Forensics Flashcards
Crime
This is an act committed in violation of the law where the consequences of the conviction by court is punishment
Offender profiling
An analytic tool that is intended to help investigators accurately predict and describe the characteristics of unknown criminality.
The main stages in top-down process
Douglas:
-Profiling inputs: data collected from scene of the crime, detailes of the crime such as weapon used.
-Decision profile models: data is organised into patterns, based on the murder type, time factors and location factors.
-Typology: determines whether they are organised or disorganised
-Criminal profile: constructed to include hypotheses about the offenders, such as background, to work out a strategy to catch offender and how they would respond to investgative methods.
-Crime assessment: persons who match role are evaluated and if not return to stage 2
-Apprehension: entire profile is reviewed to check each stage and conclusions for legitimacy which can be beneficial for future cause
Top down originated in the USA from data gathered from in depth interviews conducted by the FBT’s Behavioural Science Unit found after interviewing 36 sexually system which informs the subsequent police investigation
Evaluate top down approach
Top-down Profiling assumes that personality is fixed and unchanging.
Alison refers to recent research on personality suggesting that personality types are fluid and are subject to change. Godwin has said that offenders may display characteristics from both categories.
If an offender’s behaviour and personality changed or they are incorrectly profiled then they may be eliminated as a suspect due to the original profile.
This is a weakness as fixed typologies may be too rigid to accurately profile the real offender.
Typologies of organised and Disorganised cannot be applied to mundane crimes.
This is because the extreme nature of rapes and murders reveal details about the personality and motivations of the killer.
This cannot be said for more routine crimes such as littering, speeding and fraud where the crime scenes are less likely to reveal information about the offender.
This is a weakness as the top-down profiling approach can only be used for violent, sexual crimes and not more common offenders.
Evidence does not support the Disorganised offender.
Canter used the smallest space analysis of 100 US Offenders using 39 characteristics related to organised and Disorganised offenders. They found evidence of consistent offending but not Disorganised offending,
This undermined the binary and exclusive classification system as a whole.
What is the bottown up approach?
This approach, developed in Britain, aims to generate a profile through systematic analysis of the crime scene, routing behaviour and systematic background without making any initial assumptions about the Offender. Profiling is data-given and emerges as the investigator engages deeper and scrutinizes details about the offence.
This can either be done using Geographical Profiling or investigative profiling.
Explain geographical profiling
Rossmo investigated Geographical Profiling and stated that an offender’s operational base of possible future offences are revealed by the geographical location of their previous crimes.
This involves crime mapping (plotting of locations to reveal patterns of crimes) to make inferences (hypotheses about the Offender or possible crimes), modus operandi (how the Offender acts or what transport they use) and jeopardy surface (using different colours displaying spatial data on a computerised system to indicate the likelihood of a future attack base on the locations of crime scenes). Canter et al proposes using the Circle theory that people operate within a limited spatial mindset that creates imagined boundaries in which crimes are likely to be committed. They can either be marauders (operating in close proximity to their home base) or commuters (travelling a distance away from the usual residence)
Explain investigative profiling
Investigative psychology uses a systematic analysis of all available data from the crime scene to build a profile of the offender using a database to speculate possible details about the Offender such as their personal history or if further crimes would be committed. It is known to be more scientific as it is based on psychological theory.
This method used interpersonal coherence, an assumption that the way an offender behaves at the scene shows how they may interact in real life (Dwyer found that rapists who control and humiliate the victim may have a controlling personality), significance of time and place, may indicate the offender’s location if the crimes are committed within the same forensic centre of gravity and forensic awareness, how mindful they are at covering their tracks (rapists who conceal their footprints have a previous history of burglary).
Evaluate bottom up approach
Evidence supports the importance of investigative psychology.
Canter and Heritage conducted a content analysis of sexual assault cases. They used ‘smallest space analysis’ to examine the data (computer programme which correlates patterns across behaviours). They found common characteristics within the same offenders’ behaviour.
This can lead to an understanding of how an offenders’ behaviour can change over a series of offences or establish if the two or more offences were committed by the same individual.
This supports the view that investigative psychology is useful in showing how statistical techniques can be applied.
Geographical Profiling has been proven to be a useful technique in offender profiling.
Supported by Lundrigan and Carter who collated information from 120 murder cases by serial killers in the USA. They found spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killer, i.e the offender’s base located in the centre of the pattern.
Furthermore, they noticed that marauders were more likely to show patterns of the short distance of location for body disposal.
This real life evidence supports Canter’s claim that spatial information is a key factor in determining the base of the offender.
Despite many successes to this offender profiling, there are mixed results for its effectiveness.
For example, Copson surveyed 48 police forces and found that advice provided by the profiler was only useful in 83% of cases but only in 3% of cases did it lead to accurate identification of the offender. Kocsis also demonstrated that untrained chemistry students produced a more accurate profile than trained police officers in a mock investigation challenging the scientific credibility of the disciple.
Furthermore, the bottom up approach can lead to inaccurate profile as in the case of the Nickell murder when the offender was originally ruled out as he was several inches taller than his profile had suggested.
Therefore, proposing that this profiling technique is not always or accurate in solving murder cases.
Explain the atavistic approach
The Atavistic form, as proposed by Lombroso, is an early biological explanation of criminality which states that criminals are subspecies that lack evolutionary development, or genetic throwbacks, so they struggle to conform or cope with modern societies due to their savage and untamed nature. Thus, he saw criminality as a natural tendency, rooted in the genealogy of those who engage in it.
This approach, although seen as naive and speculative, is credited with moving criminology into a more scientific (as it measures in the same way and produces empirical evidence) and rigorous realm and his ideas may well have laid the foundation for the modern offender profiling techniques that were to follow as it makes predictions about future behaviour
What are the atavistic features and what are they associated with?
Lombroso argued the criminal subtype could be identified as being in possession of particular physiological markers that were linked to particular types of crime. He states that criminals, in general, tend to have dark skin, strong jaws and high cheekbones, murderers tend to have fleshy lips, bloodshot shoes and curly hair, sexual deviants tend to have glinting eyes and projecting ears, and fraudsters have thin lips, reddy lips
What are the other non-physical atavistic features and how were they investigated
Besides physical traits, Lombroso also suggested that there were some other aspects of both criminals including insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, unemployment and tattoos.
Lombroso investigated the facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts both living and dead. After examining 3839 living criminals and 383 dead ones. He concluded that 40% of the crimes were accounted for by atavistic characteristics.
Evaluate the atavistic form
The atavistic form has made a significant contribution to the development of modern criminology.
Firstly, it challenged the accepted view of the time that all crime was simply due to individual choice. This introduces the notion that criminality may sometimes be caused by deterministic forces such as, in the case, a restricted evolutionary level of development which leads to the inability to conform to more complex modern, legal and social codes. Attributing criminality to biological causes still remains a credible explanation as research linking neural functions or genetics are contemporary interpretations of the same basic principle of biological determinism established by Lombroso.
Additionally, Lombroso was the first researcher to apply methods of scientific nature by empirically measuring characteristics of living and dead animals. Despite lacking modern standards of control in his research, he was the first to attempt to support his conclusions with empirical evidence. Today, all credible research is expected to do the same.
This is a strength as these innovations made further criminological research possible and were integral to establishing criminology as a credible discipline.
This approach could be considered racist.
Lombroso’s atavistic characteristics are more likely to reflect
non-White non-European populations. This may be due to unconscious biases that influenced Lombroso’s judgments. At the time, Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest and the clear dominance of white Europeans in Colonialism are likely to have influenced Lombroso’s interpretation of desirable and adaptive characteristics.
De Lisi demonstrates the obvious bias towards describing typical features of black individuals in Lombroso’s atavistic characteristics such as dark skin and curly hair.
This is a clear limitation as it is lacking scientific validity. Lombroso was subjective in his observations. This condoned the practice of eugenics which caused physical and psychological injury to undeserving victims, reputational damage caused by these assumptions still persist today.
There are methodological issues and contradictory evidence for the atavistic characteristics.
Lombroso studied 4000 criminals. This sample is missing a control group to which the experimental group could be controlled.
Furthermore, Goring compared 3000 criminals and 3000 non-criminals and concluded that there is no evidence of facial characteristics being distinct in the criminal group. He did uphold the view that criminals generally have a below average intelligence level.
This is a significant critique as it devalues Lombroso’s original value and the internal validity of conclusions.
Explain neural explanations
Neural explanations suggest 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 antisocial personality disorder, which is associated with reduced emotional responses, a lack of empathy and is a condition that characterised many convicted criminals.
How were the neural explanations investigated?
Raine reports that there are several dozen studies, including PET scans of 41 murderers, of APD brains demonstrating lower activity in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain which regulates emotional behaviour. Raine also found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD compared to controls.
explain genetic explantions
Genetic Explanations for crime suggest that when offenders inherit a gene, or a combination of genes, they are predisposed to commit crime.
Outline research into genetic explanations
The importance of these genes have been investigated in twin studies. Christiansen used a sample of 87 MZ twins and 147 DZ twins and found a concordance rate for criminality of 33% for MZ and only 12% for DZ, supporting the view that offending may have a genetic component.
Adoption studies, on the other hand, compare the outcomes for children with their parents when raised in adopted families. Mednick et al found using a study of 13,000 Danish adoptees that when neither parents had a criminal record, 13.5% had convictions. This increased to 20% when either the biological or adopted parents had convictions and increased to 24.5% if they both had convictions.
Furthermore, Bruner revealed some genetic abnormalities in a large Dutch family of 28 members with borderline mental retardation and abnormal violent behaviour. Males had a genetic condition, Bruner’s syndrome, and low intelligence levels which could have been caused by a deficiency in the MAOA gene which creates enzymes that breaks neurotransmitters, without which there would be a high level of serotonin and dopamine leading to impulsivity and dopamine.
Explain the diathesis stress model in genetic explanations
The Diathesis stress model suggests that a biological predisposition and environment increase the likelihood of offending. If genetics has an influence on offending, it is partly moderated by the effects of the environment. Environmental triggers may include dysfunctional environments, poverty or having criminal role models.
Evaluate the genetic and neural explanations
There are issues with causation and brain scans.
Although there is scientifically credible evidence, just because an area is active does not mean that it is certain which function it is performing. It is possible that that area is a relay station, leading to the area of function.
Others have argued that it is unclear whether the neural dysfunction is a cause of criminality or the effect of another underlying cause, such as injury, trauma or drugs. Therefore, it is difficult to decide whether it is due to the proximal or distal cause.
This is a weakness as causation cannot be asserted between neural dysfunction and criminality using brain scans.
There is an issue with biological determinism.
In the field of criminality, the notion of a criminal gene presents a dilemma. Our legal system is based on the premise that criminals have personal and moral responsibility for their crimes, and only in extreme cases, such as diagnosis of a mental disorder, can someone claim that they were not acting under their own free will.
This raises the ethical question about what society does with people who are suspected or carrying criminal genes and what implications this may have for sentencing.
This is a weakness as it is a complex, unresolved issue with no answer.
Twin studies are quasi experiments which may have confounding variables.
As most MZ twins are raised in a more similar environment than the DZ twins, environment might act as a confounding variable as concordance rates may be due to shared experience. This factor may also affect family studies.
Adoption studies, on the other hand, negate this weakness as adoptees are raised in a different environment. However, later adoptions and remaining contact with biological parents means that the biological parents may act as an environmental and biological impact.
Although this research provides strong empirical evidence, it is a limitation as it is impossible for researchers to control all the variables in a quasi experiment, making it difficult to assert causation between an individual’s genetic makeup and their criminality.
Outline Eysenck’s personality
ysenck developed a theory of personality based on the idea of character traits. Personality can be measured through an EPQ test which measures the level of characteristics including extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism.
Explain extraversion
Extraversion includes seeking more arousal therefore engaging in dangerous activities which may result in crime. Extroverts are more outgoing and may jae positive emotions but get bored easily and they fail to reflect and learn from mistakes. The biological basis for this would be an underaroused nervous system and seeks external stimulation to increase their cortical arousal.
Outline neuroticism
Psychoticism can be easily linked to criminality because individuals are aggressive and lack empathy. Psychotics are egocentric, aggressive and are not concerned with others’ welfare. It is linked to high levels of testosterone.
Explain psychoticism
Psychoticism can be easily linked to criminality because individuals are aggressive and lack empathy. Psychotics are egocentric, aggressive and are not concerned with others’ welfare. It is linked to high levels of testosterone.
What did Eysenck see criminal behaviour as indicative as?
Eysenck saw criminal behaviour as indicative of lower development in terms of maturity as offenders seek immediate gratification. Instead, socialisation teaches children crucial skills such as delayed gratification and social skills, but individuals high in extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism are less responsive to socialisation or conditioning. Therefore, they are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour.
Evaluate Eysenck’s criminal personality
Eysenck claimed to support his theory with empirical evidence.
He assessed 2070 male prisoners who were compared to a control group of 2422 males. On measures of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism, prisoners recorded higher scores than the control group which accords with the prediction of the theory.
However, Farrington et al reviewed several studies and found that offenders tend to score highly on psychoticism measures but not on Extraversion and neuroticism, suggesting that Eysenck’s theory is somewhat true but not as a whole.
In conclusion, only the link between psychoticism and crime can be seen as a reliable finding casting doubt on the validity of the theory as an explanation for crime.
There exists evidence to suggest that personality cannot be considered a permanent trait.
Michel attempted to test this assumption. He asked family, friends and strangers to rate 63 students in a variety of situations. After a correlational analysis, no clear personality traits were consistently observed.
He concluded that individuals may display different personality traits in different situations. He coined this the ‘situation effect’.
This suggests that the notion of a criminal personality is flawed as individuals do not have one permanent personality type that will have a consistent effect on their behaviour, in this case offending. Instead, it may be more accurate to suggest that individuals may exhibit a criminal personality in some situations only.
Cultural bias may be present in Eysenck’s conclusions.
Bartol and Holanchock studied African-American and Hispanic offenders in a maximum security prison in New York. They found that they had lower extraversion scores than an ethnically matched non-criminals control group.
This challenges Eysenck’s personality theory as it may not explain ethnic minority criminality therefore conclusions are not ethnocentric and the original sample was not representative enough to be generalisable to other populations therefore lowering the external validity.
Explain the model of criminality and the types of morality
Kohlberg’s model of criminality states that lower levels of morality are linked to criminality. He suggests that when presented with dilemmas (such as the Heinz dilemma) that people fall into three types of morality . The first is preconventional morality which is made up of morality based on obedience/punishment and self-interest (based on need to secure benefit for oneself). The second is conventional morality which includes conformity and interpersonal accord (securing approval and maintaining friendly relations) and authority and social order (orientation towards fixed rules and order). The last is post-conventional morality which is made up of social contract (more focus on utilitarian rules as morally right and legally right are not always the same) and universal principles (morality is based on rules that transcend mutual benefit).
Key study of cognitive explanations
In a longitudinal study, he used 72 Chicago boys aged 10-16, 58 of whom were followed by three-yearly intervals for 20 years, 2-hour interviews and ten dilemmas. He found that the reasons for the answers in the dilemma changed as they got older. He found that participants passed through the levels in the order listed. Each new stage replaces the reasoning typical of earlier stages but not everyone achieves all stages. In his seminal publication, Kohlerg et al found that violent youths showed a lower level of moral reasoning than non-violent youths. This was still true after controlling for social background
Explain cognitive distortions and types of cognitive distortions
Cognitive distortions are errors or biases in people’s information system caused by faulty thinking. Hostile Attribution Bias is a type of cognitive distortion which is the tendency to interpret ambiguous or neutral situations as having hostile intent. Schonenbebrg and Aiste investigated this with 55 violent offenders who were presented with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions. When compared with a matched control group, offenders were more likely than non-violent participants to perceive images as angry and hostile.
Minimisation is another type of cognitive distortion which reduces the crime to a small amount or degree. Barbaree assessed and interviewed 26 convicted rapists, 54% denied that they had committed an offence at all and further 40% minimised the harm that they had caused the victim.
Evaluate cognitive explanations
Kohlberg’s hypothesis has been tested and retested by empirical evidence.
Palmer and Hollin compared moral reasoning between 210 female non-offenders; 112 male non-offenders and 126 convicted offenders using the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure which contains moral-dilemma related questions, such as not stealing things and keeping a promise to a friend.
The offenders showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-delinquent groups.
This makes it a reliable finding from a wider sample size including females that supports the view that levels of moral reasoning are linked to offending behaviour.
One key failing of the cognitive approach is that it can be described as descriptive rather than explanatory.
For example, Kohlberg is able to describe the types of thoughts that offenders are more likely to have. Equally, cognitive distortions, such as minimalisation and hostile attribution bias are descriptions of the internal mental processes that offenders may have.
This may be useful in predicting which individuals will go on to offend or re-offend but it does not explain why some individuals have these thoughts and others do not. For this reason, it is sometimes called an ‘after the fact’ explanation. A biological approach might argue that these thoughts may be caused by genetic and neural factors, Kohlberg has himself argued that experiences of being involved in groups and having a role in making moral decisions can improve moral reasoning. However, these explanations are not fully addressed by the cognitive explanation.
Overall, this is a weakness as although thought processes may be the proximal cause the underlying distal cause remains debated. This reduces the explanatory power of the explanation as a whole.
The Cognitive explanation for offending has real-life application.
Behavioural therapy gives offenders a chance to role play situations, practice and receive positive reinforcement for the use of higher levels of morality. Challenging maladaptive thoughts, such as hostile attributions and minimalisations is highly correlated to reduced risk of offending.
The dominant approach is the rehabilitation of sex offenders in CBT.
CBT requires willingness to participate and intellectual ability so it is not appropriate and it reduces costs for the economy.
This is a strength as cognitive explanations have enabled the effective application of CBT as a form of treatment. This has made a positive difference to society by contributing to offender rehabilitation and subsequently reducing the risk of being a victim to the general public.
Outline differential explanations
Differential Association suggests that through interactions with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviours according to Edwin Sutherland.
Sutherland intended to provide a scientific theory to explain all types of offending based on SLT; i.e criminal behaviour from associating with different people.
He states that an individual may learn offending by experiencing or observing some positive consequences of criminal behaviour from their immediate peers and they may learn pro-criminal attitudes. Thus, he proposed that criminality arose from pro-criminal attitudes and learning of criminal acts.
Sutherland claims that all groups promote a range of pro-criminal attitudes or anti-criminal attitudes which may vary based on the severity of the crime or the crime itself. He claims that if an individual experiences a majority of either, they will learn from this form of behaviour and repeat it.
With regards to learning criminal acts, Sutherland states that criminals will possess specific criminal knowledge and skills such as how to commit fraud or break into a building with an alarm system. This is also learnt by direct experience by an individual if they join a particular crime.
These pro-criminal acts or attitudes can be learned from intimate personal groups such as family or peer groups or even from the community. However, the frequency, length and personal meaning of such association will determine the degree of influence or behaviour change.
Finally, if the family supports it, it seems legitimate and reasonable which can be a major influence on the child’s value system.
Evaluate differential association
The Differential Association accepts that environment and society may cause offending behaviour.
The consequences of this are that it takes a positive approach to explain offending not as an inherent flow due to genetics or personality and it accepts that anyone can become shaped into a criminal given the right environment.
It stresses the potential of early intervention, including counselling, schooling to welfare benefits.
This is a strength because it is a significant theoretical contribution to our understanding of offending as it has helped to challenge the biological explanation, offers intervention and suggests effective punishments.
The theory can explain several key crime trends.
This includes different types of crime such as ‘White collar crime’ and street crime and the specialisations of criminal groups e.g House burglary, hooliganism or bank fraud.
It can also explain the persistence of criminal communities and criminal families without intervention.
However, it cannot explain why crime rates drop significantly after adolescence of less than 25 years.
This suggests that this theory has explanatory power as it may help us to understand the primary causes of the real-life consequences of offending.
There is some empirical evidence supporting Differential association.
Farrington conducted a longitudinal study of 411 eight and nine year old boys from South East London. He found that the 7% of the sample defined as chronic offenders shared a disruptive and criminal family life and had a similar peer network supporting the view that their social environment influenced their offending behaviour.
However, it is not certain whether the differential association causes crime or vice versa (those with criminal attitudes actively seek out the company of others with similar views).
Despite some research support, this is still a weakness as the explanation has lacked empirical evidence. Despite some research support, this is still a weakness as the explanation has no scientific credibility as it cannot make specific testable predictions.
Reductionist: fails to differentiate environment and pre-existing genetic differences. Genetic predisposition makes them more or less likely to commit crime according to diathesis-stress.
Deterministic: not all individuals go on to offend due to free will so this approach could be seen as stereotyping and judgement for this reason.
Outline the psychodynamic explanation
Blackburn uses Freudian psychoanalysis to explain offending behaviour. He claims that offending happened because the superego (the part of the personality which is formed at the end of either the oedipus or electra complex and is responsible for morality) is inadequate in some way.
He states that there are three types of inadequacies: the weak, deviant or over harsh superego.
The weak superego is formed when the same-sex parent is absent so there is no model from which to internalise appropriate gender behaviour. He claims that this leads to a weak superego which cannot control the selfish behaviours of the id learning to compulsive, criminal behaviour. The deviant superego happens when there is a criminal parent (usually same-sex) present. Thus, the superego will be deviant as the child will internalise the immoral and deviant behaviour from the parent and they will adopt the same criminal values as their criminal parent. Finally, the over harsh superego is formed when the individual has extremely punitive parents. This makes the child experience constant feelings of guilt and anxiety and they will deliberately engage in offending in order to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment.
As Bowlby worked as a psychiatrist, he noticed how often early and frequent parental absences occurred in these youths. Thus, Bowlby argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent upon the child forming a strong bond with its Monotropic figure. Failure to establish a bond through prolonged Maternal Deprivation has long term emotional consequences. There was most risk if this Deprivation occurred in the critical period of around two and a half years old and there was no substitute caregiver. This may cause damaging and irreversible consequences to the formation of relationships later in life. It was said that the child would develop a type of personality known as Affectionless psychopathy, characterised by the lack of guilt and empathy. These maternally deprived individuals are likely to engage in acts of delinquency and more likely to offend and are equally unable to form close relationships with others.
Evaluate the psychodynamic explanations
There are methodological weaknesses in the evidence supporting the psychodynamic explanations.
Although the finding from the 44 thieves study does not support Bowlby’s Theory that maternal deprivation causes offending, there are several weaknesses of this experimental design.
As it was a quasi experiment, the variables already existed and were only measures and compared the family backgrounds from two pre-existing behaviours. Therefore, the independent variable was not controlled and other factors such as poverty and abuse could have acted as extraneous variables. Furthermore, as it was a correlational study, causation cannot be asserted and there could be third variables present. Furthermore, Bowlby knew when children had experienced Maternal Deprivation or not and they had unconsciously influenced him to diagnose them with Affectionless psychopathy to support his theory.
This is a weakness as it is difficult to draw a causative link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation as it is impossible to rule out the potential effect of other variables and researcher bias which lowers the internal validity of the findings.
There are some obvious and intuitive real-life applications of Bowlby’s research.
First, his research places importance on keeping families together to avoid early Monotropic separations and, by extension, Affectionless psychopathy. Furthermore, it also shows that there is some value in teaching parenting skills and was to encourage attachment between parents and children.
These early interventions may be most impactful if ‘at-risk’ populations are targeted, such as those living in poverty, families with criminal backgrounds and families that have experienced some form of separation already.
This is a strength overall as this theory provides appropriate interventions that increase the quality of life for potential criminals and issues such as imprisonment and economy.
Freud’s theory cannot be falsified.
As his concepts, such as the unconscious part of the mind, are only observable by definition, they cannot be operationalised in order to be empirically falsified.
For example, it would be impossible to measure a deviant superego.
This is a weakness of Blalckburn’s findings as the independent variable in his theory, the adequacy of the superego cannot be tested, thus his theory cannot be falsified which, for philosophers like Karl Popper, classifies it as pseudoscientific and of lesser value than other scientific theory.
Custodial sentencing
Custodial Sentencing is a judicial sentence determined by a court where the offender is punished by serving time in prison, therapeutic programme, psychiatric hospital or educational programme.
The aims of custodial sentencing include deterrence, retribution, incapacitation and rehabilitation. In terms of deterrence, prison is designed to be unpleasant by acting as a general deterrence (to send a clear message to all of the undesirable consequences of offending) or an individual deterrence (how a previous sentence should dissuade an individual from further offending). It also aims to incapacitate the offender by removing the risk that an offender poses to innocent civilians their freedom is restricted (the degree of limited freedom varies depending on the level of the threat). It also aims to act as retribution, i.e deliberate application of suffering upon the offender to act as revenge for the suffering caused, based on the Biblical principle of “an eye for an eye”. Finally, it aims to rehabilitate the offender by giving them an opportunity to help the offender change their behaviour and desist from any other offending after release so they no longer pose a threat to society.
However, custodial sentences come with psychological effects. This includes depression due to hopelessness about future prospects and lack of control over circumstances when in prison according to Abrahamson. In 2016, 40,000 (about 1 in 2) incidents of self-harm were recorded and Howard League for Prison found suicide is ten times higher than national average. Custodial Sentencing also leads to Institutionalisation (as inmates become accustomed to life in prison they lose the ability to function in wide social environments) and deindividuation (as shown by Zimbardo, prisoners lose their sense of self-identity and accept the role of a prisoner. Furthermore, prisoners learn the inmate code of acceptable behaviour in prisons which would be considered unacceptable outside which is called prison action and overcrowding may lead to behavioural and psychological conditions such as hypersexuality, stress and increased illness as found by Calhoun.
Recidivism refers to the rates of reoffending. The Department of Justice has found that 36.7% of the adult offenders will reoffend within a year of release while others measure this around 50%. This means that along with the US, the UK has some of the highest recidivism rates in the world. Norwegian prisons have some of the lowest recidivism rates in the world. Their prisons are much more open than the UK and greater emphasis is placed upon rehabilitation and gaining skills.
Evaluate custodial sentencing
There is evidence of the psychological effects and their consequences.
There is a sense of hopelessness and lack of control can be linked to depression according to Abrahamson. The rate of suicide is also higher then wider population and self-harm is also measured at a significantly high with about 60,000 incidents.
This data is likely from individuals with mental health issues who are more likely to receive sentences.
This is a serious weakness as it suggests that offenders are clearly not being rehabilitated. Also, if their risk to the public has increased, custodial sentencing is not incapacitating the risk.
Alternative punishments may be more effective.
It is logical to argue that politicians are reluctant to reduce the use of prison as a punishment as they feel obliged to appear tough on crime as it is deemed ‘popular punishment’.
However, there is a growing body of evidence that alternative punishments may be more effective such as token economies (as a form of behaviour management), anger management (to target on the real issue) and restorative justice (to help the victim come to terms with it).
This is a weakness as the token economy may not be as effective as others.
Some claim that prisons have become universities of crime.
New criminals might be taught the ‘trick of the trade’ by seasoned criminals.
Sutherland explains this as learning pro-criminal attitudes and specific acts by observing others and imitating them. This is a possible explanation for high recidivism rates.
This is a weakness as custodial sentencing is unable to rehabilitate offenders but has the opposite effect. Secondly, it does not provide an effective treatment.
Outline anger management
Anger Management is a therapeutic programme offered in prisons to identify cognitive triggers and allow offenders to deal with the situation in a positive and calm manner.
It makes use of the cognitive and behavioural approach. Cognitively, it focuses on how factors trigger the emotional arousal which generally precedes aggressive acts, especially in situations that are perceived as anxiety-inducing due to cognitive primacy. Regarding behavioural anxiety, it focuses on how becoming angry is positively reinforced by an individual’s feeling of control within that situation. The aim of CBT is that offenders recognise triggers and implement cognitive and behavioural techniques that deal peacefully with the situation and avoid violence.
The three stages of anger management, also known as the ‘stress inoculation model’, include cognitive preparation, skill acquisition and application practice. Cognitive preparation involves the offender reflecting on their past experience of anger and triggers. The therapist will aim to identify if the response is irrational and aim to break an irrational automatic response in future. Skill acquisition involved offenders being introduced to a range of techniques and skills to help them deal with the triggers more effectively. This includes cognitive skills such as positive self-talk, behavioural talk such as assertiveness training to help them communicate more effectively and psychological skills such as methods of relaxation and/or relaxation. Finally, offenders engage in application practices where they practice their skills within a monitored environment using role play. The successful response would be met with positive reinforcement from the therapist.
The National Anger Management Package was trialled in England and Wales with offenders aged 17-21. Although there were initial issues of offenders not taking the course seriously and forgetting their routines, the programme was considered to be a success. Keen states that offenders reported high levels of self-control and increased awareness after the course.
Evaluate anger management
Anger Management can be considered an eclectic management.
This means that it integrates multiple psychological approaches in the therapy.
It integrates cognitive approach through thought catching and positive self-talk and behavioural approach through positive reinforcement and even the biological approach with the behavioural techniques.
This is a strength as it is likely to be more effective as it recognises that offending behaviour is complex with multiple causes so it requires multiple solutions.
Anger management has advantages compared to other in-prison therapies such as behaviour modification.
It is possible to argue that Novaco’s CBT actually targets one of the potential root causes of offending, which is angry thinking.
this is different to the token economy that only seeks to shape behaviour into a desirable form and does not consider what causes the offending in the first place. Some consider the token economy to be superficial for this reason.
This is a strength as anger management may be more likely to have long-term effectiveness and apply to all new situations therefore effectively dealing with offending behaviour.
The role plays elements are likely to be unrealistic.
Blackburn claims that there is little evidence that anger management reduces recidivism in the long term. This is mainly because the application stage is based on role play which does not cover all the possible situations in which a trigger can arise in real-life. The contracted role play scenarios are very different to a busy pub environment on a Saturday night.
Artificial role plays set in prison will never fully recreate the conditions of real-life stressful situations and there are no real consequences. As such, the behaviours learnt in the role plays will not be applicable to real-life situations.
This is a weakness as the therapy may have limited long-term consequences outside of prison.
Outline behaviour management
Behaviour Modification is an application of the behaviourist approach to treatment based on the principle of operant conditioning. Undesirable behaviours are replaced with desirable behaviours through the use of positive reinforcement and punishment.
One behaviour modification technique used in custody as a means of dealing with offending behavior is ‘token economy’. This is a systematic exchange of goods based on tokens which uses operant conditioning. When the offender performs desirable behaviour (e.g obeying orders), tokens are awarded to reinforce the desirable behaviour.
The tokens can be exchanged for desirable goods such as food, tobacco or watching TV. The items purchased act as reinforcers, increasing the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated. The treats become the primary reinforcer and the tokens become secondary reinforcers because they become reinforcers through being repeatedly presented alongside the reinforcing stimulus. This is a form of positive reinforcement. However, desirable behaviours must be clearly defined in advance with a hierarchy of rewards for different behaviours. Therefore, simply giving rewards for good behaviour is not a token economy.
Furthermore, punishment can be used by removing tokens for undesirable behaviour. Additionally, complex behaviours such as being polite can be taught through the process of shaping. Whereby, tokens are given for behaviours that progressively become more complex. For example, tokens may be given to a prisoner for making their bed daily and then later for being polite to a prison guard.
Hobbs and Holt investigated this when they observed 125 adolescent delinquents living in 4 cottages at the Alabama Boys Industrial School. One cottage was the control group. Boys were told how many tokens they could earn in each category. They were then taken to a store once a week to buy drinks, toys and so on. They could save the tokens and use them for more expensive off-site activities, e.g visit home. It was found that the social behaviours became more desirable and increased more positively (27%) with use of tokens compared to pre-token behaviour. There was no increase in the same period for the control group.
Evaluate behaviour management
There is evidence for the effectiveness and appropriateness of behavior modification.
It has been suggested by Hobbs and Holt that Token economy is easy to implement and cheap.
It provides a means of controlling unmanageable behaviour and improving the prison environment for staff and prisoners, without needing input from psychologists. For it to work well, the token economy needs careful preplanning and consistent application by staff. So, as long as the token economy is clear and consistent, it can provide a simple way of improving prison life.
Bassett and Blanchard found that the benefits were lost when staff applied the rules inconsistently due to lack of training or high staff turnover, suggesting that a lot of effort needs to be put in for it to be implemented appropriately.
Although mixed success is evident, it is easy to implement so it is appropriate and effective for managing prisoners.
Compared to other methods such as Restorative justice, behaviour management is less effective outside prison.
Blackburn argues that the Token economy does not affect reoffending rates or behaviour outside of the prison. This is because the token economy only has short-term effects while the rewards are available, and once they cease the stimulus-response link disappears.
Furthermore, the behaviours learned in prison may not apply to the real world, such as walking a straight line or keeping a cell tidy. Rewards the offender receives from breaking the law such as group status may be more powerful than abiding by the token economy. Therefore, token economy can improve behaviour in prison environments but this does not have a long-term effect on prisoners once they return to their natural environment.
However, Cohen and Flipjack found that Token economy groups were less likely to reoffend, but rates of recidivism went back to reflecting national statistics.
This is a weakness as it is only effective in the long-term.
Additionally, due to individual differences, some people respond better to operant conditioning than others.
For example, juvenile delinquents who had been trained with token economy were less likely to reoffend after one year according to Copen Flipjack.
Whereas 50% of violent offenders treated using token economy in a maximum security psychiatric hospital reoffended according to Rice, suggesting that young offenders may be more responsive to a token economy programme.
This is a weakness as individual differences may affect effectiveness.
Outline Restorative Justice
Restorative Justice is a system of dealing with criminal behaviour which focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation within victims, often in a face-to-face meeting. Offenders see the impact of their crime and the process empowers the victim by giving them a ‘voice’.
Historically, the offender is seen as having committed a crime against the state, but crimes have victims and they often feel that their experiences and expectations are not taken into account by the justice system. Thus, Restorative Justice aims to redress this balance as victims are allowed to be a part of the justice system.
Restorative Justice has to be voluntary for all parties and seeks a positive outcome. It is respectful and not for either offender or victim. It is tough for both the victims (as they may be forced to relive frightening and upsetting experiences) and offenders (as they have to face up to the consequences of their actions).
Restorative Justice has three aims. First, it aims to rehabilitate the offender as the victim can explain the real impact of the crime and offenders learn to take the perspective of others, potentially reducing recidivism. It also serves as atonement for wrongdoing as compensation for crime is discussed such as money or community service, guilt is down and the victim can express their distress and provide affection and chance to develop empathy. Finally, the victim’s perspective is shown which can reduce victimisation because they are no longer powerless and have a voice. They can also gain understanding of offenders by asking questions and listening to their accounts.
Evaluate Restorative Justice
Some empirical support exists for the effectiveness of Restorative Justice.
Sherman and Strang conducted a meta-analysis of 20 studies to compare reoffending rates for offenders who engaged with Restorative Justice offenders who experienced conventional punishments such as prison. They found a reduction in reoffending rates for violent and property crimes in particular. The UK RJ Council also reported an overall 14% reduction in reoffending rates in reoffending.
This is reliable evidence of the effectiveness from numerous studies.
This is a strength as evidence exists for effectiveness with offending behaviour when compared to custodial sentencing alone.
There are advantages of RJ compared to custodial sentencing.
First, it acts as a deterrence as the prospect of participation is intimidating and shameful for offenders.
It also removes prisons as ‘universities of crime’ as offenders may be more likely to reoffend. It is also cost-effective as some have calculated a return of $8 for every $1 spent on RJ.
This is a strength as RJ may have long-term effectiveness as it produces outcomes such as acting as a lasting deterrent that other punishments do not.
Restorative Justice cannot be applied to all offenders and victims.
As it is an active process, it relies on genuine offender remorse. Some victims and the public will often see it as too soft of a substitution for punishment through other methods such as custodial sentencing.
Feminists raise concerns because victims of domestic or sexual crimes are likely to face a power imbalance during the RJ process which may limit effectiveness and increase anxiety for the victim.
This is a weakness as it is clear that Restorative Justice can not universally replace custodial sentencing. Instead, its role seems to be most appropriate as an option alongside or in addition to conventional methods of punishment. This means that it cannot be the primary or sole method of dealing with offending behaviour.
