FORENSICS Flashcards
Describe Hobbs and Holt’s (1976) study into token economies
PROCEDURE
• Hobbs and Holt (1976) researched the effectiveness of a token economy programme in three small juvenile delinquent centres.
- They also studied a centre with no treatment programmes as a control group.
- The sample consisted of 125 delinquent males committed to the Alabama Boys Industrial School (ABIS).
- Age range 12 to 15 years.
- Staff were trained to identify target behaviours and trained in recording behaviours. The tokens were awarded for behaviours such as obeying rules, doing chores, co-operative social interactions and other appropriate behaviour.
The boys were told what behaviours they could earn tokens for and how many tokens they had earned. Tokens could be swapped immediately for sweets or cigarettes, etc., or saved and used for larger rewards at another time. Each day the supervisor counted the tokens each boy had earned.
• The boys went to a token economy store weekly and exchanged their tokens for a variety of
reinforcers including:
• Drinks /Sweets/ Games/ Cigarettes OR tokens could be saved in bank and exchanged for
more expensive reinforcers – trips, going home.
Data was collected over 14 months and in those institutions where the token economy
programmes were introduced; there was a significant increase in desired behaviours.
FINDINGS:
Before the tokens were introduced, the percentage of desired behaviours in the three institutions
was 66%, 47% and 73%.
After the TEP had been introduced, the percentage of desired
behaviours was 91%, 81% and 94%.
What did Copson 1995 find out (top down approach)
- 85% of 184 US police officers said the top down approach was useful
- 90% said they would use it again
What did keysers (2011) find out
Criminals with APD had reduced mirror neurone activity when observing others in pain
-> criminals don’t feel empathy for victim
What did Copson 1995 find out (bottom up approach)
- 83% of UK police offers said the bottom up approach was useful
- only 3% of profiles created by trained officers resulted in identification of the offender
Describe Raine et al (1997) study
Used PET scans to study brain function in 41 murderers and 41 controls
- murderers showed reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex involved with regulating emotional responses
-> could cause criminality due to lack of empathy - also found an 11% reduction in grey matter in prefrontal cortex which is involved in logical thinking and descision making
Describe Lombrosso’s study
- studied the heads and faces of thousands of convicts in Italy (383 dead, 3839 living criminals)
- 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic features
Describe Mednick et al’s 1984 adoption study
- studied 14,000 adopted children
If biological parents had a criminal record, the child had a 20% chance of committing a crime
If adoptive parents had a criminal record, the child had a 14% chance of committing a crime
Suggests that biological factors contribute to criminality more than environment
Describe Christiansen 1977 twin study
- studied concordance rate of criminality in 3500 twin pairs in Denmark
- males had a concordance rate of 35% for MZ twins and 12% for DZ twins
- females had a concordance rate of 21% in MZ twins and 8% in DZ twins
Describe Tilhonen et al 2014 study
- studied 800 prisoners
- found MAOA-L (warrior gene) is linked to violent crime
- those with gene variants were 13 times more likely to commit violent crime
What did Goring 1913 discover
Compared 3000 convicts with 3000 non criminal controls and found no link between facial asymmetry and head shape with criminality
Challenged Lombrosso’s idea that people are born criminals
Describe Eysenck and Eysenck 1977 study
Compared 2000 male prisoners with 2400 male controls on the EPI
- across all age groups, prisoners scored higher averages on the E + P + N scale than controls
Providing evidence that personality causes criminality
Describe Barton and Holanchock study opposing the EPI
- studied Hispanic and African American offenders in a maximum security prison
- found that criminals were less extrovert than in criminal control group
Describe Shönenburg & Jusyte (2014 study)
- studied the relationship between hostile attribution bias and violent behaviour
- showed individuals with a history of violent offences a serious of emotionally ambiguous faces and asked them to identify the emotional state of the individual
-> violent offenders interpreted faces as hostile or threatening more than non violent control group
Describe Barbaree’s findings 1991
- studied sexual offenders and interviewed them to see how they explained or justified their actions and specifically looked for cognitive distortions
- found that offenders minimise the impact of their offences by saying the victim ‘was not seriously harmed’ or ‘they consented to their behaviour’ even in cases where the victim clearly didn’t
- offenders also blamed their actions on drugs or alcohol
- provides evidence for minimalisation
Describe Aschkar & Kenny 2007 study for moral reasoning
- kohlbergs suggested that criminals have a lower level of moral reasoning
- they studied young offenders and young non offenders and presented them with moral dilemmas like kohlberg
- young offenders reasoned at a lower level of moral reasoning than non offenders
Describe Farringtons findings (2006) DAT
- aimed to investigate development of delinquency (minor crimes committed by young people)
- longitudinal study of 400 boys living in working class deprived areas of south London from age 8 to adulthood
- structures interviews and questionnaires with parents and teachers to find out about child’s behaviour
- 41% of boys had at least 1 conviction by the end of the study
(Evidence for DAT)
- found strong evidence that crime is influenced by family and peers
- explains why rates of recidivism (reoffending) are so high after prison as prisoners are surrounding by people who have similar opinions and attitudes
Describe Lewis (1954) findings (psychodynamic approach to offending)
Interviewed 500 people and found no link between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy
