime
As it’s so broad, it lacks explanations for many aspects of crime