forensics: psychological explanations of offending-DAT Flashcards
what type of psychological explanation is DAT? this means that the theory suggests we learn offending behaviour through what?
a psychodynamic explanationex of offending behaviour which proposes that, through interaction with others, individuals learn attitudes, motives and techniques for criminal behaviour
who proposed DAT and when?
Sutherland - 1939
how did DAT attempt to be a scientific theory
Sunderland designed a set of scientific principles that could explain all types of offending
how can DAT effectively explain high recidivism rates?
because people will learn more criminal behaviour when released through interactions with others who have criminal traits (friends, family, peers)
what are the three key things we wouldn’t need to mathematically predict the likelihood of offending behaviour
knowledge on the frequency, intensity and duration of which the individual has been exposed to deviant and non-deviant norms and values
what are the two factors causing offending behaviour?
- learned attitudes towards crime
- learning of specific criminal acts
how can DAT explain high recidivism rates
because after punishment, criminals will re-interact with individuals promoting criminal behaviour and new attitudes, tips will be learnt
what research was done by Farrington et al (2006). How does this support DAT?
- longitudinal survey of the development of offending and anti-social behaviour in 411 males
- began when they were 8 years old, criminal convictions up until the age of 50 looking at officially recorded convictions and self-reporting offending
- found 41% convicted of at least 1 offence between ages 10 and 50
- most significant childhood risk factors at age 8-10 for later offending were family criminality, daring or risk-taking, low school attainment, poverty and poor parenting.
how is it a strength that Sutherlands theory moved explaining offending behaviour away from biological explanations such as atavistic form
moved away from atavistic form or individual weakness that focused on environment for determining behaviour, important as treatments are less ethically questionable e.g eugenics
how does DAT run the risk of stereotyping people? how is this a limitation of DAT
stereotyping people from certain social backgrounds / criminal families as inevitable offenders, limitation as we know this is not correct and pro-criminal influences and background does not inevitably lead to criminality
what range of crimes can DAT explain? why is this a strength of DAT?
some offences e.g burglary cluster in deprived, inner city communities , but so do white collar crimes in middle-class communities. Both can be explained through exposure to learned deviant attitudes + techniques - more complete theory
how much of the theory is untestable? why is this a limitation of DAT?
cannot operationalise pro-crime attitudes so we cannot falsify the theory, limitation as we cannot use it to predict offending behaviour as we cannot measure it, this means it fails to be scientific
