Forensics

Question 1

Eyesneck’s theory - AO1

Answer 1

Three dimensions; claims 67% variance of traits = genes
- extraversion - introversion - extraverts characterised as outgoing and having a positive emotions but get bored easily - determined by levels of arousal in someones nervous system - seek external stimulation to increase cortisol arousal

• psychoticism - stable - the tendency to experience negative emotional states - linked to levels of testosterone - men therefore more likely to be found here
• neuroticism - normality - psychotics are egocentric, aggressive, impulsive, impersonal, lacking in empathy and not concerned about welfare of others - determined by level of stability in SNS - person with high neuroticism = gets easily upset

Question 2

Eyesneck’s theory - AO3

Answer 2

• Support for the way that personalities have a biological basis - twin studies - researcher found a +.52 correlation for MZ twins for neuroticism and 0.24 for DZ twins - extraversion - MZ (.51) DZ (.12) - issue because MZ are meant to have a 100% gene sharer so may also be due to environmental factors
• Personality may not be consistent - people may be consistent in some situations and not others - some may be relaxed at home but neurotic at work - study done - 63 people observed in a variety of situations - found almost no correlation between behaviours - therefore notion of criminal personality flawed as we don’t have one personality
• Real world application - offering treatment to reduce their criminal tendencies - 3 traits are good at recognising delinquency but not at predicting whose likely to become an offender - may be useful in how to prevent criminal behaviour - eg - modifying the socialisation experiences of children who have potential to become an offender - this suggests that the theory could have applications in preventing or treating offending behaviour

Question 3

Psychological explanations of offending behaviour - Cognitive - AO1

Answer 3

• Cognitive distortions - irrational or inaccurate thinking which can allow an offender to rationalise their behaviour
• Hostile attribution bias - where you negatively infer what people are actually thinking. This can then lead to aggressive behaviour
• Minimisation - someone under exaggerates their actions to justify it in their own head (sex offenders)

Moral reasoning: Kohlberg - 3 stages of biological maturity
- Pre conventional level - children under 10 - judge actions through consequences - criminals likely to be at this level

• Conventional level - adults believe that conformity to social rules is desirable, as it maintains social order and positive relationships - offender might accept breaking the law to protect a member of their family or protecting other people
• Post conventional level - 10% of adults reach this stage, defining morality by abstract moral principles rather than compliance to norms

Question 4

Psychological explanations of offending behaviour - Cognitive - AO3

Answer 4

• Research support for hostile attribution bias - studies of violent offenders in prison - showed emotionally ambiguous faces to 55 violent offenders in prisoners and compared their responses to matched control normal ppts - angry, happy or fearful emotions in varying levels of intensity - offenders more likely to interpret any picture that had some expression of anger or an expression of aggression - supports idea of misinterpretation of facial expressions (non verbal)
• Research into levels of moral reasoning - study done - 128 male juvenile offenders found that 38% did not consider the consequences of their actions and 36% were confident they would not be caught (pre conventional) - another study - 330 male adolescent offenders in Taiwan. Those offenders who showed more advanced reasoning were less likely to be involved in crimes - supports relationship between moral reasoning and offending behaviour
• Research support for minimalisation - sex offenders - researchers found sex offenders accounts of their crime often downplayed their behaviour - For example the offenders suggested that the victims behaviour contributed in some way to the crime. Some also denied the crime - this supports the view that offenders do use minimilisation but it is a fairly normal denial mechanism for everyone to protect themselves and blame things on external sources

Question 5

Psychological explanations of offending behaviour - Differential association - AO1

Answer 5

• A child learns attitudes towards crime through intimate groups like peers/family through social associations
  9 key principles:
• Criminal behaviour is learned rather than inherited
• Learned through association with others
• Association with intimate groups
• What is learned is techniques and attitudes
• Learning is directional - either for or against crime
• Number of favourable attitudes outweigh unfavourable ones
• The learning experiences vary in frequency and intensity
• Criminal behaviour is learned through the same processes as any other behaviour
• General ‘need’ is not a sufficient explanation for crime because not everyone with those needs turn to crime

Question 6

Psychological explanations of offending behaviour - Differential association - AO3

Answer 6

• Supporting evidence - from family studies done - where there is a father with a criminal conviction 40% of the sons committed a crime by the age of 18 compared to 13% of sons of non criminal fathers - study - survey of 2500 male and female adolescents in the US Akers found the most important influence on drinking and drug behaviour was from peers; differential association, differential reinforcement and imitation combined to account for 68% of the variance in marujana use and 55% of alcohol use - this suggests it can explain the social influences but cannot separate genes from environment completely
• Explanation is reductionist as it does not take into account any biological factors - diathesis stress model may offer a better account by combining social factors with vulnerability factors - vulnerability factors may be innate genetic ones or it might be that early experiences act as a vulnerability - Therefore the social approach on its own may be insuffiecient as an explanation to offending behaviour
• Social learning can not account for all kinds of crime and it probably influences ‘smaller’ crimes than bigger ones - this kind of ‘smaller’ crime accounts for a bigger percentage of the crimes committed than violent and impuslsive offences. For example, in England and Wales in 2014 there were about 500 homicides but more than 400,000 burgularies - 40% of offences are carried out by people under the age of 21 which is better explained by a desire for risk taking - differential association only gives a partial explanation of offending behaviour

Question 7

Top down approach of offender profiling - 6 stages - AO1

Answer 7

• Profiling inputs - data collected at this stage includes a description of the crime scene, background info about the victim and details of the crime - INCLUDES EVERYTHING
• Decision process models - profiler starts to make decisions about the data and organises it into meaningful patterns - murder type, location, time
• Crime assessment - offender classified as organised (planned, try to hide body, high in intellegence) or disorganised (unplanned, random, no attempt to hide body, sexually incompetent)
• Criminal profile - profile is now constructed of the offender which includes hypotheses about their likely background habits and beliefs of the offender
• Crime assessment - written report is given to the investigation agency and persons matching the profile are evaluated
• Apprehension - If a suspect is apprehended the entire profile generating process is reviewed to check that at each stage the conclusions were made legitimate

Question 8

Top down approach of offender profiling - AO3

Answer 8

• Police who have used the top-down approach have found it useful - Copson questioned 184 US police officers - 82% said the technique was operationally useful and over 90% said they would use it again - approach offers investigators a different perspective opens up new avenues for investigation and may prevent a wronful conviction - supports usefulness of approach
• However the method is based on flawed data - data came from interviews with 36 of the most dangerous and sexually motivated murderers including Ted Bundy - its dubious as such individuals are not likely to be the best source of reliable information - these killers may have a different approach to ‘typical killers’ the classification of crimes and criminals may not be generalisable
• Furthermore top-down approaches may be harmful as profiling could mislead investigators - researcher argue that profilers actually do little more than pyschics who it could be argued often have a wealth of experience in reading behaviour - beliveability of profiles may be explained in terms of the Barum effect - ambigious descriptions can be made to fit any situation as in the case of horoscopes which explains why profiles often appear to be ‘right’ - suggests that the police and courts should take care not to be convinced by profiles and it also raises the question about whether information about the techniques used by police should be generally available

Question 9

Bottom up approach - Three main features - AO1

Answer 9

• Interpersonal coherence - people are consistent in their behaviour and therefore there will be links with elements of the crime and how people behave in everyday life - people’s behaviour changes over time and therefore looking at the differences in crime over a four year period might offer further clues
• Forensic awareness - Certain behaviours may reveal an awareness of a particular police techniques and past experience; for example; Davies found that rapists who conceal fingerprints often had a previous conviction for burglary
• Smallest space analysis - Data about many crime scenes and offender characteristics are correlated so that the most common connections can be identified;
  Instrumental opportunistic - ‘instrumental’ refers to to using murder to obtain something or accomplish a ‘goal’ and opportunistic means they took the easiest opportunities
  Instrumental cognitive - a particular concern about being detected and therefore more planned
  Expressive impulsive - uncontrolled, in the heat of the moment and may feel provoked by the victim

Question 10

Bottom up approach - Geographical profiling - AO1

Answer 10

• analyses the locations of a connected series of crimes and considers where the crimes were commited, the spatial relationships between different crime scenes and how they might relate to a person’s place of residence
• circle theory - If crimes are similar in nature and plotted on a map it may be possible to join the plot points in a circle and their base would be in the middle of the circle
• marauder - home base is within the geographical area in which crimes are committed
• commuter - people who travel in and out of for work etc.
• Criminal geographic targeting - computerised system - produces a three dimensional map displaying spatial data related to time distance and movement to and from crime scenes

Question 11

Bottom up approach - AO3

Answer 11

• Evidence that goes against the circle theory - researchers showed research support for their model by distinguishing between marauders and commuters in a study of 45 sexual assaults. However, in the study 91%of the offenders were identified as marauders and this classification therefore doesn’t seem particularly useful - if a persons home base is not actually at the centre of the circle police may look in the wrong place - circle theory can therefore be useful for narrowing down searches but could lead police to look in the wrong places (not 100% useful)
• Bottom up approaches may not be as scientific as they claim to be - use objective statistical techniques and computer analysis which makes them appear to be more scientific than top down approach - One issue is that the data used to drive such systems is related only to offenders who have been caught and therefore this tells us little about patterns of behaviour related to unsolved crimes - means that the bottom up approaches may have the potential to be objective and systematic but in practise they are inevitably biased
• Critics question the usefulness of investigative psychology in actually solving crimes - example from Copson suggests the approach is useful - BUT - only 3% said the advice had helped identify the actual offender and in his study in one year the max number of crimes where profiling was useful was only 75 cases - suggests that it only gives a slight benefit in catching offenders

Question 12

Biological explanations for offending behaviour - Historical approach - Atavistic form - AO1

Answer 12

• Lombroso - proposed that offenders possess similar physical characteristics to lower primates and this could explain their criminality
• He said - there is an asymmetry of the face excessive dimensions of the jaw and cheekbones eye defects and peculiarities
• Born criminals: the atvastic type; throwbacks identifiable from their physcial characteristics
• Insane criminals: suffering from mental illness
• Criminaloids: a large general class of offenders whose mental characteristics predisposed them to criminal behaviour under the right circumstances
• He gathered empirical evidence from post-mortem examinations of criminals and studying the faces of living criminals
• Studied skulls and other physiological aspects
• Studied 50,000 bodies altogether
• In one particular study of 383 convicted Italian criminals he found that 21% had just one atvistic trait and 43% had at least 5

Question 13

Biological explanations for offending behaviour - Historical approach - Somatotypes - AO1

Answer 13

• 4 criminal types linked to body-shape or somatotype
• Leptosome or asthenic - tall and thin; petty thieves
• Athletic - tall and muscular; crimes of violence
• Pyknic - short and fat; commit crimes of deception and sometimes violence
• Dysplastic or mixed - more than one type (mix) ; crimes against morality (prostitution)

Question 14

Biological explanations for offending behaviour - Historical approach - AO3

Answer 14

• Lombroso = gender biased as it is based on the notion that women are less evolved than men - believed that women were naturally jealous and insensitive to pain but also passive low in intelligence and maternally focused - meant they were less likely to be involved in crime - women who did become criminals, according to Lambroso had masculine characteristics that turned them into ‘monsters’ - suggests that his explanations are based on typical nineteenth century views about women rather than empirical evidence
• Some evidence supporting a link between body type and criminality - researchers found that 60% of delinquents were mesomorphs roughly equivalent to the athletic type - another researcher studied young adults - study of 200 young adults he concluded that there were differences between delinquents and non delinquents in terms of body type - the delinquents tended to be mesomorphs - supports notion of innate criminal types identified by their physical features but a correlation with a body type does not imply a causal relationship
• Lack of adequate controls - studied prisoners he didn’t pay the same kind of attention to non prisoners. Had he done so its likely that he would have found as many non prisoners with the same characterisitics as he found in prisoners - researcher compared 3,00 convicts with a group of non convicts finding no differences except for the fact that convicts were slightly smaller - lack of controls in his research therefore undermines his conclusions

Question 15

Biological explanations for offending behaviour - Genetics - AO1

Answer 15

• Genes may predispose individuals to criminal behaviour
• A faulty MAOA Gene was found by Brunner in
  28 Violent males in a Dutch family - WARRIOR gene
• He analysed the DNA of these men and found they shared a particular gene that lead to abnormally low levels of MAOA
• Another researcher estimated that 5-10% of violent crime in Finland is caused by abnormal CDH13 and MAOA genes
• Environmental factors ‘switch’ genes on or off. This is an Epigenetic Effect, changing the phenotype but not the genotype
• Caspi used data from following around 1,000 people from 1970’s - assessed anti social behaviour at age 26 and found that 12% of men with low MAOA genes had experienced maltreatment when they were babies but were responsible for 44% of violent crimes

Question 16

Biological explanations for offending behaviour - Neural - AO1

Answer 16

• Researcher reviewed 71 brain imaging studies, showing that violent criminals have reduced functioning in the prefrontal cortex, an area associated with control of impulses
• Murderers had abnormalities in their asymmetries in their amygdalia, an area of the limbic system linked to emotion and motivation
• Differences in brain structures may be innate or acquired 60% of US prisoners have had a brain injury, compared with 8.5% of the general population
  Neurotransmitter differences:
• When serotonin Levels are low, the pre-frontal cortex is unable to inhibit impulsive aggressive urges. Dopamine Hyperactivity may enhance this effect.
• High noadrenaline Is associated with sympathetic nervous system activation: the fight-or-flight response and thus are linked to aggression noadrenaline also helps people react to perceived threats, so low levels would reduce this ability.

Question 17

Biological explanations for offending behaviour - Genetic n Neural - AO3

Answer 17

• Twin and adoption studies support genetic explanations of offending behaviour - researcher reviewed research on the delinquent behaviour of twins and found that for MZ twins there was a 52% concordance rate whereas DZ twins had a 21% concordance rate - another researcher study of 14,000 adoptees found that 15% sons adopted by a criminal family went on to be criminals compared to 20% whose biological parents were criminals - suggests that there are genetic influences in explanations for offending behaviour but there must be some environmental
• Biological explanations are deterministic and lawyers have used them to excuse crime - imply that a person may be unable to control their criminal urges - the law asks the question about whether the cause of behaviour is outside a person’s control - may be harder for some men with genetic predispositions and adverse experiences to avoid criminal violence therefore a deterministic view of criminal behaviour can not be totally ruled out
• Potential benefit of research on neural abnormalities - differences in neurotransmitter levels could be treated with drugs or dietary interventions - example if low levels of serotonin are related to increased aggressiveness in criminals than people in prison could be given diets that would enhance their serotonin levels and hopefully decrease their aggressiveness - research only highlights a correlation between head injuries or neurotransmitter levels and later criminality - possible it is a spurious relationship - drugs and diet may therefore only help some individuals, particularly if they also suffer mental illness

Question 18

Psychological explanations for offending behaviour - Psychodynamic - Bowlby - AO1

Answer 18

• proposed that prolonged separations between a mother and child would have had long term emotional consequences.
• most risk if the separation was before the age of 2 ½ and if there was no subsitute mother continuing risk up to age 5
• long term consequence is Affectionless Psychopathy a lack of empathy, shame or sense of responsibility
• studied 44 delinquent children attending his clinic and compared them to a control group (44 thieves)
• found that none of the control group had experienced early separations
• 39% of all thieves, and 12 out of 14 classified as affectionless had experienced early frequent separations

Question 19

Psychological explanations for offending behaviour - Psychodynamic - Freud - AO1

Answer 19

• ID operates according to the Pleasure principle and the SUPEREGO is a moral compass, causing guilt when rules are broken and EGO acts as the reality principle and mediates between the id and superego
• superego is likely to be related to offending behaviour because it is concerned with right and wrong
• child whose parent is absent develops a weak superego And acts impulsively to gratify their instinctal id impulses (underdeveloped superego)
• child with a strict parent develops a harsh identification, with excessive guilt and anxiety. Committing crime and receiving punishment may relieve these feelings (overdeveloped superego)
• child with a criminal parent will identify with them and adopt the same deviant attitudes (deviant superego)

Question 20

Psychological explanations for offending behaviour - Psychodynamic - AO3

Answer 20

• Bowlby’s theory has important applications in the care of young children and prevention of delinquency - treatment of emotional problems are slow - suggested that its preferable to prevent the problem in the first place by avoiding early separations - key was emotional separation rather than physical separation - showed that children coped reasonably well with separations from parents as long as alternative emotional care was provided - childcare provision have been influenced enormously by Bowlby’s work on attachment and maternal deprivation
• However research does not allow causal conclusions as separation was not manipulated - all that is demonstrated is an association between separation and emotional problems; there may be other variables that caused the emotional problems - example, discord in the home may have caused prolonged separations between mother and child and caused the affectionless nature of some children - ossible that the child’s affectionless personality may have even caused the separation - means we can’t draw causal conclusions and the study needs to be treated with caution in supporting Bowlby’s theory
• Freud’s theory is gender biased - women should develop a weaker superego than men because they don’t identify as strongly with their same sex parent as boys do - believed there was a little reason for anyone to identify with a woman because of her lower status - if that was correct we would expect to see more women as criminals than men because of a weaker superego whereas this is not the case - means his theory is alpha bias

Question 21

Dealing with offending behaviour - custodial sentences - AIMS - AO1

Answer 21

• Recidivism - when a person reoffends after receiving punishment for other offences
• Custodial sentence - when a court requires an offender to be held in prison or some other closed community
  Aims;
• Incapacitation - utting criminals in prison is necessary in the case of violent offenders or psychopaths who may not be capable of controlling their behaviour and the public needs to be protected
• Punish and prevent recidivism - behaviourist approach to dealing with offender behaviour. The principle is that punishment decreases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated
• Deterrence - fact that people are given prison sentences should discourage the general population from offending
• Retribution - victim and their relatives/friends wish to feel a sense of justice being done
• Rehabilitation - people take the view that the only way to prevent criminal behaviour is through some sort of education or therapy especially in the case of offenders with mental health problems

Question 22

Dealing with offending behaviour - custodial sentences - PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS - AO1

Answer 22

• DE-INDIVIDUATION - SPE - illustrates how types of uniforms may lead to a loss of individual identity - which is associated with increased aggression
• DEPRESSION, SUICIDE, SELF HARM - Offenders entering a prison may initially feel anxious about the new environment - Depression may be explained in terms of self harm - the league for prison reform reported 10,000 incidents of self harm in 2008 - Suicide is an outcome of depression - the greatest risk group is single young men in the first 24 hours of imprisonment
• OVERCROWDING - 25% of prisoners are in overcrowded accomodation in UK - Study of rats showed overcrowding led to aggression, stress and increased physical illness
• EFFECTS ON FAMILY - Parents in prison may feel guilt and separation anxiety - Children with a mother or father in prison are deeply affected psychologically and financially and the reverse is true

Question 23

Dealing with offending behaviour - custodial sentence - AO3

Answer 23

• Argument that prison may even increase re-offending by acting as a training ground for crime - according to differential association theory spending time with other criminals will both affect an individuals attitudes towards crime and provide opportunities for learning how to be more successful in committing crimes - example - researchers concluded that placing low risk offenders with high risk offenders makes it more likely that the low risk offenders will reoffend - imprisonment may reinforce pro-criminal attitudes and encourage increased criminal behaviour on release
• Incapacitation, retribution and rehabilitation are also limited in their benefits - incapacitation is only relevant to a small range of dangerous prisoners and its not relevant to reducing recividism - benefits of retribution can be achieved without a custodial sentence - example - restorative justice offers the chance for offenders to make amends to victims, while changing their attitudes - means that many of the aims of custodial sentencing could be better achieved by other types of sentencing

Question 24

Dealing with offending behaviour - Behaviour modification in custody - STUDY - AO1

Answer 24

• Staff given 3x4 hours and twice weekly for a month training to identify and define target behaviours
• Weekly sessions to assess the operation of the programme
• 125 male delinquents observed living in 4 cottages
• Data was collected on the cottages before tokens started to be given out
• One cottage was a control group - didn’t receive any tokens
• Told criteria and how many tokens they could earn - at the end of the day they were told how many tokens they had and were given to a token economy shop each week to buy things like sweets, tobacco etc.
• Before data; 66%, 47%, 73% for each of the 3 cottages
  Post tokens; 91%, 81%, 94% - 27% average increase
• Control group showed no increase within the time period

Question 25

Dealing with offending behaviour - Behaviour modification in custody - AO1

Answer 25

• Token economy - a system of exchange goods based on tokens - works well in a closed society like a prison
• REINFORCEMENT - operant conditioning involves the reinforcement of new behaviours - in a token economy prisoners are given tokens (TV, food, tobacco) when they perform desirable behaviours - target behaviours must be specified and there may be a hierarchy of how many tokens each behaviour gets - simply giving rewards for good behaviour isn’t a token economy
• PUNISHMENT - another strategy is to remove tokens due to undesirable behaviour which would be a punishment
• SHAPING - longer term objects or complex behaviours consisting of smaller components can be taught through process of shaping - tokens are given for behaviour that becomes more complex - eg - tokens initially given out for making their bed then it may progress to be for being polite to officers

Question 26

Dealing with offending behaviour - Behaviour modification in custody - AO3

Answer 26

• Token economy can be effective and is easy to implement - means that prison staff can think about what behaviours are desirable and not desirable and thus improving the prison environment for everyone - pre planning needs to take place and staff must remain consistent throughout - as long as token economy is clear and consistent, it can provide a simple way of improving prison life
• Less successful in prisons than in schools for dealing with people with autism - 1970s it became popular in the US and was being used in nearly all states - showed that socially approve behaviours were enhanced and criminal behaviours diminished - BUT - good results did not persist and use in the UK was limited to young offenders institutions - suggests that Token economy may be better used in schools for young people with behavioural difficulties or autism rather than in prisons
• Doesn’t affect re-offending rates or behaviour outside the prison - research suggests that such systems have little effect on reoffending rates - once rewards cease the stimulus response link is extinguished - behaviours learned in prison may not apply to the real world, such as walking in a straight line - can improve behaviour in the prison environment, but this doesn’t have a long term effect on prisoners once they return to their natural environment

Question 27

Dealing with offending behaviour; anger management - Key aims - AO1

Answer 27

• COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING - greater self awareness and control over cognitive dimensions of anger
• REGULATION OF AROUSAL - learning to control the physiological state
• BEHAVIOURAL STRATEGIES: such as problem solving skills strategic withdrawal and assertiveness

Question 28

Dealing with offending behaviour; anger management - STRESS INOCULATION MODEL - AO1

Answer 28

• COGNITIVE PREPARATION - in the inital phase clients learn about anger generally how it can be adaptive and non adaptive. They analyse their own patterns of anger and identify situations which provoke anger in them
• SKILL ACQUISITION - in the second phase clients are taught various skills to help manage their anger such as, self regulation, cognitive flexibility and relaxation. They are also taught better communication skills so they can resolve conflicts assertively without being angry
• APPLICATION TRAINING - clients apply the skills initially in controlled and non threatening situations such as role plays of situations that previously made them angry. They receive extensive feedback from the therapist and other group members. Later clients can try out their skills in real world situations

Question 29

Dealing with offending behaviour; anger management - STUDY - AO1

Answer 29

Ireland 2004;

• Assessed effectiveness of anger management therapy with 87 male offenders
• Baseline measure was made through assessing pre intervention anger and each person was assessed by prison officers
• Experimental group of 50 took part in treatment programme while other 37 were on a waiting list
• Treatment consisted of 12 hour sessions over three days
• 8 weeks after treatment all ppts were reassessed using questionnaire and also assessed by officers
• The study found significant improvements in the experimental group and no changes in the control group over that time period

Question 30

Dealing with offending behaviour; anger management - AO3

Answer 30

• Unaware of extent of usefulness of anger management programmes - example - researchers report 75% improvement rates - 2 researchers analysed 58 studies using CBT with offenders, 20 of which used anger control as part of the therapy - found that having an anger control element was significantly related to amount of improvement - BUT - findings of studies with offenders are inconsistent; meta -analyses show only moderate benefits of anger management programmes - means that it is difficult to draw clear conclusions about the effectiveness of anger management programmes
• Suggested that anger and aggression are not related - two researchers studies they studied almost 300 males in prison and found no differences between violent and non violent offenders in terms of anger - BUT - one danger with anger management programmes is that such programmes can be harmful because offenders attribute their violent behaviour to anger rather than taking personal responsibility - suggests that crime can take place without anger acting as a prominent antecedent calling into question the relevance of anger management programmes
• Anger management programmes not suitable for everyone - CBT in general isn’t for everyone; some offenders don’t like having to reflect on their styles of thinking and find it difficult to make the effort involved in changing attitudes - alternative is the use of drama based courses which are less reliant on verbal ability and can be more engaging - research has also shown that one way to cope with dropout is to assess readiness to change before the start of an anger programme - therefore probably best as a part of a wider therapeutic approach

Question 31

Restorative justice - AIMS - AO1

Answer 31

• REHABILITATION OF OFFENDERS - victim has an opportunity to explain the real impact of the crime and this enables the offender to understand the effects on the victim. They may learn to take perspective of others which reduces likelihood of reoffending
• ATONEMENT FOR WRONGDOING - offenders may offer a concrete compensation for the crime. Most importantly the atonement is psychological by simply showing their feelings of guilt. Offenders can also show understanding of the effects of their action. Victim has a chance to express distress and provides offender with opportunity of developing empathy.

VICTIM’S PERSPECTIVE - from victims perspective this can reduce their sense of victimisation as they are no longer powerless and have a voice. A victim may develop a greater understanding of the offender by listening to their account

Question 32

Restorative justice - THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK MAIN POINTS - AO1

Answer 32

• The focus of restorative justice should be on the relationships rather than the punishment
• Involvement of 3 ‘stakeholders’ is necessary - the victim seeks reparation the offender must take responsibility and the community aims to achieve reconciliation to maintain a healthy society
• One stakeholder = only partly restorative, example - if the government pays financial compensation
• 2 stakeholders = mostly restorative - eg - therapy for offender
• Three stakeholders = full restoration

Question 33

Restorative justice - THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK PEACE CIRCLE - AO1

Answer 33

• A ‘talking piece’ - passed around so the person can speak without interruption
• A ‘keeper’ - main task is to maintain atmosphere of respect and articulate constructive solutions

Question 34

Restorative justice - AO3

Answer 34

• Victims find restorative justice beneficial and this is supported by evidence - UK restorative justice council report 85% satisfaction from victims in face to face meetings with their offenders - one police force reported a 92.5% victim satisfaction when they had been subject to a violent crime - researcher found that victims claim a greater sense of satisfaction when cases go through mainstream courts - shows that, for a large range of crimes restorative justice benefits victims
• Re-offending rates are reduced by 14% overall by restorative justice programmes - researchers reviewed 20 studies of face to face meetings in US, UK and Australia - showed reduced reoffending and none were linked to higher reoffending - example one study found an 11 % re-offending rate compared to 37% in matched controls who served prison sentences - shows that restorative justice is also successful in its aim of reducing crime rates
• Restorative justice also has other advantages compared to custodial sentencing - much less expensive - reduces exposure to criminal attitudes in prison and promotes offender accountability - facing a victim may still be sufficiently unpleasant to act as a deterrent especially for people who have experienced it before - by avoiding custodial sentences influences of a deviant subculture can also be avoided - overall restorative justice meets many of the aims of custodial sentences while also addressing the needs of the victims