Forensic Approach - Cognitive Approach

Question 1

What did Kolhberg do which as a first?

Answer 1

He was the first to apply moral reasoning to criminal behaviour

Question 2

What was the method of Kolhbergs experiment?

Answer 2

■ Method: 72 boys- 10, 13 and 16 years
Level 1: preconventional reasoning:
- An action is morally wrong if the person who commits it is punished as a result
- The right behaviour is the one that is in your best interest
Level 2: conventional reasoning:
- The right behaviour is the one that makes other people think positively about you
- It is important to obey laws and follow social conventions because they help society to function properly
Level 3: postconventional reasoning:
- The right course of action is the one that promotes the greatest good for all greatest number of people
- Actions are driven by abstract, universal principles of right and wrong, which do not depend on the situation

Question 3

What were Kolhbergs results

Answer 3

Kohlberg found that criminals have a lower level of moral reasoning than others
His research suggests that criminal don’t progress from the pre conventional level of moral reasoning
And that non criminals tend to be in the post conventional moral reasoning

Question 4

What are cognitive distortions?

Answer 4

Cognitive distortions are errors or biases in people’s informational processing characterised by irrational thinking
Distortions are a way of thinking so that reality has become twisted and what we perceive no longer represents what is actually true
The result is that a persons perception of events is wrong but they think it is accurate

Question 5

What did Gibbs (1995) say?

Answer 5

In the case of criminal behaviour - these distortions lead to offenders denying or rationalising their behaviour
Which. Can be categorised in 2 different ways: Hostile attribution bias and Minimisation

Question 6

What is hostile attribution bias?

Answer 6

The bias is that someone has a leaning to always the worst. In the case of criminals such negative interpretations can be linked to their agressive or violent behaviours
(as they think that someone is angry at their actions for no reason)

Question 7

Describe the study about hostile attribution bias by Wegrzny (2017)

Answer 7

62 males and 30 violent criminals +15 with a history of sexual abuse in children and 17 normal men
They were shown 20 ambiguous faces (10 men and 10 female) and asked the ppt to rate the rear and anger in the faces
The Violent criminals showed to have a hostile attribution bias as they rated faces as angry more often than the controls did and the sexual assault criminals

Question 8

Describe the study about hostile attribution bias by Schonberg and Justye (2014)

Answer 8

■ Method - Presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions and compared these results with a control group of non-offenders.
■ The faces showed angry, happy or fearful emotions in varying levels of intensity.
■ Findings - the violent offenders were more likely to perceive images as angry and hostile compared to the control group.

Question 9

Describe Dodge and Frame (1982)
What is it in support of?

Answer 9

Hostile attribution bias

■ Method: children were read five stories in which same sex peers caused an act of instrumental aggression but intention is ambiguous.
■ neither clearly hostile nor clearly accidental
■ Children asked a series of questions about intent and retaliation and punishment
■ Findings: aggressive boys responses contained attributions of hostile intent

Question 10

What may hostile attribution bias lead to in adolescents?

Answer 10

Over attribution of hostile intention of peers

Question 11

Explain the study about hostile attribution bias in adolescent boys leading to over attribution of hostile intentions to peers?

Answer 11

■ Method: study 1: 81 aggressive kindergarten up to 5th grade boys matched with non-aggressive peers.
- Found that biased attributions were implicated as a direct precedent to aggressive responses
■ Study 2: 80 of the same aggressive boys assessed the role of selective attention to and recall of hostile social cues.
- Found that selective recall of hostile cues did lead to biased attributions but did not fully account for differences between the boys

Question 12

What is minimisation?

Answer 12

A type of cognitive distortion where the consequences of your actions are downplayed/minimised so the offenders have reduced feelings of guilt

Question 13

Explain studies into minimisation?
(Positive evaluation)

Answer 13

■ Barbaree (1991) among 26 incarcerate rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence at all and 40% minimised the harm they had caused the victim.
■ Pollock and Hashmall (1991) – 35% of child molesters in their sample argued the crime they had committed was non- sexual and 36% claimed the victim had consented (86 offenders)
■ Together they found 21 distinct excuses for their behaviour

Question 14

How many stages of Kohlenberg’s criteria is there?

Answer 14

6

Question 15

Explain level 1 of Kohlenberg’s moral reasoning?

Answer 15

Level 1: Pre-conventional morality

Stage 1 punishment orientation:
Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment
Stage 2 instrumental orientation or personal gain:
Rules are obeyed for personal gain

Question 16

Explain level 2 of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning?

Answer 16

Level 2 Conventional morality:
Stage 3 ‘good boy’ or ‘good girl’ orientation:
Rules are obeyed for approval
Stage 4 maintenance of the social order:
Rules are obeyed to maintain the social order

Question 17

Explain level of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning

Answer 17

Level 3 Post-conventional morality:
Stage 5 morality of contract and individual rights
Rules are obeyed if they are impartial; democratic rules are challenged if they infringe on the rights of others
Stage 6 morality of conscience:
The individual establishes his or her own rules in accordance with a personal set of ethical principles

Question 18

What are the positive evaluations of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning?

Answer 18

Supporting evidence
Further evidence
Individual differences

Question 19

What are the negative evaluations of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning

Answer 19

Alternative theories
Kohlberg Vs Gilligan
Individual differences in moral reasoning

Question 20

Explain piaget’s theory?

Answer 20

Piaget’s theory suggests that child-like (criminal) moral reasoning is self-centred and ego-centric which overrides empathy and a concern for the needs a but as children develop their. Schemas develop to accommodate and assimilate new information. If this doesn’t happen it leads to an unpleasant sensation of disequilibrium which we try to escape by risky behaviour

Question 21

Explain the basis of Piagets study?

Answer 21

Piaget’s theory is based of a study where children were shown 2 stories of children being “naughty”

He found that younger children focused on the consequences of behaviour/amount of damage (the boy who broke 15 cups was naughtier) (moral realism)
Children aged around 10 and above saw the motivation or intent behind the “naughtiness” so these children said that the child who broke the cup whilst trying to steal was naughtier (moral relativism)

Question 22

What is moral realism?

Answer 22

When we focus on the amount of damage or behaviour when deciding if something was naughty

Question 23

What is moral relativism

Answer 23

When we look at the intent behind the results when deciding of something was naughty

Question 24

What is the first bit of supporting evidence for Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning

Answer 24

Piagets research

Question 25

What was the second bit of supporting research for Kohlberg’s moral reasoning?

Answer 25

Hollin and Palmer (1998):
■ Compared moral reasoning between 210 female non-offenders, 112 male non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure (SRM)
■ This contained 11 moral-dilemma related questions such as not taking things and keeping a promise to a friend.
■ The offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-delinquent groups.
■ Blackburn (1993) suggests this is due to their childhood lacking moral role-play opportunities which may have helped mature moral reasoning to develop.

Question 26

Explain the mixed evaluation of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning: Individual differences in moral reasoning

Answer 26

Thornton and Reid (1982):
■ pre-conventional moral reasoning:
Tends to be associate with crimes such as robbery, and criminals which didn’t think they would get caught, whereas impulsive crimes such as assault did not pertain to any type of reasoning.

■ Therefore, the level of moral reasoning may depend on the kind of offence committed.

■ Langdon et al. (2010) Intelligence as a Predictor of Criminality:
■ People with very low levels of intelligence as less likely to commit crimes but have lower levels of moral reasoning.

Question 27

Explain the negative evaluation of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning: Alternative theories

Answer 27

■ Gibbs (1979) Proposed two levels of moral reasoning – mature and immature
■ Level 1: avoidance of punishment and personal gain
■ Level 2: empathy, social justice and one’s own
conscience.
■ Maintained that Kohlberg’s post-conventional stage should be abandoned since it contains a Western cultural bias and does not represent a ‘natural’ maturational stage of development.

Question 28

Explain the negative evaluation of Kohlberg’s moral reasoning: Kohlberg Vs Gilligan

Answer 28

Gender bias – stated the principles were universal but only investigated moral reasoning in American males
- Gilligan – male morality is based on abstract principles (importance of justice) where as female morality is influenced by the ethic of care and responsibility for others
- Argued that the natural female tendency towards care would place women at a lower and less mature level of moral reasoning.

Question 29

Explain the positive evaluation of Cognitive distortion:

Answer 29

Practical Applications
■ Understandingthenatureofcriminaldistortions–proven beneficial in the treatment of criminal behaviour.
■ CBT–used to treat sexoffenders, encourages offenders to establish a less distorted view of their actions and ‘face up’ to what they have done.
■ Reducedriskofreoffending–linkedtoreducedincidenceof denial and minimalisation (acceptance of one’s crimes= important aspect of rehabilitation)

Question 30

What is social cognition

Answer 30

Social cognition is the idea that we make our decisions in how to behave based on our understanding of social situation

Question 31

What does inter and intra mean?

Answer 31

Intra - within
Inter - between

Question 32

Who and when was DAT created?

Answer 32

Sutherland (1939)

Question 33

What does DAT stand for?

Answer 33

Differentiated Association Theory

Question 34

What is DAT?

Answer 34

DAT is a SLT of crime which suggests that crime is learnt like any other behaviour through relationships and association

Question 35

What is unique about DAT?

Answer 35

This was the first theory that suggested that crime wasn’t genetically inherited but instead though learning and association

Question 36

Give an outline of the theory of DAT?

Answer 36

A child learns weather crime is desirable or undesirable
The children then learns which types of crime is acceptable and unacceptable in their community(pro criminal attitudes), as well as different methods from committing crime (learning criminal attitudes)

Question 37

Explain further into pro criminal attitudes

Answer 37

The degree to which local community supports or opposes criminal involvement determines the difference in crime rates from 1 area to another

The theory suggests that this is a type of conformity

The theory was extended to say that should be able to use maths to predict a probability that someone will predict a crime

Question 38

Explain further learning criminal attitudes?

Answer 38

Sutherland argued that the degree of frequency, length and personal meaning of such social associations will determine the degree of influence
If they are exposed to criminals and pro criminals attitudes, they may learn particular techniques for committing a crime

Question 39

What does DAT suggest the reason is for recidivism rates?

Answer 39

Operant Conditioning

Question 40

What does DAT suggest are reasons why children may commit crimes?

Answer 40

Disruptive childhood
Criminality in the family
Lower intelligence
Impulsiveness
Economic deprivation

Question 41

What are the positive evaluations of DAT?

Answer 41

Explanatory Power
General Supporting Evidence
Shift in focus
General agreement

Question 42

What are the negative evaluations of DAT?

Answer 42

Difficulty testing
Individual differences
Methodological Issues
The role of biological factors
Types of crime

Question 43

Explain the positive evaluation of DAT: Explanatory power

Answer 43

DAT has the ability to account for crime within all sectors of society.
Sutherland highlighted how white collar (1938) crimes such as fraud can also take place rather than simply focusing on working class crime.
Middle-class social groups who share deviant norms and values these people tend to do white colar crime (where else other theories suggest that crime is done by lower classes)

Question 44

Explain the positive evaluation of DAT: General Supporting evidence

Answer 44

Supported by Short (1955): 176 school children, using a questionnaire that measured delinquent behaviour and association with criminals.

■ Alarid et al. (2000) tested 1,153 criminals – found DAT was a good theory of crime – necessary for looking at the context of offending in predicting crime.
He found more consistency for males
■ Parental attachment is a significantly stronger predictor of female participation in violent crime.

Question 45

Explain the positive evaluation of DAT: Shift of Focus

Answer 45

Dysfunctional social circumstances and environments may be more to blame than dysfunctional people.
Such an approach has real world application – learning environments can be altered but genetics cannot. Therefore offers a more realistic solution to crime.

Question 46

Explain the positive evaluation of DAT: General Agreement

Answer 46

Most research suggests that family is crucial in determining whether the individual is likely to engage in offending.
■ If the family is seen to support criminal activity, making it seem legitimate and reasonable they become a major influence on child’s value system
■ Farrington et al. (2006) ■ Mednick et al. (1984)

Question 47

Explain the negative evaluation of DAT: Difficult to test

Answer 47

■ DAT is difficult to test despite the promise of providing a scientific, mathematical framework to predict future offending behaviours.
It aims to do the possible determine who will be a criminal with numbers
■ Theory is built on the assumption that offending behaviour will occur when pro-criminal values outweigh anti-criminal values but this will likely be different for everyone

Question 48

Explain the negative evaluation of DAT: Individual Differences

Answer 48

This theory suggests that all people from a crime riden background will become criminals

Question 49

Explain the negative evaluation of DAT: Methodological Issues

Answer 49

■ The data collected was correlational e.g. offenders may seek offenders as peers.
■ Cox et al (2014) – difficult to test this theory as learned and inherited influences are difficult to separate
■ Matssueda (1988) – this theory is vague and needs more testing. Need for concrete causal conditions and targets for controlling crime.
- Law differs in different societies/ cultures so it is hard to get cultural evidence

Question 50

Explain the negative evaluation of DAT: The Role of Biological Factors

Answer 50

Diathesis-stress model may be a better alternative to DAT as it takes into account vulnerability factors and social factors.

Question 51

Explain the negative evaluation of DAT: Type of Crime

Answer 51

Does not explain why most crimes are committed by young people – Newburn (2002) – 40% of offences are committed by young people under 21.
■ Does not explain individualistic crimes such as embezzlement or murder – individual and not influenced by others.
■ However, in 2014 there were 500 homicides but 400,000 burglaries.