[GENETIC THEORIES POLICIES] Biological Theories of Criminality Flashcards
Explain the three main crime control policies
- Altering the Biochemical Processes
- Eugenics
- Capital Punishment
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Explain the 3 biochemical processes
- Diet
- Drug treatments
- Surgery
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Explain Diet
Diet can be modified to change anti-social behaviour
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Diet:
Name 3 foods that contain serotonin
Fatty fish
Dark chocolate
dairy products
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Diet:
Name 3 foods that contain Omega 3
Flax seeds
walnuts
Chia seeds
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Diet:
Explain what E numbers are
Food colourings that is most likely linked to hyperactivity in children
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Diet:
Name 3 E numbers
Yellows
Reds
Oranges
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Diet:
explain why vitamin B3 is useful for people taking antipsychotic drugs
Reduces symptoms of schizophrenia
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Diet:
Name a government policy and campaign that relates to diet
‘Sugar tax’ - in soft drinks and tackle childhood obesity
The Better Health campaign - making healthy life choices
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Diet:
Explain
how effective the modification of diets as a crime prevention policy
Effective in changing attitudes
Might be effective to a small minority of people
People will only do it if they want to
Policies are more effective if it leads to a change in law
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain drug treatments
Used in some cases to treat or control criminal or anti-social behaviour
They affect the body’s biochemical process
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain what drugs can lead to criminality and how they can be treated
Alcohol abuse (can trigger violent behaviour) - Antabuse can be used in aversion therapy. Works by preventing the body from breaking down alcohol which causes an unpleasant hangover symptom to put people off alcohol
Heroine Addiction - Methadone is a legal substitute for heroine which helps prevent width drawls with can help wean people off heroine
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain how Methadone is effective in reducing crime
Helps reduce the drug trade world and crime committed to obtain money - stopping drug abuse and dealings
However - Doesn’t guarantee them reverting and doesn’t hit deeper levels of crime necessarily
You also cant make people take Methadone.
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain what Valium is
Valium is a drug that acts as a sedative and tranquilisers or more violent and troublesome prisoners by keeping them calm
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain chemical castration
Castration VIA drugs to reduce sexual activity
There is no physical/surgical change
Doesn’t act as a way of sterilisation
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain how castration works
Stops androgens from being produced anywhere in the body by stopping the enzyme that is necessary for any tissue to male testosterone
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain how long treatment typically lasts
As long as they continue to take the drug
Roughly lasts 1-3 months per injection
Generally reversable, unless taken for a long time - may be lasting side effects
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain 3 side effects of chemical castration
Breast development
Heart Disease
Obesity
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain 3 countries that use chemical castration
Russia
India
USA
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain how chemical castration can reduce re-offending
Reduces sexual offenders and sexual offences as it removes their drive and ability
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain the difference between surgical and chemical castration
Surgical - Sterilisation, removal of genitals, non-reversable
Chemical - Non-sterilising, doesn’t remove anything, reversable
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain if surgical castration can be used on women
Yes - but not in the UK
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain 3 Pros of chemical castration
- Can reduce reoffending by 40%
- Can prevent urge and act
- Should return male to pre-pubescent state
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Drug Treatments:
Explain 3 Cons of chemical castration
- There are many side effects
- It costs a lot as you have to purchase doses for every 3 months
- Human rights issues is mandatory as you cant make people take it
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Surgery:
Explain Surgery and what it’s used to do
Used to alter the offender’s brain or body with the aim of preventing them from reoffending
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Surgery:
What are the two types of surgery used to alter people’s brains
- Surgical castration (of sex offenders)
- Lobotomy
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Surgery:
Explain Surgical castration
Used to attempt to change offending behaviour.
Removal of ovaries or testicles to prevent production of sex hormones.
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Surgery:
Explain a problem with Surgical castration
Surgery has been condemned as ‘‘degrading’’ in a human rights report
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Surgery:
Explain Lobotomy
Cutting the connection between the frontal loves of the brain and the thalamus. Used to tread paranoia schizophrenia and sexually motivated and spontaneously violent criminals
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Surgery:
Explain a problem with Lobotomy
Can have major effects and very few lobotomies are now performed
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Explain what Biological crime prevention is
Control polices use methods aimed at controlling groups by using chemical substances
E.G: Tear gas to disperse rioters
Causes uncomfortable, distressing sensations including vomiting, breathing difficulties, disorientation
[BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES]
Explain a problem with Biological crime prevention
Can cause lung damage and even death
[Eugenics]
Explain what Eugenics is
A set of beliefs and practices that argues it is possible to improve to human race and society by encouraging reproduction by populations with ‘‘desirable’’ traits and discouraging reproduction by people with ‘‘undesirable’’ qualities
Controlling reproduction by eliminating a set of genes from a gene pool
If we can identify a gene abnormality we can also eliminate it (XYY and Warrior Gene)
Explain how genetic theories have argues that criminality is formed
Criminality is transmitted by inheriting a ‘criminal’ gene
[Eugenics]
Give an historical example of eugenics
The Holocaust
OR
1908 - Royal Commission on the care and control of the feeble-minded recommended the compulsory sterilisation of those with learning disabilities and mental illnesses
[Eugenics]
Explain Compulsory Sterilisation
Genetically unfit people should be prevented from breeding
Eugenicists put forward compulsory sterilisation of ‘defectives’ such as criminals, mentally ill and those with learning difficulties
[Eugenics]
What theories match Eugenics
Jacobs Theory XYY
((Government health policy to screen babies for genetic defects))
Brunner MAOA Warrior Gene
[Drug Treatments]
What theories match Drug Treatments
Jacobs Theory XYY
((Used to supress extra testosterone))
[Capital Punishment]
What theories match Drug Treatments
Brunner MAOA Warrior Gene
((Not UK policy but capital punishment does still exist in many countries E.G: USA/China))
[Eugenics]
What did Eugenics believe
Feared that the human race was in danger of ‘degenerating’ because the poor were breeding faster than higher classes.
They were passing on inferior genes for low intelligence, insanity, poverty and criminality
[Eugenics]
What are some eugenic policies
Forces abortions
Restrictions on the right to marry
Selective Parenthood
[Death Penalty/Capital Punishment]
Explain 3 Pros
- Decrease prison population
- Permanently removes killers/criminals from society
- Justice for victims and their families
[Death Penalty/Capital Punishment]
Explain 3 Cons
- Victims and their families may not see it as justice because dying is the easy way out
- Public opinion shows that people are largely against it
- It is expensive to keep people on death row
[Death Penalty/Capital Punishment]
Explain the death penalty
The most extreme biologically driven policy to control crime and reoffending
[Death Penalty/Capital Punishment]
Give 3 examples of countries that still have the death penalty
China
Russia
Japan
[Death Penalty/Capital Punishment]
What are the 5 main methods of capital punishment
Death by injection
Hanging
Firing Squad
Electric Chair
Execution
[Death Penalty/Capital Punishment]
What is capital punishment
Where a state executes (Kills) criminals
[Death Penalty/Capital Punishment]
Explain the effect of the Death penalty
Murder rate is lower in states that do not have the death penalty
SUGGESTS THAT THE DEATH PENALTY
DOESNT ACT AS A DETERRANT
People often kill people in the heat of the moment meaning they rarely will think about the future consequences
Additionally, hardened criminals will commit crime no matter what
[EXAM QUESTION]
How would you answer:
‘Assess the use of biological theories in informing policy development’
Describe a biological theory and explain a crime control policy that arises from the theory, explaining how and why it would or wouldn’t work (Strengths and weaknesses)
