Forensic Psychology Flashcards
Offender profiling
- Tool employed by the police to narrow down the list of likely suspects.
- Offender profiling is based on the idea that the characteristics of the offender can be deduced from details of the offence and crime scene.
Profiling methods of offender profiling
-Profiling methods vary, but usually involve careful scrutiny of the crime scene and analysis of evidence, including witness reports, in order to generate a
hypothesis about the probable characteristics of the offender (their age,
background, occupation etc.).
The Top-down approach
- Templates of organised offender and disorganised offender are pre-existing in the mind of the profiler.
- Evidence from the crime scene and other details of the crime/victim/context are then used to fit the offender into either of the pre-existing categories and determine the offender as one type or the other.
Organised Offenders
-These offenders show evidence of having planned the crime in advance; the victim is deliberately targeted and will often reveal the fact that the killer or rapist has a preference for a certain type of victim.
-They maintain a high level of control during the crime and operate with an almost
detached surgical precision.
-There is little evidence left behind at the scene of the crime.
Characteristics of organised offenders
-These offenders tend to be of above average intelligence, in a skilled,
professional occupation and are socially and sexually competent.
-They are often married and have children.
Disorganised offenders
- These offenders show little evidence of planning, suggesting the offence may have been spontaneous.
- The crime scene tends to reflect the impulsive nature of the attack, the body is usually left at the scene and there appears to have been very little control on the part of the offender.
Characteristics of disorganised offenders
-The offender tends to be of lower than average intelligence, be in unskilled
work or unemployed, and often have a history of sexual dysfunction or failed relationships.
-They tend to live alone and often relatively close to where the offence took place.
Top down approach evaluation
- Top-down profiling only applies to certain crimes (e.g. rape, arson, cult killings, and murders that involve macabre practices such as sadistic torture, dissection etc.). Common offences, such as burglary do not lend themselves to top-down profiling because the crime scene reveals very little about the offender.
- The organised or disorganised distinction was developed based on interviews with 36 serial killers in the USA. Critics have pointed out that this is too small and unrepresentative a sample upon which to base a typology system.
- Top-down profiling was developed based on interviews with 36 sexually motivates serial killers, including Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. Canter (2004) has argued that it is not valid to rely on self-report data from convicted serial killers when constructing a classification system.
- The organised or disorganised distinction is overly simplistic. Holmes (1989) suggests there are four types of serial killer; visionary serial killer (kill because God or the Devil is directing them to), mission serial killer (kill to eradicate a group of people they consider to be undesirable), hedonistic serial killer (kill for the thrill) and power serial killer (kill to have complete control over the victims).
- Canter et al. (2004) analysed data from 100 murders in the USA with reference to the characteristics thought to be typical of organised and disorganised killers. The findings did suggest evidence of a distinct organised type, however this was not the case for disorganised type which undermines the entire classification system.
The Bottom-up approach
-The bottom-up approach was developed in the UK, the aim of this approach is to generate a picture of the offender, including their likely characteristics,
routine behaviour, and social background.
-This is achieved through systematic
analysis of evidence left at the crime scene.
-The bottom-up approach does not begin with fixed typologies (as the top-down approach does), instead the profile is data-driven and emerges as the profiler engages in rigorous scrutiny of the
details of the offence.
-Bottom-up profiling is far more grounded in psychological theory than the top-down approach.
Investigative psychology
-The aim of investigative psychology is to establish behaviours that are likely to occur at certain crime scenes.
-This is done in order to create a statistical
database which then acts as a baseline for comparison.
- Specific details of an
offence can then be matched against this database in order to reveal
statistically probable details about the offender (their personal history, family background etc.).
- This can also help determine whether multiple offences are
linked and likely to have been committed by the same individual.
Interpersonal coherence
- The way in which an offender behaves at the crime scene, including how they
interact with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in everyday situations.
-This might tell the police how the offender relates to women more generally.
-The significance of time and place of the crime is also a key
variable and may indicate where the offender lives.
Example of interpersonal coherence
-For example, whilst some rapists want to control and humiliate their victim, others can be apologetic.
Forensic Awareness
-Forensic awareness
describes individuals who have made an attempt to ‘cover their tracks’ (i.e. hide the body/murder weapon or clean the crime scene).
-Their behaviour may
indicate that they have been the subject of police interrogation in the past, or even that the police already have their DNA or fingerprints on file.
Geographical profiling
-study of spatial behaviour in relation to crime and offenders. It focuses on the location of the crime as a clue to where the
offender lives, works and socialises.
Relevant data in geographical profiling
includes the crime scene,
local crime statistics, local transport, and geographical spread of similar crimes.
Assumptions of geographical profiling
- The assumption is that a serious offender will restrict their criminal activities to an area that they are familiar with, and the offender’s base will therefore be in the middle of the spatial pattern of their crime scenes.
- Earlier crimes are likely to be closer to the offender’s base than later crimes.
- As an offender becomes more confidence they will often travel further from their comfort zone.
Canter and Larkin (1993) on geographical profiling
- Canter and Larkin (1993) propose two models of offender behaviour: the marauder (who operates close to their home) and the commuter (who is likely to have travelled a distance away from their home).
- Crucially, though, the spatial pattern of their crime scenes will still form a circle around their home.
- This becomes more apparent the more offences that are committed.
Importance of spatial pattern for investigative psychology
-The spatial pattern of a crime can also tell the police whether the crime was planned or opportunistic, as well as other important facts about the offender such as their mode of transport, employment status, approximate age, etc.
Evaluation of Bottom-up approach
Strengths
+ Canter argues that bottom-up profiling is more scientific than top-down profiling because it is more grounded in evidence and psychological theory and less driven by speculation and hunches than top-down profiling.
+ Bottom-up profiling, unlike top-down profiling, can be applied to a wide variety of offences, such as burglary and theft, as well as murder and rape.
Evaluation of bottom up approach
Weaknesses
- There have been some significant failures when using bottom-up profiling. In 1992, 21 year old Rachel Nickell was stabbed 47 times and sexually assaulted in a frenzied attack on Wimbledon Common. In 2008, following examination of forensic evidence, Robert Napper was convicted of the murder. He had been ruled out early on in the initial investigation because he was several inches taller than the profile had claimed the offender would be.
- Copson (1995) surveyed 48 police forces and found that the advice provided by a profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases, but in only 3% of cases did it lead to the accurate identification of the offender.
- Kocsis et al. (2002) found that chemistry students produced a more accurate offender profile than experienced senior detectives. This implies that the bottom-up approach is little more than common sense and guess work.
What was Cesare lombroso’s approach to offending?
- He wrote a book called L’Huomo Delinquente in which he suggested that criminals were genetic throwbacks,
What are genetic throwbacks?
A primitive sub-species who were biologically different from non-criminals.
How were offenders seen by Lombroso?
- he saw offenders as lacking evolutionary development and that their savage and untamed nature recent that they would find it impossible to adjust to civilised society and would eventually turn to crime.
- he saw criminal behaviour as a natural tendency, rooted in the genealogy of those who engage in it.
What was the atavistic form?
- Lombroso argued that the criminal sub-species could be identified by a set of particular physiological characteristics that were linked to particular types of crime.
Atavistic
Reversion to something ancestral
Biologically determined Atavistic characteristics
- mainly features of the face and head, which indicate that criminals are physically different.
What were the atavistic form cranial characteristics?
- Narrow sloping brow
- Strong prominent jaw
- High cheekbones
- facial asymmetry
- dark skin
- extra toes, nipples or fingers
Characteristics of murderers
- bloodshot eyes,
- curly hair
- long ears.
Characteristics of sexual deviants
- Sexual deviants as having glinting eyes
- swollen/fleshy lips
- projecting ears
Characteristics of fraudsters
- Lips were thin and ‘reedy’
Characteristics aside from physical traits of born criminals
- insensitivity to pain,
- use of criminal slang,
- tattoos
- unemployment.
Lombroso study on Atavistic Form
- Lombroso meticulously examined the facial and cranial features of Italian convicts, both living and dead, and proposed that the atavistic form was associated with a number of physical anomalies which were key indicators of criminality.
- In total, Lombroso examined the skulls of 383 dead criminals and 3839 living ones, and concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by the criminal subculture.
Strengths of Atavistic Form.
The Atavistic Form had an important role in the shift away from theories based on feeble-mindedness, wickedness and demonic possession. It was the forerunner to more biological explanations (that of evolutionary influences and genetics).
Weaknesses of atavistic form
- Several critics have drawn attention to the distinct racist undertones in Lombroso’s work. Many of the features he described as atavistic (dark skin and curly hair) are most likely to be found in people of African descent. His claim that atavistic characteristics were uncivilized, savage and primitive supported the eugenic philosophy.
- Goring (1913) set out to establish if there were any physical or mental abnormalities among the criminal classes. After conducting a comparison of 3,000 criminals and 3,000 non-criminals he concluded that there was no evidence that offenders had particular facial and cranial characteristics. However, he did suggest that criminals are more likely to have a below average intelligence.
- Lombroso did not compare his criminal sample to a non-criminal control group. If he had done then the differences he reported may have disappeared.
- Even if criminals have atavistic characteristics this not necessarily mean that these characteristics cause their criminal behaviour. Facial and cranial features can be influenced by poverty and poor diet, which can also lead people to crime.
Genetic explanations for crime
Genetic explanations for crime suggest that would-be offenders inherit a gene, or combination of genes, that predisposes them to commit crime.
Lange(1930) study on genetic explanations to crime.
- Lange (1930) investigated 13 monozygotic (identical) twins and 17 dizygotic (non-identical) twins.
- At least one of the twins in each pair had served time in prison.
- 10 of the 13 pairs of monozygotic twins had both spent time in prison, whereas only 2 of the 17 pairs of dizygotic twins had both spent time in prison.
What is the link of genes to criminal behaviour?
- criminal behaviour could be polygenic
- This means many genes might be responsible for causing criminal behaviour; and they are known as, candidate genes.
Polygenic
No one single gene is responsible for causing offending behaviour
Tilhonen et al (2014) study on genes linking to crime
- He conducted a genetic analysis of over 900 Finnish offenders which revealed abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with violent crime.
- The first was the MAOA gene, which controls dopamine and serotonin in the brain and has been linked to aggressive behaviour.
- The second was the CDH13 gene, this gene has been linked to substance abuse and attention deficit disorder.
- Within the Finnish sample individuals with this high-risk combination of genes were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour compared to a control group.
What is the diathesis- stress model?
- genetics influence criminal behaviour but this is at moderated by the effects of the environment.
- A tendency towards criminal behaviour may come through a combination of genetic predisposition and biological or psychological triggers, such as being raised in a dysfunctional environment.
Neural explanations
- Evidence suggests there may be neural differences in the brains of criminals and non-criminals.
- Much of the evidence in this area has investigated individuals diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder (APD).
- APD is associated with reduced emotional responses and a lack of empathy, a condition that characterises many convicted criminals.
How are the brains of people with APD different to others?
- There are several dozen brain-imaging studies demonstrating that individuals with anti-social personalities have reduced activity in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain.
- This is the brain area that regulates emotional behaviour.
- Raine et al. (2000) found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to a control group.
Keysers study on APD
- Keysers et al. (2011) found that only when criminals were asked to empathise (with a person on a film experiencing pain) did their empathy reaction (controlled by mirror neurons in the brain) activate.
- This suggests that APD individuals are not totally without empathy but may have a neural switch that needs to be turned on in order to experience it.
- In a normal brain the empathy switch is permanently switched on.
Evaluation of genetic and neural explanations
- Concordance rates in MZ twins are not high and leave plenty of room for non- genetic environmental factors. Concordance rates may be due to shared learning experiences rather than genetics.
- Brain scanning studies (such as Raine et al., 2000) show pathology in brains of criminal psychopaths, but cannot conclude whether these abnormalities are genetic or signs of early abuse.
- The term ‘offending behaviour’ is too vague. Some specific forms of crime may be more biological than others e.g. physical aggression.
- The genetic and neural explanation of criminal behaiour is an example of biological reductionism. Criminality is complex and explanations that reduce offending behaviour to a gene or imbalanced neurotransmitter may be inappropriate and overly simplistic. Criminal behaviour does seem to run in families, but so does emotional instability, mental illness, social deprivation and poverty. Twin studies never show 100% concordance rates in monozygotic twins, so genetics cannot be the only explanation for criminal behaviour.
- The genetic and neural explanation of criminal behaviour is also an example of biological determinism. This presents us with a dilemma for our legal system. If someone has a criminal gene they cannot have personal and moral responsibility for their crime. If this is the case it would be unethical to punish someone who does not have free will.
What is the general personality theory?
- According to Eysenck (1947) our personality traits are biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit from our parents.
- Therefore, all personality types, including the criminal personality type, have an innate, biological basis.
Dimensions that behaviour can be represented
- introverstion/ extraversion and neuroticism/stability.
- The two dimensions combine to form a variety of personality traits.
- Eysenck later added a third dimension – psychoticism.
What are extraverts like?
- Have an underactive nervous system so they are constantly seeking excitement, and stimulation, and may engage in risk-taking behaviour.
- They are difficult to condition and so do not learn from their mistakes
What are neurotic individuals like?
Neurotic individuals tend to be nervous, jumpy and over-anxious, and their general instability means their behaviour is often difficult to predict.
What is the criminal personality type?
- Neurotic-extravert
- Combination of characteristics and behaviours of extroversion and neuroticism
- Also scored high on psychoticism ( cold, unemotional and prone to aggression)
How is Eysenck’s personality theory linked to criminal behaviour via socialisation?
- Eysenck saw criminal behaviour as developmentally immature in that it is selfish and concerned with immediate gratification.
- During socialisation children are taught to delay gratification and be socially orientated.
Why are people with extraversion and neuroticism more likely to act antisocially?
- They have nervous systems that made them difficult to condition, as a result they will not learn easily to respond to their anti-social impulses with anxiety.
Eysenck personality inventory
- It is a psychological test which locates respondents along the extraversion and neuroticism dimensions to determine their personality type.
- A later scale was introduced that is used to measure psychoticism.
Evaluation of Eysenck’s Theory
- Farrington et al. (1982) reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score higher on psychoticism, but NOT on extraversion and neuroticism, than non-offenders.
- The idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by a single personality type has been heavily criticised as being simplistic. Crime is too varied and complex a behaviour to be due to one single personality type, the type of individual who commits murder is likely to be very different to one who commits fraud.
- Eysenck ‘s theory is out of step with modern personality theory. Digman’s (1990) Five Factor Model of personality suggests that openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness are important personality dimensions, in addition to extraversion and neuroticism. Using this model multiple combinations are available.
- Bartol and Holanchock (1979) looked into cultural differences. They studied Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York and divided them into six groups based on their criminal history and the nature of their offences. All six groups were found to be LESS extravert than non-criminal control groups. This means Eysenck’s theory could be culturally biased.
- Eysenck’s theory is based on the idea that it is possible to measure personality through psychological tests. Critics have argued that personality may not be
reducible to a score in this way. Many psychologists believe there is no such thing as stable personality, on a daily basis people’s personality changes depending who they are with and the situation they are in.
What are the cognitive explanations to criminal behaviour?
Moral reasoning and cognitive distortions
Moral reasoning
- Moral reasoning refers to the process by which an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong.
- Kohlberg (1973) proposed that the quality of people’s judgments of right and wrong can be summarised by a stage theory of moral development .
What were the stage theory of moral development based off of?
They were based off of people’s responses to moral dilemmas .
What level are offenders moral reasoning at?
- Pre conventional level
- Means that the person is punishment orientated and reward orientated
Punishment orientated
Reasoning based on whether or not the act will lead to punish or not
Reward orientated
Reasoning based on what can be gained
Evaluation of moral reasoning
+ Palmer and Hollin (1998) compared moral reasoning between 210 female non- offenders, 122 male non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using 11 moral dilemmas, such as not taking things that belong to others. The offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offenders.
- The level of moral reasoning may depend on the type of offence. Thornton and Reid (1982) found that individuals who committed crimes for financial gain, such as robbery, were more likely to show pre-conventional reasoning than those convicted of impulsive crimes (such as assault), where no reasoning was evident.
Cognitive distortions
Cognitive distortions are faulty and irrational ways of thinking that make people perceive themselves, other people and the world inaccurately, and often negatively.
Types of cognitive distortions
Hostile attribution bias
Minimalisation
Hostile attribution bias
- It is tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of others, as aggressive and/or threatening when in reality they are not.
- Offenders may misread non-aggressive cues and this may trigger a disproportionate, often violent, response.
- Hostile attribution bias can lead to the offender blaming the victim for having ‘started it’.
Minimalisation
- It is when a criminal believes that their crime was trivial and downplays the impact of their crime on their victims.
- This is a common strategy that people use when attempting to avoid feeling guilt.
- Offenders often use euphemisms for their offences, e.g. a burglar may say they have been ‘doing a job’.
- Sex offenders are in particular prone to minimalisation.
Strengths of cognitive distortions
Understanding the nature of cognitive distortions has proven beneficial in the treatment of criminal behaviour. The dominant approach in the rehabilitation of sex offenders is cognitive behavioural therapy. This encourages offenders to ‘face up’ to what they have done and establish a less distorted view of their actions. A reduced incidence of cognitive distortions in therapy is highly correlated with a reduced risk of offending.
Weaknesses of cognitive distortions
- One key failing with the cognitive approach is that, whilst it explains thinking, it cannot account for the source of of these thoughts (is it nature or nurture?). - Cognitive distortions cannot be observed or measured. This means the cognitive explanation of criminal behaviour is not scientific.
What is the differential association theory?
- This explanation of offending proposes that offending depends on the norms/values of the offender’s social group.
- Offending is more likely to occur where the social group values deviant behaviour.
How does differential association work?
- When a person is socialised into a social group they will be exposed to the group’s norms and values towards the law.
- Some groups will be pro-crime, some will be anti-crime.
- Sutherland (1924) argues that if the number of pro-criminal attitudes that a person comes into contact with out-weigh the number of anti- criminal attitudes then they will become an offender.
What is the learning process of differential association?
Learning can occur through imitation, vicarious reinforcement, direct reinforcement or direct tuition from criminal peer
How does differential psychology relate to forensic psychology?
Differential association suggests that it should be possible to mathematically predict how likely it is that someone will commit crime, if we have knowledge of the frequency, intensity and duration of which they have been exposed to criminal and non-criminal norms and values.
Aside from pro-criminal attitudes, what else affects whether someone will commit crimes?
- Learning techniques for committing crime (picking locks or hot wiring cars)
- Sutherland (1924) can account for why so many convicts released from prison go on to reoffend.
- It is reasonable to assume that whilst in prison inmates will learn specific offending from more experienced criminals that they then put into practice upon their release.
Strengths of differential association theory
\+ This theory is able to account for crime within all sectors of society. While Sutherland (1924) recognised that some types of crime, such as burglary, may be clustered within inner-city, working class communities, it is also the case that some crimes are most prevalent among affluent groups. White-collar (sometimes referred to as corporate crime) is a feature of middle-class social groups. \+ Sutherland was successful in moving the emphasis away from early biological explanations of crime (i.e. Lombroso) and those explanations which saw offending as being the product of individual weakness or immorality. Differential association theory draws attention to the role of dysfunctional social circumstances and environments in criminality. \+ Differential association theory offers a more desirable and realistic solution to offending behaviour than the biological solution (eugenics) or the morality solution (punishment).
Weaknesses of differential association theory
- Differential association theory is difficult to test scientifically, most of the evidence to support it is correlational (does not demonstrate cause and effect). How can the pro-crime attitudes a person has been exposed to be measured? Similarly, the theory is built on the assumption that offending behaviour will occur when pro-criminal values outnumber anti-criminal ones. However, without being able to measure these values, it is difficult to know at what point the urge to offend will trigger a criminal career.
- Not everyone who is exposed to criminal influences goes on to commit crime. There is a danger that this theory could stereotype individuals who come from impoverished, crime-ridden backgrounds as ‘unavoidably criminal’. The theory ignores the fact that people might choose not to offend despite criminal influences, in other words it ignore people’s free will. For example, offenders may seek out people with criminal values rather than being passively influenced by them.
What components make up the personality in the psychodynamic explanations of criminality?
id
ego
superego
What is the id?
The id
operates on the pleasure principle; it wants immediate gratification regardless of morality.
What is the ego?
- The ego mediates between the impulsive demands of the id with the reality of the external world, it therefore operates on the reality principle.
- It may delay the gratification that the id wants until there is a more appropriate opportunity to satisfy its demands.
- The ego must also compromise between the impulsive demands of the id and the moralistic demands of the superego.
What is the superego?
- The superego operates on the morality principle, it contains our conscience, the internalisation of societal rules.
- It determines which behaviours are morally
acceptable and causes feelings of guilt when rules are broken, or pride when we exhibit moral behaviour.
What is the Oedipus complex?
- It occurs during the formation of the superego during the phallic stage of psychosexual development at 3-6 years old.
- The male child unconsciously wishes to possess their mother and get rid of their father.
- They then experience castration anxiety.
What is castration anxiety?
Boys fear that their father will remove their penis to punish them for their desire of their mother.
What occurs due to castration anxiety?
The child will identify with their father in an attempt to resolve the anxiety, and will eventually internalise their father’s superego, creating their own.
Why is a girls superego not s well developed as a mans?
-Girls go through a similar process, called the Electra complex, but because they do not have castration anxiety, they do not internalise their mother’s superego to the same extent, and so their own superego is less well developed than a male
superego.
What happens if there is an inadequate superego?
Blackburn (1993) argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the id is not properly
controlled.
Three types of inadequate superego?
Weak superego
Deviant superego
Over-harsh superego
Weak superego
-If the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic
stage, the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego because there is no opportunity for identification.
-This would make offending behaviour likely.
Deviant superego
If the superego that the child internalises has
immoral or deviant values this can lead to offending behaviour.
Overharsh superego
- A healthy superego has rules, but is also forgiving of transgressions.
- An excessively punitive superego means an individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety.
- This may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.
Evaluation of inadequate superego
- An assumption of the Psychodynamic approach is the idea that girls develop a weaker superego than boys. The implication is that females should be more prone to criminal behaviour. This is simply not supported by crime statistics.
- Hoffman (1975) tested children’s ability to resist temptation. He found hardly any gender difference, although girls were slightly more moral than boys.
- There is very little evidence that children raised without a same-sex parent are less law-abiding as adults (or have less of a conscience).
- If children raised by deviant parents go on to commit crime themselves this could be due to genetics or learning rather than a deviant superego.
- The idea that some criminals have an unconscious desire for punishment is implausible, most offenders go to great lengths to conceal their crime and so avoid punishment.
What is custodial sentencing?
Custodial sentencing involves a convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution, such as a young offenders institute or psychiatric hospital.
What are the aims of custodial sentencing?
- Deterrence
- Incapacitation
- Retribution
- Rehabilitation
Deterrence as an aim of custodial sentencing?
- The unpleasant experience is designed to put an individual off engaging in offending behaviour in the future.
- Deterrence works on two levels: general deterrence and Individual deterrence
General deterrence
Aims to send a broad message to members of a society that crime will not be tolerated
Individual detterence
Prevents the individual from repeating the same crime.
Incapacitation as an aim of custodial sentencing
- The offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending as a means of protecting the public.
- The need for incapacitation depends upon the severity of the offence and the nature of the offender.
Retribution as an aim of custodial sentencing
- Society is enacting revenge for the crime by making the
offender suffer, and the level of suffering should be proportionate to the crime.
Rehabilitation as an aim of custodial sentencing
- Upon release, prisoners should be better adjusted and
ready to take their place in society. - Prison should provide opportunities to develop skills, receive training or to access treatment programs for addiction, as well as receive counselling and have an opportunity to reflect on their crime.
What are the psychological effects of custodial sentencing
- Psychological disorders
- Institutionalisation
- Brutalisation
- Labelling
Psychological disorders as an effect of custodial sentencing
- Prisons have higher incidences of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicide, and low self- esteem.
- A study by the Prison Reform Trust (2014) found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms of psychosis.
- The oppressive prison regime can trigger psychological disorders.
Institutionalisation as an effect of custodial sentencing
Spending time in prison leads to a lack of autonomy,
conformity to the role of prisoner and a dependency on prison culture.
Brutalisation as an effect of custodial sentencing
- Prison acts as a school for crime and reinforces criminal
lifestyle and criminal norms. - This leads to high recidivism, 70% of young
offenders re-offend within two years.
Labelling as an effect of custodial sentencing
- Prisoners often lose touch with previous social contacts and find it difficult to gain employment because they are labelled as a criminal.
Strength of custodial sentencing
Custodial sentencing can be useful. It shows that justice has been done and limits the danger to the public. Many prisoners access education and training whilst in prison, increasing the chance they will find employment upon release. Also, treatment programmes, such as anger management therapy and social skills training may help offenders modify their behaviour and so avoid reoffending.
Weaknesses of custodial sentencing
- Suicide rates are 15% higher in the prison population than they are in the general population. However, it is difficult to demonstrate that psychological disorders are caused by imprisonment. Prisoners with psychiatric conditions may very well have had problems before they were institutionalised in the first place.
- The courts need to be selective about who they send to prison, 8–10% of criminals commit 50% of all crimes (Peterson 1981). Custodial sentencing is best reserved for repeat offenders.
- Crime prevention is more effective than custodial sentencing because it avoids labelling a person as a criminal and also avoids the negative consequences of prison. Alternative sentences, such as community service, are more effective for low-risk offenders because they can keep their social contacts and their job.
- David and Raymond (2000) completed a review of custodial sentencing and concluded that government ministers often exaggerate the benefits of prison in order to appear tough on crime. They suggested that, in reality, prison does little to deter or rehabilitate offenders. It is done to appease the public or as an act of retribution
Behaviour modification
- It is a behavioural therapy based on principles of operant conditioning.
- It involves the systematic use of positive and negative reinforcement for desired behaviours.
What is a token economy?
- Token economy is a form of behaviour modification used in prisons.
- Desirable behaviour is reinforced with a token, which can be exchanged for some form of reward.
- Desirable behaviour in prison is likely to include avoiding conflict, following prison rules, keeping your cell orderly etc.
What are the reinforcers in this method.
Tokens are secondary reinforcers because they can be exchanged for a reward (the primary reinforcers).
What could the rewards in the prisons be?
The rewards that tokens can be exchanged for vary from prison to prison, they may include a phone call to a loved one, time in the gym, access to a computer, extra cigarettes, or extra food.
What happens if prisoners are being non-compliant or disobedient?
They will have their tokens withheld (negative punishment)
How does the token economy work?
- As with all behaviour modification programmes, the desirable behaviour is identified (e.g. avoiding conflict) and then broken down into smaller steps, called increments.
- All those who come into contact with the offender must follow the same regime of selective reinforcement, a particular prisoner is rewarded for particular actions.
- The whole programme is overseen by a prison official who is able to monitor the programme’s effectiveness on the management of the prison as a whole, as well as on the behaviour of individual offenders.
Strengths of behaviour modification
Token economy is easy to administer, it does not require expert professionals or specialised equipment. Rather, it can be implemented by virtually anyone in the prison. Token economy is also cost-effective and easy to follow once the method of reinforcement has been established.
Weaknesses of token economy
- Token economy doesn’t work if staff are not consistent. Sometimes lack of appropriate training or high staff turnover make consistency problematic.
- Behaviour modification can only be used in controlled environment. Any positive behavioural change that occurs while the prisoner is incarcerated are quickly lost once the prisoner is released. This is because law-abiding behaviour is not always reinforced on the outside and the rewards that result from breaking the law may be powerful. It could also be because offenders are merely ‘playing along’ with the scheme to get the rewards, and not really learning to change their behaviour.
- Critics of token economy have suggested that it is unethical. In some prisons participation in the scheme is obligatory. Although ultimately the offender can decide whether or not to obey the rules or break them, the withdrawal of privileges such as exercise and contact with loved ones can be physically and psychologically harmful.
- Behaviour modification only deals with surface behaviour. Other treatments go deeper and require offenders to reflect on the cause of their offending and take responsibility for their rehabilitation.
What is the link of cognitive behavioural therapy to anger in people?
- Novaco (1975) suggests that cognitive factors trigger the emotional arousal which usually precedes aggressive acts.
- His argument is that, in some people, anger is too quick to surface, especially in situations that they perceive to be threatening but actually are not (hostile attribution bias).
Anger management as a form of CBT?
The individual is taught how to recognise when they are losing control, and encouraged to develop techniques which bring about conflict-resolution without resorting to violence.
The three phases of anger management
- Cognitive Preparation
- Skill Acquisition
- Application practice
Cognitive preparation as a phase of anger management
- The offender learns to identify the triggers for their anger.
- They reflect on events in the past when they became angry.
- They consider if the way that they interpreted those events was rational.
- The therapist’s role is to help the offender redefine the situation as non- threatening.
- For example, an offender might interpret someone looking at them as threatening, but in actual fact the person ‘looking’ at them was just lost in thought.
Skill acquisition as a phase of anger management
- The offender is introduced to a range of techniques and skills to help them handle anger-provoking situations more rationally.
- Techniques could be cognitive (positive self-talk to encourage calmness); behavioural (assertiveness training to communicate more effectively); or physiological (methods of relaxation and meditation).
Application practice as a phase of anger management
- The offender is given the opportunity to practise
the skills they learned in the skill acquisition stage in a carefully monitored environment. - Role plays are often used to re-enact scenarios that in the past led to the offender committing an act of violence.
- The offender must take this seriously and see the scenario as real, and the therapist has to be brave and ‘wind up’ the offender.
- Successful negotiation of the role play will be met with positive reinforcement from the therapist.
Strengths of anger management
+ Anger management is a multidisciplinary approach (cognitive, behavioural and social elements are included) which acknowledges that offending is a complex social and psychological behaviour, and any attempt to address it must include these different elements.
+ Unlike behaviour modification, anger management tries to get to the root cause of offending behaviour (the thought processes that lead to anger/violence), rather than focusing on superficial surface behaviour.
Weaknesses of anger management
- The assumption that anger causes offending may be false. Many crimes, such as financial crime, are not motivated by anger. Even murder is not always motivated by anger, Harold Shipman murdered over 215 of his patients during his time working as a GP, and his motivation was to alleviate their suffering.
- Anger management programmes are expensive to run as they require a highly trained specialist who is used to dealing with violent offenders. Many prisons do not have the resources to run such programmes.
- The success of anger management is based on the commitment of those who participate, and this is a problem if prisoners are uncooperative or apathetic.
What is restorative justice?
- Restorative justice programmes switch the emphasis from the needs of the state (to enforce the law and punish criminals) to the needs of the victim (to
come to terms with crime and move on with their lives). - Victims are encouraged to take an active role in the punishment of the offender, and offenders are
required to take responsibility for their actions and face up to what they have done to their victim.
Process of restorative justice
- Restorative justice is a process of managed collaboration between the offender and the victim based on the principles of healing and empowerment.
- A trained mediator facilitates a meeting between the offender and the victim.
- The victim is given the opportunity to confront the offender and explain how the crime affected them.
- The offender is confronted with the consequences of their
actions, including the emotional distress they have caused the victim.
Key features of all restorative justice programmes
- Focus on acceptance of responsibility and positive change for offenders (less emphasis on punishment).
- Not restricted to courtrooms, survivors (seen as more empowering than ‘victims’) and offenders meet face-to-face in a non-courtroom setting.
- Active rather than passive involvement of all parties in the process.
- Focus on positive outcomes for survivors and offenders.
What may occur in some variations of restorative justice?
- In some variations of restorative justice offenders make financial restitution for the physical and emotional damage they have done.
- Offenders sometimes even repair damaged property themselves.
Alternatives to Custodial sentencing
Restorative justice can function as an alternative to custodial sentences, especially if the offender is young, as an additional to community service, or as an incentive to reduce an existing custodial sentence.
Strengths of restorative justice
+ Shapland et al. (2007) conducted a government funded research project and found that every £1 spent on restorative justice would save the criminal justice
system £8 by reducing recidivism. However, because restorative justice requires specialist and highly trained professionals it is very expensive and finding funding has proved challenging.
Weaknesses of restorative justice
- The success of restorative justice relies on the offender showing remorse. Some offenders might sign up for the scheme to avoid prison, or reduce their sentence, rather than from a genuine willingness to change. This could explain the high dropout rates in restorative justice, offenders often change their mind because they were not committed to the process in the first place.
- Victims may have an ulterior motive for agreeing to take part in restorative justice, they may simply want to seek revenge.
- The organisation ‘Women’s Aid’ has called for an end to the use of restorative justice in domestic abuse cases because the offender can exploit this opportunity to convince the victim to take them back. Abusers often have a lot of power over their victims and so a meeting between them could be dangerous.
- Restorative justice is unpopular with the general public because it is regarded as a ‘soft option’. This means that politicians are unwilling to support it because they want to please the electorate by seeming ‘tough on crime’.
