Forensic psychology AO1+AO2 Flashcards
How is offender profiling used?
Offender profilfing aims to identify the person resposible based on the idea that key charateristcis of an offender can be deduced from the characteristics of the offence and the particulars of the crime scene.
What is offender profiling?
An investigative tool used by the police when solving crimes
* Aims to narrow down the list of suspects
* careful scruitiny of crime scene
* anaylisis of other evidence
Hypothesis about the offenders :
* Age
* Background
* Occupation
* Characteristics
What is the top down approach?
An American approach originating in the US as a result of the work carried out by the FBI.
* Conducted interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers
* Determined that data could be split into 2 categories : Organised and Disorganised
* From those categories certain predictions can be made
* Profilers gather data and then assign to a category
→Typology Approach
What are organised and disorganised types of offenders?
The organised and disorganised distinction is based on the idea that serious offenders have certain signature ‘ways of working’. These generally correlate with particular sets of psychological characteristics that relate to the individual.
What does an Organised offender look like?
- Evidence for planning
- have a type
- high levels of control
- Tidy - no clues of evidence
- above average intelligence
- skilled/professional employment
- socially and sexually competent
- Married, possibly with kids
What does a disorganised offender look like?
- Little evidence of planning
- Spontaneuous spur of the moment
- Little control
- Crime scene reflects impulsivity
- Below average intelligence
- Unskilled work or unemployed
- History of sexual/relationship dysfunction
- Lives alone/close to the crime scene
What are the 4 main stages in constructing an FBI profile?
1. Data assimilation
2. Crime scene classification
3. Crime reconstruction
4. Profile generation
Describe the stages in involved in constructing an FBI profile?
- Data assimilation
- Reviewing evidence
- Crime scene classification
- Crime reconstruction
- Hypothesis in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of victim and suspect
- Profile generation
- Hypothesis relating to the likely offender
What is a strength of using cateogries to identify the offender?
**There is support for a disticnt organised categoryy of an offender **
Canter et al. (2004) analysed 100 US murderers by different serial killers using the smallest space analysis
* Statsitcial method identifies behavioural correlations
* The study examined 39 aspects of serial killings, such as torture, body concealment and weapon use.
The results revealed a susbset if features aligning with the FBI’s organised offender typology, suggesting that this aspect of the approach has some validity
What is a weakness of using cateogries to identify the offender?
Many studies suggest that the organised and disorganised types may not be mutually exclusive
* Maurice, (2002) - It is difficult to classify killers as one or the other type
* Could have multiple contrasting characteristics
* High intelligence and sexual competence, but commits a spontaneuous murder leaving the body at the crime scene
Could mean that the typology is more of a continum rather, than one or another
What is a strength of the top-down approach?
A strength of the top-down approach is that it can be adapted to other crimes
Meketa(2017) reported that the top-down approach had been recently applied to burgulary →85% rise in solved cases
* Organised and disorganised remain
* Interpersonal and oppurtunistic have been added
Suggests that the approach has wider application than was originally assumed
What is a weakness of the top-down approach?
Flawed evidence
The top-down approach was based on interviews conducted with 36 murderers (25 serial killer)
* Then classified as either disorganised or organised
* sample is poor
* Unrepresentative
* Not randonm or large
* No standard questions →no comparisson possible
* Self report may not be the ideal given the sample
All suggests that the top-down approach does not have sound scientific basis
What is the bottom-up approach?
The aim is to generate a picture of the offender that does not use fixed typologies. Profilers work up from evidence collected at the crime scene to develop hypotheses about the likely characteristics, motivations and social background of the offender.
What is meant by investgative psychology?
An attempt to apply statistical procedures and psychological theory to the analysis of crime scenes.
* Aim is to establish patterns of behaviour that we are likely to occur across crime scenes
* Creation of a databases, as a baseline
* Details of a crime can then be matched to the database -> same offender?
What is involved in 5-Factor model?
- Interpersonal coherence
The way the offender behaves at the scene/with the victim is the same with other people in their lives ( Dwyer 2001 - Types of Rapists) - Time and Place significance
Location could be significant to the offender , possibly indicating where they live or work - Criminal Characteristics
How the crime has been commited suggests aspects about the offenders’ characteristics - Criminal Career
How offenders crime may differ due to experience - Forensic Awareness
Behaviour could indicate that they have been involved with the police in the past
What is Geographical profiling?
Uses information about the location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely base of an offender.
What is involved in geographical profiling?
- Assumes locations are not random; A sense of spatial consistency meaning offedners will stick to a certain area > centre of gravity becomes clear
- Least effort principle : Multiple equal potential locations to commit the crime, offenders most likely to choose the one closest to a home base
- Distance Decay : the number of crimes will decreases further away from the offender’s base. However, there is a ‘“buffer zone” immediatley around the home base to avoid detection/recognition.
- Circle theory (Canter & Larkin, 1993) offenders operate according to limited spatial mindset crimes radiate out from their home base creating a circle
How does the distribution of offences allow us to describe offeders?
- Marauder
-operates in close proximity to home base - Commuter
- Travelled a distance from their usual residence
What is Jepoardy Surface?
This is a more complec version of criminal-geographic targetting suggested by Rossmo ( 1997)
* Creates a 3D map where offenders’ base may be
* Includes geographic data and features in the environment, such as rivers, lakes etc
What is a strength of Investigative Psychology?
Evidence for Investigative Psychology
One strength of investigative psychology is that evidence supportsits use.
* Canter and Heritage (1990) conducted an analysis of 66 sexual assult cases. The data examined using smallest space analysis and several behaviours were identifed as common in different in samples of behaviour, such as the use of impersonal language and lack of reaction to the victim
* Each individual displayed a characteristic pattern of such behaviours, and this can help establish whether two or more offences were commited by the same person
This supports one of the basic principles of investigative psychology, that people are consistent in their behaviour
What is a strength of geographical profiling?
**Strength : Evidence for geographical profiling **
Lundrigan and Canter (2001) collated information from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the US. Smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers.
- The location of each body disposal site created a centre of gravity,
- Offenders start from their home base they go in different directions each time they dump body, but in the end this creates a circular effect around the home base.
- The offenders base was invariably located at the centre of the pattern
- Especially with marauders.
This supports the view that geographical information can be used to identify an offender.
What is a weakness of geographical profiling?
Strength : Geographical information is insufficent
As with investigative psychology, the success of geographical profiling may be reliant on the quality of data that the police can provide.
- Recording of crime is not always accurate; Can vary between police forces; estimated 75% of crimes are not even reported to the police in the first place.
- Makes us question the use of an approach that relies on the accuracy of geographical data.
- Critics also claim that other factors are just as important in creating a profile, such as the timing of the offence and the age and experience of the offender (Ainsworth 2001)
This suggests that geographical information alone may not always lead to the successful capture of an offender.
What is a weakness of the bottom-up approach?
Weakness : Mixed results
The success rates for offender profiling and the views of police forces who have used the techniques suggest that what profiling can’t reliably do is identify an offender.
- It is a tool for narrowing down possibilities, not one that provides exact answers.
- There is a danger is sticking too closely to the profile.
- Rachel Nickell – stabbed 47 times and sexually assaulted on Wimbledon Common in 1992.
- Profile led to the wrong man being arrested.
While an offender profile can be helpful in narrowing down possibilities it must be used with great caution to avoid wrongful arrest and convictions.
What is the Atavistic approach?
The Atavistic approach is an early biological explanation for criminal behaviour advanced by Ceasare Lombroso
What did Lombroso do?
Pioneered a more scientific basis for the study of crime.
* l’Uomo Deliquente (1876)
* Criminals are ‘Genetic throwbacks’
* Genetic subspecies
* Biologically different from non-criminals
Why is the Atavistic form considered a biological approach?
Offenders were seen by lombroso as lacking evolutionary development
* Savage and untamed
* Could not adjust to civil society - turned to crime
* Crime is rooted in genes - innate
Describe the Atavistic form
The subtype could be identified via phsyiological markers. These are linked to specific types of crime and mainly (but not exclusively) involve the face and head :
* Narrow, slopping brow
* Strong jaw
* High cheekbones
* Facial Asymmetry
* Dark skin, extra toes, nipples or fingers
* Insensitivity to pain, use of slang; tattoos and unemployment
What were the offender types?
Lombroso went on to categorise particular types of offedners in terms of their physical amd facial characteristics.
* Muderers = Bloodshot eyes; curly hair and long ears
* Sexual Deviants = Gliniting eyes; swollen fleshy lips and projecting ears
* Fraudsters = Thin reedy lips
Describe Lombroso’s research
Lombroso studied the facial and cranial features of many Italian convicts.
* Studied 383 and 3839 living criminals
* Concluded there was an atavistic form and that these features were key indicators of criminality
* Concluded that 40% of criminal acts are commited by people with Atavistic characteristics
What is a strength of Lombroso’s research?
Lombros’s Legacy
One strength of Lombroso’s research is that it changed the face of the study of crime
* Father of modern criminology
* Shifted the emphasis of crime away from a moralistic discourse
* more towards the scientific realm
* Tried to describe how particular types of people are likely to commit crimes brought about the beginning of offender profiling
This suggests that Lombroso made a major contribution to the science of criminology
What is a weakness of Lombroso’s research? - Lombroso’s Legacy
However, there is some question as to whether or not Lombroso’s legacy is entirely positive (DeLisi, 2012)
* Racist undertones in Lombroso’s work.
* Many of the atavistic features Lombroso identified are most likely to be found in people of African descent.
* Fitted the attitude of the eugenics movement of the 19th century.
This suggests that Lombroso’s work might be more subjective that objective and may also be heavily influenced by racial predjudices.
What is a weakness of Lombroso’s research?
Goring (1913) set out to establish whether there were any physical or mental abnormalities among offenders.
* Compared 3000 offenders and non-offenders.
* No evidence to support Lombroso’s ideas.
* Although he did suggest a lower level of intelligence.
This challenges the idea that offender can be physically distinguished from the rest of the population and are therefore unlikely to be a sub-species.
What is a weakness of Lombroso’s research?
Lombroso failed to control important variables within his research.
* No control group of non-offenders
* Knock on effect to less control over confounding variables.
* E.g. there is research showing a link between crime and poverty and poor educational outcomes.
* Such a link would explain for example why offenders were more likely to be unemployed.
This suggests that Lombroso is research does not meet modern scientific standards and therefore his results lack validity.
What do the genetic explanations of criminality include?
Genetic explanations,Candiate genes, Diathesis stress model .
What do the neural explanations of criminality include?
Research prefrontal cortex and mirror neurones
What do Genetic explanations say?
Criminals inherit genes
What research are genetic explanations supported by?
Twin studies, adoption studies
What is involved in twin studies?
Twin studies
* Christianesen (19770 - 3500 twin pairs in Dennmark
* CR for offender 35% vs 15%
* Sugesting behaviour and underlying predisposing traits are inherited
What is involved Adoption studies?
Adoption studies
* Crowe (1972)
* Biology lead to a 50% risk of having a criminal record by the age of 18% compared to 5%.
Outline research into candidate genes
Tiihonen et al. (2014) – genetic analysis of 800 offenders
* Abnormalities on two genes:
* MAOA
* CDH13
* 5-10% of all several violent crime in Finland is attributable to the MAOA and CDH13 genotypes.
Explain Diathesis-stress model in relation to crime
Makes sense that the environment would moderate the influence of genes.
- As with schizophrenia - a biological predisposition to criminal behaviour could be triggered by environmental factors.
- E.g. Criminal role models or a dysfunctional environment.
What do neural explanations suggest?
- Evidence suggests neural differences between criminals and non-criminals.
- Lots of research on APD
- Reduced emotional responses, lack of empathy, impulsive, needing stimulation etc.
Outline studies on the prefrontal cortex
- Evidence suggests neural differences between criminals and non-criminals.
- Lots of research on APD
- Reduced emotional responses, lack of empathy, impulsive, needing stimulation etc.
- Raine et al. reported several brain imaging studies showing reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex in people with APD.
- Raine et al. also found an 11% reduction in grey matter in the prefrontal cortex.
Outline research into neurones
- Mirror neurons active when we are performing or watching someone else perform
- Intentions and emotions of other people 🡪 experience empathy.
- Switched on by default.
- Keysers et al. (2011) found that only when criminals were asked to empathise did their empathy reaction activate.
- People with APD can experience empathy, but do so more sporadically and by “choice”
What is a strength of the diathesis-stress model?
Strength: Support for the Diathesis stress model
Mednick et al. (1984) conducted a study on over 13,000 adoptees.
- It was found that when neither the biological nor adoptive parents had convictions the percentage of adoptees that did was 13.5% | 20% when either of the biological parents did | 25% when both sets of parents did.
- Inheritance plays a role but environment cannot be disregarded.
What is a weakness of Twin studies?
Weakness : Problems with twin studies
Problems with Twin Studies
* Twin studies assume equal environments – because the twins are raised together.
* This could however apply much more to MZ than DZ twins people (parents) tend to treat them more similarly
* Impacts behaviour.
* Higher concordance rates could be a result of being treated the same, rather than due to genetics.
What is a weakness of Adoption studies?
Weakness : problems with adoption studies
Separation of genetic and environmental influences is problematic due to late adoptions.
* Adoptees often maintain regular contact with their biological parents.
* This makes it tricky to assess the relative impact of biology.
* This suggests that assessing the relative impact of nature and nurture may only be possible with very early adoptions where contact with biological relatives does not occur. .
What is a strength of research into neural explanations?
Brain evidence
Brain Evidence
* Research support for the link between crime and the frontal lobe.
* Kandel and Freed (1989) reviewed evidence of frontal lobe damage and antisocial behaviour.
* Impulsive behaviour | emotional instability | inability to learn from mistakes.
* Supports the idea that brain damage may be a causal factor in offending behaviour.
What is a weakness of the research into nerual explanations?
Intervening variables
Relationship is complex: Other factors could contribute to APD and ultimately to offending.
* Farrington et al. (2006) studied males who scored highly on psychopathy.
* Multiple risk factors involved: Raised by convicted parents, physically neglected 🡪 could have also caused neural differences e.g. reduced frontal lobe activity due to trauma (Rauch et al., 2006).
What are the three dimensions of personality?
**Introversion - Extroversion (E)
Neuroticsm - stability (N)
Psycchoticsm - sociabilty (P) **
What do these dimensions do?
These dimensions combine to form a variety of personality characteristics or traits
* Measured using the EPQ
* Allowed him to conduct research relating personality variables to other behaviours
Outline the biological basis
There are biological basis to our persoanlity traits and based on the nervous system we inherit
* Extroverts
Underactive nervous system | Constantly seek stimulation | risk-taking behaviours | hard to condition
* Neurotics
High level of reactivity in SNS | nervous jumpy and overanxious | instability makes them unpredictable.
* Psychotics
High levels of testosterone | unemotional | prone to aggression
What is the criminal personality?
The criminal personality is extrovert-neurotic-psychotic.
- Neurotics are unstable and are therefore likely to overreact in situations of threat.
- Extroverts seek more arousal and therefore are more likely to engage in risky behaviour/dangerous activities.
- Psychotics are aggressive and lack empathy.
Describe the role of socialisation
- In this theory personality is linked to offending behaviour via the process of socialisation.
- The socialisation process includes teaching children to become more able to delay gratification and become more socially orientated.
- Teaching them to be less selfish and teaching them the difference between right and wrong.
- High E and N makes people harder to condition.
- Less likely to learn from previous punishment
- E.g. via anxiety responses or punishments from parents.
- More likely to behave antisocially if given the chance
How is criminal personality measured?
- The idea that personality can be measured is one that is central to Eysenck’s theory.
- Measured using the EPQ
Allowed him to conduct research relating personality variables to other behaviours e.g. criminality.
Also allowed him to draw comparisons between people.
What is a strength of Eyesnecks Theory?
Research Support
One strength of the theory is there is evidence to support the criminal personality.
* Eysenck and Eysenck (1977) compared 2017 male prisoners scores on the EPQ with 2422 male controls.
* Across all the age groups that were sampled prisoners recorded higher average scores in terms of E, N, and P than the controls.
* This agrees with the prediction that offenders rate higher than average across the three dimensions identified by the theory.
What is a weakness of research into eyesnecks theory?
Counterpoint
However, a meta-analysis of relevant studies conducted by Farrington et al. (1982) reported that offenders tended to score high on measures of P but not for E and N
* Furthermore EEGs have provided inconsistent evidence of differences in cortical arousal between extroverts and introverts, which casts doubt on the physiological basis of the dimensions identified by the theory.
* This means that some of the central assumptions of the theory have been challenged
What is a weakness of eyesnecks theory?
Cultural Factors
A further limitation is that cultural factors were not taken into account.
* Bartol and Holanchock (1979) studied Hispanic and African-American offenders.
* Divided into 6 groups based on offences and offending history.
* All 6 groups scored lower on E then non-offender controls.
* Suggested to be due to the fact the sample was culturally different to Eysenck’s sample.
* This questions how far the criminal personality can be generalised and suggests that it maybe a culturally relative concept.
What is a weakness of research into eyesnecks theory?
Too simplistic
The idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by a single personality type is too simplistic.
* Moffitt (1993) distinguished between adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent offending.
* Personality traits alone were a poor predictor of how long offending would continue for.
* She considered persistence in offending to be the result of a reciprocal process between personality and environmental reactions to those personality traits.
* This presents a more complex picture of offending than Eysenck initially proposed and suggests that the course of offending in determined by an interaction between personality and environment.
What is meant by differential association theory?
DAT rejects psychological and biological explanations proposing a social learning theory of crime by edwin sutherland
What are the assumptions of differential Association theory?
- Offending is learned through relationships and associations with the people around us
- Individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour through association and interaction with different people
What is the scientific basis for differential association theory?
- Sutherland developed a set of scientific principles to help explain all types of offending. The conditiona which are said to cause cirme should be present when crime is present, and they should be absent when crime is absent
- His theory was designed to discriminate between individuals who became offenders and those who do not, whatever their class or ethnic background
What does DAT say about offending?
Offending behaviour may be acquired in the same way as any other behaviour through the processes of learning
* Learning occurs most often through interactions with significant others who we value most and spend most time with
* Friends and Family
* Mathmatically predict the likelihood of offending by knowing the frequency, intensity and duration of exposure to criminal and non-criminal norms
Why does offending take place?
offending arises from two factors : Learned attitudes towards offending and the learning of specific acts/techniques
What is learned attitudes in terms of offending?
**Socialisation into a group leads to being exposed to attitudes towards the law. If proiniminal attitudes are acquired outweigh anti-criminal attitudes then offending will occur **
What is a learned technique in DAT?
would-be offenders may also teach particular techniques alongside the attitudes
Describe how socialisation can occur in prisons
As well as accounting for how offending may ‘breed’ among specific social groups and communities. DAT can also offer another explanation for high levels of reoffending levels.
* Prison innmates learn specfic techniques from one another
* Techniques are put into practic when released
* Observational learning, immitation or direct tuition
What is a strength of DAT?
Strength : A shift of focus
One strength of of DAT is that it changed the focus of offending explanations
* Sutherland was successful in moving the emphasis away from biological accounts of offending such as Lombroso’s Atavistic theory
* DAT draws attention to the fact that deviant social circumstances and environments may be more to blame for offending than deviant people
This approach is more desirable because it offers a realistic solution to the problem of offending instead of biological or punishment
What is a counterpoint of this strength?
**Counterpoint : Shift of focus **
* However, DAT runs the risk of sterotyping individuals who come from impoverished crime ridden backgrouns as ‘unavoidable influences’
* Although sutherland pointed out that offending should be considered on an individual case by case basis.
* The theory does suggest that exposure to pro-crime values is sufficient to produce offending behaviour in those exposed to it.
This ignores people that may choose not to offend despite these influences, as not everyone who is exposed to pro-crime attitudes goes on to offend.
What is a strength of DAT?
Strength : A wide reach
* Another strength is that the theory can account for offending within all sectors of society.
* Sutherland recognised that some types of offence, such as burglary may be clustered in inner-city working class communities. It is also the case that some offences are clustered amongst more affluent groups in society.
* Sutherland was particularly interested in so called ‘white collar’ or corporate offences and how this may be a feature of middle class social groups who share deviant norms and values.
* This shows that it’s not just the lower classes who commit offences and that the principles of differential association can be used to explain all offences.
What is a weakness of DAT?
Weakness : Difficulty testing
One limitation is that it is difficult to test the predictions of differential association theory.
- Sutherland aimed to provide a scientific, mathematical framework within which future offending behaviour could be predicted and this means that the predictions must be testable. The problem is that many of the concepts are not testable because they cannot be operationalised. For example, it is hard to see how the number of pro-crime attitudes a person has, or has been exposed to, could be measured.
- Similarly, the theory is built on the assumption that offending behaviour will occur when pro-crime values outnumber anti-crime ones. Without being able to measure these, we cannot know at what point the urge to offend is realised and the offending career triggered.
This means that the theory does not have scientific credibility.
What are the two psychodynamic explanations for crime?
- Ronalds Blacburn’s idea of the inadequate superego
- John Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory
What is the superego?
The superego is one of the three parts of personality and is formed at the end of phallic stage.
* Morality principle
* Exert influnce by punishing the ego through guilt and rewarded with pride
What does the inadquete superego consist of?
It consists of three explanations for crime revolve around the concept of an inadequate or deficient, superego, which results in an uncontrolled id (Blackburn 1999).
What does the weak superego involve ?
- Absence of the same sex parent
- No oppurtunity for identification
- The child cannot identify
- makes immorality/criminality more likely
What does the deviant superego?
- The superego that the child identified has deviant moral values
- A boy that is raised by a criminal father is not likely to associate with guilt and wrongdoing
What is over-harsh superego?
- The superego is based on identification with an authoritative
- Strict and firm but forgiving
- An excessive punitive or harsh parenting style leads to an over-harsh superego
- Individual is crippled by anxiety and guilt
- Could unconciously drive the indvidual to commit crimes to satisfy the superego’s excessive need for punishment
What is a key feature in the psychodynamic approach?
A key feature of this approach is that it deals with the emotional life of individuals
* Inadequate superego results in primitive emotional demands to take control and guide behaviour
* Also acknowledges the role of guilt and anxiety and important lack thereof.
How is Bowlby’s maternal deprivation involved?
Bowlby (1944) argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependant upon the child forming a warm, continuous relationship with a mother figure
* Bond is unique and superior and vital to child/s wellbeing and development
* Failure to establish a bond means the child would experience a number of damaging and irreversible consequences
* Affectionless Psychopathy
* Lack of guilt, empathy and feeling for others
* Acts of deliquency & lack of ability to develop close relationships with others
* - 44 thieves study
What is a strength of the psychodynamic explanations of crime?
Research Support : One strength of the psychodynamic approach is research support for the link between offending and the superego
* Goerta (1991) conducted a freudian style analysis of 10 offenders
* Disturbances in the superego formation were diagnosed
* Each offender experienced unconcious feelings of guilt and the need for self-punishment
* Consequence of an overharsh superego - the need for pusnishment manifests its self as desire to commit acts of wrongdoing
This seems to support the role of psychic conflicts and an over-harsh superego as basis for offending
What is a counterpoint to that strength?
Generally, however the central principles of the inadequate superego theory are not supported
* If this theory were correct we would expect harsh punitive parent to raise children who constantly experience feelings of guilt and anxiety
* Evidence however suggests the opposite
* Harsh forms of discipline tends to result in children who are rebellious and rarely expressed feelings of guilt or self-crticism (Kochanska et al 2011)
What is a limitation of psychodynamic explanations of offending?
Limitation : Gender bias
* Another limitation of freudian theory is that it is gender biased
* An assumption within the theory is that girls develop a weaker superego than boys because identification with the same sex parent is not as strong
* Don’t experience intense emotion associated with castration anxiety
* Results in less pressure to identify with their mothers - superego (sense of morality) is less released
* Should result in females being prone to reoffending than males
* Prison rates do not support this, with around 20x more men in prison than women in the UK
* Research by Hoffman (1975) has also found that females are slightly more able to resist temptation and are more moral than males
This suggests there is an alpha bias at the heart of psychodynamic theory and means it may not be appropiate as an explanation for offending behaviour
What is a weaknes of psychodynamic explanations for offending?
Limitation : other factors
* A limitation of Bowlby’s theory is that it is only based on association between maternal deprivation and offending
* Lewis (1954) analysed data drawn from interviews with 500 young people and found that maternal deprivation was a poor predictor of future offending and the ability to form close relationships in adolescence
* Even if there is a link between the two that doesn’t mean that it is casual link
* There are many other reasons for this apparent link, for example maternal deprivation may be due to growing up in poverty, and this might then explain later offending
This suggests that maternal depirvation may be one of the reasons for the later offending behaviour, but not the only reason
How do we do people with offending behaviour?
Custodial Sentencing
What are the aims of custodial sentencing?
- Deterence
The unpleasant prison experience is designed to put off the individual from the engaging in offending behaviour. It works on two levels general deterance and individual deternce - Incapaciation
The offender is taken out of society to prevent them from reoffending as a means of protecting the public. The need is often dependant on the severity of the offence and the nature of the offender - Retribution
Society is enacting revenge by making the offender suffer. The suffering should be proportionate to the to the offender ; the offfender should pay for their crimers - Rehalibiltation
Reform- when released offenders should leave better adjusted and ready to take their place in society prison should provide offedners with the oppurtunity to prepare for the outside world
What are the psychological effects of custodial sentencing?
