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Forensic > Explanations > Flashcards

Explanations Flashcards

1
Q

What is atavistic form?

A

a biological approach to offending that attributes criminal activity to the fact that offenders are a genetic throwback, or primitive sub-species that cannot conform to society so inevitably turn to crime

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2
Q

What does atavistic form suggest criminals lack?

A

evolutionary development

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3
Q

What characteristics of atavistic form did Lombroso outline?

A 
narrow sloping brow
strong prominent jaw
dark skin
extra toes/nipples
tattoos 
unemployment
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4
Q

Outline Lombroso’s research

A

meticulously examined facial/cranial features of 383 dead, 3839 living Italian criminals
- found 40% had atavistic characteristics

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5
Q

AO3 atavistic form - contribution to science of criminology

A
  • shift emphasis from moralistic to scientific discourse (beginning of criminal profiling)
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6
Q

AO3 atavistic form - racism

A
  • features in people of African descent - eugenic philosophies of time, racial undertones
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7
Q

AO3 atavistic form - Goring

A

3000 criminals to 3000 non - criminals - no evidence of unusual characteristics
- criminals had lower IQ

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8
Q

AO3 atavistic form - causation

A

facial/cranial differences due to other factors e.g. poverty, diet rather than delayed evolutionary development

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9
Q

What is the criminal personality proposed by Eysenck?

A

an individual who scores highly on measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychotics and cannot easily be conditioned, is cold and unfeeling and likely to engage in offending behaviour

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10
Q

What are the dimensions of the criminal personality?

A

extraversion - introversion
neuroticism - stability
psychoticism - socialisation

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11
Q

What is the biological basis of the criminal personality?

A

the type of nervous system we inherit causes the characteristics - extraversion, psychotics, neuroticism - innate and biological basis

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12
Q

Biological basis of extraverts?

A

underactive NS = seek excitement and stimulation, risk-taking behaviour
tend to not condition easily and do not learn from mistakes

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13
Q

Bioloigical basis of neurotic individuals?

A

overactive sympathetic NS = jumpy, over-anxious, instability means behaviour is hard to predict

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14
Q

Biological basis of psychotic individuals?

A

high levels of testosterone linked to aggression

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15
Q

Explain the role of socialisation in Eysenck’s theory

A

criminal behaviour is developmentally immature - selfish and concerned with instant gratification
people with high E and N scores were hard to condition, and therefore could not easily learn to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety - more likely to behave antisocially when given the opportunity

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16
Q

AO3 Eysenck - evidence for

A

Eysenck & Eysenck: EPI scores of 2070 male prisoners with control 2422 non - criminal males - prisoners high on P,E&N

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17
Q

AO3 Eysenck - contradictory evidence

A

Farrington et al: offenders high on P but not E&N - also little evidence of consistent differences in EEGs between extraverts and introverts - casting doubt on validity

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18
Q

AO3 Eysenck - cultural bias

A

Bartol & Holanchock: Hispanic & African American offenders and divided into 6 groups based on history/nature of offence

  • all 6 groups less extravert than non-criminal control group
  • question generalisability of criminal personality
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19
Q

AO3 Eysenck - issues measuring personality

A

critics suggest personality type cannot be reduced to a ‘score’ - no such think as a stable entity
- we adopt different personalities in different contexts

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20
Q

AO3 Eysenck - biological basis

A

biological determinism and reductionism

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21
Q

What is differential association?

A

Sutherland’s theory that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour

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22
Q

What factors does criminality arise from?

A
  • learned attitudes towards crime

- learning of specific criminal acts

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23
Q

In socialisation, why does offending happen according to Sutherland

A

if pro-crime attitudes outweighs anticrime attitudes

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24
Q

What does differential association suggest it should be possible to do?

A

mathematically predict the likelihood of an individual going on to commit crime based on our knowledge of the frequency, intensity and duration of individuals exposure to deviant/non-deviant norms/values

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25
Q

Why does Sutherland think people in prison will go on to reoffend?

A

whilst inside prison, inmates expose to pro-crime attitudes and learn specific techniques of offending from more experienced criminals

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26
Q

AO3 differential association - evolutionary power

A

theory accounts for crime in all sectors of society e.g. burglary in working class communities but some others in more affluent sections of society - help understanding of different types of crime

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27
Q

AO3 differential association - realistic solution to crime

A

moves emphasis away from biological accounts, drawing attention to dysfunctional social circumstances and environments

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28
Q

AO3 differential association - measurement of pro/anti-criminal attitudes

A

unknown how to do this, despite promise of scientific/mathematical framework to predict criminal behaviour, don’t know when criminality is actually triggered - undermine scientific credibility

29
Q

AO3 differential association - not everyone exposed to criminal influences commit crime

A

may stereotype people from impoverished backdrops as ‘unavoidably criminal’ - theory may be environmentally determinist and ignore biological factors

30
Q

Outline the psychodynamic explanation to offending

A

a group of theories influenced by Freud which share the beliefs that unconscious conflicts, rooted in early childhood and determined by interactions with parents drive criminal behaviour

31
Q

What type of superego did Blackburn proposed? what are the 3 types?

A

inadequate superego

  • weak
  • deviant
  • over-harsh
32
Q

What does Blackburn suggest happens if the superego is deviant or inadequate?

A

the id is given free reign and not properly controlled - an uncontrolled id practically means criminal behaviour is inevitable

33
Q

What happens if the same sex parent is absent in the phallic stage?

A

weak superego - the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego so there is no opportunity for identification which makes criminal behaviour more likely

34
Q

What is the deviant superego?

A

if the superego the child internalises has immoral or deviant values this would lead to offending behaviour

35
Q

What is the over-harsh superego?

A

individual is cripple by guilt and anxiety (which may unconsciously) drive them to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment

36
Q

Outline Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory in relation to the psychodynamic explanation of offending

A

a warm continuous relationship with the mother figure was crucial to future relationships, well being and development
loss of attachment in infancy could lead to affectionless psychopathy which is linked to increased likelihood of delinquency

37
Q

AO3 psychodynamic theory for offending behaviour - gender bias

A

ideas girls develop weaker superegos than goys as they don’t suffer castration anxiety associated with Oedipus complex, left identification with mothers = more prone to criminal behaviour which is not supported by evidence from prison populations - flaw in explanation

38
Q

AO3 psychodynamic theory for offending behaviour - contradict Blackburn’s weak superego argument

A

little evidence children raised without same-sex parent are less law-abiding
also, if children raised by parents go on to commit crimes themselves, this may be due to genetics/socialisation rather than deviant superego

39
Q

AO3 psychodynamic theory for offending behaviour - pseudoscientific

A

unconscious concepts mean applications to crime are not open to empirical testing so can only be judged by face value

40
Q

AO3 psychodynamic theory for offending behaviour - Bowlby’s 44 thieves

A

researcher bias as he may have influenced the responses of the interviews - Koluchova found the effects of deprivation are not inevitable and can be reversed - undermines evidence

41
Q

AO3 psychodynamic theory for offending behaviour - Lewis

A

analysed data from interviews of 500 young people and found maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending behaviour - even if there is a link between MD and crime, does not indicate causal links as it is correlational

42
Q

Explain the genetic explanation for offending

A

offenders inherit a gene or a combination of genes that predispose them to commit crime

43
Q

Outline Lange’s twin study for offending

A

13 MZ, 17 DZ

  • 10/13 MZ co-twins also spent time in prison
  • 2/17 DZ
44
Q

Outline what Christiansen found (AO3 support?)

A

CCR 33% MZ 12% DZ

45
Q

Outline the candidate genes involved in offending - Tiihonen et al

A

genetic analysis 900 offenders
MAOA: serotonin & dopamine - linked to aggressive behaviour
CDH13: substance abuse & ADHD
- high risk combo led to people being 13x more likely to have history of violent disorder

46
Q

Outline the diathesis-stress model as an explanation for offending

A

genes have an influence, and partly moderated by the environment

  • genetic predisposition
  • biological/psychological stressor e.g. criminal role model/dysfunctional upbringing
47
Q

Outline neural explanations for offending

A

APD associated with lack of empathy - suffered by many convicted criminals

48
Q

Outline Raine et al’s neural explanation

A

11% reduction of volume of grey matter in prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to controls (this regulates emotional behaviour)

49
Q

Outline Keyser’s neural explanation

A

criminals could empathise when asked - APD individuals can experience empathy (linked to mirror neutrons) but that a neural ‘switch’
- in a normally functioning brain the empathy switch is permanently on

50
Q

AO3 biological explanations - Lange’s research

A

poorly controlled (MZ/DZ based on appearance) and most twins brought up in the same environment so CCR may be sue to shared learning experiences - confounding variables count validity

51
Q

AO3 biological explanations - support for diathesis-stress model

A

Mednick et al: studied 13,000 Danish adoptees

  • neither biological/adoptive parents had convictions 13.5% did
  • either parent 20%
  • both 24.5%
  • suggest both genetic inheritance and environmental influences criminality
52
Q

AO3 biological explanations - problems with adoption studies

A

if adopted late (time spent with biological parents) may influence so it’s hard to assess environmental impact biological parents have had (Mednick’s findings only for petty offences so conclusions drawn may not apply to more violent crimes)

53
Q

AO3 biological explanations - biological reductionism

A

difficult to separate effects of genes/neural influences from other factors - too simplistic

54
Q

AO3 biological explanations - biological determinism

A

notion of ‘criminal gene’ creates problems with the legal system, based on idea criminals have moral responsibility for their crimes - only in extreme cases can people claim they were not acting entirely out of free will

55
Q

Outline Kohlberg’s levels of moral reasoning

A

moral reasoning refers to the process by which individuals draw upon their own value system to determine what is right/wrong

  • the higher their stage, the more sophisticated the reasoning
  • used the moral dilemma technique
56
Q

What level did Kohlberg find criminals to be at?

A

pre-conventional

57
Q

Outline the pre-conventional level

A

need to avoid punishment and gain rewards, associated with less mature, childlike reasoning
(Chandler) more egocentric/poorer social perspective taking than non-criminals

58
Q

Outline the conventional level

A

sympathise with others and exhibit behaviours such as generosity, honesty, non-violence

59
Q

What were Kohlberg’s stages?

A

preconventional
conventional
postconventional

60
Q

What are cognitive distortions?

A

faulty, biased and irrational ways of thinking that mean we perceive ourselves, others and the world inaccurately and usually negatively

61
Q

What are two examples of cognitive distortions?

A

hostile attribution bias

minimalisation

62
Q

What is hostile attribution bias?

A

the tendency to judge ambiguous situations or the actions of others as aggressive/threstening when it may not be

63
Q

What did Schonenberg and Justye find about HAB?

A

violent offenders more likely than non to perceive ambigous facial expressions as angry/hostile - misreading cues can lead to aggressive/disproportionate response

64
Q

What is minimalisation?

A

a type of deception that involves downplaying the significance of an event/emotion - strategy to deal with guilt

65
Q

What evidence did Pollock & Hashmall find for minimalisation?

A

35% of sample of child molesters argued their crime was non-sexual 36% said victim consented

66
Q

AO3 cognitive - evidence - Palmer & Hollin

A

scale of 11 moral dilemma related questions - offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than non-offender (control)
- Blackburn argued this was due to lack of role play in childhood (app - role play opportunities to develop moral reasoning)

67
Q

AO3 cognitive - alternative theories (culture bias)

A

Gibbs revised Kohlberg’s theory has mature (guided by conscience) and immature (guided by reward/avoidance of punishment) reasoning - similar to conventional/pre-conventional stages - argued these should be abandoned as it is culturally biased and didn’t represent a maturational stage of cognitive development

68
Q

AO3 cognitive - application

A

understanding of cog distortions helped treat criminal behaviour through CBT as they ‘face up’ to behaviour with a less distorted view of their behaviour - found reducing denial/minimalisation correlated with reduced reoffending risk - accepting one’s crimes is a key feature of anger management - support from evidence it is linked to rehabilitation techniques

69
Q

AO3 cognitive - descriptive not explanatory

A

cognitive explanations are ‘after the fact’ theories, although useful for predicting reoffending, don’t give a lot of info for why offender committed crime in the first place

Forensic (3 decks)

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