Forensic Psychology

Question 1

Offender Profiling

Answer 1

Used to narrow down the list of likely suspects.

Based on the idea that characteristics of the offender can be deduced from details of the offence and crime scene.

Profiling methods 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.

Question 2

The Top-Down Approach

Answer 2

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 are used to fit the offender into either of the two pre-existing categories, and determine the offender as one type or the other.

Question 3

Organised Offenders

Answer 3

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.

Tend to have above average intelligence, in a skilled, professional occupation and are socially and sexually competent.

They are often married and have children.

Question 4

Disorganised Offenders

Answer 4

Show little evidence of planning, suggesting the offence may have been spontaneous.

The crime scene tends to reflect the impulsive nature of the attack and the body is usually left at the scene

Tend to be of lower than average intelligence, 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.

Question 5

Evaluation of the top down approach to offender profiling

Answer 5

Disadvantages:

1) Top-down profiling only applies to certain crimes (e.g. murder). Common offences, e.g burglary do not lend themselves to top-down profiling because the crime scene reveals very little about the offender.

2) 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.

3) Top-down profiling was developed based on interviews with 36 sexually motivates serial killers. Canter argued that it is not valid to rely on self-report data from convicted serial killers when constructing a classification system.

4) The organised or disorganised distinction is overly simplistic. Holmes suggests there are four types of serial killer; visionary, mission, hedonistic, and power

5) Canter analysed data from 100 murders in the USA. 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.

Question 6

The Bottom-Up Approach

Answer 6

Aim - 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.

This approach does not begin with fixed typologies. 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.

Question 7

Investigative Psychology

Answer 7

Aim - to establish behaviours that are likely to occur at certain crime scenes.

This is done to create a statistical database which then acts as a baseline for comparison. Specific details of an offence can be matched against this database to reveal statistically probable details about the offender. This can also help determine whether multiple offences are linked and likely to have been committed by the same individual.

The way in which an offender behaves at the crime scene (e.g 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.

Forensic awareness describes individuals who have made an attempt to ‘cover their tracks’. 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.

Question 8

Geographical Profiling

Answer 8

The study of spatial behaviour in relation to crime and offenders.

Focuses on the location of the crime as a clue to where the offender lives, works and socialises.

Relevant data includes the crime scene, local crime statistics, local transport, and geographical spread of similar crimes.

The assumption is that a serious offender will restrict their criminal activities to a familiar area, and the offender’s base is 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 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). 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.

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.

Question 9

Evaluation of Bottom-Up Approach

Answer 9

Advantages:

+ 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.

Disadvantages:

• There have been some significant failures when using bottom-up profiling. In 1992, Rachel Nickell was stabbed 47 times and sexually assaulted. 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 surveyed 48 police forces and found that the advice provided by a profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases, but only lead to the accurate identification of the offender in 3% of cases
• Kocsis et al. 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.

Question 10

Historical Approach to Offending

Answer 10

• Lombroso wrote a book in which he suggested that criminals were genetic throwbacks - a primitive sub-species who were biologically different from non-criminals.
• Offenders were seen by Lombroso as lacking evolutionary development. Their savage and untamed nature meant that they would find it impossible to adjust to the demands of civilized society and would inevitably turn to crime.
• Lombroso saw criminal behaviour as a natural tendency, rooted in the genealogy of those who engage in it.

Question 11

Atavistic Form (Lombroso)

Answer 11

atavistic - reversion to something ancestral

Criminal sub-species could be identified by particular physiological characteristics that were linked to particular types of crime.

These were biologically determined atavistic characteristics (mainly features of the face and head) which indicate that criminals are physically different from the rest of us.

In terms of cranial characteristics, the atavistic form included a narrow, sloping brow, a strong prominent jaw, high cheekbones and facial asymmetry.

Murders were described as having bloodshot eyes, curly hair, and long ears.

Sexual deviants as having glinting eyes and projecting ears.

Lips of fraudsters were thin and ‘reedy’.

Other than physical traits Lombroso also suggested other characteristics of the born criminal, including insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, tattoos and unemployment.

Lombroso examined the facial and cranial features of living and dead Italian convicts and proposed that the atavistic form was associated with a number of physical anomalies which were indicators of criminality. 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.

Question 12

Evaluation of Atavistic Form

Answer 12

Advantages:
+ 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

Disadvantages:
- Several critics have drawn attention to the distinct racist undertones in Lombroso’s work. Many of the features he described as atavistic (e.g. 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 wanted 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.

Question 13

Genetic explanations for crime (AO1) - Introduction + Lange investigation

Answer 13

• would-be offenders inherit a gene/combination of genes, that predisposes them to commit crime.

Lange:
- investigated 13 mz twins and 17 dz twins.
- At least one of the twins in each pair had served time in prison.
- 10 out of 13 pairs of mz twins had both spent time in prison, whereas only 2 of the 17 pairs of dz twins had both spent time in prison.

Question 14

Genetic explanations for crime (AO1) - polygenetic and Tilhonen study

Answer 14

Criminal behaviour could be polygenic, meaning no single gene is responsible for offending. Instead, many genes might be responsible for causing criminal behaviour (candidate genes)

Tilhonen et al. conducted a genetic analysis of over 900 Finnish offenders. This revealed abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with violent crime.

These were:
- the MAOA gene - controls dopamine and serotonin in the brain and has been linked to aggressive behaviour.

-The CDH13 gene- has been linked to substance abuse and attention deficit disorder.

In 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.

Question 15

Genetic explanations for crime (AO1) - the DSM

Answer 15

The DSM states that genetics influence criminal behaviour but this is moderated by the effects of the environment.

A tendency towards criminal behaviour may come through a combination of genetic predisposition and biological/psychological triggers. E.g being raised in a dysfunctional environment.

Question 16

Neural Explanations

Answer 16

1)
Evidence suggests that 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 is associated with reduced emotional responses and a lack of empathy, a condition that characterises many convicted criminals.

There are several brain-imaging studies which show that individuals with anti-social personalities have reduced activity in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain (regulates emotional behaviour)

Raine et al. found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to a control group.

2)
Recent research has suggested that criminals with APD can experience empathy but that they do so more sporadically than the rest of us.

Keysers et al. :
- found that only when criminals were asked to empathise (with a person on a film experiencing pain) did their empathy reaction activate.
- This suggests that APD individuals are not 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.

Question 17

Evaluation of Genetic and Neural Explanations

Answer 17

Disadvantages

1) 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.

2) Brain scanning studies (e.g Raine et al) show pathology in brains of criminal psychopaths, but cannot conclude whether these abnormalities are genetic or signs of early abuse.

3) The term ‘offending behaviour’ is too vague. Some specific forms of crime may be more biological than others e.g. physical aggression.

4) 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 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 mz twins, so genetics cannot be the only explanation for criminal behaviour.

5) The genetic and neural explanation of criminal behaviour is an example of biological determinism. This presents 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.

Question 18

Eysenck’s Theory of the Criminal Personality - General Personality Theory

Answer 18

Eysenck suggested that behaviour could be represented along two dimensions: introversion/ extraversion and neuroticism/stability.

The two dimensions combine to form a variety of personality traits.

He later added a third dimension – psychoticism

According to Eysenck 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.

Extraverts 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.

Neurotic individuals tend to be nervous and over-anxious, and their general instability means their behaviour is often difficult to predict.

Question 19

Criminal Personality

Answer 19

The criminal personality type is neurotic-extravert (A combination of all of the characteristics and behaviours of extraversion and neuroticism).

Eysenck suggested a typical offender will also score highly on psychoticism – cold, unemotional and prone to aggression.

In Eysenck’s theory, personality is 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. Eysenck believed that people with high extraversion and neuroticism scores had 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. Consequently they are more likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity presents itself.

Eysenck developed the Eysenck Personality Inventory, 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.

Question 20

Evaluation of Eysenck’s Theory

Answer 20

Disadvantages:
1) Farrington et al. reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score higher on psychoticism, but NOT on extraversion and neuroticism, than non-offenders.

2) The idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by a single personality type has been criticised as being simplistic. Crime is too varied and complex a behaviour to be due to one single personality type. The type of person who commits murder is likely to be different to someone who commits fraud.

3) Eysenck ‘s theory is out of step with modern personality theory. Digman’s 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 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.

Question 21

Cognitive Explanations - Moral Reasoning

Answer 21

Moral reasoning - the process by which an individual draws upon their own value system to determine whether an action is right or wrong.

Kohlberg proposed that the quality of people’s judgments of right and wrong can be summarised by a stage theory of moral development. He based his stages on people’s responses to moral dilemmas.

Offenders are more likely to have their moral reasoning classified at the pre- conventional level. This means that a person is punishment orientated (reasoning based on whether or not the act will lead to punishment) and reward orientated (reasoning based on what can be gained).

This is immature reasoning which typically lasts from ages 3-7. Teenagers and adults who still reason in this way may commit crime if they can get away with it and/or gain rewards

Question 22

stage theory of moral development.

Answer 22

1) Pre- conventional:
- individual shows concern for self-interest and external rewards and punishment

2) conventional
- individual who does what is expected of them by others

3) post - conventional
- individual who develops more autonomous decision making based on principles of right and justice

Question 23

Evaluation of Moral Reasoning

Answer 23

Advantages:
1) Palmer and Hollin compared moral reasoning between 210 female non- offenders, 122 male non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using 11 moral dilemmas,. The offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offenders.

Disadvantages:
1) The level of moral reasoning may depend on the type of offence. Thornton and Reid found that individuals who committed crimes for financial gain, (e.g robbery), were more likely to show pre-conventional reasoning than those convicted of impulsive crimes (e.g assault), where no reasoning was evident.

Question 24

Cognitive Distortions

Answer 24

Faulty/ irrational ways of thinking that make people perceive themselves, other people and the world inaccurately, and often negatively.

Question 25

Cognitive Distortions - Hostile attribution bias

Answer 25

the tendency to judge ambiguous situations, or the actions of others, as aggressive/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.

Question 26

Cognitive Distortions - Minimalisation

Answer 26

when a criminal believes that their crime was trivial and downplays the impact of their crime on their victims.

This is a common strategy used 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.

Question 27

Evaluation of Cognitive Distortions

Answer 27

Advantages:

1) 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 CBT. 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.

2) 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?).

3) Cognitive distortions cannot be observed or measured. This means the cognitive explanation of criminal behaviour is not scientific.

Question 28

Differential Association Theory (Learning and social groups)

Answer 28

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.

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 argues that if the number of pro-criminal attitudes that a person comes into contact with out-weigh the number of anti- criminal attitudes they will become an offender.

The learning process is the same whether the person is learning criminality or conformity to the law. Learning can occur through imitation, vicarious reinforcement, direct reinforcement or direct tuition from criminal peers.

It is possible to mathematically predict the likelihood 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.

Question 29

Differential Association Theory (spread of crime)

Answer 29

In addition to being exposed to pro-criminal attitudes, the potential offender may also learn particular techniques for committing crime.

This theory explains how crime can spread among specific social groups and communities.

Sutherland can account for why so many convicts released from prison go on to reoffend. Whilst in prison inmates can learn specific offending from more experienced criminals that they then can put into practice upon their release.

Question 30

Evaluation of Differential Association Theory

Answer 30

Advantages:
1) This theory accounts for crime in all sectors of society. While Sutherland recognised that some types of crime (e.g burglary) may be clustered within inner-city, working class communities some crimes are more common in affluent groups. E.g White-collar is a feature of middle-class social groups.

2) Sutherland was successful in moving the emphasis away from early biological explanations of crime and 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.

3) Differential association theory offers a more desirable and realistic solution to offending behaviour than the biological solution (eugenics) or the morality solution (punishment).

Disadvantages:
1) 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.

2) 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- ignore free will.

Question 31

Psychodynamic Explanations - role of id ego and superego

Answer 31

The superego, id and ego make up personality.

The id:
- operates on the pleasure principle
-it wants immediate gratification regardless of morality.

The ego:
- mediates between the impulsive demands of the id with the reality of the external world
it operates on the reality principle.
- compromises between the impulsive demands of the id and the moralistic demands of the superego.

The superego;
- operates on the morality principle
- it contains our conscience
- It determines which behaviours are morally acceptable and causes feelings of guilt when rules are broken, or pride when we exhibit moral behaviour.

Question 32

Psychodynamic Explanations - the superego and psychosexual development

Answer 32

The superego is the last aspect of personality to form. It develops at the end of the phallic stage of psychosexual development at 3-6 years old.

The major conflict of this stage is the Oedipus complex in which the male child unconsciously wishes to possess their mother and get rid of their father. As a result of this desire boys experience castration anxiety. To resolve this anxiety the child identifies with their father and will eventually internalise their father’s superego, creating their own.

Girls go through 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.

Question 33

Psychodynamic Explanations - Blackburn - Inadequate superego

Answer 33

Blackburn argued that if the superego is deficient/inadequate, criminal behaviour is inevitable as the id is not properly controlled.

Three types of inadequate superego have been proposed:

1. Weak Superego – If the same-sex parent is absent during the phallic stage, the child cannot internalise a fully formed superego as there is no opportunity for identification. This would make offending behaviour likely.
2. Deviant Superego – If the superego that the child internalises has immoral or deviant values this can lead to offending behaviour.
3. Over-Harsh Superego – A healthy superego has rules, but is also forgiving of transgressions. In this case, an individual is feels guilty and anxious. This may unconsciously drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s need for punishment.

Question 34

Evaluation of Inadequate Superego

Answer 34

Disadvantage:
- 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 which is not supported by crime statistics.

• Hoffman 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
• 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 avoid punishment.

Question 35

Custodial Sentencing definition

Answer 35

involves a convicted offender spending time in prison or another closed institution (e.g a young offenders institute or psychiatric hospital)

Question 36

The Aims of Custodial Sentencing

Answer 36

1. Deterrence
   - The unpleasant prison experience is designed to deter an individual from engaging in offending behaviour in the future.
   Deterrence works on two levels:
   - general deterrence aims to send a broad message to members of a society that crime will not be tolerated.
   - Individual deterrence should prevent the individual from repeating the same crime.
2. Incapacitation:
   - 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.
3. Retribution:
   - Society is enacting revenge for the crime by making the offender suffer, and the level of suffering should be proportionate to the crime.
4. Rehabilitation:
   - 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.

Question 37

The Psychological Effects of Custodial Sentencing

Answer 37

1. Psychological Disorders:
   - Prisons have higher incidences of mental illnesses e.g depression, anxiety and low self- esteem.
   - A study by the Prison Reform Trust found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms of psychosis. The oppressive prison regime can trigger psychological disorders as demonstrated by Zimbardo’s ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’
2. Institutionalisation:
   - Spending time in prison leads to a lack of autonomy, conformity to the role of prisoner and a dependency on prison culture.
3. Brutalisation:
   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.
4. Labelling:
   – Prisoners often lose touch with previous social contacts and find it difficult to gain employment because they are labelled as a criminal. This will all contribute to an increased likelihood of recidivism.

Question 38

Evaluation of Custodial Sentencing

Answer 38

Advantages:
1) 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 may help offenders modify their behaviour and so avoid reoffending.

Disadvantages:
1) 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 have had problems before they were institutionalised.

2) The courts need to be selective about who they send to prison, 8–10% of criminals commit 50% of all crimes. Custodial sentencing is best reserved for these repeat offenders.

3) Crime prevention is more effective than custodial sentencing as it avoids labelling a person as a criminal and the negative consequences of prison. Alternative sentences (e.g community service) are more effective for low-risk offenders because they can keep their social contacts and their job.

4) David and Raymond 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.

Question 39

Behaviourist Approach

Answer 39

If we accept the argument put forward by the behaviourist approach – that all human behaviour is learned – then behaviour can be unlearned.

This should be achievable using the same principles that were used to learn the behaviour in the first place.

Question 40

Behaviour Modification definition

Answer 40

A behavioural therapy based on principles of operant conditioning.

It involves the systematic use of positive and negative reinforcement for desired behaviours.

Question 41

Behaviour Modification - Token Economy

Answer 41

Token economy is a form of behaviour modification used in prisons.

Desirable behaviour is reinforced with a token, which can be exchanged for a reward. Desirable behaviour in prison include avoiding conflict, following prison rules, keeping your cell orderly etc.

Tokens are secondary reinforcers as they can be exchanged for a reward (primary reinforcers).

The rewards vary from prison to prison - they may include a phone call to a loved one, time in the gym, access to a computer or extra food.

The desirable behaviour and available rewards are made clear to the prisoners before they start the programme. It is also emphasised that non-compliance or disobedience will result in the tokens being withheld (negative punishment).

The desirable behaviour is identified and then broken down into increments.

Everyone who comes into contact with the offender must follow the same regime of selective reinforcement

Question 42

Evaluation of Behaviour Modification

Answer 42

Advantages:
1) Token economy is easy to administer - it does not require expert professionals or specialised equipment. It can be implemented by anyone in the prison. Token economy is also cost-effective and easy to follow once the method of reinforcement has been established.

Disadvantages:
1) Token economy doesn’t work if staff are not consistent. Sometimes lack of appropriate training or high staff turnover make consistency problematic.

2) 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.

3) 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.

4) 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.

Question 43

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Answer 43

Novaco 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).

Question 44

Anger Management definition

Answer 44

• A form of CBT.
• The individual is taught how to recognise when they are losing control, and develop techniques which bring about conflict-resolution without resorting to violence.

Question 45

Anger management stages

Answer 45

Anger Management has three phases:

1) Cognitive Preparation:
- The offender learns to identify the triggers for their anger.

-They reflect on events in the past when they became angry and consider if the way that they interpreted those events was rational.

-The therapist helps the offender redefine the situation as non- threatening.

2) Skill Acquisition:
- 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).

3) Application Practice:
- The offender practises the skills they learned in the skill acquisition stage in a carefully monitored environment.

• Role plays are 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.

Question 46

Evaluation of Anger Management

Answer 46

Advantages:
1) Anger management is a multidisciplinary approach which acknowledges that offending is a complex social and psychological behaviour, and any attempt to address it must include these different elements.

2) 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.

Disadvantages:
1) 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.

2) 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.

3) 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.

Question 47

Restorative Justice

Answer 47

According to John Braithwaire ‘crime hurts, justice should heal’.

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.

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.

Question 48

Key features to restorative justice

Answer 48

Restorative justice programmes are quite diverse but they all share key features:

• Focus on acceptance of responsibility and positive change for offenders
• Not restricted to courtrooms, survivors 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.

In some variations of restorative justice offenders make financial restitution for the physical and emotional damage they have done. Sometimes offenders repair damaged property themselves

Restorative justice can function as an alternative to custodial sentences, as an additional to community service, or as an incentive to reduce an existing custodial sentence.

Question 49

Evaluation of Restorative Justice

Answer 49

Advantages:
1) Shapland et al. conducted a 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.

Disadvantages:
1) 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 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.

2) Victims may have an ulterior motive for agreeing to take part in restorative justice, they may simply want to seek revenge.

3) 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.

4) 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’.