Forensics Flashcards
Describe and evaluate ways of measuring crime.
A01
Official statistics:
Government records of the total number of crimes reported to the police and recorded in the official stats.
Published on an annual basis and are a useful snapshot of the number of crimes occurring across the country and in specific regions.
Government can develop crime prevention programmes and direct resources to the areas that are most in need.
Victim surveys:
Record people’s experience of crime over a certain period of time.
Asks people to document the crimes they have been a victim of in the past year.
50,000 households are randomly selected to take part in the survey and this enables crime figures to be formed.
A separate survey has been introduced to record the experiences of younger people aged 10-15 and the complete results are published on an annual basis.
Offender surveys:
Individuals volunteering details of the number and types of crimes they have committed.
Tend to target groups of ‘likely’ offenders based on risk factors such as previous convictions, age range and social background.
As well as measuring self-reported offending, it also looked at indicators of repeat offending, trends in the prevalence of offending, drug and alcohol use, the role of co-offenders and the relationship between criminal and victim.
A02
Official statistics:
Significantly underestimate the true extent of crime.
So many crimes go unreported or unrecorded that the official statistics may only actually represent 25% of offences.
The other 75% is the dark figure of crimes. There are many reasons for why crimes aren’t recorded - mistrust in the police or variations in police recording rules.
One study found that police in Nottinghamshire were more likely to report thefts of under £10 and this showed an apparent spike in crime in that area.
This shows that policing priorities may distort the actual figures.
Victim surveys:
More likely to include crimes that were not reported to the police and so are thought to have more accuracy than official stats.
Evidence: 2006/7 official stats suggested a 2% decrease in crime from the previous year whereas the BCS showed a 3% increase.
Victim surveys rely on accurate recall of the event.
‘Telescoping’ may happen where the victim misremembers an event as happening in the past year when it did not and this may distort the figures.
Offender surveys:
Strength: provide insight into how many people are responsible for certain offences.
Responses may be unreliable as offenders may want to conceal some of the more serious crimes they have committed, or even exaggerate the number for bravado.
The nature of the survey means that certain types of crime may be overrepresented and ‘middle-class’ offences like fraud or corporate crime are unlikely to be included.
What are the 2 problems in defining crime?
Cultural issues - What is considered crime in one culture may not be judged as such in another. Example: laws on marriage - in the UK, having more than one wife is a crime of bigamy, however, in other cultures polygamy is practised.
Historical issues - Definitions of crime change over time. Example: Homosexuality was considered a crime in this country until 1967. This is an example of how some behaviours judged to be criminal may be historically and culturally specific.
Discuss the Top-down approach to offender profiling.
A01
The American approach:
The FBIs behavioural science unit drew upon data gathered from in depth interviews with 36 sexually motivated serial killers.
Also known as the typology approach, they will match what is known about the crime and the offender to a pre-existing template that the FBI developed.
Murderers or rapists are classified as either organised or disorganised on the basis of the evidence.
Organised and disorganised types of offender:
Idea that serious offenders have a certain signature and these generally correlate with a particular set of social and psychological characteristics that relate to the individual.
Organised:
Show evidence of having planned the crime in advance.
Victim is deliberately targeted and can reflect that the criminal has a type.
Maintain a high degree of control during the crime and may operate with almost detached surgical precision.
Little evidence left behind at the scene.
Tend to be of above-average intelligence, in a skilled, professional occupation.
Socially and sexually competent.
Usually married and sometimes have children.
Disorganised:
Little evidence of planning.
Offence may have been spontaneous, spur of the moment act.
Crime scene tends to reflect the impulsive nature of the crime - the body is still at the scene and there appears to have been very little control over the part of the offender.
Tend to have a lower than average IQ, be in unskilled work, and have a history of sexual dysfunction and failed relationships.
Live alone and relatively close to the crime scene.
Constructing an FBI profile:
- Data assimilation - profiler reviews the evidence.
- Crime scene classification - either organised or disorganised.
- Crime reconstruction - hypotheses in terms of sequence of events, behaviour of the victim, etc
- Profile generation - Hypotheses related to the likely offender.
A02
Only applies to particular crimes:
Best suited to crime scenes that reveal important details about the suspect, such as rape, arson and cult killings.
More common offences such as burglary and destruction of property do not lend themselves to profiling because the resulting crime scene reveals very little about the offender.
This means that it is a limited approach to identifying a criminal.
Evidence does not support the ‘disorganised offender’:
Canter, using a technique called smallest space analysis, analysed data from 100 murders in the USA. Details of each case were examined with reference to 39 characteristics thought to be typical of organised and disorganised killers.
Evidence did suggest a distinct organised type but this was not the case for the disorganised type.
Seems to undermine the classification as a whole.
Nevertheless, the organised/disorganised distinction is still used as a model for professional profilers in the US and had widespread support.
Classification is too simplistic:
Behaviours that describe either organised or disorganised crimes are not mutually exclusive; a variety of combinations could occur in any murder scene.
Godwin asks how police would investigators would classify a killer with high intelligence and sexual competence who commits a spontaneous murder in which the victim’s body is left at the scene.
Has prompted other researchers to propose more detailed typological methods.
Holmes suggested that there are 4 types of serial killer: visionary, mission, hedonistic and power/control.
Keppel and Walter focus more on the motivations killers might have.
Discuss investigative psychology and/or geographical profiling. (Bottom-up approach)
A01
Bottom-up approach is used to generate a picture of the offender through systematic analysis of evidence at the crime scene.
The profile is data driven and emerges as the investigator engages in a more rigorous analysis of the details of the offence.
Does not begin with fixed typologies.
Investigative psychology:
An attempt to apply statistical procedures, alongside psychological theory, to the analysis of crime scene evidence.
Aim is to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur - or co-exist - across crime scenes.
This is in order to develop a statistical database which can then act as a baseline for comparison.
This may also determine whether a series of offences are linked in that they are likely to have been committed by the same person.
Interpersonal coherence is central to the approach.
The way an offender behaves at the scene, including how they interact with the victim, may reflect their behaviour in more everyday situations.
The significance of time and place is also a key variable and may indicate where the offender is living.
Forensic awareness describes those individuals who have been the subject of police interrogation before; their behaviour might denote how mindful they are of covering their tracks.
Geographical profiling:
Rossmo in 1997.
Uses info to do with the location of linked crime scenes to make inferences about the likely home or operational basis of the offender - crime mapping.
Can also be used in conjunction with psychological theory to create hypotheses about how the offender is thinking as well as their modus operandi.
Assumption is that serial offenders will restrict their work to geographical areas they are familiar with, so understanding the spatial pattern of their behaviour provides investigators with a ‘centre of gravity’ which is likely to include the base.
Can also help investigators make educated guesses about where the offender is likely to strike next - jeopardy surface.
Canter’s circle theory proposed two models of offender behaviour:
- the marauder - who operates in close proximity to their home
- the commuter - likely to have travelled a distance away from their usual residency.
The pattern of offending is likely to form a circle around the offender’s residence, the more crimes there are, the clearer the circle gets.
Help determine whether it was planned or opportunistic.
A02
Evidence supports investigative psychology:
Canter and Heritage conducted a content analysis of 66 sexual assault cases.
Smallest space analysis- a computer programme that identifies correlations across patterns of behaviour.
Several characteristics were common in most cases - characteristics will occur in different patterns in different individuals.
This can lead to an understanding of how an offender’s behaviour may change over a series of offences, or establishing whether 2 or more offences were committed by the same person.
Supports usefulness of IP because it shows how statistical techniques can be applied.
Evidence supports geographical profiling:
Lundrigan and Canter - collated info from 120 murder cases involving serial killers in the USA.
Smallest space analysis revealed spatial consistency in the behaviour of the killers.
The location of each body dump was in a different location from the other, creating a centre of gravity.
The effect was more noticeable for offenders who travelled short distances.
This supports Canter’s claim that spatial info is a key factor in determining the base of an offender.
Mixed results for profiling:
There have been significant failures, like the case of Rachel Nickell, and studies examining the effectiveness of offender profiling have produced mixed results.
Gary Copson surveyed 48 police forces and found that the advice provided by the profiler was judged as ‘useful’ in 83% of the cases but only in 3% did it lead to accurate identification of the offender.
Kocsis found that chemistry students produced a more accurate offender profile on a solved murder case than experienced senior detectives.
Discuss one historical approach to offending behaviour.
Biological explanations
A01
A historical approach:
Lombroso suggested that criminals were genetic throwbacks - a primitive sub-species who were biologically different from non-criminals.
Lombroso’s theory is described as naive and speculative but he is credited with moving criminology into a more rigorous and scientific realm, and his ideas may have laid the foundation for offender profiling.
Offenders were seen as lacking evolutionary development, their savage nature meant that they would find it difficult to adapt to today’s society.
Atavistic characteristics:
The criminal sub-type could be identified as having physiological markers that were linked to particular types of crime.
Cranial characteristics: narrow, sloping brow, a strong prominent jaw, high cheekbones and facial asymmetry.
Other: dark skin and the existence of extra toes, nipples or fingers.
Murderers were described as having bloodshot eyes, curly hair and long ears.
Sexual deviants had glinting eyes, swollen, fleshy lips, and projecting ears.
Besides physical traits, there were other aspects of the born criminal including insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, tattoos and unemployment.
Lombroso’s research:
Examined the facial and cranial features of hundreds of Italian convicts, and proposed that the atavistic form was associated with a number of physical anomalies which were key indicators of criminality.
Concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for by atavistic characteristics.
A02
Contribution to criminology:
Lombroso has been hailed as the father of modern criminology.
He shifted the emphasis of crime research away from a moralistic discourse to a more credible an scientific realm.
In trying to describe how particular types of people are likely to commit certain crimes, it is said that he started criminal profiling.
Scientific racism:
DeLisi - drew attention to the racial undertones in Lombroso’s work.
Many of the characteristics that Lombroso described are typically found with people of African descent.
Similarly, his description of the atavistic being as ‘uncivilised, primitive’ would lend support to many of the eugenic philosophies of the time.
This is one aspect of his legacy that continues to overshadow criminology.
Causation is an issue:
Even if there are criminals with the certain atavistic forms that Lombroso suggested, this does not mean causation of their crimes.
Facial and cranial differences may be influenced by other factors, such as poverty or poor diet, rather than an indication of poor evolution.
In a later approach, Lombroso takes a less extreme outlook, saying that criminals can be made due to environmental factors.
Discuss genetic and/or neural explanations to offending.
Biological explanations
A01
Genetic explanations:
Suggest that would-be-offenders inherit a gene that predispose them to commit crime.
Twin studies:
The first criminal twin study was conducted by Lange who investigated 13 MZ and 17 DZ twins where one of the twins in each pair had served time in prison.
10 Mz and 2 DZ had a co-twin who was also in prison.
Lange concluded that genetic factors must play a predominant part in offending.
Candidate genes:
Tiihonen - a genetic analysis of almost 900offenders revealed abnormalities on two genes that may be associated with violent crime - MAOA gene (which controls dopamine and serotonin) and CDH13 (Linked to substance abuse and attention deficit disorder).
Within the Finnish sample, individuals with this combination were 13 times more likely to have a history of violent behaviour.
Research has not been replicated thus far.
Diathesis-stress model:
If genetics do have some influence on offending then it is likely that it is at least partly moderated by environment.
A tendency towards criminal behaviour may come about through the combination of genetic predisposition and biological os psychological trigger.
Neural explanations:
Much of the evidence in this area has investigated individuals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
APD is associated with reduced emotional responses, a lack of empathy for the feelings of others, and is a condition that characterises many convicted criminals.
Prefrontal cortex:
Raine conducted studies of the APD brain, reporting that there are several dozen brain-imaging studies demonstrating that individuals with antisocial personalities have reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex.
Found an 11% reduction in the volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex of people with APD.
Mirror neurones:
Recent research suggests that people with APD can feel empathy but they do so more sporadically.
Keysers found that only when criminals were asked to empathise did their empathy reaction activate.
Suggests that APD individuals are not totally without empathy, but may have a neural switch that can be turned on and off.
A02
Problems with twin studies:
Although, more recent research by Christiansen found a concordance rate of 33% for MZ twins and 12% for DZ on offending behaviour, there are still problems with twin studies.
Early twin studies like those of Lange were poorly controlled and judgements related to zygosity were based on appearance instead of DNA testing - lack validity.
Twin studies typically involve small sample sizes.
Twins are an unusual sample in themselves and may not represent the rest of the population.
The fact that most twins are reared in the same environment is a major confounding variable as concordance rates may be due to shared learning experiences rather than genetics.
Support for the diathesis-stress model:
Mednick - A study of over 13,000 Danish adoptees. Researchers defines criminal behaviour as being in possession of at least one court conviction.
When neither the biological nor adoptive parents had convictions, the percentage of adoptees that did was 13.5%.
This figure rose to 20% when either of the biological parents had convictions, and 24.5% when both adoptive and biological parents had convictions.
This suggests that although genetic inheritance plays an important role in offending, environmental influences cannot be disregarded.
Biological determinism:
The notion of a criminal gene presents a dilemma.
Our legal system is based on the premise that criminals have personal and moral responsibilities for their crimes and only in extreme cases can someone claim that they were not acting out of their own free will.
This raises the ethical question w=of what does society do with people who are suspected to have the criminal gene, and what implications this may have on their sentencing.
Discuss Eyseneck’s theory of the criminal personality.
A01
General personality theory:
Proposed that behaviour could be represented along two dimensions: introversion/extroversion and neuroticism/stability.
The 2 dimensions combine to form a variety of personality characteristics and traits.
Third dimension: Psychoticism
Biological basis:
Personality traits are biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit.
Thus, the criminal personality has an innate, biological basis.
Extraverts have an underactive nervous system which means they constantly seek excitement and are likely to engage in risk taking behaviour.
Also tend not to condition easily and do not learn from their mistakes.
Neurotic individuals tend to be nervous and over-anxious, and their behaviour is often difficult to predict.
The criminal personality:
Neurotic-extravert
Eyseneck suggested that the typical offender will also score highly on measures of psychoticism.
Measuring the criminal personality:
The notion that personality can be measured is central to Eyseneck’s theory.
He developed the EPI, a form of psychological test which locates respondents along the E and N dimensions to determine their personality type.
The role of socialisation:
Perosnality is linked to criminal behaviour via socialisation processes.
Saw criminal behaviour as developmentally immature in that it is selfish and concerned with immediate gratification.
The process of socialisation is one in which children are taught to become more able to delay gratification and more socially oriented.
Eyseneck believed that people with high E and N scores had nervous systems that made them difficult to condition.
As a result, they would not learn easily to respond to antisocial impulses with anxiety.
They would be more likely to act antisocially in situations where the opportunity was presented.
A02
Evidence supporting Eyseneck’s theory:
Compared 2070 male prisoners’ scores on the EPI with 2422 male controls.
Groups were subdivided into age groups.
On measures of psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism - across all age groups - prisoners recorded higher scores than controls which accords with the predictions of the theory.
However, Farrington reviewed several studies and reported that offenders tended to score high on P measures, but not for E and N.
There is also very little evidence of consistent differences in EEG measures between extraverts and introverts.
Casts doubt on the physiological basis of Eyseneck’s theory.
Cultural bias:
Bartol and Holanchock - Looked into cultural differences.
They studies Hispanic and African-American offenders in a maximum security prison in New York and divided these into 6 groups based on their criminal history and the nature of their offence.
It was revealed that all 6 groups were found to be less extravert than a non-criminal control group.
Bartol suggested that this was because their sample was a very different cultural group than that investigated by Eyseneck .
Questions the generalisability of the criminal personality.
The idea of a single criminal type:
Moffitt proposed several distinct types of adult male offender based on the timing of the first offence, and how long offending persists.
Eyseneck’s criminal type is out-of-step with modern personality theories.
Digman’s five factor model of personality suggests that alongside E and N, there are additional dimensions of openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Multiple combinations are available and therefore a high E and N score does not mean offending is inevitable.
Describe and discuss cognitive explanations of offending.
A01
Level of moral reasoning:
Kohlberg proposed that people’s decisions and judgements on issues of right and wrong can be summarised in a stage theory of moral development - the higher the stage, the higher the reasoning.
Kohlberg based his theory on people’s responses to a series of moral dilemmas.
Many studies have suggested that criminals tend to show a lower level of moral reasoning than non-criminals.
Kohlberg found that a group of violent youths were significantly lower in their moral development than non-violent youths, even after controlling the social background.
Kohlberg’s model and criminality:
Criminal offenders are more likely to be classified at the pre-conventional level of Kohlberg’s model, whereas non-criminals have generally progressed to the conventional level and beyond.
Preconventional - A need to avoid punishment and gain rewards, and is associated with less mature reasoning.
Adults and adolescents who reason at this level may commit crime if they can get away with it or gain rewards in the form money, increased respecr, etc.
This assumption is supported by studies which suggest that offenders are often more egocentric and display poorer social perspective-taking skills than non-offender peers.
Individuals who reason at higher levels tend to sympathise more with the rights of others and exhibit more conventional behaviours such as honesty, generosity and non-violence.
Cognitive distortions:
Hostile attribution bias:
A prosperity for violence is often associated with a tendency to misinterpret the actions of other people.
Offenders may misread non-aggressive cues and this may trigger a disproportionate response.
Schonenberg and Justye - presented 55 violent offenders with images of emotionally ambiguous facial expressions.
When compared with a non-aggressive matched control group, the violent offenders were significantly more likely to perceive the images as angry and hostile.
The roots of this behaviour may lie in childhood.
Dodge and Frame - showed children a video clip of an ‘ambiguous provocation’.
Children who had been identified as ‘aggressive’ and ‘rejected’ prior to the study interpreted the situation as more hostile than those classed as non-aggressive and accepted.
Minimalisation:
An attempt to deny or downplay the seriousness of an offence and has elsewhere been referred to as the application of a ‘euphemistic label’ for behaviour.
Studies suggest that individuals who commit sexual offences are particularly prone to minimalisation.
Barbaree - found among 26 incarcerated rapists, 54% denied they had committed an offence at all and a further 40% minimised the harm they had caused to the victim.
Pollock and Hashmall - reported that 35% of a sample of child molesters argued that the crime they had committed was not sexual.
A02
Level of moral reasoning evidence:
Palmer and Hollin - compared moral reasoning between 210 female non-offenders, 122 male non-offenders and 126 offenders using the SRMSF.
Contains 11 moral dilemma questions.
The delinquent group showed less mature moral reasoning than the non-offenders.
Blackburn suggests that delinquents may show poor mental development due to a lack of role playing opportunities in childhood.
Alternative theories of moral reasoning:
Gibbs proposed a revised version of Kohlberg’s theory-comprising of two levels - mature and immature.
First level - moral decisions are guided by avoidance of punishment and personal gain.
Second level - empathy, social justice and one’s own conscience.
Gibbs argued that Kohlberg’s post-conventional level should be abandoned because it was culturally biased towards Western culture, and di not show natural maturational stage of cognitive development.
This is supported by Piaget’s theory of moral development - suggests that child-like reasoning is self-centred and egocentric which gives way to empathy and concern for the needs of others as children get older.
Individual differences:
Level of moral reasoning may depend on the offence.
Thornton and Reid - Found that individuals who committed crimes for financial gain, were more likely to show pre-conventional moral reasoning than those convicted of impulsive crimes where reasoning of any kind was not evident.
Pre-conventional reasoning tends to be associated with crimes in which offenders believed they had a good chance of evading punishment.
Langdon - suggested that intelligence may be a better predictor of criminality than moral reasoning.
This would explain the finding that groups of people with very low intelligence are actually less likely to commit a crime.
Discuss the differential association theory of offending.
A01
The theory proposes that individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques and motives for criminal behaviour through association with different people.
Scientific basis:
Sutherland - ‘the conditions which are said to cause crime should be present when crime is present, and should be absent when crime is absent’
His theory is designed to discriminate between individuals who became criminals and those who did not.
Crime as a learned behaviour:
This learning occurs most often through interactions with significant others that the child associates with.
Criminality arises from two factors: learned attitudes towards crime, and the learning of specific criminal acts.
Pro-criminal attitudes:
When a person is socialised into a group they will be exposed to values and attitudes towards the law.
Sutherland argues that if the number of pro-criminal attitudes outweigh the number of anti-criminal attitudes, they will go on to offend.
The learning process is the same whether a person is learning criminality or conformity to the law.
DAT suggests that it should be possible to mathematically predict how likely it is that an individual will commit crime if we have knowledge of the frequency, duration and intensity of which they have been exposed to deviant norms.
Learning criminal acts:
The would-be offender may also learn particular techniques for committing crime.
Sutherland’s theory can also predict why so many convicts released from prison go on to reoffend.
It is assumed that whilst in prison inmates will learn specific techniques of offending from other, more experienced criminals that they may be eager to put into practice once released.
Observational learning and imitation or direct tuition from inmates.
A02
Explanatory power:
It is able to account for crime within all sectors of society. It is the case that some crimes are more prevalent amongst more affluent groups in society. Sutherland was interested in 'white-collar' corporate crime and now this may be a feature of middle class social groups who share deviant norms and values.
Difficulty of testing:
Suffers from being rather difficult to test.
It is hard to see how the number of pro-criminal attitudes a person has, or has been exposed to, could be measured.
The theory is built on the assumption that offending behaviour will occur when pro-criminal values outnumber anti-criminal ones.
Without being able to measure these, it is difficult to know at what point the urge to offend is realised and the criminal career triggered.
The theory does not provide a satisfactory solution to these issues, undermining the scientific credibility.
Alternative explanations:
Sutherland suggested that the response of the family is crucial in determining whether an individual is likely to offend.
If the family is seen to support criminal activity, then this becomes a major influence of the child’s value system.
This is supported by the fact that offending behaviour seems to run in families.
Intergenerational crime was a key finding in Farrington’s study.
Mednick - boys who had criminal adoptive parents and non-criminal biological parents were more likely to go on to offend than boys whose biological and adoptive parents were non criminal.
Illustrates the importance of family influence.
Discuss two or more psychodynamic explanations of offending.
A01
The inadequate superego:
The superego is formed at the end of the phallic stage of development when when children resolve the Oedipus complex.
Superego works on the morality principle and exerts its influence by punishing the ego through guilt for wrongdoing.
Blackburn argued that if the superego is somehow deficient or inadequate then criminal behaviour is inevitable because the ‘id’ is given free rein and not properly controlled.
The 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.
The deviant superego:
If the superego that the child internalises has immoral or deviant values this would lead to offending behaviour.
The over-harsh superego:
An excessively punitive or overly harsh superego means the individual is crippled by guilt and anxiety. This may drive the individual to perform criminal acts in order to satisfy the superego’s overwhelming need for punishment.
The maternal deprivation theory:
Bowlby argued that the ability to form meaningful relationships in adulthood was dependent upon the child forming a good relationship with a mother-figure.
Failure to establish such a meaningful bond in the first few years of life, there will be irreversible consequences in later life.
One of these is the development of affectionless psychopathy.
Maternally deprived individuals are likely to engage in acts of delinquency and cannot develop close relationships with others.
44 thieves study helps support this theory.
A02
Gender bias:
An assumption of the Freudian theory is that girls develop a weaker superego as they have not experienced castration anxiety.
Girls are under less pressure to identify with their mothers so their superego, and their sense of morality, is less fully realised.
Females should be more prone to criminal behaviour than males.
This is not supported by evidence - in a study where children were required to resist temptation, Hoffman found hardly any evidence of gender differences, and when there was, little girls tended to be more moral than boys.
Contradictory evidence:
There is very little evidence that children raised without a same sex parent are less law abiding than those with - defeats Blackburn’s argument of the superego.
Children who are raised by deviant parents and then go on to commit crime, this could be due to genetics rather than a deviant superego.
The idea that criminal behaviour reflects an unconscious desire for punishment seems implausible , as many offenders go to great efforts to conceal their crimes which means that they want to avoid punishment.
Correlation not causation:
Lewis 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 teen years.
Even if there is a link between maternal deprivation and crime, this does not mean causality.
Other reasons exist for this link - genetic factors and the influence of other people.
Maternal deprivation may be one of these reasons but it is not the sole reason, or the most decisive.
Discuss the psychological effects of custodial sentencing.
A01
Aims of custodial sentencing:
- Deterrence:
Prison is designed to put off the individual from engaging in offending behaviour.
General deterrence aims to send a broad message to members of a given society that crime will not be tolerated.
Individual deterrence should prevent the individual from repeating the same crime in light of their experience.
Conditioning through punishment. - Incapacitation:
The offender is taken out of society to prevent them reoffending as a means of protecting the public.
The need for incapacitation depends on the severity of the offence and the nature of the offender. - Retribution:
Society is enacting revenge for the crime by making the offender suffer, and the level of suffering should be proportionate to the seriousness of the crime.
Many people see prison as the best possible option in this sense and alternatives to prison are often criticised. - Rehabilitation:
Upon release, offenders should leave prison better adjusted and ready to take their place back in society.
Prisons should provide opportunities to develop skills and training or to access treatment programmes for drug addiction, as well as giving the offender time to reflect on their crime.
The psychological effects of custodial sentencing:
Stress and depression:
Suicide rates are considerably higher in prison than in the general population, as are incidents of self-harm.
The stress of the prison experience also increases the risk of psychological disturbance following release.
Institutionalisation:
Having adapted to the norms and routines of prison life, inmates may become so accustomed to these that they are no longer able to function outside.
Prisonisation:
Refers to the way in which prisoners are socialised into adopting an ‘inmate code’.
Behaviour that may be considered unacceptable in the outside world may be rewarded in prison.
The problem of recidivism:
Stats in 2013 show that 57% of UK offenders will reoffend within a year of release.
In 2007, 14 prisons in England and Wales recorded recidivism rates of over 70%.
UK along with the US have some of the highest rates of recidivism.
Penal institutions are much more open in Norway and there is greater emphasis placed on rehabilitation and skills development.
Criticisms that Norway prisons don’t actually punish.
A02
Evidence supports psychological effects:
Bartol - In the last 20 years, suicide rates among offenders have tended to be around 15 times higher than those in the general population.
Most at risk are single young men during their first 24 hours of imprisonment.
Study conducted by prison reform trust - found that 25% of women and 15% of men in prison reported symptoms indicative of psychosis.
Suggests that the oppressive prison system may trigger psychological disorders in those that are vulnerable.
This evidence suggests that custodial sentencing is not effective in rehabilitating the individual, particularly those who are psychologically vulnerable.
Individual differences:
It cannot be assumed that all offenders will react in the same way to prison.
Different prisons have different regimes, so there are likely to be wide variation in experiences.
The length of sentence, the reason for incarceration and previous experience of prison may all be mitigating factors.
Many of those convicted may have had pre-existing psychological and emotional difficulties at the time they were convicted.
Therefore, it is difficult to make general conclusions that apply to every prisoner and every prison.
Opportunities for training and treatment:
Rehabilitation model is based upon the idea that prisoners will improve their character and be able to lead a crime-free life when released.
Many offenders access education and training whilst in prison increasing the possibility they will find employment once released.
Programmes such as anger management and social skills training may give offenders insight into their own behaviour and reduce recidivism.
This suggests that prison may be a worthwhile experience assuming offenders are able to access these programmes. However, many prisons lack the resources to provide these and evidence to support the long-term benefits of these is inconclusive.
There are alternatives to custodial sentencing, such as anger management, behaviour modification and restorative justice - you can use evaluation points from these to evaluate custodial sentencing.
Discuss behaviour modification in custody.
A01
Behaviourist principles:
If we accept that all behaviour is learned then it should be possible to unlearn behaviour by applying the same principles.
These programmes are designed with the aim of reinforcing obedient behaviour in offenders, whilst punishing disobedience, in the hope that the former continues and the latter dies out.
Token economy:
Based on operant conditioning.
Reinforces desirable behaviour with a token that an then be exchanged for some kind of reward.
Avoiding conflict, following prison rules, keeping one’s cell orderly, etc.
Tokens are secondary reinforcers because they derive their value from their association with a reward.
May include exchanging tokens for a phone call to a loved one, time in the gym or yard, extra cigarettes.
Each of these behaviours and rewards would be made clear to the prisoners before the programme is implemented.
Changing behaviour:
The desirable behaviour is identified, broken down into small steps (increments), and a baseline measure is established.
The behaviours to be reinforced are decided upon, and all those who come into contact with offenders must follow the same selective reinforcement regime.
The whole programme can be overseen by prison officials who are able to monitor the programme’s effectiveness on the management of the prison as a whole.
The problem of recidivism:
Stats in 2013 show that 57% of UK offenders will reoffend within a year of release.
In 2007, 14 prisons in England and Wales recorded recidivism rates of over 70%.
UK along with the US have some of the highest rates of recidivism.
Penal institutions are much more open in Norway and there is greater emphasis placed on rehabilitation and skills development.
Criticisms that Norway prisons don’t actually punish.
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Easy to implement/research example:
There is no need for expertise or specialist professionals as there would be for other forms of treatment.
Can be implemented by virtually anyone in any institution.
Cost-effective and easy to follow once workable methods of reinforcement have been established.
Use of such systems rely on a consistent approach from prison staff.
Bassett and Blanchard found that any benefits were lost when staff applied the technique inconsistently.
Hobbs and Holt - introduced a token economy system with groups of young delinquents across three behavioural units.
Found a significant difference in positive behaviour compared to the non-token economy group.
Little rehabilitative value:
Any positive changes in behaviour that may occur whilst the offender is in prison will be quickly lost when they are released.
Token economy systems are unlikely to extend beyond the normal prison setting.
In everyday society, the offender will not receive rewards for behaving in a certain way and so these positive changes will be lost.
The rewards the offender receives for breaking the law may be more powerful.
Passive token learning:
Deals with surface behaviour only and encourages a passive form of superficial learning.
Other treatments such as anger management are much more active in their approach - the individual is required to reflect on the cause of their offending and is given greater responsibility for their own rehabilitation.
Token economy produces little change in overall character.
This may explain why the individual will quickly return to their usual behaviour.
Discuss the use of anger management as a treatment for offending.
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Cognitive behaviour treatment:
Novaco suggests that cognitive factors trigger the emotional arousal which generally precedes aggressive acts.
In behaviourist terms, becoming angry is reinforced by the individual’s feeling of control in that situation.
Anger management is a form of CBT.
Three stages:
- Cognitive preparation:
Requires the offender to reflect on past experience and consider the typical pattern of their anger.
The offender learns to identify those situations where which act as triggers to anger and, if the interpretation is irrational the therapist makes that clear. - Skill acquisition:
Offenders are introduced to a range of techniques and skills to help them deal with anger-provoking situations more rationally and effectively.
Cognitive techniques - positive self-talk to encourage calmness.
Behavioural techniques - assertiveness training in how to communicate effectively.
Physiological techniques - methods or relaxation and/or meditation. - Application practice:
Offenders are given the opportunity to practice their skills within a carefully monitored environment.
Role play is likely to involve the offender and the therapist re-enacting scenarios that may have escalated feelings of anger in the past.
Requires commitment.
Successful negotiation of the role play would be met with positive reinforcement from the therapist.
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Research support:
Keen - studied the progress made with young offenders aged between 17 and 21 who took part in an anger management programme.
The course comprises of 8 2-hour sessions.
Although there were initial issues with the offenders not showing up and not taking the course seriously, offenders reported increased awareness of their anger management difficulties and an increased capacity to exercise self-control.
Comparison with behaviour modification:
Anger management tries to tackle one of the causes of offending.
Attempts to address the thought processes that underlie offending behaviour.
Experience of treatment programmes may give offenders new insight into the cause of their criminality enabling them to self discover ways of managing themselves outside the prison setting.
It is logical to assume that anger management is more likely to permanent behaviour change and lower rates of recidivism than behaviour modification.
Limited long-term effectiveness:
Blackburn points out that, whilst anger management may have a noticeable effect on the conduct of offenders in the short term, there is little evidence that it reduces recidivism in the long term.
The application phase of the treatment relies heavily on the artificial role play which may not reflect all triggers in real life.
Any progress made during anger management sessions may count for little when in a real life setting.
Discuss restorative justice as a way of dealing with offenders.
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The process:
Restorative justice programmes switch the emphasis from the needs of the state to the needs of the individual victim.
A process of managed collaboration between offender and victim based on the related principles of healing and empowerment.
A supervised meeting between the two parties is organised in which the victim is given the opportunity to confront the offender and explain how the incident affected them.
The offender is able to see the consequences of their actions.
Important for rehabilitation.
Key features of the process:
- Focus on acceptance of responsibility and positive change for people who harm others; less emphasis on punishment.
- Not restricted to courtrooms; they can meet face to face in a non-courtroom setting.
- Active rather than passive involvement of all parties in the process wherever possible.
- Focus on positive outcomes for survivors and offenders.
Variations of the process:
Not all schemes involve face to face interaction.
Sometimes the offender may make some financial restitution to the victim which may reflect the psychological damage done.
May involve the offender repairing damaged property themselves.
Flexible and can function as an alternative to prison, as an add-on to community service or as an incentive which may lead to the reduction of an existing sentence.
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Diversity of programmes:
Unlike custodial sentencing, there is a degree of flexibility in the way in which programmes can be administered, and the term itself covers a wide range of possible applications.
Positive in the sense that schemes can be adapted and tailored to the needs of the individual situation.
Presents difficulties in terms of drawing general conclusions about the effectiveness of the approach.
Relies on offender showing remorse:
There is a danger that some offenders may sign up for the scheme to avoid prison, or for the promise of a reduced sentence, rather than willingness to make amends.
Victims may also have an ulterior motive - to seek revenge or retribution of their own.
This means that RJ may not lead to positive outcomes when ppts agree to take part without the best intentions.
It is also viewed as a soft option - despite its many benefits in reducing recidivism (by 14%).
Alternatives to custodial sentencing tend not to receive much public support.
The sentiment of it being a soft option tends to be echoed by politicians, keen to convince the electorate that they are ‘tough on crime’.
Expensive:
Shapland - concluded that every £1 spent on RJ would save the criminal justice system £8 through reduced re-offending.
The meeting between offender and victim may be an emotionally charged event, requiring the input of a mediator.
Specialist professionals who are trained in these matters tend to be expensive.
RJ programmes often suffer from high drop out rates as offender or victim may lose their nerve prior to the scheduled meeting and withdraw.
In practice, may not always be the most cost-effective solution.
